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[oni-link]

Is there anything within gaming you refuse to do/support/buy based on principle, whether that's what you see as exploitation, anti consumer practices, financial models you think are harmful, political agendas, unethical publishers/developers etc

For me, I think the only one is micro transactions, though I don't have anything against anyone who does use them, and I know by not using them it won't change the fact that they're a part of gaming now (even in full price AAA games) and there is no changing that.

It's more down to the fact they're incompatible with what I enjoy about games, in that a game is a challenge to be overcome, or an experience to be immersed in. Paying to reduce the challenge isn't why I like games, and buying cosmetic stuff doesn't really interest me either. In fact, a game begging me for more money is immersion breaking, and when they ask for money so they can stop wasting my time, it's borderline offensive. If a game is built around micro transactions and that impacts my enjoyment, then I'll drop the game

Expansion style DLC I'm fine with. If I deem it worth the asking price, I'm happy to pay for it.

What about you, GAF? Is there anything you refuse to support/buy on principle?

Edit: can a mod please change 'principal' to 'principle' in the thread title

 

[Dio]

I have never bought a season pass. I realize the principle behind it, but so far there has never been a season pass for any game I owned that turned out to be worth the money.

 

[Warxard]

NFL Games. The NFL is despicable, and I say this with someone who has very close family within the league.

 

[Shivvy_NTL]

Microtransactions on a Paid Game

 

[Akai__]

- Season Passes. I still buy them, but only when they are on like a 50%+ discount or if the content is really worth the money, which is often not the case.
- Always Online games. Main reason why I won't bother to get Need For Speed. Don't want to have a dead game after some years have passed. The justification was pretty laughable with these lame Social Media integrations into the game.
- I don't buy Microtranscations either

 

[Alcoholikaust]

deliberate p2play models- (Lego Dimensions)after spending more than 59.99 dollars on a game I wont condsider repeat purchases of 14.99 or 29.99 for just 40 more minutes of gameplay.

also

Microtransactions on a SINGLEPLAYER Game

fixed

 

[Generalpsyduck]

Microtransactions on a Paid Game

This for me

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

Anyone/thing pro-Gamergate.

Other than that, definitely making an effort not to pay more than £40 for any new PS4/Xbox One release on day one. It's getting easier to do now that online retailers seem to be figuring out no one wants to pay ~£50, but some definitely still around the £45 mark.

 

[Randam]

Everything.

I will even wait for the first price drop when they announce dlc before the actual game release.

 

[jiggles]

Amiibos and their ilk. A perpetually incomplete set of collectibles to clutter your home and leave you bankrupt? Nope. Nope nope nope.

 

[Rektash]

I don't buy games that require me to use uPlay/Origin or any content delivery platform besides Steam in general. Publisher specific content delivery platforms are designed to make more money for the publisher at the cost of the consumer. Fuck that.

I want my games to be easily managable and centralized.

 

[Corronchilejano]

SecuROM and other intrusive DRM.

 

[Steiner84]

pay2win in mp games

 

[Stupid Sexy Flanders]

Mostly the "toy to life" games. I think that Disney infinity and lego dimensions look really good but I don't want to spend all that money on expensive figures that I need or will miss stuff on the game disc

Spoiler

I have 2 amiibos and hate myself for it

 

[oti]

Micro transaction for temporary things like boosts.

Pay full price now but get the full content later. Like the new Hitman.

 

[MilkyJoe]

Pre-ordering
DLC centric games
FIFA Model
DLC that comes out shortly after the game drops. That shit should have been on the disk. (sometimes is). That makes me just think they are taking the piss and puts me off. Hi Arkham Knight!!

 

[Dennis]

Free to Play but Pay to Win.

 

[Dr. Buni]

Games that heavily sexualize characters, especially women. It's basically the reason I am not buying Xenoblade Chronicles X, even though I enjoyed the original a lot (and yes, I am well aware there are fanservicey outfits in the original, but in comparison with the XCX outfits, they were rather tame. Plus, there were no 13 year old characters dressing as strippers in that game).

Also, before anyone says "Yeah but the outfits are entirely optional". That really doesn't change anything.

Amiibos and their ilk. A perpetually incomplete set of collectibles to clutter your home and leave you bankrupt? Nope. Nope nope nope.

