Purkeynator
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"I'm getting too old for this shit" - every Lethal Weapon movie ever made
As time goes on in this generation of games I find that I am generally not happy with the way things are progressing in the video game world. Things just aren't the way they used to be and I am trying to figure out the reasons why. Here are mine.
Gaming is getting more expensive. -- This generation marked the increase in price across the board for most PS3 and Xbox 360 games. "So what" you say, "ten dollars isn't a bad increase to pay for the rising cost of high tech games". Well consider this, it goes further than that. First off the cost of the console itself has risen on average. We used to pay $200 for the latest Nintendo console or $300 for Sony's newest Playstation. Now we are looking at $400-600 to have the newest console on the block. Greatest hits games are now $30 instead of $20. Controllers are now $50-70 instead of $20-30. And let us not forget that many games intentionally leave out levels, features, characters, and missions to let you buy them later on the download for a price. Suddenly your $60 game will cost $70-$80 if you get the regular version and not the collector's version.
Games are shipped half baked. -- I can't tell you how many times I put in an Xbox 360 game and had to "update" my title. Basically alot of the time these are fixes for bugs that should have been fixed before the game shipped. To me this basically punishes the early adopters and they must suffer through problems and bugs for the first few months after release. That is not including the argument of shipping incomplete games in which you must pay for content that should have been on the disc to begin with (see above).
Game consoles are shipped half baked -- The red ring of death topic frequently makes the rounds on this web as well as other sites. It is a well known fact that the Xbox 360 is made of "dog feces and paper machet" (Wombat). So the Sony is a well built machine you say. Were you there when the system launch systems bascially had NO features? You couldn't even play a PS2 game without it looking like total ass. You had no DVD upscaling features on a $600 BLU RAY PLAYER!! Even a $100 DVD player at the time had upscaling. What's worse is that the software isn't a whole lot better today. I still cannot talk to my friends without EXITING THE GAME! Add to that the fact that I cannot get rumble because consumers do not want a "last gen" feature. And do not get me started on the Wii's awesome online friend codes where you have to enter a long ass code just to add ONE friend for ONE game. This is going backward like if we had to enter a 16 digit code to save our progress because the game had no battery for a save feature.
I hate Gamestop -- It is getting to be where Gamestop is pretty much the only game in town for used game sales anymore. EB was absorbed by Gamestop and we lost the early morning deals that we waited for everyday (and Cheapy lost money after the merger). We lost the $5 Edge card and now have to spend $15 to get the discount card with a crappy magazine most of us don't give two shits about. Then Rhino was bought out. No longer can I pick up some cheap classic games and some $3 used strategy guides since I won't pay $17 for a damn guide. Now I hear rumblings of Gamerush and Gamecrazy going out of business. Damn well no more good deals on trade-ins or cut out coupons or classic plastic sales either. All we get are shitty buy 2 get 1 free deals every so often where the prices are so damn high I wouldn't even buy them then. $2 off for getting the used copy that has no manual, a generic used case with stickers all over it and a million scratches on the disc that you will NOT let me return or swap out if I misplace my receipt but I clearly bought it from you and you remember selling it to me but can't break store policy? What a deal! Oh and if I buy a new game I still get a used game anyway?
Gamestop.
Advertisements -- Sure it was a novel idea to put a Kawasaki ad in Waverace. It was cool to have a little product placement in your NBA game. But a new cash cow has arrived and we must now be bombarded by ads when we want to relax and play a little rainbow six. The EA games seem to be the worst offenders in this area. The Need for Speed games are a breeding ground for Carl's Jr and Taco Bell. I don't need games to remind me I am getting fat by sitting on my ass and playing games and eating six-dollar burgers. A good point by Cheapy on the podcast - why do I have to pay to download what is basically an ad (dashboard theme) and then they block my "ad" I want to see with another ad I don't want to see plastered right in front of my dashboard every damn time I turn on my system? The game ads were supposed to supplement the high price of game developing. The only supplement I see is in EA's and Microsoft's wallet.
We now have to pay for cheat codes? -- Back in the day the game developers would put in cheat codes to help players to finish a hard game. The Konami code was legendary. 30 lives for Contra, a powered up ship in Gradius, or a level select for Ninja Turtles 2 were the stuff of legends. Now we get to pay publishers like EA to get some extra money in the "Godfather" or unlock some extra clothes for Tiger Woods since you didn't have time to play throught the whole game to unlock them by yourself. I believe that the game companies strong armed the Gamesharks and Action replays of the industry right out of that market. When is the last time you bought a Gameshark for your PS3 or a true Action replay for your Xbox or Xbox 360? Hell we can't even get the "power saves" this generation. Also lets not leave out Nintendo who axed the region free feature for Gamecube games played on Wii when you used the Gamecube Freeloader or Action replay.
