10 Unfair Practices Imposed on Gamers

 Introduction

Every so often, some things end up in video games that we just don't like. Here are 10 lame things that have been forced into video games.

Number 10

Starting with the number 10. Let's acknowledge the most recent debacle; it's the whole PSN thing for Helldivers 2. If you weren't following the news on this one, essentially, Helldivers 2 has been a big smash-hit multiplayer game. People have been loving it on PlayStation and also the PC version, which you can access on Steam, and people have been playing along with that, having a great time until suddenly, Sony announced that moving forward, to access the game, you're going to have to log into PSN on your PC to continue playing Helldivers 2. And if you didn't have a PSN account, you were going to have to sign up and create one for this. There was going to be a little bit of a grace period if you were currently playing, but either way, this came out of left field for most people, and they were taken by surprise. Even with Sony saying that this was originally the plan all along, they just couldn't get it at launch. It doesn't make a difference. The fact that players bought into this game not expecting to have some extra account sign-up thing, that's where the problem lies. 

It's a transparency thing, and that's what people took issue with. The discourse for this one throughout a long weekend heated up. Things blew up, and ultimately, Sony very quickly reversed course on this action. Of course, they want everybody logging into their service because they want the data. They want complete control. They say it's for player security, but you know it was just something that people didn't want. Even though they did go back after the Helldivers 2 backlash, it looks like for games moving forward, it's not going to be the case. So, Ghost of Tsushima is releasing on PC. This PC port of the PS4 and PS5 game is going to require you to log in to PSN for online play to access the multiplayer mode, of course, the great Ghost of Tsushima Legends. So that's annoying. I don't know how many people are buying into Ghost of Tsushima on PC just to play multiplayer. It's still primarily a single-player experience, but the fact that they're shoving this in here does suck. It kind of all comes back to the age-old PC problem of too many launchers. Every company, every publisher, every software company wants to have their proprietary launcher that you log into with yet another account to access their stuff, and it just gets so old after a while. Oh my God, can we stop this already? 

Number 9

Now, next over at number nine, we got something way weirder. It's the Xbox One. The launch of the Xbox One when it was revealed in 2013, their whole thing was centered around Kinect, the motion sensor device that was previously kind of like an add-on thing for the late 360, which became the full-on strategy of the Xbox One launch, and it was a core part of the entire console use experience. Kinect would be a required part of the console. It would come with the console, and you couldn't use the console unless you had this thing hooked up. There were so many concerns about that. Number one, I think a lot of people just didn't want a peripheral add-on that still ultimately felt like a gimmick with motion sensor-tracked games that never really proved their worth. But also, some people were just really not comfortable with having this weird motion sensor camera pointed at them all the time just for them to play Xbox games. It never really made any sense, and with the backlash, with the privacy concerns, Microsoft ultimately did go back on that decision. But it did not stop them from including a Kinect with every single Xbox One at launch. 

When you bought an Xbox One, it came with a Kinect, and it was just a weird time for Xbox and Microsoft. I feel like they were having such a rough identity crisis with this thing. It was supposed to be more of an entertainment TV box as much as a gaming box. People didn't like that. Then it was all in on this whole Kinect thing. People didn't like that. They just wanted a plastic box that played games, damn it. Ultimately, it ended up being that, but it feels like it took a long time for Microsoft and Xbox to pivot and reorient with that. I mean, they eventually totally pivoted away from it to the point where later updates and revisions of the Xbox One console didn't have that dedicated Kinect port. And then eventually, all production of Kinect units ended in October of 2017. So, rip Kinect. We don't on Kinect, but I know some people out there like I literally know people out in the real world that did use it sometimes even though it's still kind of like a silly gimmick. Either way, the Kinect being forced into the launch of a new console, a whole part of it just felt so, so strange. Just a weird idea. I'm all for innovation and trying new things, but there's also reading the room and understanding what players want. And this just felt like a huge miss. 

