AAA game companies are just sanctioned corporate "drug" cartels
AAA game companies are just sanctioned corporate "drug" cartels
- they want repeat players (users)
- they repeat a formula that sells
- when it doesn't, they look to "adjust" it with something new and preferably cheap
- they give free samples to spread word of mouth
- they try to lock people into their environment
- they always want people to chase the next high
- looking for ways to keep you hooked on something for as long as possible
- they try to use their formula in all their products
How is that different from, say, movie studios? All of your points fit for them too. In fact most of your points are just how companies work under capitalism:
- Acquire repeat customers
- Repeat successful strategy
- Adjust strategy to make it more successful
- Inspire free advertising with good will campaign
- Try to get people to your business and not your competition's
- Continue to provide new products and services to grow your business
- Find ways to keep people coming back for as long as possible
- Apply successful strategy to your entire operation
I will be say I wasn't thinking too hard into it but, (and not direct response more how a lot of the bad elements feel like they are being pushed)
- Was thinking how the idea of games-as-a-service and subscriptions are considered a priority
- how samey a lot of AAA games seems to feel (like it is consoldated on a "formula")
- a desire to manipulate towards the idea to spend more on the original product
- supply enough of a product to get a player invested and once hooked - try to maintain that investment over a period of time
- the product is seldom as good as advertised
- the quality of the product, in general, feels like it is being degraded in an effort to more easily manipulate
- games are seen as something as means to an end - and in that vein, it is targeted to be able to draw in people according to metrics and less a expression of creativity
By and large - yes, the idea can be applied to capitalism and I think the idea I was thinking of is that AAA games lean into the more exploitative area of it.
Doesn't mean it is the only one or even the worst, but I was thinking in the headspace at how the "big games companies" are trying to lean into being more manipulative (directly or subversively) and how it feels more like "drug dealers" trying to sell their brand of high, trying to dictate how to enjoy those highs, they try to lock players into a "brand" of gaming and once they can "control" what people will enjoy, attempt to exploit value from it.
Reminds me of GTA online
That is probably one of the more famous examples, yeah. They pivoted resources from the single player experience once they saw how much money they were making with their shark cards (I believe it was called). Developed an ecosystem that encouraged spending money to enjoy the game (but not forced) and I guess it was an equivalent experience of getting players to "micro-dose" with a payment to bypass elements of grind to get the best stuff and have an overall smoother experience.
Agreed. I would add that when they noticed that GTA online got stale, they would add a dlc or some new vehicles and weapons. Some updates were good, but I bowed out the year they introduced the casino and the MX mrk 2. The mrk 2 was game breaking and so over powered that they had to nerf it later. The casino felt like they had stooped to the parts of society they had always made fun of. Its sad to think that the amazing single player studio has become just a cash in now.
I also hate that they have a terrible launcher that they make you use for all of their games.
- You can get the same endorphins elsewhere for free with just a little extra effort
- you mostly do it because your friends do, but only the dumbest ones you don't really like all that much anyways
- you are only trying to escape this hell of a dystopia where you don't own anything... by paying another neo feudal drug overlord to abuse and oppress your masochistic ass
More like mobile game companies are like drug cartels
That is true, it did popularise the drive towards extracting large amounts of value for comparatively little effort
Just wait until EA starts doing drive-bys.
Meanwhile Microsoft doing back-room deals to corner more of the market
The better comparison is online service games and casinos. They both pull all the psychological tricks in the book to suck you dry.
Yeah, they are more apt comparisons where the target market is built upon consistent small (or large) payments that are in a business' best interests - like in-game currencies (chips in gambling sense) are used to obfuscate the value of what a player is spending money on (which falls into one of the many psychological tricks you mentioned)