immorality. by norbajusz

1 informal informations on everything scummy.

Now, this is a story all about how, Video games got flipped-turned upside down...

contents 4 6 10 18 40 52

> foreword > terminology > disinflation > addiction > fraud > credits

capitalism is a b×tch. > foreword

Passion. One word. A feeling of intense enthusiasm or compelling desire towards someone or something. I’ve always loved video games. As a child, it was a place of comfort and relief from the world. These worlds were magical and fantastical, things could happen at anytime, anywhere. Where I could relive stories, create new ones in role plays or even destroy worlds. In video games, anything can happen and I still love this industry for that. So naturally, I wanted to see it become bigger, better, and it did just that. In 2020, the industry has generated more than $155 billion in revenue and is now bigger than the music industry and movie industry combined. That’s not just big, but massive. Technologies advanced so rapidly, they can fool anyone’s sense of reality, immersion in games is at an all-time high. But at what cost? I think the industry became so big it has gone overboard and is now drowning in its own piss. People, who were businessmen rose to CEO positions in publishing, controlling developers, and using them as resources and not human beings. These mechanical predators see their workers as mere minions to satisfy their needs and leech them upon. They have one goal, and one goal only: making all the money in the world. Nothing else matters. DLCs, Seasonal Passes, multiple editions, always online models, games as services and the worst of all, Loot Boxes and Microtransactions. I compiled articles and video essays from the likes of Jim Sterling and The Act Man into one informational magazine. These are credible people, people, who value and understand the importance of telling the real, the facts, the sometimes unspoken. The industry is actively trying to keep them shut so that they can do unethical, predatory businesses and cashing in billions on vulnerable people. I want to show you what they know, what happened, and what’s going on in the industry right now. I want to inform you to be more careful where you spend your money, and on what. Because I love video games with a passion, therefore I want them to be bigger... and better. Because this is immorality.

> terminology Considering this is an informative editorial for people who aren’t familiar with video games, the first thing I have to clear is the terminology surrounding it. Now, I can fill the whole magazine with words and their meanings making it a dictionary, but I’m not from Cambridge, so I’m gonna focus on those, that I’ll actively be going to use throughout the magazine. Some of them are obvious, and some of them are convoluted. Here are those that I may use in the future.

Noob: Derives from newbie (as in new and inexperienced or uninformed), and is used as a means of segregating them as less than the “elite,” or even “normal,” members of a group. Usually a mocking term. AAA (Triple-A): AAA games are titles produced by large studios. They typically have large budgets and a lot of marketing surrounding them. AAA games contrast with “indie” titles, which are made by small development teams.

Indie: Short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher. The “indie” term may apply to other scenarios where the development of the game has some measure of independence from a publisher even if a publisher helps fund and distribute a game, such as creative freedom. Because of their independence and freedom to develop, indie games often focus on innovation, experimental gameplay, and taking risks.

Single-Player: A video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while “single-player mode” is usually a game mode designed to be played by a single player, though the game also contains multi-player modes. Multiplayer: A video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally or online over the Internet. Multiplayer games usually require players to share a single game system or use networking technology to play together over a greater distance; players may compete against one or more human contestants, work cooperatively with a human partner to achieve a common goal, or supervise other players’ activity.

Co-Op (Co-Operative): Co-Operative game modes allow players to work together as teammates, usually against one or more non-player character opponents. FPS (First Person Shooter): A genre of video game where the player experiences the game from the viewpoint of the player character. The primary mechanic is the use of guns, swords, and other ranged weapons to defeat enemies. TPS (Third Person Shooter): The player views the action as if from a position behind the character they are controlling. Commonly used in action games. RTS (Real Time Strategy): A sub-genre of strategy video games, usually from a top-down view of point, that does not progress incrementally in turns, but allows all players to play simultaneously, in “real-time”. By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to play.

RPG (Role Playing Game): A game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players control a character, or team of characters, who undertake(s) quests and may include player capabilities that advance using statistical mechanics. They take responsibility for acting out these

roles within a narrative, through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. The original form is sometimes called the tabletop role-playing game (TRPG).

MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game): Combines the aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together, and by the game’s persistent world (usually hosted by the game’s publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game. Sandbox: Sandbox games have a gameplay element that gives the player a great degree of creativity to complete tasks towards a goal within the game if such a goal exists. Some games exist as pure sandbox games with no objectives where you have to “make your own fun” within the confines of the game’s world. These creative elements can be

incorporated into other genres, allowing for emergent gameplay. Sandbox games are often associated with an ‘open world’ concept that gives the player freedom of movement and progression in the game’s world. The “sandbox” term derives from the nature of a sandbox that lets children create nearly anything they want within it.

Battle Royale: A battle royale game is an online multiplayer video game genre that blends last-manstanding gameplay with the survival, exploration, and scavenging elements of a survival game. Battle royale games involve dozens to hundreds of players, who start with minimal equipment and then must eliminate all other opponents while avoiding being trapped outside of a shrinking “safe area” or “safe zone”, with the winner being the last player or team alive. PVP (Player versus Player): Player(s) versus player(s) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is in contrast to games where players compete against computer-controlled opponents and/ or players, which is referred to as player versus environment (PvE)

Speedrunning: A playthrough of a video game or a selected part of it (such as a single level), performed to complete it as quickly as possible. DLC (Downloadable Content): Additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game’s publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain additional revenue from a title after it has been purchased, often using some type of microtransaction system. DLC can range from cosmetic content, such as skins, to new in-game content such as characters,

levels, modes, and larger expansions that may contain a mix of such content as a continuation of the base game. In some games, multiple DLC (including future DLC not yet released) may be bundled as part of a “season pass”—typically at a discount in comparison to purchasing each DLC individually. The term DLC has become synonymous for any form of paid content in video games, regardless of whether or not they constitute the download of new content. Furthermore, this led to the creation of the oxymoronic term “on-disc DLC” for content included on the game’s original files, but locked behind a paywall.

