• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Niche Gamer: "Gamedevs, stop apologizing to people who don't buy or play video games."

DryvBy

Member
Source article: https://nichegamer.com/2018/08/21/o...g-to-people-who-dont-buy-or-play-video-games/

There’s a massive problem with this type of response and following apology. I’ll go into some length regarding this for any game developers reading this or watching yet another similar scene like this unfold. These people are never satisfied and they will never stop their policing of differing opinions, and most especially controversial opinions or content.

We as consumers and even critics of video games have a big influence over what video games are made, how they’re made, and what content said games have therein. The vast majority of these outrage police don’t actually play video games, nor do they actually care about video games.

We’ve seen time and time again how critics with these tendencies don’t actually play games they review.

Game developers, please hear me out.

The vast majority of people that regularly purchase video games and regularly play said video games give zero shits about jokes poking fun at outrage police.

Most of us would think that joke is funny, and we would simply wonder how good the actual game is. That’s the real meat for us, how the actual game itself is – not the politics surrounding it.

I love this article. It points out what irritates me with the activist types in the media. I just felt like sharing this.
 

bitbydeath

Gold Member
Couldn't agree more.
What if the GTA devs listened to the outrage back in the day.
Now it's one of the biggest franchises of all time.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Couldn't agree more.
What if the GTA devs listened to the outrage back in the day.
Now it's one of the biggest franchises of all time.

/mic drop

And none of these outrage people who do not play these games, dares go after that behemoth.
 
Last edited:

Rayderism

Member
The ONLY place I ever hear about all the various offenses over race and/or lifestyles and whatever else is on the internet and news media. In real life, I never see, hear about, or experience any of it.
 

Cunth

Fingerlickin' Good!
Companies these days are probably better off not interacting with people online at all, outside of just regular advertising
 
Companies these days are probably better off not interacting with people online at all, outside of just regular advertising

Yep, that’s the Rockstar model - because they don’t even bother, people tend to leave them alone. In this current climate, “outreach” is a very dangerous thing for any game company - too many crazies on both “sides” that don’t really seem to like gaming anyway. I’m convinced that many of these vocal “gamers” don’t play games at all, and are always just looking for something to be outraged about.
 

-MD-

Member
The ONLY place I ever hear about all the various offenses over race and/or lifestyles and whatever else is on the internet and news media. In real life, I never see, hear about, or experience any of it.

That's because in real life these people would be told to fuck off and that'd be the end of it. On the internet they can scream endlessly, or at least until their fingers get tired.
 

JordanN

Banned
Remember that old Penny Arcade comic when Developers were depicted as tough?

4mk8tpj.jpg


Fast forward 10 years later and now they don't want to offend anyone?
We need more Tomonobu Itagaki's in the industry to put their foot down and tell people to stop being sensitive.
 
Last edited:

oagboghi2

Member
The ONLY place I ever hear about all the various offenses over race and/or lifestyles and whatever else is on the internet and news media. In real life, I never see, hear about, or experience any of it.
to be fair, I never heard about the battlefield V issues outside of the internet, and that has seemed to have an effect on their sales.
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
Source article: https://nichegamer.com/2018/08/21/o...g-to-people-who-dont-buy-or-play-video-games/





I love this article. It points out what irritates me with the activist types in the media. I just felt like sharing this.


They need to be unapologetic about their games period. So if someone is crying and asking for a game to be something the developer never stated it was, no developer needs to be apologizing to something like that.

Play a different game and move on.
 

CatCouch

Member
Someday siding with your own audience over people who don't play your games will be the norm. That day has yet to come for some stupid reason.

(Love Niche Gamer, been reading it for a while now. I even contribute to their Patreon!)
 

DryvBy

Member
The ONLY place I ever hear about all the various offenses over race and/or lifestyles and whatever else is on the internet and news media. In real life, I never see, hear about, or experience any of it.

The internet is a megaphone and the loudest most annoying people are hogging it sometimes. It's a vocal minority that scream about things and mean it.

Always remember Kingdom Come as the game that didn't allow games media to bully it. When Giant Bomb—a game news website—refused to talk about it, it didn't stop it from being a huge success.

I like to think back when I was subscribed to Game Pro, Game Fan, PC Gamer (long ago), EGM and Nintendo Power. I'd see them bash a game that looked fun and I'd still try it out. At least rent it. Sometimes I'd see a game get mediocre ratings that ended up being a blast. We need real nerds and fandom of games to be in the industry. But idiots with microphones believe fandom is "toxic" while they milk a few random Twitter trolls into their articles. These people hate games and want it to tell then a story while they press F to continue the story.

It's sad. It's like they've only hired environmentalists to review sports cars, but in gaming terms.
 