Yeah, I don't buy amiibos either. I don't like the physical DLC aspect of them, plus they are crazy expensive where I live. On top of that, the amiibos I would want are extremely rare.

 

[mdubs]

Mobile gaming and free to play games

 

[GrayChild]

Microtransactions.
DLCs that were pretty much done before the game's release.
Platform parity.
Always online DRM for singleplayer-only games.
KONAMI.

 

[Sande]

*principle, there's a pretty huge difference

Not really, maybe the scummiest of the scummy f2p and p2w practices.

 

[TP]

Pay to Play online (PSN+, Gold)
I'm not paying to access the online portion of the game i've already payed for

Fortunately i've never been all that into multiplayer games and the ones that do catch my attention usually end up on pc

 

[EvilKatarn]

The last region locked console I own is the 360. rip Nintendo.

 

[Ryne]

Microtransactions

 

[Transistor]

Microtransactions in single player games, or pay-to-win ones in online games. I'm fine with charging for weapon skins or character packs or whatever. But if you're giving a distinct advantage to people who pay, then you can go fuck yourself.

The last region locked console I own is the 360. rip Nintendo.

Oooh, this is a good one. Region locking is so damn stupid these days.

 

[Garandorf]

- DLC that doesn't expand game time
- Microtransactions in Single Player Games
- Gameplaychanging, gamebreaking, unbalanced microtransactions in Pay2Play or Subscription multiplayer based games

 

[bati]

30 fps locks and low fov locks on PC games. I don't care how good the game is, those are the two things where I draw the line.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Media. Took me a while to actually blacklist them, even after learning of what happened with Prey 2. I'm not one to ever take this stance against a company, so this is saying a lot.

They're not the only horrid publishers in the industry of course, but what they've done with studios they've tried to acquire (and likely the ones they successfully acquired) is vile. I won't try to convince people to stop playing games they publish, but I won't purchase anything from them from now on.

 

[geordiemp]

Is there anything within gaming you refuse to do/support/buy based on principal, whether that's what you see as exploitation, anti consumer practices, financial models you think are harmful, political agendas, unethical publishers/developers etc

For me, I think the only one is micro transactions, though I don't have anything against anyone who does use them, and I know by not using them it won't change the fact that they're a part of gaming now (even in full price AAA games) and there is no changing that.

Expansion style DLC I'm fine with. If I deem it worth the asking price, I'm happy to pay for it.

Agree, Microtransactions, and for me toys to life anything (stuff is already on disk unlocked with plastic tat).

Both MicroT and Toys to Life are ways to extract more even money from existing playerbase.

DLC and expansions I assess based on whats included

Oh and region locking so hey I can charge you guys more than you other guys...because I can. No thanks.

 

[oni-link]

*principle, there's a pretty huge difference

Not really, maybe the scummiest of the scummy f2p and p2w practices.

Ah shit, can a mod correct my typo in the thread title?

 

[IvorB]

Broken games, microtransations in full price games, DLC that's not a full scale expansion or free, any games sporting egregious pre-order practices. Generally this means many western developed games I might have been interested in are no go and I am okay with that. I don't really buy that many games anyway so it's okay to be super picky.

 

[Mupod]

I don't pay for maps. I get that map editors aren't easily done on consoles much less to the standards that people expect nowadays, but coming from a PC gaming background they are still not something I can deal with. Never mind that they are being used by activision/EA in the shittiest ways possible, map packs nowadays are essentially subscription fees that split the playerbase.

Destiny gets off with a warning 'cause the maps are just part of a greater package.

 

[EvilKatarn]

Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Media. Took me a while to actually blacklist them, even after learning of what happened with Prey 2. I'm not one to ever take this stance against a company, so this is saying a lot.

Aww, you missed out on Wolfenstein TNO.

 

[Corpekata]

Amiibos at least until a sane alternative to them is offered for people that don't want to brave the insane collector market. Just make digital amiibos or something.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

I don't buy titles made by sexists or racists.

 

[Maximo]

Never bought a Season pass and last Preorder was 7 years ago.

 

[KORNdoggy]

online only games (so most of ubisofts upcoming releases)

things removed or changed for the worse. i didn't support splinter cell conviction because of it's gameplay changes. i didn't support resident evil 4/5/6 for similar reasons, and i won't support halo 5 because of it dropping split-screen.