Microtransactions: A business model where users can purchase virtual goods. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play or mobile games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions are a staple of the mobile app market, they are also seen on PC as well as on console gaming in recent years. Free-to-play games that include a microtransaction model are sometimes referred to as “freemium” or “pay-to-win”. These terms are sometimes used pejoratively to refer to games where buying items in-game can give a player a disproportionate advantage over other players. Loot Boxes: Loot boxes are another form of microtransactions. Through purchasing a loot box, the player acquires a seemingly random assortment of items. Loot boxes are mostly used in mobile games. The concept behind loot boxes is that, despite gaining more items for a given price, the player may not want those items, and can end up buying the same item multiple times. These systems may also be known as gacha games. NPC: A non-player character (NPC) is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional TRPGs. In video games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer (instead of the player) that has a predetermined set of behaviors that potentially will impact gameplay, but will not necessarily be the product of true artificial intelligence. Bot/Botting: A ‘bot’ – short for robot – is a software program that performs automated, repetitive, pre-defined tasks. Bots typically imitate or replace human user behavior. Because they are automated, they operate much faster than human users. In video games, bots are used usually as a form of cheating or getting an advantage.

Grinding/Farming: Performing repetitive action over and over again in search of a specific item, or to gain a certain amount of experience points. Whilst some find the act of farming to be a calming one, most find it monotonous and dull, to the point of enjoying the game less the longer they have to farm. Level Up: When a sufficient amount of experience is obtained, the character “levels up”, achieving the next stage of character development. Such an event usually increases the character’s statistics, such as maximum health, magic, and strength, and may permit the character to acquire new abilities or improve existing ones. Leveling up may also give the character access to more challenging areas or items.

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Buff and Nerf: Improving game elements (and sometimes game mechanics) is called ‘Buff’, a devaluation is called ‘Nerf’. Both can be achieved indirectly by changing other elements or mechanics or introducing new ones. Both terms can also be used as verbs for the act of making such change, such as ‘Buffing’ or ‘Nerfing’. Ping/Latency: Ping is the measurement of time from server to player. In some cases, this can be a simple graphic bar similar to the one on your cellphone, other times it is displayed as numbers. Generally, lower numbers are better. High ping causes lagging.

← ← ←

Lag: The term Lag is widely used in gaming and computing circles to refer to an unacceptably slow response to inputs. Lag is often caused by a lack of processing power or by network congestion and results in actions taking too long (e.g., firing or moving in gaming, or manipulating a document in office tasks), often making it impossible to complete the game or task. Camper/Camping: Camping is a tactic where a player obtains an advantageous static position, which may be a discreet place that is unlikely to be searched. The camping player is called a Camper. Bug: A bug is a software error that produces undesired results or impedes operation. Sometimes what might be seen as an unintended or defective operation can be seen as a feature.

Glitch: “Glitching” is the practice of players exploiting faults in a video game’s programming to achieve tasks that give them an unfair advantage in the game, over NPC’s or other players, such as running through walls or defying the game’s physics. Players who engage in this practice are known as glitchers. They may be found by accident or actively searched for. They require testing and experimentation by the player to be repeatable with some level of success. Some glitches are not consistently performable due to RNG. Heavy use of glitches is often used in performing a speedrun of a video game. Exploit: An exploit is the use of a bug or glitches, game system(s), rates, hit boxes, speed or level design, etc. by a player to their advantage in a manner not intended by the game’s designers. These issues are part of the game and require no changes or external programs to take advantage of them. RNG (Random Number Generator): This is defined as a device or algorithm that comes up with numbers by random chance. In gaming terms, RNG refers to events that are not the same every time you play. XP (Experience Points): A unit of measurement used in some TRPGs and RPGs to quantify a player character’s life experience and progression through the game. XP is generally awarded for the completion of missions, overcoming obstacles and opponents, and for successful role-playing. Hacks / Hax: Short abbreviation for when someone is hacking in a game. Press F to pay respect: An internet meme that originated from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Many players of the video game mocked the funeral cutscene for its forced element of interactivity that seemed out-of-place at a memorial service. The letter “F” itself, has since been used by internet users as conveying sorrow and failure.

WH (Wallhack): A type of game cheat especially associated with FPS games, in which the walls are rendered transparent to the cheater, or enemy player hitboxes are shown through walls. This gives the cheater normally hidden information about the whereabouts of other players, therefore, anticipated attacks. Aim/Aimbot: An aimbot or autoaim is a type of computer game bot most commonly used in first-person shooter games to provide varying levels of automated target acquisition and calibration to the player. They are sometimes used along with a triggerbot, which automatically shoots when an opponent appears within the field-of-view or aiming reticule of the player.

sixty dollars > disinflation

To understand the rise and fall of the loot box model, we have to understand the evolution of video game monetization as a whole. And as with all good stories, it all started with Call of Duty.

Like a lot of video game sequels, Call of Duty 2 was bigger and better looking than its predecessor. The 2005 follow-up to Infinity Ward’s franchise-spawning 2003 FPS expanded on the original’s formula in a few different ways. Regenerating health replaced a finite health bar, and a new icon indicated the positions of active grenades. The game got longer and less linear and featured new squad tactics, chatter, and improved enemy AI. And a tweaked graphics engine enabled then-fancy effects such as smoke grenades, sandstorms, and blizzards. Also, it cost more. When it launched on PC in late October 2005, the game still sported the standard Triple-A price tag of $49.99. But when the game made its console debut almost a month later as a launch title for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, it cost $59.99—an industry-altering price. Gamers jumped on board the Call of Duty 2 train too. The new price wasn’t without its detractors: GameSpot’s review of the Xbox 360 version griped that the game had a “higher price point than its PC counterpart.” But the spike in price didn’t stop consumers, who made

Call of Duty 2 the 360’s best-selling launch title. In December 2005, IGN cited NPD data that said 77 percent of Xbox 360 owners had also picked up a copy of Call of Duty 2. Ultimately, the sequel outsold the original. They were selling so many copies of Call of Duty 2 at $60 that the rest of the industry was like, ‘Well, shit, if it’s going to be 60 bucks, then we give you 60 bucks.’ That was two console generations, 16 years, and 16 Call of Duty sequels ago. On November 13, 2020, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War launched. Versions of the game costed $59.99 on the PS4 and Xbox One—the same price Call of Duty 2 retailed at in 2005. But on the nextgen consoles: $69.99. At long last, the industry’s price-hike history is repeating itself. 2K Sports broke the $70 seal in July 2020, but again, Call of Duty popularized it. The surprising aspect of the forthcoming increase isn’t that games are getting more expensive it’s that $60 is not the full price of a video game anymore, and has not been for a long time now. It’s the base price of a game, a shell price.

Let me explain.