Game magazines are almost extinct -- I know a lot of people will probably disagree with this one. Sure we have the internet for free so why would you want a magazine that comes outdated every month by the time it gets to you? The answer for me is the magazine is permanent. There will be no server going down ever for a magazine. I have a pretty large collection of game magazines I pull out from time to time and flip through. I have Nintendo power going all the way back to the beginning when it didn't suck. I have strategies and maps for these games going back to Mario 2. If I get the itch to play these games I have to just walk downstairs and pull out my Nintendo power that covers that game. This would prove to be invaluable for playing games on the Virtual console. Sure I could use Gamefaqs. But I would rather have full color maps, illustrations, pictures and writing that is done by people that have at least high school education and can write. I like being able to grab and EGM off my shelf in the morning and thumb through it while I am having my breakfast. And the fact that I own that media permanently makes all the difference. I was pretty dissapointed when my favorite game website Dailyradar.com went under in 2000. All my favorite articles and features were suddenly gone, never to be seen again. I even saved a few of my favorite articles onto a cd. Years later went I went to look at the articles the cd had corrupted and would not play. There are only a handful of game mags still around. OPM died. Gamenow dissapeared. GMR didn't last long at all. Ziff Davis has revealed they are in huge financial trouble. The writing is on the wall for game magazines.
I like to actually own the disc or cart -- There is something to be said about the simplicity of having a game on your hard drive. All I have to do is fire up my Xbox and I can play any arcade game I have on there without going downstairs to the dungeon and thumbing through my piles of Xbox games (Shipwreck I am looking at you). That being said when you gain something you also lose something. Like many I am not on my first Xbox 360. Sure I was able to redownload my games no problem onto my new hard drive. However now because of DRM restrictions I must be connected to Xbox Live to play my arcade games. Usually this is not a problem however there are times when I am not connected to Live. Such times include when I am at my mother in law's house who still has wretched dial up, when Xbox Live is down for maintenance, or when my wireless connection is being a bitch again. It is in these times that I loathe the hard drive because I cannot play my downloaded games even though I paid good money for them (in some cases more than they are worth; see the $20 Sega Genesis collection on PS2 for examples) and to me that sucks. Does Apple make me have to have my ipod connected to the internet to listen to songs? In the days before the D/L if you had the disc or cart, you were golden, you could play forever provided your system didn't break down. Now you are at the mercy of the console maker. What if your hard drive dies 20 years from now. Will you be able to redownload the games? Will Microsoft still be making game consoles even or still have Xbox live? All I know is if I want to pull out Super Mario Bros and play it on my system as long as I keep it in great shape I can play it now or 20 years from now. The game companies are simply getting their feet wet on downloadable games this generation but by the time the next gen rolls around the downloadable games will be the standard. And lets not forget that so far downloadable games do not go "Greatest Hits".
Where have all the good deals gone? -- I don't know how you feel but for me it is getting harder and harder to find good deals on games. Bestbuy stopped doing their loss leader games a few years ago. Remember when Bestbuy would have like one really good game in their ad for like $10? Those days are gone. Remember waking up early to check the ebgames.com new good and sometimes rare games in stock for you to frantically order? Gone. Remember when you could get an EB discount card for $5? See ya. Remember the $5 off GGC from Bestbuy that served us so well? Outta here. And the penny guides? Those days are pretty much over, just check the penny guide forum. What about the Circuit City clearance every summer? In 2004 games were $5. In 2005 they were $10. In 2006 most were more than that. Now we get some random drops down to $16.96 and all the good games sell out at that price. How many of you were even able to find ONE copy of Metal Gear Portable ops when it dropped this month? It even goes deeper than retail. Pawn shops (the few you can find who weren't replaced by a payday cash loan place) and garage sale moms have gotten hip to ebay. Now any asshole with an ebay account can take a 5 second search to see that the copy of Dragon Warrior 4 that they were going to sell to you for $5 should really be going for $50. I have now noticed that pawn shops that used to price all game the same are now pricing each game individually. Yep truly the good old days of deals seem to be gone.
These are just a few of my frustrations with the gaming industry lately. I have already slowed way down on game purchases and this will probably be the last "next" gen for me. What are some of your reasons for considering getting out after this gen? I am not going to give up my older games. But for me I think this might be it.