 

[Fractal]

Nah... while I very much enjoy video games as a hobby, at the end of the day, they're still video games. Hardly a thing worthy of principles... if I like something, I go for it.

That said, I typically do steer clear of many business models considered negative by gaming communities, but that's because they usually aren't worth my time and money, or exist in games and genres I don't play. For example, I rarely encounter microtranscations since I don't actively play any F2P games. But if there was a F2P game I like, I'd have no reservations on spending money on microtranscations.

 

[CaviarMeths]

Not sure how "hot topic" these are, but I could name a few.

- I don't buy games without robust single player, period. Shame I'll miss out on Star Wars this year, but oh well, it's just a game. I'll be fine.

- $60 is my absolute ceiling for any new game. This one is kinda hard because I'm Canadian and we have the privilege of paying up to $80 for games on launch. But that's fine too. I can wait for a price drop. Backlog and handhelds have me covered.

- Micro-transactions for me too. I'll buy games that have them, but there's no way in hell I would ever spend a red cent on any consumable item.

- Likewise, get out of here with day one DLC. Otherwise, DLC in general is fine though. I don't mind and even enjoy paying extra for meaningful post-launch content.

- Annual series is nope. Not getting into that. Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, EA sports, just nope to all of that. This one is probably unreasonable, but I think this is a publishing trend that has done overall harm to the industry. Especially for a series that only has one dedicated development team on a year dev cycle. That shit's insane. At least CoD rotates developers to give each one enough time to do their thing.

- This one isn't really a principle, more so just some publishers that probably couldn't interest me in their games if all of the executives personally came to my house and gave me a handy J. WB and Bethesda are at the top of that list. Could not care less about their games if I tried.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Collector's Editions with digital goodies.

IMO they don't give additional value they just take away value from everyone else

 

[Valonquar]

CCG "booster packs" type shit in any form in a video game. Any time you are literally handing over real world cash to roll dice in a game is beyond retarded.

 

[Mr-Joker]

I refuse to support micro transactions and "free" to play games, I deleted two games because they were designed in sucking in your money rather than being a fun game.

The worse part is that Pokémon Shuffle was actually fun but the "Free" to play aspect of the game ruined the experience for me as I had to deal with the bullshit RNG and limit free play option.

I also refuse to buy AAA at full price on launch day, I get them later when they drop in price.

The only exception is Nintendo games as they rarely drop in price and are worth the price.

 

[Give War A Chance]

Probably microtransactions in a full-retail game. I haven't ever purchased one, and I don't see that changing, but who knows.

 

[RionaaM]

Anyone/thing pro-Gamergate.

This. I deleted Postal 2 from my PC after finding out that RWS was supporting this hate group. And a few days ago I discovered the same thing about the director of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, so I'll never buy it (which is a shame because it seems really interesting).

I don't feel comfortable supporting something whose devs think like this (taken from this thread):

From what I can see, there are three sides of #GamerGate’s call for ethical journalism: 1) tell the truth about #GamerGate or at least don’t lie about it, 2) be ethical and disclose potential conflicts of interest, and 3) open up your platform to allow voices that are not exclusively those of the extreme left (alternatively, just don’t do politics or social critique at all and have gaming be the escape from reality).

 

[ScepticMatt]

Preordering (other than rare ~50% off deals)
Intrusive DRM (SecuROM, always-online etc)
Pay to win or energy/stamina-based F2P games
Payed cheat codes (Microtransactions in single player games)

 

[Kiko]

CCG "booster packs" type shit in any form in a video game. Any time you are literally handing over real world cash to roll dice in a game is beyond retarded.

Yup. same here and also Paid microtransactions I games I already paid full price. Ridiculous

 

[DiipuSurotu]

I refuse to buy a lot of things, but not on principle -- only because I don't like them.

 

[Devil]

online only games (so most of ubisofts upcoming releases)

things removed or changed for the worse. i didn't support splinter cell conviction because of it's gameplay changes. i didn't support resident evil 4/5/6 for similar reasons, and i won't support halo 5 because of it dropping split-screen.

You shoul reconsider that, imo. RE4 was not the downfall of RE, it may even be its highest point. Capcom just ent into a very different direction after that.

 

[Jakoo]

No. I play video games to have fun and relax not to plan boycotts around.

 

[Reset]

Fuck Amiibos.