As technologies are evolving at a rapid state, video games followed suit and they became more ambitious and expensive to produce. As Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in August 2020, “There hasn’t been a frontline price increase for a very long time, although costs have increased significantly.” not mentioning spending 3x more on marketing than development, and not paying their workers, but I digress. So publishers (and ultimately their shareholders) needed to find other ways to earn back their investments and turn a profit on their precious products. At the turn of the millennium, Downloadable Content (DLC) Map Packs and expansions became popular, which was perfect because these things were much faster and easier to develop than a brand new game, better yet they added on to already great titles. Going into the 360, PS3, and Wii generation, most Triple-A titles had some kind of DLC, big or small. Xbox had avatar outfits, gamer picks, wallpapers, we also saw the rise of collectors/special editions, subscription models emerged with World of Warcraft, and Everquest. Seasons Passes started

popping up everywhere, annual releases of very, very similar titles kept budgets down. But why am I taking you on this history lesson? Because companies are constantly trying to find the most effective way to monetize their games without directly raising the price. DLC and map packs used to be common until fans got tired of a fractured player bases, day-one on-disc contents that were blocked by a paywall, so companies instead went the free DLC route. Season’s Passes were common, still common, until once again fans got tired of paying upfront for content. Later many trends have come and gone and often what once used to work and make shitloads of money no longer does. What I’ve noticed is a lot of these quote-unquote “outdated sales tactics” were largely successful because of consumer ignorance, but once everyone began to realize just how annoying and repetitive this shit was getting, that’s when we all stood together holding hands and said ‘You’ll stop doing this! No more of that!’. That’s when we started to see change. Meanwhile, the greedy CEOs were hard at work.

The result?

Two types of terrible diseases: Microtransactions, which could be in exchange for currency, your soul, your dog, etc., etc., and loot boxes. It’s funny to think that the first microtransaction that really pissed people off was like the horse armor in Oblivion. But in hindsight, horse armor was the least offensive of all. You might think loot boxes and microtransactions in Triple-A gaming originated from mobile games, but it’s not entirely wrong. While we had seen similar things in games like MapleStory, the origin of the biggest outbreak was none other than FIFA. Sports Games since 2008, before, and even now, have been the most repetitive genre in all of gaming, but FIFA 2009 changed everything. It was the first pay-to-win console video game ever created. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last. FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode was a dream come true for shareholders. Take the world’s most popular sport with the best and most recognizable players from around the globe, have card packs assemble the ultimate team, and pay money to do it. So naturally, the more packs you opened, the better chance you had to get the best players.

Andrew Wilson was the executive producer of FIFA 09, and he was the man who authorized the monetization of FIFA’s Ultimate Team, but it wouldn’t stop at FIFA. It would spread to NBA2K and Madden, and from that point on, EA felt a change in the winds, and their profits skyrocketed. Over the next several years, they went from a company value of 5 billion in 2008 to 44 billion in 2018. The guy became the CEO of EA after that. A massive red flag for the industry. Another familiar name, Activision-Blizzard followed suit going from a value of 20 billion in 2008 to 61 billion in 2018. Ultimate Team was so profitable, that in 2019 it made up 28% of EA’s total revenue. This massive increase was unheard of before. Other companies saw the financial success of FIFA’s Ultimate Team, jealous and conniving, they sat there and thought ‘How can we bring this to our product?’ they all scrambled to replicate it, and that’s when the virus spreaded like wildfire on a Californian summer beach.

Team fortress 2, Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Dota 2, CS:GO, Battlefield 4, Battlefield: Hardline, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty (all since Advanced Warfare), Halo 5: Guardians, Halo Wars 2, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of The Storm, Rocket League, Fortnight, Destiny 2, Gears of War 4, Gears of War 5, Forza Motorsport 7, Need for Speed: Payback, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Division 1-2, Apex Legends, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Resident Evil 3, Street Fighter 5, PUBG, H1Z1, Lawbreakers, EVE Online, Paladins, Smite, Guild Ears 2, League of Legends, Middle Eart: Shadow of War, and Battlefront 2. Just a couple of examples...

Now, why are loot boxes truly problematic? Because they are monetized. And the second you involve money, you open the flood gates to every corrupt anti-consumer practice there is. Artificial grinds. Limited resources. Restricting players’ ability to customize. A barrage of useless crap made specifically to act as filler, so players don’t unlock everything too quickly. Any company that wants to make money off of loot boxes is going to do everything in its power to incentivize the purchase. But back to where we were, the pricing. The message to the customer is simple and clear, $59.99 gets you access, but a hundred or so bucks gets you the experience. So publishers found ways to make their games cost more than $60, but they just couldn’t stop there, they never just stop. That’s always been my problem. When they make the money they just can’t keep their dicks in their fucking pants, and it stops

becoming about need at some point, and starts becoming about greed, no matter how many apologists claim otherwise. And these CEOs, despite begging for more money, never ever had to tighten their belt straps and wear tissue boxes for shoes. They report record net revenues in the millions, and lay-off record number of employees at the same time. So again, to summarize. The basic pricing of a game might not have moved from $60, but publishers have already found buckets of ways to make additional scratch off their products. Unethical, disgusting ways. Justifying the new $69.99 price tag on their games as ‘necessary’ and that ‘It serves the product and supports the developers’ is cute at best, insidious at worst. Loot boxes make shit loads of cash, but always at the cost of integrity, ethics, and morals. And ultimately, at the cost of the product. The game.

> addiction Addiction: addiction is a disease defined by compulsive use of a substance or a pattern of behavior that one cannot stop, even as it has a severe negative consequence on a person’s quality of life.

The most famous form of addiction is of course drug use, as people can all too easily find themselves dependent on any number of chemical substances. But non-chemical addiction can be just as harmful, and because there is no exterior chemical component to point at as the villain, it’s often misunderstood in a way that directly harms the addict. Sex addiction for example,

which is now called hypersexuality, is often portrayed as people being horny miscreants, hiding behind an excuse for infidelity or similar indiscretions. Those with eating disorders are dismissed as greedy, while on the opposite end of the spectrum, compulsive exercising is often overlooked, because exercise is good for you right? Not if you’re doing it so much

that you’re actually tearing your body apart. Meanwhile, those with gambling problems or shopping addictions are all too easily written off as idiots, who can’t handle their money correctly. Non-chemical addiction is no less destructive than drug addiction. And in many cases, there are deeper psychological issues which addictive behavior is used to cope with.

payin pla Society misunderstanding regarding addiction can compound the problem, but there are hundreds of thousands of businesses out there that DO understand the power of addictive behavior, all too well, and use that understanding to make lots and lots of money.