As time goes on in this generation of games I find that I am generally not happy with the way things are progressing in the video game world. Things just aren't the way they used to be and I am trying to figure out the reasons why. Here are mine.
Gaming is getting more expensive. -- This generation marked the increase in price across the board for most PS3 and Xbox 360 games. "So what" you say, "ten dollars isn't a bad increase to pay for the rising cost of high tech games". Well consider this, it goes further than that. First off the cost of the console itself has risen on average. We used to pay $200 for the latest Nintendo console or $300 for Sony's newest Playstation. Now we are looking at $400-600 to have the newest console on the block. Greatest hits games are now $30 instead of $20. Controllers are now $50-70 instead of $20-30. And let us not forget that many games intentionally leave out levels, features, characters, and missions to let you buy them later on the download for a price. Suddenly your $60 game will cost $70-$80 if you get the regular version and not the collector's version.
Games are shipped half baked. -- I can't tell you how many times I put in an Xbox 360 game and had to "update" my title. Basically alot of the time these are fixes for bugs that should have been fixed before the game shipped. To me this basically punishes the early adopters and they must suffer through problems and bugs for the first few months after release. That is not including the argument of shipping incomplete games in which you must pay for content that should have been on the disc to begin with (see above).
Game consoles are shipped half baked -- The red ring of death topic frequently makes the rounds on this web as well as other sites. It is a well known fact that the Xbox 360 is made of "dog feces and paper machet" (Wombat). So the Sony is a well built machine you say. Were you there when the system launch systems bascially had NO features? You couldn't even play a PS2 game without it looking like total ass. You had no DVD upscaling features on a $600 BLU RAY PLAYER!! Even a $100 DVD player at the time had upscaling. What's worse is that the software isn't a whole lot better today. I still cannot talk to my friends without EXITING THE GAME! Add to that the fact that I cannot get rumble because consumers do not want a "last gen" feature. And do not get me started on the Wii's awesome online friend codes where you have to enter a long ass code just to add ONE friend for ONE game. This is going backward like if we had to enter a 16 digit code to save our progress because the game had no battery for a save feature.
I hate Gamestop -- It is getting to be where Gamestop is pretty much the only game in town for used game sales anymore. EB was absorbed by Gamestop and we lost the early morning deals that we waited for everyday (and Cheapy lost money after the merger). We lost the $5 Edge card and now have to spend $15 to get the discount card with a crappy magazine most of us don't give two shits about. Then Rhino was bought out. No longer can I pick up some cheap classic games and some $3 used strategy guides since I won't pay $17 for a damn guide. Now I hear rumblings of Gamerush and Gamecrazy going out of business. Damn well no more good deals on trade-ins or cut out coupons or classic plastic sales either. All we get are shitty buy 2 get 1 free deals every so often where the prices are so damn high I wouldn't even buy them then. $2 off for getting the used copy that has no manual, a generic used case with stickers all over it and a million scratches on the disc that you will NOT let me return or swap out if I misplace my receipt but I clearly bought it from you and you remember selling it to me but can't break store policy? What a deal! Oh and if I buy a new game I still get a used game anyway?
Gamestop.Advertisements -- Sure it was a novel idea to put a Kawasaki ad in Waverace. It was cool to have a little product placement in your NBA game. But a new cash cow has arrived and we must now be bombarded by ads when we want to relax and play a little rainbow six. The EA games seem to be the worst offenders in this area. The Need for Speed games are a breeding ground for Carl's Jr and Taco Bell. I don't need games to remind me I am getting fat by sitting on my ass and playing games and eating six-dollar burgers. A good point by Cheapy on the podcast - why do I have to pay to download what is basically an ad (dashboard theme) and then they block my "ad" I want to see with another ad I don't want to see plastered right in front of my dashboard every damn time I turn on my system? The game ads were supposed to supplement the high price of game developing. The only supplement I see is in EA's and Microsoft's wallet.
We now have to pay for cheat codes? -- Back in the day the game developers would put in cheat codes to help players to finish a hard game. The Konami code was legendary. 30 lives for Contra, a powered up ship in Gradius, or a level select for Ninja Turtles 2 were the stuff of legends. Now we get to pay publishers like EA to get some extra money in the "Godfather" or unlock some extra clothes for Tiger Woods since you didn't have time to play throught the whole game to unlock them by yourself. I believe that the game companies strong armed the Gamesharks and Action replays of the industry right out of that market. When is the last time you bought a Gameshark for your PS3 or a true Action replay for your Xbox or Xbox 360? Hell we can't even get the "power saves" this generation. Also lets not leave out Nintendo who axed the region free feature for Gamecube games played on Wii when you used the Gamecube Freeloader or Action replay.