Orta

Banned
Social media is the worst thing that has ever happened to the www.

It's given a global platform to the biggest shower of cunts society has to offer.
 
like i dont even know when these type of people slithered their way into "gaming". it was just angry xbox live kids one day and then the next it was people saying "do better"
 

Virex

Banned
These people don’t play video games. They just want control of the medium. Game devs need to stop pandering to people who don’t play or buy video games.
 

Michele

you.
Couldn't agree more. The devs shouldn' be listening to the outrage. What if Rockstar listened for GTAV, or what if Nintendo listened?
 

Virex

Banned
And if you are worried that these people that “won’t buy the game” because of this or that. Look at Kingdom Come Deliverance. It is a huge success and all these people that “aren’t buying it because of this or that” clearly showed that they weren’t interested in buying it anyway or don't even play games. And Warhorse stuck to their guns and well well well Kingdom Come Deliverance is a huge hit with a lot of sales. Game developers need to start growing a spine.

Games journalism and these #metoo pussy whipped male feminists are all a cancer to the gaming industry. So are the sites that employ them.

Edit : Made some spelling mistakes. English isn't my 1st language :pie_sad_relieved:
 
Last edited:

Ogbert

Member
Good article.

I could be completely wrong, or it might be down to the amount of coffee I drank this morning, but I sincerely feel like these dweebs days are numbered. These Internet Jihadists are just boring now.
 

Dunki

Member
Social media is the worst thing that has ever happened to the www.

It's given a global platform to the biggest shower of cunts society has to offer.
More it is the worst thing that did happen to our society. Social media is the reason everything is so hostile these days. Ii is cancer to Freedom and our society.
 

Ogbert

Member
Social media is the worst thing that has ever happened to the www.

It's given a global platform to the biggest shower of cunts society has to offer.

Hear hear.

What we have managed to do is created a platform that strips all the kindness, joy, humour, distinction, complexity and generosity out of communication and replace it with screeching, wanky bollocks.

If you really think about it, Twitter is essentially scrawling gibberish on a bog door. In the old days, the only reason for drawing on a bog door was:

a) To render an image of an enormous penis; or
b) Arrange a sexual liaison with a stranger.

We now use that medium to discuss everything. To repeat myself from a previous post, we take trivial things seriously and serious things trivially.

It's fucking pitiful.
 

petran79

Banned
It is ironic that in the 80s Leisure Suit Larry, according to the developer, became popular by word of mouth because major retail store chains would refuse distribution due to the content
 

fantomena

Member
I kinda agreed and this is also kinda funny considering all the shit DICE has received for BF5, they told people to don't buy the game if they don't like it and received even more shit.
 

Saicows

Neo Member
Always remember Kingdom Come as the game that didn't allow games media to bully it. When Giant Bomb—a game news website—refused to talk about it, it didn't stop it from being a huge success..

That's the main reason i don't pay giantbomb anymore. This and Abby.

They didnt even mentioned Kingdom Come. Even with all the noise it was making, the game journalist sites agree to not talk about it. I remember Austin and Waypoint being the first to say that wouldnt review the game, ignoring the bunch of people who work on it because of Vavra. That's insane. They gave room to stupid walking simulator games and couldnt even say anything about it.
 

dolabla

Member
Spot on article. The sooner they come to realize to ignore these always offended losers, the better. These people don't give two shits about your game. All they care about is being offended at everything while shoving their political beliefs down your throat.

There's no difference between these social justice warriors now and the religious fanatics back in the 90's/2000's. Both want/wanted censorship. Both are/were humorless. Both just can't/couldn't mind their own damn business.

Imagine living in the world with only their rules. What a fucking boring and miserable place it would be.
 
Remember that old Penny Arcade comic when Developers were depicted as tough?

4mk8tpj.jpg

That comic is specifically referencing journalists, not developers.

But I get your point and vividly remember that comic, it's sad how far the culture has fallen.

Hear hear.

What we have managed to do is created a platform that strips all the kindness, joy, humour, distinction, complexity and generosity out of communication and replace it with screeching, wanky bollocks.

If you really think about it, Twitter is essentially scrawling gibberish on a bog door. In the old days, the only reason for drawing on a bog door was:

a) To render an image of an enormous penis; or
b) Arrange a sexual liaison with a stranger.

We now use that medium to discuss everything. To repeat myself from a previous post, we take trivial things seriously and serious things trivially.

It's fucking pitiful.

Twitter might be the worst invention in the history of communications technology in human history and I say that without hyperbole.
 
While I agree with the article, I don't think that's ever gonna happen. These companies will always try to at least appear inclusive and accepting of everyone, and so these social justice types have them by the balls.