One such industry is the video game industry, which has seen revenues skyrocket by billions since the widespread use of gambling like mechanics, loot boxes, raking in cash off the back of those who need help to get themselves to a better place. But it isn’t just loot boxes, they’re an offshoot of microtransactions and they themselves can be part of the problem in a massive way too. They themselves use psychological tricks, manipulation, to encourage compulsive spending, to appeal to compulsive shoppers and unsuspecting users.

ng aying A huge amount of mobile games and microtransaction-led Triple-A games make the majority of their money from so-called „whales”. Whales are the tiny percent of players who spend thousands of dollars on a single game. But who are they? Are they just rich kids with daddy’s money and without common sense? Sure... some of them will be, but not all of them, and certainly not most of them. Just look up the stories of the people who get themselves into debt over FIFA games. FIFA games. Or the children who get their parents into debt over such titles. And some of these spenders, these „whales”, may indeed be addicts, they may be depressed people looking for a temporary high.

Some of them may have had their addictions actively preyed upon by disgusting fucking scumbags, like Tribleflame CEO, Torulf Jernstrom, whose gleefully malevolent lecture, „Let’s go whaling”, is a proudly offered confession, of exactly how low the game industry will sink, to feed on both gambling and shopping addicts. In his 19-minute lecture celebration of exploitation, Jernstrom lays out exactly how addiction plays a role in so-called „whale hunting”. Describing how the upscale of player convenience gets people forming habits around a video game. This technique is known as:

[Torulf] „Hook, Habit, Hobby, is a model from Dmitri Drovanov of Flaregames. It’s a model for how people progress in a game, the ‘hook’ is what gets you into the game, to try out a free-to-play game. Then you build it into a ‘habit’, that you play multiple sessions every day. And then at the end, it’s the ‘hobby’ phase where people see it as one of their main hobbies and they put lots of time and resources into it.”

With the „Hook, Habit, Hobby” scheme we see an insidious method of monetizing compulsion. Like a cartoonish drug dealer from an 80’s PSA video, the game introduces a good deal first with the aim of getting the customer habitually desirous of more. The concept of the „Ice-breaker deal” is downright sinister, and you’d think a casually dressed game developer explaining the concept like it’s no big deal would lessen how ghoulish it sounds, but nope. Oh my, nope.

But right now, let’s look at a very different statement. A statement not from a whale hunter, but the brother of a so-called whale himself. A whale with a very genuine gambling problem whose love of video games helped him deal with that problem, only for said games to stab him in the back when money was to be made.

[Torulf] „The hook is where you put up an ice-breaker. You want to give a really really good deal, something that’s a no-brainer, you would be „When my brother came of working crazy to turn it down, as a player. age, he found work as a chef and is The reason to give a really good deal still one. It’s early morning to late at upfront is, by making people spend night hard work, so on the weekupfront, they are also emotionally ends, he got into gambling. Casinos, committing to your game, their betting slips, horses; everything attention will go up. And, the first except online gambling. It got so spend, it breaks the ice, then they bad my family had to actively think of themselves as spenders in manage his money and help him to the game, ‘It’s okay for me to spend stop burning his entire paycheck on money in the game.’ Lots of people, this shit, as it meant he never saved otherwise, have this wall up, ‘I’ll money to move out. This eventually never pay for a mobile game.’ So you worked after months, and he started need to break the wall first. spending his free days playing video games: FIFA and Call of Duty. We always played CoD together growing up, and we all agreed this was far healthier. Stupid me never took any notice of loot boxes, so I didn’t click that this might be a problem. After another few months, he was always asking for money for this and that.

Eventually, my parents had enough, and found out that he needed the money because he was spending the majority of his salary and savings on loot boxes in FIFA. Literally thousands of pounds. My parents now control his account and give him a weekly allowance; he’s a grown man for Christ’s sake. He is not ‘A rich person throwing money at a game to make it more affordable for us.’ He’s a working-class man who uses loot boxes as a direct substitute to old-world gambling. I was back for the summer to work for him to make some quick money. Went back to play CoD with him and what do you know? It’s CoD: WW II, and I noticed the fucking loot boxes. A little part of me sank when I saw that. Hope he finds a better way to deal with it.”

These are the whales, so callously hunted by assholes with lanyards. It’s very easy to suggest, that these are people who should just be smarter with the money, that only a fool lets it get this bad. I refuse to believe that anyone that churlish about the situation, has ever dealt with addictive behavior in their own lives. I simply refuse to believe it. Because addiction simply does not work that

way, you can’t just switch it off, it’s not that easy to simply stop. You can even know, all day long, that what you are doing is wrong and you can consider yourself stupid, and you can know that it’s harmful, but that won’t stop you. It doesn’t just stop on a dime, and the game industry knows this. That’s why they go after those who will form habits.

As we’ve already noted, addiction doesn’t tend to form in a bubble. It more often than not is a symptom of, and a response to other mental health issues. And it’s not uncommon to find an addict with multiple chronic habits. In this next testimonial, we learn once again how easy it can be for the right victim to fall prey to the subtle machinations of video game gambling. As well as how those in recovery for addiction are playing a dangerous game, when all they want to do is play an actual game.

can’t e

„I spent a good portion of my life constantly high and wasting all of my money on drugs. I met my partner (now fiance) in World of Warcraft and I kept getting sucked in with the with her help, I finally managed to get “spend more to get more” trap that a lot of publishers use to get people sober. One big part of going through nature and impulse spending probspending. I lost track of the amount rehab and trying to control my of money spent... but thanks to rehab lems. It hurts, it really does. I have addictive behaviors... one of the had to turn away from $100AUD I could quickly identify that this was things I learned was to try and find games, because they’ve implementdangerous behavior and I quit a healthy replacement for the ed microtransactions and the idea of substance. Obviously being a chroni- playing the game. I spent the next popping in a few bucks to make life few years jumping from game to cally ill hermit and geek that I am, “easier” is so tempting and I keep game, leaving when the microtransI turned my focus back to my childfalling for it. Again and again. My actions got too much to bear. Rift hood love of video games. This, fiance has now taken away both my was a nice distraction from WoW, ironically, was around the time of the debit card and my PayPal details to and I had played it from beta... and beta of Overwatch, and me and my try and curb this. It’s a weird mentaliWoW guildies loved it. It was so much then it went F2P with loot boxes as ty of “It’s only here for a limited time, well as a cash shop. Guild Wars 2? fun. I loved the idea of collecting and If I don’t get it now... I may never Cash shop and loot boxes. Deus Ex, cosmetics for my favorite characters get it again and not complete my as I am a big collector... and naturally a series I treasure... Microtransaccollection.” Hitting that “BUY NOW” tions. Assassin’s Creed: Origins. fell into the trap of loot boxes. button, seeing the rewards pop-up, Same thing. The place where I once the spinning of the dice or slot found distraction and salvation is wheels ticking past the rare loot. The now preying upon my addictive ‘Just one more’ rationale. It completely overrules any common sense like: “You NEED this money to pay rent, or your medical bills, or FOOD”.”

