Exclusively Games writes:
''Is it possible to love a property so much that you’re blinded by that love to the point that you disrespect and hurt the ones who make it?
We, as fans, get too passionate at times that we go after the creators of our beloved games with no regard for their feelings or artistic vision.''
Skewed and Reviewed have written an Opinion Piece covering issues in the gaming industry, how current issues were issues years ago, and what can be done to help restore consumer trust.
Nothing. It's up to the gamers to stop consuming content from companies that they don't agree with.
How do you know if you agree with it or not unless you play it? Which without conventions forces gamers to rely on trailers. Perhaps Demos should be made more frequently. But companies need to do better as well.
But is that not what they have now? Tons of gameplay or are you talking about watching actual gamers play it versus the trailers and streams? The big issue is that some companies pay streamers and influencers and they create content but for me; that is hardly a fair, unbiased, and factual look at a game.
They usually are attached to the money sadly. It would be nice to have gamers in charge but you have so much money invested that business people are needed. Hence the issue; you need people who know business but are also gamers who know have an eye to the community. It sounds simple in theory that if you give gamers quality games that they want to play; money will be made. But that is not always so.
Marie Dealessandri speaks to Borislav Slavov and Gustavo Santaolalla about “the new golden age of games music”.
A famous actor from Starship Troopers has showered praise on Helldivers 2 and said he is open to the idea of playing General Brasch.
Fans have every right to criticize and complain about any product they want to. They even have the right to organize a boycott towards that product, if they so choose to. They don’t have the right to threaten someone with death or make false accusations of rape against anyone. Their are laws on the books already for those actions.
If fans wants to “downvote” something, or review bomb something, or go on a third party website like reddit and organize a boycott, as long as it’s within the law and that private website’s guidelines, I have no problem with such actions.
We do get out of hand sometimes. We love this medium, its our hobby and favorite pass time. But we also need to be put in check. I'm taking about threats against studios and people who work there. These actions are totally unacceptable.
That said...
"We, as fans, get too passionate at times that we go after the creators of our beloved games with no regard for their feelings or artistic vision."
What artistic vision? Feelings? Is this the late 90's? Today most studios are following a spreadsheet handed by their corporate masters(exceptions exist, of course, but are far between). They have to follow quotas on everything even Meta scores. They have to add monetization features. They have to design games in parts so they can drip-feat them to us over time, for a price of course.
Those that are left, the true artists, still unhindered by corporate manipulation are few and far between and all of them are struggling or will be at some point due to an overwhelming AAA industry and their deep pockets/influence grabbing the attention ($$$) of the press and discussions everywhere while "smothering" out everyone else.
So lets not pretend that these corporate puppets dont deserve our(civil) upheaval when they get out of line.
While there is definitely truth to these statements lets not ignore why there appears to be more outspoken gamers in this day and age. It's because game execs and publishers interfere with our favourite franchises and developers and gut out microtransactions bs.
There is definitely some unnecessary actions such as gamers review bombing Astral Chain (I would add Borderlands 3 but I think that game deserves it) but lets not forget the other side where sometimes fans needs to speak out otherwise gaming as we know it will be dead and we'll only have mobile games filled to the brim with microtransactions.
Imagine that you really like the Ford Focus, that you've purchased every generation of Ford Focus.
They don't offer the best drive, they don't have the best specs, nor do they look the prettiest... But you're happy with what you're buying, and you really, really like the seats over other cars... Even if every generation has been slowly removing more standard specs.
Anyway, Ford unveil their brand new generation of Focus. You're excited, you've supported Ford for years and you're happy to buy the next generation...
Only it costs more previous generations, it's basically the last generation with one of the wing mirrors painted (it's not even a full paintjob, it looks pretty ugly), and plastic chairs.
The chairs were the one thing Ford shouldn't have messed with, you would have been happy with them removing more specs, but you can't stand plastic chairs. Or if they were going to give you plastic chairs and keep the same price, they should at least have the car fully kitted out to rival expensive audis or mercedes.
So you voice your displeasure, as a long time customer you're not happy with this. Only for car journalists to attack you and others, calling you "entitled" and "toxic".
NO other industry treats their customers in this manner, and it sounds dumb when you apply it to other industries. We have a choice in what we want to buy and we're fully within our right not to buy something, and voice our displeasure.