In my opinion they should never apologize because it just doesn't work. The apology is never good enough, not genuine enough, or they "don't understand what they did wrong." The latest "controversy" surrounding CyberPunk proves that. Don't apologize for making a (at most) dumb joke or comment.
 
That's the main reason i don't pay giantbomb anymore. This and Abby.

They didnt even mentioned Kingdom Come. Even with all the noise it was making, the game journalist sites agree to not talk about it. I remember Austin and Waypoint being the first to say that wouldnt review the game, ignoring the bunch of people who work on it because of Vavra. That's insane. They gave room to stupid walking simulator games and couldnt even say anything about it.

Also why I'm done with Giant Bomb. Ever since Jeff became Austin Walker's cuckold, it has become a shit hole....but Dream Daddy is very very good I hear.
 

RainblowDash

Gold Member
Agreed, they need only respond to feedback that affects gameplay, not social pandering.

DICE are feeling it hard just how much effort was wasted on stupid SJW inclusions that the fan base just didn't want.
 
Agreed and well said. Don’t market your game at 3rd wave feminists and the like when 75%+ of your potential audience is straight males. That is just foolish suicide.

If your game has good reason to appeal to that type of crowd then cool go for it, otherwise treat your loyal customers with respect. Trying to hit every single base when it doesn’t match your game is just politically correct nonsense. Men are not pigs just because they want to enjoy their 20 year old hobby as it has always been.

We can have diversity in games without it having to be in every single game. Diversity should come from a good range and selection of games, not artificially forced into every game. Don’t turn once great franchises into the new Ghostbusters movie, it doesn’t work when it’s forced like that.
 

DonF

Member
It's a matter of time. Companies go for the money, if they start losing money cause they are trying to appeal to the wrong crowd, things will change.
 
Last edited:

tkscz

Member
Does no one look at Marvel Comics when it comes to listening to internet activist? Marvel started giving them all the comics these people were complaining were inclusive enough, and sales began to fall. All of the new books sold poorly and all but one or two got cann'd. Some, like Black Panther and The Crew (awful name) got cann'd after two issues. Just two issues. Because Marvel kept selling stores these books that sit on shelves and collect dust, comic book stores began going out of business. The people who want these changes tend not to participate in the medium they want the changes done to. At least not to the extent where their participation would make a dent in sales.
 

Kadayi

Banned
Yeah I unsubbed after GB passed on KCD. I can't support people who get behind imbecilic arguments.
 
Last edited:

Ogbert

Member
These companies will always try to at least appear inclusive and accepting of everyone, and so these social justice types have them by the balls.

I assure you, if Battlefield V bombs, there will be no more ladies on the box art or righteous tweets from Dice employees.

Hell hath no fury like an EA president that has been scorned.
 
Does no one look at Marvel Comics when it comes to listening to internet activist? Marvel started giving them all the comics these people were complaining were inclusive enough, and sales began to fall. All of the new books sold poorly and all but one or two got cann'd. Some, like Black Panther and The Crew (awful name) got cann'd after two issues. Just two issues. Because Marvel kept selling stores these books that sit on shelves and collect dust, comic book stores began going out of business. The people who want these changes tend not to participate in the medium they want the changes done to. At least not to the extent where their participation would make a dent in sales.
Dude Marvel has hired on more activists lately to write stories. Its as if they care more about getting backlash on social media more than money.
 

tkscz

Member
Dude Marvel has hired on more activists lately to write stories. Its as if they care more about getting backlash on social media more than money.
What bothers me with this decision is they themselves are hiring some writers because they look like a character. Again, the books they put out is causing mass closing of stores distributing their content, and they still don't care. Digital is not enough to save their dying business. DC is making all the right moves by separating these kind of books into different publishing names and distributing their graphic novels to book stores and department stores. Marvel just keeps putting out the same shit and no one is buying them from the stores. Stores can't deny the books because not caring Marvel at all is suicide, so Marvel has them by the balls. 15 stores went out of business last month.

When game devs do the same thing, they'll fall into the same position, especially with someone like EA. If game sales are low, rather than fixing the reason, EA just closes down the studio. Rather than letting Visceral return to form with Dead Space, they closed them down. Devs will start seeing closings the more they forget that they are in an industry.
 
The idea of the 'broader audience' has always been a myth, to me. These people who get so easily offended over jokes were never and will never be part of your audience. An apology is an admittance of defeat to their authoritarianism. The faithful core audience will feel betrayed by the display of weakness while the authoritarian maniacs will demand more concessions.

Also, shame on you, ERA.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
So now Nichegamer.com is outraged at the apology of the outrage? When will the outrage end?
 
Top Bottom