The word “Entitlement” is thrown around a lot these days, be it as an argument on what is ruining our youth or how it is ruining our games. It is becoming increasingly obvious that gamers feel that they deserve special treatment, be it from the outcry to change the Mass Effect 3 ending or unceasing bemoaning about Skyrim on the PS3. This type of behavior is starting to make developers nervous, fearing that an innovation or new story direction will be crushed by the tidal wave of whine. This makes it harder big names behind these studios to play it safe and give us the same garbage re-wrapped each time with a shiny new wrapper. The criticism of casualization can be said to be the biggest effect of entitlement as gamers expect more for less effort,but then complain when they get what they want. Casualization is not slowly destroying the industry and you shouldn’t agree with any of the thoughts on it right here. So how can you tell if you’re one of these despicable abominations ruining the face of gaming? Well, see if any of these sound familiar to you.
1) It is My Money, It is my Game!
Do you often sit and think “I paid $60 for this, I should get a say,” during your gaming sessions? Well, if so, you might be an Entitled Bastard. The idea is priceless (ba dum tss), for a mere 60 bucks you can tell the developer: Screw your vision, I have my own. While it has an appealing ring, it makes you a brat. Game developers study games, go to school to learn game design, and then pour their heart and souls into a product that they can hopefully be proud of. Unless you have done the same, maybe it is time to shut up. Believe it or not, as gamers, we are not the best people to decide what direction a game should go, or the best consultants for developing game mechanics.
Yes, having Commander Shepard punt Casper (the catalyst) across the floor and tell him that he is badass enough to take on the fleet himself, leading to an end sequence where he dons a space suit and makes good on his promise would be epic; but $60 doesn’t let you make that decision. The massive outcry of “change it, or I will never play a game by you again, I paid money” was cute, and sadly at EA’s behest Bioware gave the crybabies the Extended Cut; but this is bad for gaming as a whole. If you were happy for this artistic compromise because you (the most special-est consumer ever) paid for a video game then you might be an Entitled brat.
2) These Bugs are Bugging Me
Getting annoyed with game bugs is only natural, especially if they are game breaking. But ragging at everyone and rushing to the forums is a clear sign you are an Entitled Gamer. It baffles me that people expect games to be perfect at launch. Hungry consumers demand games be released, and share holders demand game turn a profit ASAP. This often leads to more bugs than the average gamer would like, but the criticisms can get crazy, especially for massive games like Skyrim. Time after time I have read entitled gamers spewing enough hate to make any sith lord envious. Their complaint: the devs had play testers how could they miss this!?!? Let me enlighten you: there is a huge difference between 50 game testers and millions of game players.
By sheer number alone the players are going to find bugs and broken code by the score. With the limited amount of time the small number of play testers get, they will only noticed the big problems you will never see. Because you never see what is fixed, you only focus on what is broken, outraged that they would give you something other than perfection. Since the days of the SNES all games have had bugs, as the systems evolve and become more complex the possible bugs will grow. This isn’t Pokemon and developers can’t catch them all; get over it.
Keep reading on the next page for three more signs you may be an Entitled Gamer…
I have a huge problem with #4. I’ll have to go into great detail when I’m off work.
Great stuff right here, I agree with all of these points. #4 is probably the one that I liked best, simply because people don’t realize that because of the other points on this list, point #4 is happening. If gamers didn’t expect stuff right away and without any effort, not only would the quality of games increase, but a lot of these “issues” would just dissolve away. See EA, I am totally worth hiring.
You’re an idiot, David.
No I refuse!!!! #4 is loaded. Case and point: Capcom. They’ll place FINISHED content on the disc but hide it behind DLC. In my eyes thats a preconceived plan to nickle and dime consumers. What happened to putting as much content as you can into a product to warrant these $59 price tags? This on disc content frenzy is all a way for them to combat used game sales and you guys know it!
Sorry but I can’t give you the 4th one… And let me tell you that you sound like a fascist capitalist tool. You really need to open that mind and think beyond because this world is not only made out of black and white.
Marijuana nor piracy are as bad as some people make it out to be. Specially piracy when it has helped industries like the anime industry to reach and expand on new markets. This is just another example that rationalism has never been the way to go but for some reason gamers still believe in it.
I have to say “Screw you” big time on number one.
Yes, even though the game is not mine, the money still is and I do expect to get a game of my liking. Saying “Well do it better your self.” is just most dumbest argument I’ve ever heard, as a game as well as a game creator. That’s like buying a broken vacuumcleaner for 100bucks and when you are complaining about it the only answer you get is “Do it better yourself.” That’s bull and you know it.
As a gamer I can only buy like one or two games a year so ofcourse I want to enjoy the game especially if it is a “SEQUEL” to previous game I enjoyed a lot. If it’s a prequel, well, then I can’t complain as much since I don’t know what to expect.
As for number four.
Well I’m sorry for expecting to buy a finished game?
That’s like ordering a steak with potatoes from a restaurant for 15bucks and the chef would bring you warm steak with raw potatoes and say “You’ll have to pay 5 bucks extra if you want those potatoes cooked.”
