{"id":216,"date":"2021-03-11T23:58:59","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T23:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/?p=216"},"modified":"2021-03-11T23:58:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T23:58:59","slug":"the-end-is-nigh-because-publishers-want-to-patch-out-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/11\/the-end-is-nigh-because-publishers-want-to-patch-out-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"The End is Nigh … because Publishers want to Patch Out the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This article originally ran under a different banner\/website in November of 2018 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GATHER ROUND MY FOLLOWERS!!!\u00a0 I HAVE DONE IT!!\u00a0 I HAVE OBTAINED AN ITEM THAT WILL ALLOW ME TO MAKE GAMING GREAT AGAIN: THE INFINITY GAUNTLET!!!\u00a0 It was not merely an easy task.\u00a0 It took years of tireless research.\u00a0 Years of wandering the universes for the stones.\u00a0 Years of fighting those who would want the stones for their own selfish purposes, but I have prevailed.\u00a0 With the infinity gauntlet, I will bring balance to the industry.\u00a0 It is simple calculus.\u00a0 The market is finite, gamer\u2019s wallets and time are finite.\u00a0 If the industry is left unchecked, it will cease to exist.\u00a0 It needs correcting and I am the only one willing to act on this.\u00a0 I am the only one willing to save my favorite medium.\u00a0 With the mere snap of my fingers, I can shape the games industry to my will.\u00a0 No more asset flips flooding Steam.\u00a0 No more live service games banking off microtransactions.\u00a0 NO MORE LOOT BOXES!!\u00a0 You may think me the villain, but I am not the only one wishing they could shape the industry with a snap of the fingers.\u00a0 With more and more games having online connections, publishers take advantage of their ability to change games at their will.\u00a0 Many of them have been using this to allow themselves to engage in numerous anti-consumer practices, only to patch them out years later to gain some good press.\u00a0 Both Middle Earth: Shadow of War <\/em>and No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em> hope that their updates would allow you to forget their tidal wave of bad press they received on release, but I never forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Following the success of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor<\/em>, publishers Warner Brothers looked for ways to squeeze more money out of players.\u00a0 For their sequel, Middle Earth: Shadow of War<\/em>, they decided to warp and mutate the famed Nemesis so the player-based was seduced into spending more money. While the orcs in Shadow of Mordor <\/em>had character to them, Warner Brothers stripped all that away to make the iconic orcs disposable trinkets making Shadow of War <\/em>just another bland sandbox game.\u00a0 Not just orcs though, Warner Brothers wanted you to buy loot boxes filled with different rarity of orcs.\u00a0 LOOT BOXES IN A SINGLE PLAYER GAME.\u00a0 THE SURE GREED OF IT ALL!\u00a0 Warner Brothers assured players that the loot boxes were there for player choice.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the large grind near the final mission designed to seduce players into buying loot boxes was not.\u00a0 Reviewers warned players of this grind and as a result, the game did not meet Warner Brother\u2019s sales expectations.\u00a0 Six months after Shadow of War<\/em> release, Warner Brothers determined that they have made all the money they can from the loot boxes, so why not remove them to gain some good press and a few sales.\u00a0 As of July 17, nine months after Shadow of War<\/em> was released, the marketplace where you could purchase the loot boxes has been removed.\u00a0 In order to prevent Shadow of War <\/em>from being a grind, a long list of changes was patched into the game, proving that microtransactions do affect how a game is designed.\u00a0 After seeing EA rush to remove loot boxes from Star Wars Battlefront II<\/em>, it is baffling Warner Brothers took so long to remove the loot boxes in Shadow of War<\/em>.\u00a0 My theory is Warner Brother plans to release a Game of the Year version of Shadow of War<\/em> and doesn\u2019t want the loot boxes controversy affecting those sales.\u00a0 Nonetheless, I don\u2019t think we should be forgiving or forgetting Warner Brothers for putting loot boxes in a single-player game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another game hoping you will forget its past with its new update is No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em>.\u00a0 No Man\u2019s Sky\u2019s<\/em> claim to fame being an open-world procedurally generated space adventure game, promising the moon, but failing to deliver on any of it.\u00a0 No Man\u2019s Sky\u2019s<\/em> lead developer Sean Murray promised an astronomical amount of features that were absent from the final version.