Number 8

Next over at number eight, here's the thing that grinds some people's gears. It's paying money to upgrade a console generation. So, say you own a game on PlayStation 4, and you want to upgrade to the new PS5 version. In certain instances, usually with first-party games, you need to pay up to $10 to get the playable PS5 version of the game, whatever bells and whistles may come with or regardless if there even are any bells and whistles. Now, this is on a case-by-case basis. There are plenty of games out there that got a free upgrade from, say, Xbox One X to Xbox Series X or PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5. But then there are some of those games that cost money, and $10 is usually the going rate for this type of stuff with certain things. And it's annoying for a lot of people who feel like they bought a game; they shouldn't have to double dip, especially when you're paying to upgrade to a newer version where there are not a lot of features. Some games try and justify it with enough upgrades that it makes sense where $10 is warranted. It's not so bad. I remember happily buying into the Ghost of Tsushima PS4, and PS5 upgrade because it netted me some goodies that I was at least interested in. But that's not always the case. And sometimes, this stuff you even offer may not interest you or you don't think it's worth 10 bucks. Price and stuff like that, $10 is very subjective to everybody. It's only a banana, Michael. What does it cost? $10. I will never stop quoting that. I'm sorry. But yeah, chances are, like if you were getting a first-party game, you were going to have to pay up for the shinier new console generation version. How is this going to work in the future? I don't know. But the transition from Xbox to Xbox Series X and PS4 to PS5, the early days, this was a thing. 

Number 7

Next over at number seven, overpriced proprietary storage expansion cards. We're looking specifically at Xbox. They make it a little difficult to replace internal hard drives, and they want you to buy these overpriced memory card things to increase storage. It's solid-state memory; it's super fast, but it's essentially a weird new modern version of a memory card that will greatly, to be fair, expand your console storage, and that storage will still have the capabilities of the internal speeds, yes. But those things at launch were expensive and kind of hard to come by because they were only made by a few manufacturers. It was just an odd choice. Proprietary stuff always gets tricky. I always think of the proprietary media like UMDs that Sony used for their handhelds; that was an odd choice too. Those had their own weird proprietary memory cards as well if memory serves correctly. Just less of that stuff being able to access and use whatever you want is much better. It's why some people gravitate towards PCs. But either way, I dig. Let's move on.

Number 6

Now, over at number six, here's another big problem: microtransactions that are added to games after reviews for those games drop. To a lot of people, this seems like a direct move from the game publishers to avoid negative attention right before the game launches and hurts some sales. Tekken 8, I believe, did just do this recently by adding a microtransaction store. But this is becoming a more common thing. We have seen it before. Crash Team Racing has done it, a couple of other examples, to varying degrees, some more egregious than others. But I guess, as the person who makes the "before you buy" videos, I speak of this from a certain aspect. My job is to look at a game, play through the game, and just tell you what's up with it, tell you what I like about it, what I don't like about it, what's in it, and what you're essentially getting for your money. And if the version that I am not playing is not the same version that you are playing, if the developers gave me something else and didn't let me know so I couldn't give you guys the heads up, that's a problem because you might watch and read some reviews from people like me or whoever and then have an idea of what the product is that you're going out to buy. And then you go out and buy it, and it's not at all what was represented, not only by the game makers but also by the video game critics you may trust. It sucks for everybody. It's a stupid move, and we hope that publishers stop doing this because transparency in all these situations is key.

Number 5

Next over at number five, another thing added to games that people don't like is always online DRM. DRM, of course, is the bane of many gamers' existence. We've talked about this for years and years at this point. I don't know what else there is to add. But for me personally, someone who's not a multiplayer gamer or anything like that, it just always drives me nuts with single-player games, and specifically, like, always-online requirements for single-player games. It just feels like such a pain in the ass. It makes it feel even more like I barely own this thing. Like, I already know I'm at the point where like, I paid for a digital license to have the right to use this digital download product, but then when I can't even access that without being connected to the internet constantly, that's just so much more annoying. It pisses me off, and I know I'm not the only person.

