Un-Reviews and Voting by Wallet
There's been a lot of ruckus in the world of video games recently. Some people care, some people don't. I'm usually tuned in enough to at least be aware of such things. And while I am a bit reluctant to lean heavily on the opinions of others, I find a lot of my thoughts being echoed, and in some cases better elaborated upon, by voices other than my own.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 has been a focal point of much controversy, largely because of how it was coming out with microtransactions that offered options to pay money in order to bypass dozen (or hundreds) of hours of grinding to unlock some potentially game-changing bonuses. It kind of set off the "pay to win" powder keg, and there's been a lot of backlash. This is kind of sad, because it sounds like it's actually a decent Star Wars game, but the monetization (which tends to come from publisher direction more than developer decision) has his EA's reputation (such as it is) pretty hard and will probably keep the game from being as good or popular as it would have been. I probably would have avoided it anyway, to be honest, as it's a PVP-focused game, but I might have purchased it at discount to run through the single-player campaign. Now, I think it's safe to say that I just won't bother. For a more detailed look at the game, I recommend a video review.
So, on to something that strikes a little closer to home: Destiny 2 Curse of Osiris. I bought Destiny 2 because I wanted to see what all the talk was about. Destiny was popular, but console-limited, so I missed out on it. The sequel came out and I picked it up and played it for a while. I'm not sure I ever saw what made the first one so big. Oh, it was enjoyable enough. The story wasn't deep, but it was there. The shooting was solid. There were hints of deeper lore. All-in-all, Destiny 2 was never really going to be a favorite game of mine, but it fun enough to play. And on those occasions I could group up with others, it was a bit better than that. The loot/advancement aspects felt a bit weak, which led to me not having a lot of drive to come back to it myself, though.
That sort of situation left me on the fence with the first DLC expansion relasing. More content is good, but is it enough? Well, I've waited to hear some reviews, and it sounds like it sort of isn't. Again, I find myself falling back on another video by Skill Up to emphasize some things. I'm not a pre-existing fanboy like he was, but I find myself agreeing with a lot of his positions on things in general, and the points he brings up about Curse of Osiris sound like they'd be right on point for me, too. I feel like I'd play a few hours of campaign and then be largely done with the game again for my part, playing only once in a while with someone else. That coupled with the way the expansion shifts requirement goal posts to lock off some previously-available content behind power levels only attainable with the expansion, just turn me off to it. So, I think I'm going to pass on this expansion and, unless something majorly changes, probably all future Destiny 2 content as well.
The videos bring up a fair point that the mechanical problems these games suffer come largely from trying to balance single-player advancement and power fantasy against PVP balance and fairness. Those two games are on different sides, if probably not ends, of the spectrum. Battlefront 2 allows serious advantages in PVP, letting rich/long-time players stomp newer players. Destiny 2 tries hard to balance things around PVP (save some screw-ups now and then), which ends up neutering any real sense of power in PVE. Neither of these approaches seems idea. More and more, it feels like the two game modes really need to be totally independent, but the industry seems to have shifted to "multiplayer, maybe with solo play support added on" because that's where the money is. Or where the money is perceived to be.
"Voting" in the industry by buying or not buying a game is difficult. Especially in the days of possible discounts. A game I don't want to play for $60 (or $80+), I might think is worth $30. And some games will sell tons on day one by name and hype regardless of quality. In these two situations, I'm seeing enough reason to simply not buy because I don't want to encourage certain behaviors from game companies. And yet, I'm just one consumer - that's not much of a voice in such a large industry. It's hard to imagine that mattering.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 has been a focal point of much controversy, largely because of how it was coming out with microtransactions that offered options to pay money in order to bypass dozen (or hundreds) of hours of grinding to unlock some potentially game-changing bonuses. It kind of set off the "pay to win" powder keg, and there's been a lot of backlash. This is kind of sad, because it sounds like it's actually a decent Star Wars game, but the monetization (which tends to come from publisher direction more than developer decision) has his EA's reputation (such as it is) pretty hard and will probably keep the game from being as good or popular as it would have been. I probably would have avoided it anyway, to be honest, as it's a PVP-focused game, but I might have purchased it at discount to run through the single-player campaign. Now, I think it's safe to say that I just won't bother. For a more detailed look at the game, I recommend a video review.
So, on to something that strikes a little closer to home: Destiny 2 Curse of Osiris. I bought Destiny 2 because I wanted to see what all the talk was about. Destiny was popular, but console-limited, so I missed out on it. The sequel came out and I picked it up and played it for a while. I'm not sure I ever saw what made the first one so big. Oh, it was enjoyable enough. The story wasn't deep, but it was there. The shooting was solid. There were hints of deeper lore. All-in-all, Destiny 2 was never really going to be a favorite game of mine, but it fun enough to play. And on those occasions I could group up with others, it was a bit better than that. The loot/advancement aspects felt a bit weak, which led to me not having a lot of drive to come back to it myself, though.
That sort of situation left me on the fence with the first DLC expansion relasing. More content is good, but is it enough? Well, I've waited to hear some reviews, and it sounds like it sort of isn't. Again, I find myself falling back on another video by Skill Up to emphasize some things. I'm not a pre-existing fanboy like he was, but I find myself agreeing with a lot of his positions on things in general, and the points he brings up about Curse of Osiris sound like they'd be right on point for me, too. I feel like I'd play a few hours of campaign and then be largely done with the game again for my part, playing only once in a while with someone else. That coupled with the way the expansion shifts requirement goal posts to lock off some previously-available content behind power levels only attainable with the expansion, just turn me off to it. So, I think I'm going to pass on this expansion and, unless something majorly changes, probably all future Destiny 2 content as well.
The videos bring up a fair point that the mechanical problems these games suffer come largely from trying to balance single-player advancement and power fantasy against PVP balance and fairness. Those two games are on different sides, if probably not ends, of the spectrum. Battlefront 2 allows serious advantages in PVP, letting rich/long-time players stomp newer players. Destiny 2 tries hard to balance things around PVP (save some screw-ups now and then), which ends up neutering any real sense of power in PVE. Neither of these approaches seems idea. More and more, it feels like the two game modes really need to be totally independent, but the industry seems to have shifted to "multiplayer, maybe with solo play support added on" because that's where the money is. Or where the money is perceived to be.
"Voting" in the industry by buying or not buying a game is difficult. Especially in the days of possible discounts. A game I don't want to play for $60 (or $80+), I might think is worth $30. And some games will sell tons on day one by name and hype regardless of quality. In these two situations, I'm seeing enough reason to simply not buy because I don't want to encourage certain behaviors from game companies. And yet, I'm just one consumer - that's not much of a voice in such a large industry. It's hard to imagine that mattering.
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