Many people seem to be declaring the downfall of video gaming. These people claim that gaming is not as good as it used to be, that the good old days of gaming are long past and will never come back. I absolutely disagree with this, in fact I think 2011 was one of the best years ever in gaming. There were so many great games released this year and I think gaming is as good as it has ever been. However, that does not mean that everything about the industry is perfect. The following 10 current trends are certainly blemishes on what is otherwise a great time to be a gamer. So, here you have the Top 10 Worst Trends in Gaming.
10. Console Exclusive DLC
A large portion of the decisions any of the major three console manufacturers make are usually an attempt to give them an edge over the other two. The practice of buying total or timed exclusive rights to downloadable content for a particular game is one that is most often employed by Microsoft. Now, I’m certainly no financial expert, but this just seems pointless to me. Most people either have one console or the other, and no one is going to go out and buy a 360 if they already have a PS3 just because the Skyrim DLC is coming to 360 a month earlier. Even for the people that have all the consoles, speaking from my own experience, are going to look more at things like which controller they prefer, which online service they prefer, which system their friends are getting the game on, and whether things like trophies or achievements are important to them. The last thing I consider when deciding what system to buy a game for is which one gets the DLC, which I may or may not even buy, first. The only thing I see this practice really accomplishing is pissing off people that buy the game on the other systems.
9. Retailer Specific Pre-order Bonuses
Nothing is worse than bringing home a brand new game and already feeling like you are missing content before you even play it. This is something that is becoming all too common with the rise of retailer specific pre-order bonuses. Basically what this is is when various retailers such as Best Buy and Gamestop purchase the rights to have exclusive in-game content given to people that pre-order the game at that specific store. Usually these are small things like character skins, weapons, or side quests. However, when every retailer has their own exclusive content, then you either have to buy the game from 7 different retailers to get all the content, or just pick one and miss out on everything else. Never has any pre-order bonus been good enough for me to buy anywhere other than the most convenient location for me, but it is still dumb when the pre-order bonuses for something like Arkham City were so confusing the publisher actually released a pre-order guide detailing which stores were offering which content.
8. Digital Rights Management (DRM)
This is a problem mostly for PC players, but it is really becoming a huge issue, especially with Ubisoft. DRM is when the publisher places restrictions on the player such as having to be online while playing and only being able to install the game on one PC; all in an attempt to combat piracy. I by no means support piracy, and I’m not going to go into my thoughts on piracy, as piracy is only peripherally related to this topic. The fact is, DRM only hurts the people that bought the game legitimately. Maybe if DRM actually worked, things would be different, but as it stands now, the games that have highly restrictive DRM are some of the most pirated games out there. It can be argued that the presence of annoyingly implemented DRM is actually a deterrent to buying the game legally, because pirates can find away around the DRM. Piracy is definitely a problem, especially on PC, but DRM is not the solution.
While you make some interesting points, I can’t help but disagreeing with the Campaign for the shooters being short, Online community where you’ll have those types of comments and the Online Pass.
First the Online pass is a brilliant move on developers, whether or not you agree with it the fact is developers work so hard making a game and to have game stores profit more from used game sales than the developers. if you want a game buy it new simple as that. I’ve been a gamer since early 90′s with NES/SNES and Genesis and I support the gaming industry fully but by not buying games new you’re essentially flipping the bird to game developers hard work. This is a business and developers work to put food on the table. If you truly want the game buy it yourself, swapping games is great and all and fully understand what you’re talking about but you have to accept the fact that it’s not as easy to do nowadays with all the legal mumbo jumbo nonsense going on with IP’s and even property such as PS3 scandal with Sony and Geohot.
Secondly, the campaign for shooters being short is fine by me. If I want to spend 12 hours on a campaign i’ll pick up games like batman, Deus ex, bayonetta or something. What I don’t understand is why people feel the need to want to play a 12 hours shooter when realistically you’ll be bored with the campaign by 7 hours. I think people want too much 1 one mode where they expect to have everything they ask but fails to realize it’s not that simple. MP is the big pull on shooters and has been since last generation. So I’ll take the 4-6 hours of a decent campaign to a 8-12 hour long campaign that get’s old and boring fast. Again, some game genres are longer or shorter on the storyline for a reason.
Lastly, while I might agree with the online community with 10 year old kids talking smack with headsets being annoying and the language, you have to understand this is life. You can’t control what people say online even on mics, it’s entirely unrealistic, Can it be annoying and further more degrading sure? Sure but what can you do? it’s freedom of speech to talk on the PSN and XBL with headsets as you like. However I do believe they both censor alot of stuff from the gamercards and PSN cards and what not so it works for that.
Anyway decent article, good points but it seems more like a rant than anything. :P
Just to clarify my stance on Online Passes, I haven’t bought a game used in years, I buy all my games new. However, as I said, my brothers and I often share games, and the current implementation of online passes makes using a second profile on a game you or someone in your household owns no different than playing a used copy. I am all for the developers making money on their games as opposed to retailers, but there needs to be a more elegant solution than the current online pass system.
As for the shooters, I don’t accept your point. If the argument for short campaigns is that you would get sick of the game for more than seven hours, then make a more compelling game. Two of my favorite single player shooters ever, Half Life 2 and Bioshock, both clock in well over the 10 hour mark, and they never get boring because the levels are well designed and the gameplay has great variety to keep you interested the whole time. Lack of variety is no excuse for making the game short.
Obviously its unlikely that the online behavior is going to stop, but if people discourage it instead of laughing alone with them and making videos about “hilarious” kids being silly gooses on xbox live, then maybe it could be reduced.