Video games have definitely evolved over the years that they’ve been a part of mainstream entertainment. Starting from simple and basic origins, video games have undergone a metamorphosis for the better. Or have they? Although video games have gone from the 8-bit sidescrollers that we grew up with as kids, such as "Super Mario Bros" and the sort, to graphically intense ones like "The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt," video games are starting to suffer from avaricious publishers.
Video games are at their core, a product. In today’s world, whether we like it or not, products have monetary value and are thus sold to make a profit. It’s simple math. If you make a new product every year, you have a new thing to sell every year and you can make more money. Publishers such as Activision, EA and Ubisoft have taken advantage of this and are pumping out new games every year during Q3 and Q4 (just in time for the holidays). One would think that this is the most superb and marvelous thing ever. Are more games getting released with a higher frequency? That is sadly not the case.
The higher output of video games per annum by these companies is completely destroying the actual quality of the games. One of the best examples is "Call of Duty." This game series used to pride itself on quality WWII-based games with outstanding gameplay. The series was especially renowned for its shift into contemporary warfare with the appropriately named "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare." The series had gained excellent traction and a booming fanbase. With the release of later titles in the series, Activision (the company that publishes "Call of Duty") began to include giveaways with preorders. These are usually little trinkets or in-game aesthetics. These preorders began to overshadow the actual games themselves as they were being pumped out constantly every year. The games began to get bland, particularly after the release of "Call of Duty: Ghosts." This was arguably the worst of the "Call of Duty" releases. These preorders, as well as the need to pump out new games, is harming the gaming industry.
Aside from cheap gimmicks used by corporations to sell subpar games, many games make “free to play” games. With this F2P (free 2 play) model, you’d think the makers are insane. Letting people play a game for free when it takes an immense amount of resources. This is where the infamous “pay to win” model comes in. The way that these companies make these free games possible is via microtransactions. The game itself is free of charge, but they usually include some sort of shop in the game that you can purchase in-game items for real money. The thing about these items is that they tend to give players unfair advantages. One example that many will remember is the game "Combat Arms." You either played it in middle school or you heard someone talking about it. The game itself is free, but you would soon notice that you only had the default weapon, and it wasn’t that great compared to weapons in the shop. Sure, you could farm (repeatedly do something to get multiple units of an item/money). The only problem with that is that it’d take eons to get what you wanted, and even then you couldn’t keep the item. It was a rental. The way to own it? Buying the permanent items with real money. Many MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) are guilty of this gaming travesty. They allow players to buy their way to victory, or they can “pay to win.”
These horrendous tactics used by video game publishers are starting to crumble the quality of modern games. While there are indie developers making strides with quality productions, the big publishers are keeping the terrible games coming every year with the preorder bonuses. The free game developers are giving paying users extremely unfair advantages instead of creating fair titles for those who don’t want to break the bank to have some simple fun. The best way to stop this is to detain ourselves from preordering these games, as well as not giving into the pay to win schemes of other developers.
