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There’s been an interesting discussion brewing in the gaming industry recently – one that concerns all of us that were disappointed with the Mass Effect 3 release and its somewhat controversial plot, downloadable content, and support options. IGN, one of the biggest news sources in gaming, has claimed that gamers were given exactly what they asked for, and are acting ‘entitled’ over the game.
It’s not a difficult point to dispute, especially when you look at things from EA or BioWare’s view. They did exactly what they were asked – they created a new game, added some decision-based new content, and released it to gamers. Whether or not the game is liked isn’t really their issue – it’s the opinion of gamers that bought, played, and rated the game.
IGN argues that games are cheaper than ever, and that despite the incredibly expensive costs of developing a game, the extra buck is rarely passed on to gamers. It’s a point that rings true – the average cost of developing a game, particularly an AAA title like Mass Effect 3, is far higher than the cost of developing games in the past.
Perhaps it’s a case of change resulting in aggression, rather than gradual acceptance. Mass Effect 3 had a unique release, from the game’s downloadable content controversy to its poor ending – at least in the eyes of many fans. Are gamers just unwilling to see their industry change, or is this a deeper problem that is somewhat rooted in entitlement, and wishing to see our ideal game?
Whatever the case, it’s brewed some interesting discussions in the game community, with gamers rushing both to defend themselves and lambast their community on online forums. What do you think? Are gamers too entitled? Are they asking for a fan service instead of real creativity? Or are they just tired of high-priced downloadable content and ‘weak’ story development in their games?
The only thing I feel entitled to as a gamer is a working disc. It was my conscious decision to trust the developers’ choice.
i feel entitled to a working game that delivers on everything it advertises and includes all of the integral content included on the disc with the purchase. If you are going to add dlc, the dlc should be extra content on top of the complete main story. Even though production costs are high for studios, the developers get paid in advance by the company to make the game so it’s the company or benefactor waiting for a return on their investment. Plus add in the cost of every new game, plus dlc of items and in game content that can easily be repackaged and sold for more these developers aren’t going bankrupt like we are being led to believe.
I don’t know about the rest of the world but the cost of games has not changed much in the 30 odd years I have been playing them, I remember buying Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo for £55 back in the day, now a new game will cost 50 euro, not much in the difference, yes I know that inflation rates means that this is now cheaper, but back then if a company sold 1 million copies of a game in a year it was a blockbuster, now companies expect 10 million sales in the first week, costs for companies have only increased because they have gotten bigger, before it was 2 friends in their bedrooms churning out 2-3 games a year, now companies are releasing 2 games a month, most of which are sequels, production costs are only high with the first incarnation of a game, from then on they are using the same base code and programming for all the sequels vastly reducing their costs. and now they are just looking to make even more easy cash off gamers with DLC content, anyone notice that release dates seem to be on target these days, I could be wrong but my theory for all these DLC’s is because in order to meet deadlines, levels that aren’t finished on time are left out and then completed shortly afterwards and released as ‘oooo look at this another 3 maps and all for the low cost of 50% of what you pay for a full game’. DLC is cheap cash to companies the code is already written, and also they no longer have to copy it onto discs and sell through 3rd parties, making even more cash for them.
my rant over