escape When game industry mouthpieces claim microtransactions and loot boxes are fine, because „Nobody’s forced to buy them”. I think of those who have had to move from video game to video game, actively pursued by the microtransactions that threatened to drag them back down the hole. The industry loves to claim „It’s optional” to justify microtransactions, willfully ignoring how video

games are designed to be grindier and less convenient, to make their time-saving in-game purchases way more appealing. None of us have the option to avoid deliberately bad game design in the video games we buy. And those with shopping addiction and gambling addiction have no option to even play these games without the risk of slipping back into destructive behavior.

It is my hope that with these testimonials, juxtaposed against the sheer negligent insensitivity of men like Torulf Jernstrom, will go some way to explaining why an addict would more than likely be a victim of in-game gambling and be so utterly fucking furious at what the video game industry has encouraged in recent years.

28 The industry not only knows what it’s doing, but it’s also celebrating it. It’s doing it in public. At conferences and in calls, sharing the knowledge and the tactics that instill habitual spending among their audiences. There is a veritable treasure trove of evil fucking wisdom out there. That doesn’t attempt to hide how predatory this industry has become. None of this is a secret. None of this is obscure. This is out in the open.

[Torulf] „Hot state, there’s an excellent book about behavioral psychology called „Thinking Fast and Slow”. I’m telling you that the fast thinking mode is what you want. The slow thinking is your analytical brain. What’s 12 * 47? I’m sure all of you can answer that, but you have to start your actual thinking brain to do that. Our brain works in these two modes, and starting the analytical part of your brain is too much to ask for a spend. Make stuff immediately useful, immediate gratification. If you have a level-based game and you sell some boosters upfront. For instance, a coin doubler, or some other stuff that will help you. People will have to analyze and think it through „These things are good for me, these things will help me progress” before they do it. If on the other hand, you do, like for instance in this temple run. Once your game is over „Save me, I have a few seconds to spend hard currency and I get to continue.”

[Torulf] „The IKEA effect. This is to say, stuff that we put work into, we value more highly. You know, IKEA really sells you cardboard stuff, it’s shit. But you value it, still, somehow slightly higher, because you actually built it yourselves. There’s a trigger to remind us to do something, then we go an action, we get the variable reward, just like the gotchas, we get the lottery ticket. And then, to really hook it down, we need to ask people to do something for us, do a little bit of work, because then they become emotionally attached to that.”

[Torulf] „Anchoring is fun. Anchoring means that, when we don’t know the price of stuff, the first price we hear suggested for it, becomes our anchor. And then we compare everything to that. Some games immediately, when you’re in the tutorial, they suggest to you „You should buy this good IAP (In-App Purchase) for 50€” or something like that, I go like „Oh, that’s expensive I’ll never do that.” Of course no, and I expect them to say no. Then again I come back a few sessions later and suggest they buy it for 15. And now they will say „That’s a good value, because my anchor was at 50.”

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29 Get people to knee-jerk spend, to not think about what they’re doing is as they’re doing it. Keep the pressure up with limited offers, fixed prices to make each spend more appealing. Get players a sense of emotional, as well as a financial investment. Maintain the Sunk Cost Fallacy as long as possible.

These are not only supported, but gloated over by people in the industry. Right down to the bullshit excuses, such as spreading the nonsense that microtransactions are required, in order to support developers. In fact, Jernstrom notes that you don’t even have to be that convincing in your lies.

[Torulf] „If we tell people they are a certain way, if we compliment on being nice, good citizens they are more likely to behave as nice good citizens. So you should actually tell your players that they are generous individuals who have a taste for good art and want to support their game developers by playing you and buying IAPs. Related to that, also telling people the reason to do something makes them much more likely to actually follow through and do that. Spend, because... reasons. The reasons don’t even have to be that good, in order for this to work.”

The total bullshit spouted on behalf of the game industry justifying aggressive microtransactions and gambling mechanics is not only perpetrated by people within the industry, but people without it as well. And, it’s always dismaying to see games media, games journalism, structures that should hold the industry to account, going to bat for them.

×ck off

Most recently, and most disgustingly, there was an article on Polygon called „Anti-Loot Box Bill Poses a Real Threat to Sports Video Games.” with the tagline, „How else are these billion-dollar licenses paid?”.

„These modes if they don’t pay directly for the games we enjoy, at least justify the workforces and development costs that make them work playing. That oily microtransaction money, hard as it is to defend, even in the abstract, helps those women and men deliver something that meets the unrelenting its “in-the-game” standard we’ve taken for granted for a couple of decades.”

No, they don’t, they were being delivered before microtransactions happened. You fool. And as we’ve already explained, the whole „Microtransactions support the developers” line, is bullshit. It’s bullshit. The routine layoffs this industry has, often to celebrate things like record revenue intake, wholly demonstrates that. People are losing their jobs all the time, regardless of how much money is flowing into the industry. The article essentially boils down to „Won’t somebody please think of the corporations?” and relies on the age-old myth that video games are just too expensive for multi-billion dollar companies to make them anymore. In doing so, the article does hit upon a very real problem, but the understanding of the problem presented is completely fucked.

„Nobody publicizes exactly how much their cash cows bring in of course, but it’s instructive that Take-Two agreed to deal paying the NBA $1.1 billion over the next seven years. That’s double the value of the last deal which was inked in 2011, well before Virtual Currency was introduced to MyCareer mode. I don’t think Visual Concepts replaces that dough by reselling NBA’s Greatest DLC or the Sprite Slam Dunk contest.”

f× ri

Polygon’s writer suggests that sports games would suffer under recent pushes to regulate loot boxes, because the licenses for sports in question are now costing billions. And it’s frustrating, because the writer is so close to the truth there, so close to the issue, but decides the best solution is to put gambling mechanics in these fucking video

games rather than as why a sports association is charging so much bloody money for the rights to make a game that said association directly benefits from. Let’s not forget these licenses were perfectly affordable before loot boxes came along, it’s only post-loot box times that suddenly they’re „far too expensive”. I mean imagine a hypothetical world

where Electronic Arts suddenly couldn’t afford the rights to make a FIFA game. As if FIFA would allow a year go by without a FIFA game existing. Get fucking real man. If for some reason one of these publishers couldn’t afford to make a FIFA game, and let’s be honest, they’d find the money somehow, likely the price for the licenses would go down.