Number 4

Now over at number four, time-limited game releases. This is something we don't see too often, but it is a weird and frustrating thing. You can also couple this in with, you know, artificial scarcity or hardware manufacturers that only make a handful of things so that people go crazy for them. But limited-time game releases suck. The last example I can think of is Nintendo with Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which, like, they were straight up saying, "Hey, we're not printing this game physically forever, so you better come and get it when you can." Of course, causing a mad dash for people to buy up these games. And that sucks because it's a thing that you want people to have access to at all times. And now, if you want Super Mario All-Stars on Switch physically, I mean, good luck. I've seen it on eBay for $90, and $100, and Nintendo games are already expensive. You know, they never go on sale, so this is just making it even worse. Why did they do this? I don't know. I love a special collector's edition type of thing as much as the next guy, but when it comes to just an actual regular old video game, it should be available and accessible for everybody for as long as humanly possible. They can't print and manufacture a video game forever, but it irks us more when they play games with that, like, limited quick release, you know?

Number 3

Next over at number three is on-disc DLC. You don't see this as much now in the digital age, but this is something that pissed people off. Essentially, with the rise of DLC, people were realizing that a lot of paid DLC lived on the disc for the game you purchased. So it was already there. It was already on that physical thing you bought. Then you just had to go and pay an additional fee to access more of that content. Like, if you want to access that stuff on the disc you bought, you have to pay extra for some of it, even though it's like right there. I recall Mass Effect 3 locked a playable character behind on-disc DLC. That's one example off the top of my head. But like, it was a thing for a little while. I'm glad it's not anymore because frankly, it just felt super weird.

Number 2

Now over at number two, we're going big picture here, but it's paying for extra subscriptions just to play online games on consoles. Now, you know, on PC, you just plug your PC into the internet and you're online. That's it. But with consoles, if you want to get online, you have to pay a fee. This is something that we've all just accepted at this point. You know, in this day and age, we pay for PSN, we pay for Xbox Live, or whatever it's called in this century. PSN, Xbox, and Switch all force you to use a subscription service to play most online multiplayer games. And I mean, you think about it, you're paying for that on top of paying your internet service provider. You're paying for internet fees. So it adds up. Gaming, especially online multiplayer gaming, is not cheap. Again, I think some of those subscriptions do stuff to justify the price. Like, there are reasons behind some of it and you do get some value, but we would all still love the just good old-fashioned option of plugging a cable into the back of your console and you're online and that's it. But the times, they are changing.

Number 1

Now down at number one, this is a weird one: older, better versions of games end up being replaced with new, worse versions of those games. Warcraft 3 is probably the poster child for this. A lot of people point out that Warcraft 3 Reforged removed classic Warcraft, so Warcraft 3 classic owners were forced to download Reforged instead, and a lot of people didn't like how Reforged turned out. It was not as good of a representation of the Warcraft 3 classic that people were hoping for, and we got stuck with that essentially in your digital library. They replaced people's copies of the original game with the overall worse remaster, and that's just something about that doesn't feel great. I mean, Overwatch 2 also replaced Overwatch 1, and that's even worse because there's no going back to this one. Another example that bothered me personally was the GTA remastered Trilogy thing, you know, the re-release of Grand Theft Auto 3, San Andreas, and Vice City. 

At launch, that thing was completely borked. They made some weird decisions. They did not give that game, that re-release, that remaster, whatever you want to call it, the love it truly deserved. And the nail in the coffin with that was Rockstar was making those the definitive versions. There was a point where you weren't able to access classic GTA 3, San Andreas, and Vice City, which were also available digitally previously. So, it just felt like you were stuck with the crappier, worse version. And that sucked. Thankfully, they did eventually go back on that, and both versions are available out there in the wild as they should. I think this is all just kind of like a thing that we should pay attention to in terms of this new trend of the erasure of old video games, specifically by the big publishers. It feels like in them always moving forward, always seeking profit, they will happily burn down old things that number one you paid for and maybe rightfully own or just really love, and also that a bunch of people worked hard to make. Some publishers are just so quick to cast that stuff aside in favor of the new thing where sometimes it just doesn't feel quite right. 

Outro

These are 10 unfair, lame things forced into games that we wanted to talk about today. We know there are plenty of other examples out there. We've complained about a lot of them before, I'm not going to lie. So just let us know in the comments. But as always, thank you for reading, and we'll see you guys next time.