Game magazines are almost extinct -- I know a lot of people will probably disagree with this one. Sure we have the internet for free so why would you want a magazine that comes outdated every month by the time it gets to you? The answer for me is the magazine is permanent. There will be no server going down ever for a magazine. I have a pretty large collection of game magazines I pull out from time to time and flip through. I have Nintendo power going all the way back to the beginning when it didn't suck. I have strategies and maps for these games going back to Mario 2. If I get the itch to play these games I have to just walk downstairs and pull out my Nintendo power that covers that game. This would prove to be invaluable for playing games on the Virtual console. Sure I could use Gamefaqs. But I would rather have full color maps, illustrations, pictures and writing that is done by people that have at least high school education and can write. I like being able to grab and EGM off my shelf in the morning and thumb through it while I am having my breakfast. And the fact that I own that media permanently makes all the difference. I was pretty dissapointed when my favorite game website Dailyradar.com went under in 2000. All my favorite articles and features were suddenly gone, never to be seen again. I even saved a few of my favorite articles onto a cd. Years later went I went to look at the articles the cd had corrupted and would not play. There are only a handful of game mags still around. OPM died. Gamenow dissapeared. GMR didn't last long at all. Ziff Davis has revealed they are in huge financial trouble. The writing is on the wall for game magazines.
I like to actually own the disc or cart -- There is something to be said about the simplicity of having a game on your hard drive. All I have to do is fire up my Xbox and I can play any arcade game I have on there without going downstairs to the dungeon and thumbing through my piles of Xbox games (Shipwreck I am looking at you). That being said when you gain something you also lose something. Like many I am not on my first Xbox 360. Sure I was able to redownload my games no problem onto my new hard drive. However now because of DRM restrictions I must be connected to Xbox Live to play my arcade games. Usually this is not a problem however there are times when I am not connected to Live. Such times include when I am at my mother in law's house who still has wretched dial up, when Xbox Live is down for maintenance, or when my wireless connection is being a bitch again. It is in these times that I loathe the hard drive because I cannot play my downloaded games even though I paid good money for them (in some cases more than they are worth; see the $20 Sega Genesis collection on PS2 for examples) and to me that sucks. Does Apple make me have to have my ipod connected to the internet to listen to songs? In the days before the D/L if you had the disc or cart, you were golden, you could play forever provided your system didn't break down. Now you are at the mercy of the console maker. What if your hard drive dies 20 years from now. Will you be able to redownload the games? Will Microsoft still be making game consoles even or still have Xbox live? All I know is if I want to pull out Super Mario Bros and play it on my system as long as I keep it in great shape I can play it now or 20 years from now. The game companies are simply getting their feet wet on downloadable games this generation but by the time the next gen rolls around the downloadable games will be the standard. And lets not forget that so far downloadable games do not go "Greatest Hits".
Where have all the good deals gone? -- I don't know how you feel but for me it is getting harder and harder to find good deals on games. Bestbuy stopped doing their loss leader games a few years ago. Remember when Bestbuy would have like one really good game in their ad for like $10? Those days are gone. Remember waking up early to check the ebgames.com new good and sometimes rare games in stock for you to frantically order? Gone. Remember when you could get an EB discount card for $5? See ya. Remember the $5 off GGC from Bestbuy that served us so well? Outta here. And the penny guides? Those days are pretty much over, just check the penny guide forum. What about the Circuit City clearance every summer? In 2004 games were $5. In 2005 they were $10. In 2006 most were more than that. Now we get some random drops down to $16.96 and all the good games sell out at that price. How many of you were even able to find ONE copy of Metal Gear Portable ops when it dropped this month? It even goes deeper than retail. Pawn shops (the few you can find who weren't replaced by a payday cash loan place) and garage sale moms have gotten hip to ebay. Now any asshole with an ebay account can take a 5 second search to see that the copy of Dragon Warrior 4 that they were going to sell to you for $5 should really be going for $50. I have now noticed that pawn shops that used to price all game the same are now pricing each game individually. Yep truly the good old days of deals seem to be gone.
These are just a few of my frustrations with the gaming industry lately. I have already slowed way down on game purchases and this will probably be the last "next" gen for me. What are some of your reasons for considering getting out after this gen? I am not going to give up my older games. But for me I think this might be it.