×ck ight off All this fucking Polygon article does is argue in favor of the perpetuation of a problem in order to perpetuate another problem. Suggesting gambling mechanics should stay in video games, so that sports associations can keep charging through the asshole for their licenses.

This weak „article” completely hand-waves away any real issues, any real concerns people have with gambling mechanics. As coming from people who just hate EA or were just angry about Star Wars: Battlefront 2, piss off. Having had already spoken to gambling addicts, shopping addicts about this topic, to see concerns so sneeringly batted away in favor of complete corporate propaganda, thoroughly disgusted me, and continues to disgust me.

Games press should be holding these companies to account, but they can’t even comprehend, or aren’t allowed to comprehend, why loot boxes and microtransactions overall are so fucking poisonous. Because they don’t think about the prey, they don’t think about the people these companies are preying on, they only see them as whales, dehumanized whales.

And that misunderstanding has to stop. They’re not rich kids with enough money to spare, they’re not goddamn sea mammals. They are people. People with vulnerabilities that this game industry is exploiting. Knowingly, gladly, greedily.

And I’m over hearing any defense for them, because they are untenable. If you need gambling mechanics to keep your fucking games going, you shouldn’t be in business, period. The world can do without your exploitative crap. Not that you really need them,

you didn’t need them before, you’d find a way to work around it if they were to go away, it’s always about greed, it’s not about need. And if you trip over yourself to apologize for what these corporations do, you are little more to them than a useful idiot.

The regulation of loot boxes might not be pleasant, but it was predicted by legitimate sources time and time again. The game industry kept pushing these microtransactions, they’ve kept pushing the limits of morality to see exactly how much they could get away with, and they ended up with a fight on their hands once politicians got interested and people got angered. It’s on the industry’s head, nobody else’s, it’s their problem, they do not deserve people taking up arms and defending and pitying them, because they merrily walked into this situation.

[Torulf] “Offers and scarcity, plays into the loss aversion, if there are rare cards up here, and you see the goblin going with his clocks, tick-tock. ‘I’ll take it away from you, I’ll take it away from you.’ They are scarce, they go away, this is a brilliant way to get more.”

Monetize. Retain. Acquire. This is the mantra of the modern video game industry. It’s been the creed of the shit-sucking mobile sector for years and years, and in recent times, from the tail end of the last generation to now, it’s increasingly become the creed of the so-called Triple-A game publisher. Form those habits, trick those customers, turn those players into payers, as one disgusting organization once suggested. Much of what they are doing is unethical, much of it is certainly immoral. So much so that “little talk givers” need to check their morals at the door. To even discuss the tactics at play. And the industry gets away with it, because such addiction is so often misunderstood.

34 Another testimonial, one of many more than discussed in this article, described how they got hooked on a MOBA that used social pressure to keep people spending. And how nobody would help them when they sought support to stop.

“Uni’s response? “It’s not gambling, it’s not an addiction, they said. They offered me zero support, because the councilors simply couldn’t get their heads around that I was addicted to wasting money just for friends on a video game. There was nothing. No support. Just another round of adults who drowned my voice out and I was berated for not having a real problem and just being a spoilt child.”

Peer pressure is just another way the industry makes money off the back of vulnerable people. News broke that kids are being bullied for only having default skins in Fortnite. While the game is free, children are pressured to keep up with their friends to maintain a social status by not being the poor scrub with the bargain basement cosmetics. Youngsters are reportedly begging their arents for Fortnite money because nobody will play with them otherwise. And the word “Default” itself has become a derogatory term in schools.

And if you think that’s just kids being kids, that the game industry cannot possibly be held to account for this. Well... guess what else Mr. Jernstrom said.

[Torulf] “We are herd animals, we tend to do what all of the others do. You all sit quietly listening to me because that’s what all of the other guys do here. Especially when people are similar to us. This means that the socially accepted way of behaving in your game should be paying. You want to tell people, for instance, when a clan member of theirs spends IAP money, you want the whole can to know. Because then, that becomes the socially acceptable way of behaving. You absolutely do not want to tell them that the majority of people in your game never spend money. That’s poison. Never tell them that.”

Am I demonstrating this fucking clearly enough now? Am I effectively showcasing that this industry has nasty parasitic bastards in it? That know exactly what they’re doing, and not only don’t care, but are proud of themselves. And it’s not just Jernstrom. You’ll find men like him absolutely everywhere if you know which stones to turn over. David Zendle is a researcher and lecturer who has devoted much of his time to the study of loot boxes. In a paper published in June of 2019, he noted that while he cannot claim loot boxes create problem gamblers, there’s evidence to suggest problem gamblers are certainly exploited by them. According to his findings, when loot boxes were removed from Heroes of the Storm, problem gamblers, and only problem gamblers, spent less money on the game. The spending habits of other players didn’t change. The spending habits of the gamblers did because the gambling was gone.

see

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There are many studies showing a correlation between gambling addiction and loot boxes, but correlation is not causation, I will say that. However, the near-identical psychological similarities between loot boxes and gambling coupled with reports like those from Zendle support the idea that those with addiction struggles are routinely preyed upon by an industry that, regardless of whether they create compulsive gamblers, sure as shit profit from them. And as Electronic Arts’ Legal VP sits before

a parliamentary committee trying to rebrand loot boxes as “surprise mechanics” and claiming they’re ethical because people enjoy them, I need to stress just how dirty the game industry’s money is. It’s not just dirty, it’s filthy fucking money. The billions upon billions being funnelled into the offshore tax havens of these video game companies stink of abuse. Shameless profiteering abuse. If it’s not outright evil, it is amoral in the extreme. And they flaunt their immorality in public with the smug satisfied

self-confidence of monsters who’ve gotten away with it. Just go back and watch, again, the sneering manner in which EA’s Kerry Hopkins patronizes her way through an explanation of what loot boxes are. Just go and read the articles from dozens of industry mouthpieces who disregard criticisms of microtransactions because “If people didn’t want them, they wouldn’t spend money on them.” That argument, in face of the compulsive strings microtransactions pull, is as weak as it is despicably dishonest.

orality I hate what the mainstream industry has done to the medium. How the unchecked, unimpeded greed that fuels corporate decision-making has turned games into grindy, unsatisfying money vacuums. All in the name of psychological ambush. I say this not with affected internet outrage, but with a genuine, understated, ice-cold fury. I genuinely hate most video game publishers. Their executives, and every seedy, slimy, corrupt thing they’ve done. To both the industry at large, and, more importantly, their many victims.