\u00a0 No Man\u2019s Sky <\/em>could be described as a shallow experience stretch over a vast empty universe.\u00a0 The game eventually devolved into a meme used when a game was launched with little to no features.\u00a0 I still chuckle every time someone refers to Sea of Thieves<\/em> as No Man\u2019s Sea.\u00a0 While the question of why these features were absent from the final product has not been answered, developers Hello Games are hoping you forget all of that with their update called Next.\u00a0 Next contains multiplayer, endless base building, character cosmetics, ship updates, and UI and graphics overhaul.\u00a0 All features that were promised for release.\u00a0 While I commend Hello Games, for sticking with No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em> and not abandoning it for another project, I don\u2019t think we should forget all the promises unkept for two years.\u00a0 Hello Games did not deliver the product they had promised their consumers.\u00a0 When their customer\u2019s called them out on it, they went silent.\u00a0 I, for one, don\u2019t believe we should be waiting so long to be given the game we had been initially promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I will admit on reflection, that not all patches containing updates are bad.\u00a0 As a Warcraft<\/em> fan, I will be throwing stones in my glass house if I believed that.\u00a0 World of Warcraft <\/em>would not be the powerhouse it is today without going through the numerous patches and expansion packs presented over the years; though, Wow <\/em>updates are not always flawless as well.\u00a0 Many players expressed grief over the Battle for Azeroth <\/em>pre-patch that was designed to lower stat values but ended up making fighting minions and monsters a chore.\u00a0 While the issue has been ironed out, we can\u2019t forget these patches can drastically change the enjoyment your players experience.\u00a0 An example of positive changes is the newly released expansion pack for Enter the Gungeon <\/em>referred to as Gungeon and Draguns<\/em>.\u00a0 The recent update adds a new boss, numerous mini-bosses, new rooms, and of course, new guns.\u00a0 In order to smooth out the difficulty curve, developers Dodge Roll, have increased player\u2019s chance of getting exciting and powerful weaponry early and often.\u00a0 More players are returning to the game saying the randomness that plagued the game has been ironed out.\u00a0 I will admit, I didn\u2019t play Enter the Gungeon<\/em> before the expansion.\u00a0 I picked it up with the new expansion and was surprised with an enjoyable roguelite experience.\u00a0 I am starting to wonder if I would have enjoyed it before the expansion.\u00a0 There is a possibility I would have erased it with my new toy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maybe, I am wielding too much power with the Infinity Gauntlet.\u00a0 Maybe it is not my call to decide what games can and can\u2019t exist.\u00a0 I am sure I can erase Shadow of War <\/em>and No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em>, but that won\u2019t stop history from repeating itself.\u00a0 Some other games would attempt to follow their path, and try to get away with loot boxes in their single-player experience.\u00a0 I have no doubt more games will not deliver on promises made, but if I wipe out all the frustrating roguelites, expansions like Gungeons and Draguns <\/em>would not exist.\u00a0 I cannot prevent the doom from consuming the industry; I can only get onto my soapbox and warn you that the end is nigh.\u00a0 The power to remove your choice to give games a second chance, well it is too much for me and it is not my place.\u00a0 For what would a doomsayer be without any doom to speak of.\u00a0 This gauntlet though is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands.\u00a0 I can only imagine the terror EA would cause with this gauntlet.\u00a0 Especially when I left the EA circus; they surely will be looking to vow revenge against me.\u00a0 I must go on the run.\u00a0 I must protect this gauntlet at all cost.\u00a0 Feel free to give Shadow of War <\/em>or No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em> a second chance, I only ask that you make your voice heard when another publisher tries to get away with tainting more games with scummy business practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article originally ran under a different banner\/website in November of 2018 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy. GATHER ROUND MY FOLLOWERS!!!\u00a0 I HAVE DONE IT!!\u00a0 I HAVE OBTAINED AN ITEM THAT WILL ALLOW ME TO MAKE GAMING GREAT AGAIN: THE INFINITY GAUNTLET!!!\u00a0 It was not merely… Continue reading The End is Nigh … because Publishers want to Patch Out the Past<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-opinion","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}