What is with this recent trend?

[Bieltan]

More and more, I'm seeing people saying that they should have carte blanche access to game content locked behind progression, purely because they paid for the game. Or at least alluding to the fact that they paid for it as if that somehow has any relevance.

I just dont get this, I understand lusting after the juicier rewards offered by games nowadays, but why do people want to entirely bypass the entire experience of playing a game? Surely if you dont enjoy playing the game enough to get there, you wont have that much fun with the higher end stuff either? Can someone enlighten me? Instant access to everything in a game has never been a thing, why should it be now?

Note: Im not talking about "Pay to unlock" as thats an entirely different kettle of fish.

 

[Mephane]

Isn't the issue rather that content can be locked be behind extremely specific, sometimes very frustrating, gates. Instead of tasks like

Defeat the end boss of this dungeon to access the next one

you get

Defeat the end boss of this dungeon using that one particular and very gimmicky method. Oh by the way, it is immune to one third of your abilities, another third is unusable because of said gimmick, have fun DIAS'ing this thing for the entire weekend.

Disclaimer: my view may be skewed right now because I have been playing lots of Infinifactory lately, a game which revels in the complete openness of its (quite difficult) tasks.

 

[Bill Clement]

It's not just games. Our society thrives on feelings of entitlement. Remember last year's 'ban bossy' campaign? Some of the richest, most powerful, influential people on the planet demanding that we stop calling people- specifically young, female people- 'bossy'. Mainly because they were called bossy when they were young female people. The possibility that they may very well have been 'bossy' is beside the point, they have feels, hotdamnit!

The notion that you can have it all permeates our society. The thought that you might have to prioritise, or even, heaven forbid, actually work towards something, is treated with horrified disgust.

And of course, with entitlement and lazyness comes a sense of ownership, even in things individuals had no part in creating. Prior to gamergate, how often did you read some nu 'journalist' demand we should have more of this demographic or that in games design or development? Not because they'd improve the product, or because they were talented and deserved to be given the chance to demonstrate that, rather because the favoured demographic were under represented in some nebulous way that the faux reporter never quite seemed able to articulate.

Given all that, I'm not surprised that Jolene Public is demanding to get instant and complete access to all content- they paid $20 for that title!

 

[Slawkenbergius]

Instant access to everything in a game has never been a thing, why should it be now?

Some games do give instant access... Old-school multiplayer games like Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament don't lock anything behind progression. Also, racing games like Dirt: Rally and Project CARS give you access to everything when you make a custom race. There are probably other examples.

I imagine I would find the unlock systems in games like Battlefront or Forza annoying if I played them. It seems unnecessary to force linearity on non-linear games.

That said, I would make the argument in terms of gameplay design, rather than financial terms. My solution is not to buy games that have an unlock system I think would annoy me.

 

[knowles2]

Isn't the issue rather that content can be locked be behind extremely specific, sometimes very frustrating, gates. Instead of tasks like



you get

Defeat the end boss of this dungeon using that one particular and very gimmicky method. Oh by the way, it is immune to one third of your abilities, another third is unusable because of said gimmick, have fun DIAS'ing this thing for the entire weekend.

Disclaimer: my view may be skewed right now because I have been playing lots of Infinifactory lately, a game which revels in the complete openness of its (quite difficult) tasks.

That always been part of the fun for me, especially when the ability is my favourite ability, it the type challenge I enjoy having to change my tactics to get past a boss or even a normal creator. FF games did this a lot FF6,7,8,9 and 10, anyway haven't played any since 10.

 

[Arry]

American Dad: Grampuss? Santa is really the evil one? Gives all the kids what they want; good or bad.

[video=youtube;hFDcoX7s6rE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFDcoX7s6rE[/video]