Hopefully, this little article has gone some way toward explaining the level of anger I have when it comes to talking about mainstream Triple-A video games, it should explain why, whenever I say Triple-A, I struggle not to do it in a sneering condescending mocking manner, because I’ve always found that the designation “Triple-A” is arrogant on the part of the game industry. It’s just showcasing that they think they’re so far above everything else, when nothing they do actually qualifies them for a designation of three As. “A” is supposed to be good in grading. And the “Triple-A” video game industry is anything but.

I hope that this indicates to you that I don’t do this for clickbait. I do this because I fucking care. Because I give a shit. Because I truly believe, in my heart, that this is an important topic. That I do hold the values that I express when I talk about microtransactions and loot boxes and whatnot. I hold those values true to myself. I really do believe that when I talk about this, I am right. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t think I was right, if I didn’t know I was right.

I truly am not optimistic about where the video game industry is going. Comprehensive, complete-feeling productions, are becoming rarer and rarer. Shallow, threadbare unfinished games, that are designed deliberately poorly, so that you can pay extra to improve the experience, they’re becoming the norm. The idea of the “service video game”, live service video games, is a lie, and a fraud. Because it isn’t a service, it’s a service you provide to them. You are giving them, you are inviting them, direct access to your wallet. They sit back and collect money off you, simply for existing. And they spout lies. Lies and propaganda, that are then perpetuated. By their defenders, by certain journalists, by spokespeople in the industry and it’s a racket, shameless, and disgusting.

bitter

Thank you so much to the people who did share their stories.

reality

just ke p > fraud People have asked me in the past: “Well what is your perfect video game? You keep complaining about all these practices, what’s the perfect video game? What’s your ideal video game?”

A shift that might not even be That’s the wrong question. There is possible in publicly traded corporano perfect video game. There is no ideal formula. If there’s one thing I’ve tions, but this grasping need for criticized the game industry consistshort-term gains, that’s the issue. It’s not about individual games, it’s ently over the years, it’s its shortabout an actual culture, a culture sightedness. That’s the one thing that sees money immediately and I’ve harped on for as long as I can damns any long-term consequences. remember. The industry can’t see as And we’re seeing this again with far as its fucking nose, and that’s an “Live Services”, the industry thinks issue. There doesn’t need to be a perfect game, no such thing exists. it’s found another perfect formula There needs to be a major attitudinal a circle, a circle of money. shift, within the Triple-A culture.

eep paying But what they don’t realize, is that circle, is a spiral.

game no On the Monday of February 12th 2018, in the afternoon news broke of a Ubisoft investor call where they were promoting their plans, to move away from the traditional video game model and right onto, you guessed it, Live Services. The Triple-A industry believes it’s found the solution to all its problems and the road to life services has been steadily paved for years now. The industry called them “Games As A Service” which loosely translates, to online connected games in which players were coaxed into spending significantly more money on top of the money they already paid. Basic Free-To-Play models stuffed into premium games. Now with a sleeker, less tarnished name, companies like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are preparing to ditch the concept of a boring stuffy old video game, as a thing of the past, and promotes so-called Live Services as the future.

es more They’re not even being subtle about it. Ubisoft literally has a slide in its Live Service presentation, where it distinctly puts games in the past column, relegating the concept to history. Ubisoft apparently doesn’t consider video games as an idea relevant in this day and age, now it’s all about those services. The idea, as Ubisoft quite clearly showcases, is to release fewer games, worry far less about sales figures, and focus on making a lot more money out of the same users. And it’s not hard to see why.

all da s

Activision-Blizzard recently boasted of making an incomprehensible $4 billion from microtransactions alone, all while we’re expected to believe they can’t afford to make games and just sell them upfront and honestly. We’ve talked about before, that what the industry calls “Whales”, a small percentage of players who spend the largest percentage of cash, are a good way to earn capital incredibly quickly, with little effort. Right now Live Services are hailed as a more predictable business model, no longer driven by their need to sell a major hit. And that all sounds good on paper. Games can instead focus on what’s called PRI, Player Recurring Investment, that is players

continuing to pay money as they play the same game, rather than purchasing new games. Ubisoft has had major success here with Rainbow Six: Siege, which has been ticking along for several years now and remained a financial success, by continuing to offer its players new ways to continue giving Ubisoft more money. Words like “Lifetime Value”, “High User Engagement” and “Recurring Revenue” all basically allude to this same principle. The principle of keeping players hooked onto a smaller number of games, rather than attempting to create new properties, find potentially untapped markets and do what game publishers used to do, publish games.

For right now it’s working. Activision-Blizzard is sitting on enough money to sustain Call of Duty: Warzone as a free-to-play game basically forever, and EA is making almost 40% of its revenue from DLC, microtransactions, season passes and all the other little ways in which Triple-A games started chipping away our wallets years ago. At present, it has, as Yves Guillemot quite bluntly puts it, “The potential to deliver prodigious value for our shareholders.”, as players are looked at not simply as customers, but as cows to be milked, each with what companies call, a “lifetime value”. That is to say, how valuable a player is to the game, how long they’ll stick

around, and how much they’ll be spending while they do it. None of these ideas are exactly new, it’s just that major publishers are finally being quite explicit about the whole thing, and are no longer attempting serviced based games incrementally. Having seen the dollar signs, they’re now charging full bore into the service model. And today for a change, we’re going to ignore the moral and ethical issues associated with the exploitation of “turning players into payers”. Instead, we focus on the stainability and stability of a “live service future”, to put it as bluntly as Guillemot did. I have the feeling this whole service-based shit, ain’t fucking sustainable.

ay shift

By looking at Ubisoft’s handy Live Service circle slide, it’s clear that they and its ilk believe they found a financial perpetual motion machine in the Live Service business model. The problem is that perpetual motion machines don’t bloody exist. The major issue with the Live Service model is that it costs more than money, even though we’re often told microtransactions are about “player choice” and allow us to “skip the grind”. A game with a “recurring to business” model, can’t exactly keep itself recurrent if it doesn’t hook players like fish and keep as many of them dangling for as long as possible. There’s a reason why a lot of these games that have microtransactions as a matter of “player choice” are still quite grindy (Hello, Destiny 2). Things like daily and weekly login bonuses are naked attempts to keep you addicted, keep you coming in each day, to receive your payout, less like a player, and more like a worker punching a clock. And that’s what games are looking to become now. Less like hobbies, less free time activities, but jobs. Live Services are called “Recurrent Business Models” by major publishers, but I think of a more accurate term for them:

Addiction Based Models.

