I’m mainly talking about these new “but they’re different” games, that have gotten so fucking popular, lately.
“Honky Stair Rail” and “Genshin Implants” or whatever the fuck they’re called.
I don’t care if you can play them without spending any money. I don’t care if they’re any good. None of that matters. The whole model of the game being funded by whales, spending money on in-game items and currency IS LITERALLY EVIL.
There is no way to do it ethically. That is an impossibility, on a fundamental level. There is no excuse for anyone to give these so-called developers and publishers ANY amount of money, attention, or engagement.
The only acceptable way to pay for a game as a service is a traditional MMO subscription, where you pay a flat rate per month/year to access 100 percent of a game’s available gameplay.
I don’t care what your excuse is. I don’t care that you like anime tits and ass. I don’t care if you think your chosen free-to-pay game is different. It’s not.
Stop supporting this shit. Support real games.
A couple of years ago, I would have considered this to be a popular opinion, but about 35-40 percent of the internet posts I see in 2024 are related to either “Honky Stair Rail” or “Genshin Implants,” and it’s starting to freak me the fuck out.
This thread is so fascinating. I agree with the OP 100% and it’s so strange to me to see the arguments against them.
Like, games as designed now are predatory. My kids get a game and are bombarded with shiny ways to extract more money.
OP’s point on MMOs is that they provide servers and that means a monthly subscription and the only way (originally) to get stuff was to grind.
To expand on that last point, the original MMO grind was also supposed to be fun and interesting, in and of itself. It wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the original grind wasn’t a roadblock in the way of progress. It WAS the progress.
As someone else very eloquently pointed out, the problem with the new mobile-style model is that “the developers ARE REQUIRED TO INVALIDATE your progress in some way.”
That’s exactly the center of the point that I’m making. That shit isn’t fixable. There is no way for there to be a good or acceptable game that uses that model.
And I think that’s why I’ve bristled so much, when people are like “uhh, could you cite some examples?”
Like I said in that other comment: that’s like if I said “being hit in the hand with a sledgehammer causes injury” and people were like “hmmm, could you supply some evidence for this claim?”
Saying “fuck off” to that request isn’t ME being intellectually dishonest. It’s THEM being trollish for even asking some shit like that. It’s some Elon Musk level shit.
Mobile-style free-to-pay monetization models are simply harmful. Period. Exactly like a sledgehammer to the knuckles.
Some people might be legit masochists and like being whacked on the hands with hammers, but that doesn’t change the basic facts.