Seriously, if they don’t want us to have the access to the content then why to put it in there in the first place? That’s just simply cashing. I’m not saying DLC should be completely free but jeesh, 5bucks for a something that’s already in there? Or better yet, for what should BE in there already.
I remember when we got these expansion backs that gave us DISC FULL OF CONTENT like new maps, weapons ‘n stuff for 10 up to 40 bucks.
I agree that developers should at least try to make complete games and that ON DISC DLC is absolutely unacceptable (e.g. ultimate Mavel vs cashcom 3) in my opinion. Colton, the argument is not that you are buying everything that they have ever made, but that if content is already complete at the time of release it is wrong to exclude it for the sake of making an extra buck especially if it makes the game incomplete. I love to use the UMvC3 example because they released a “complete” version of the game that was still incomplete without paying more for DLC that was on disc. that means that as a competitive player i cant just buy the complete edition (like what MK did) and play, i have to get the complete edition (which is already more expensive than the core game) and then get more DLC. That isnt being entitled, it’s asking the company to be reasonable.
Regarding Mass Effect 3’s extra content, thing is everything besides Javik (eg. Leviathan, Citadel, Omega, as well as the Extended Cut) were not advertised with the original game. There was no mention of those 4 DLCs during the pre-release statements, and the Extended Cut wasn’t planned initially. Only made after the fans overreacted to the ending, even though the answers to explain the ending are in the game.
People can claim it’s an unfinished game all they want, but if the DLC wasn’t advertised, you’re not “entitled” to it. It’s like buying a plain colored car, but if you want a red color or one with extra features like automatic transmission, where the car normally comes with standard transmission, you have to pay extra for that. Or back in the day, you had manual windows, but if you wanted a “power window” which rolled down with a push of a button, you had to pay for it.
As with Javik, I was going to mention, there was a extra character from Dragon Age Origins that was a pre-order bonus that people got for free (Stone Prisoner, as well as Blood Dragon Armor), but if you bought the game after the release date, you had to pay $15 for the Stone Prisoner. As with Javik, this character also added quite a bit to the lore and such. I wasn’t around back then, but I’m sure there were people complaining about that.
Thing is though, and I hate to say this, capitalism is a system where you exchange money for goods and services. Special DLC is considered a good that you pay for. I mean is it really going to kill someone to pay $10 for DLC? Especially when it wasn’t advertised with the game?
Maybe it’s only a nuisance for people who don’t have jobs, a lot of money, or mooch off their parents. For those that have lots of money, $10 is nothing. Maybe some of these people complaining about having to pay $5 for extra content should get off their couch and get a job. Work hard and you can buy anything you want.
Just like anything in life, if you want something you have to work for it. Not everything comes for free. There is no “rule” that games should cost no more than $60. In fact, compared to games from 1990, you are actually paying less, and you’re getting more content. A game from 1990 could be finished in a couple hours at the most, and you paid $50-70 for it. That is roughly $110-120 of today’s money. So $60 for 2 hours worth of content, but today, you pay $60 and you get 30 hours worth of content, plus hundreds of hours in replay value. That’s a pretty good deal.
If you want to talk about ancient gaming, people used to rack up $40 on arcade games, and that was only 5 minutes of play for anywhere between 25 cents all to way up to $1 or so. That’s a different story though.
Gamers want as much content, for as little money as they can get away with. Talk about being greedy.
Damn people are spoiled brats.
It’s amazing how much gamers are expected to just accept, when with consumers of any other media it would be completely understandable.
Take #2 for example. We’re supposed to be ok with glitches and bugs and mess with gameplay? I’m not talking the harmless ones that make you laugh, I mean the ones that mess up the controls, make the level unpassable, or make you have to hard reset your console.
If a movie you purchased had a scene where the sound cut out, you’d complain. If a book had words smeared across several pages, making it unreadable, you’d complain. I don’t see why gamers get called entitled for complaining about a broken product.
I think gamers tend to overreact when it comes to bugs. Some bugs may be caused by the game, but some are actual bugs in the game. I played a few games at release and there was maybe 3-4 actual bugs that I noticed. Maybe one big one, but that’s it.
Games aren’t like cars, where if the axle breaks and the car crashes someone could get killed. That I understand. Obviously you want a car that works safely. Games don’t have such safety issues. Not going to get killed by bugs or issues.
The other thing to note, aside from number of beta testers, is that games are made by human beings. Human beings aren’t perfect and neither is the stuff that they make. Game may not even be that buggy, it’s just some people actually tend to go out of their way looking for bugs.
There are actually some gamers out there who think that 5 years in development is not enough time to make and test a game, where the average game gets maybe 2-3 years. Gotta deal with those too.
Like the article notes, games are getting more complex. While it might take 3-5 years to make a game this generation, might take 5-7 the next. And 7-9 the next generation. I don’t know.
I don’t know if consumers can actually force game developers to push back games. If people do have an issue with the game’s quality, I’d personally talk to the developers directly, instead of on a random internet site or forum.