We’re already seeing it from Triple-A developers like Konami. Their recently released pile of shit, Metal Gear Survive, is on top of expecting you to pay $10 for a new save slot (no seriously), feature daily rewards, daily challenges for continuing to play. That’s why you’ll be seeing even single-player focused games have strict online-only requirements, even on consoles, where the piracy excuse

just doesn’t hold up. These demands for online connectivity aren’t DRM in the least, they’re part of the Addiction Based Model. Gotta login, gotta get that daily bonus, gotta keep building off that initial reward, that feel-good factor of getting given stuff, to acquire more stuff. The free-to-play Addiction Based Model has been fully snapped up by companies like Electronic Arts,

Activision-Blizzard and Ubisoft, who will no doubt insist on keeping premium prices alongside their recurrent revenue, for as long as they can, as well as of course, the Digital Deluxe Editions, the Season Passes oh, you get the point by now. We’re entering an age where games aren’t games anymore, they’re jobs, except these are jobs in which you’re the one doing the work and paying to do it.

But what happens, when every major publisher attempts to turn their products into Live Services? What happens, when every publisher has more than one Live Service to shove down our throats?

One thing they appear to have forgotten is that time isn’t infinite. There are only so many hours in the day, and only so many people in a day with hours to spend. What’s more, as companies decide not to create new games and find fresh audiences, they’re banking on making lots of money from an insular audience, that doesn’t really expand. And in what world is all that gonna last. I for one certainly don’t have the time to pour into half a dozen Live Service games. Right now I’ve got Warframe, but I’ve abandoned it after 7 years, due to realizing there was

nothing to do, but keep farming and spending, and swiftly moved on to playing The Witcher 3 again, a game that feels like a salve on a wound. A game with a real story, and an ending, and everything that charged an upfront price and that was that. That’s what I have time for. That’s what adults with real-world jobs have time for. Publishers are in for a rude awakening if they think this new model will solve all their problems because they’re gonna brush up against a major barrier in their way. Reality.

stop fol The reality is, that time and money do not last forever, and people are potentially gonna get forced to choose their brand, and stick to it. If you’re spending all day playing Destiny, what time do you have for Warframe? If you’re playing Warframe all day, are you gonna pick up Overwatch? History has already showcased this problem quite adequately, because what is a Live Service if not an evolution of the MMO.

MMOs were dominated by only a few serious contenders and the many, many pretenders. Some from major Triple-A publishers, fell by the wayside, failing to even make a dent in the stranglehold of World of Warcraft and a handful of other brands maintained, with their own addiction based gameplay structures. The game industry battlefield is littered with the bodies of dead MMOs, and I fail to see, how the Live Service gold rush, based just as

much on addiction and slavish devotion as MMOs, will turn out much differently. As games focus more on becoming addictive jobs, urging their worker ants to keep peddling their way toward 15 million merits, the only difference between their Triple-A games and the MMOs, will be the replacement of consistent subscription fee for a dizzying array of microtransactions that present, what was it again, “prodigious a value for our shareholders”.

Not for you... for the shareholders.

llowing But I just can’t help but feel the prodigious value can’t last. I mean gold rushes never do. Last generation, it was all about trying to copy Call of Duty, because big publishers are constantly under the impression, that if you copy something already successful, you’ll also copy its success. But that doesn’t happen. Because people already had Call of Duty, so why would they want another variant on the brown military shooter,

that looked a bit like Call of Duty, but clearly wasn’t Call of fucking Duty. Most first-person shooters failed to make significant capital last-gen, despite there being so many of them, for the same reason that I feel Live Services are just a big juicy bubble, that will leave a lot of studios absorbed, shut down, or otherwise completely fucked when it bursts. People will find their life service of choice and stick to it, leaving the

copiers and the clones out in the cold, and as I’ve said before, market leaders lead, they don’t follow. That’s why they are market leaders, but here we are, once again just like with the FPS craze, the MMO craze the rhythm game craze, the companies have seen something work and they’re gonna hump it into fucking oblivion, leaving a trail of industrial and intellectual corpses in their wake.

I’ve said before, that microtransactions, season passes, loot boxes, all that fucking bullshit, amounts a little more than a band-aid over a gaping wound and so far, nobody has adequately been able to explain how this isn’t the case. Nobody has been able to answer the charge, that as game dev costs rise to ludicrous new heights, the long-term answers provided by so-called Triple-A publishers, are nothing more than desperate stopgaps. The only thing we know for sure is that no matter whether the bubble bursts now or years from now, no matter who gets fucked over in the meantime, Guillemot, Kotick and all the other CEOs they’re still gonna have a lot of fucking money. In the meantime, Konami can keep charging $10 for save slots and we’ll see how far that fucking gets them.

not so Spoiler alert:

And we end with what may be the most relevant question for you reading at home.

What happens when the servers are gone? What happens when a Live Service has made its money, lost its player base, and the publisher doesn’t want to pay for the upkeep anymore, and the server’s go and you can’t log in anymore? Well, we already know what happens, because there are many accounts of this happening in the past. The answer: is you’re fucked. I mean, for a fairly recent final example, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, terrible enough as it is, went on sale on the PlayStation Network, hurray, a sale. People bought it and then realized most of its core features were locked behind online servers, that Activision-Blizzard had switched off. And it remained on sale. It remained selling itself to people, on the PlayStation Store, in a vastly unplayable state.

o far. And that’s just one other reason why the concept of Live Services as the be-all-end-all answer is, well...

> credits Designed and edited by: Norbert Gebur behance.net/norby_gebur nstagram.com/norby_gebur/ Consultant: Zoltán Zeman Sources: Jim ‘Jimquisition’ Sterling, Kelly ‘Actman’ Van Achte, Ben Lindbergh (The Ringer article), and various sites discussing gaming terminology Print: Teveműhely, Eger http://tevemuhely.hu/

Made at the Media and Design Institute, EKCU, Eger, Hungary 2021

Now, this was a story all about how Video games got flipped-turned upside down.

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