Ever since I first started criticizing the business practices of mainstream videogame publishers, people have been quick to remind me that it doesn’t matter what I think, people will buy games anyway.
The facts are the facts, and I can’t dispute the truth that publishers enjoy success regardless of how they treat their staff and their audience. They will continue to make money, even as the industry faces scandal after scandal, and publicly sneers at all accountability.
I’m told that all this is proof that the publishers are right. They set out to make money, they made money, and that justifies all the exploitation and abuse. But they’re wrong. Money isn’t a validation. It’s only a motive.
If anything, the phrase “they’ll buy it anyway” arguably makes it *worse.*
With games being $70 now, I’m not buying any at that price. I’d rather support indie projects, those at least tend to have more going on.
When Gamers get upset at people pointing out the bad things the Game Industry has done, I’m always reminded of this line from ‘Yes Minister’:
“People aren’t angry because of how they found out about something, they’re angry *because* they had to find out”
Gamer stock footage is an underappreciated art form.
That last bit is so wonderfully accurate. The face, the morality, the swaggering off set.
Never change Jim.
I mean … we heavily critizised EA for their predatory microtransactions in Battlefront 2.
We got two relatively good Star Wars games without any m$ as a result.
We should just keep pushing.
“and we wouldn’t want to bring anyone down about it.” that has me in stitches
This is bigger than gaming. The thing is, eventually, if all the small businesses keep closing and getting pushed out, the big places will be the only place you can even purchase anything. Look at what Walmart can do to small towns. Look at what Amazon can do to small online shop sites.
The reason most people defend these things is because they believe that ethics and legality are the same thing. They don’t understand that the sad reality is they often have very little in common.
“People will buy it anyway!” The official catchphase of late-stage capitalism~
Jonathan : “whats with the pumpkin jim?”
Jim: “oh just meet me in the park, you’re gonna be famous”
I frequently say “people are gonna buy it anyway”. I’m sorry if that ever came off as a defense of the publishers. It’s mostly just me being depressed.
The sickest part is that they’re doing the price bump in the middle of a recession and global pandemic.
“Principles aren’t fun” nails the whole struggle in one
“They’ll buy it anyways”
There’s a lot of $60-$100 games I’ve ended up never buying because of the price. I love video games but I have bills to pay.
There’s a lot of the Nintendo library I’ve never touched because of the price range.
“They’ll buy it anyway, therefore it’s okay”
By that same logic, Nigerian Prince scammers are all chill as well.
“Principles aren’t fun.” Most of our problems can be distilled to this.
“Principles aren’t fun.” That alone could be it’s own Jimquisition.
cumpkin