How Dare Gamers Want Playable Games

[@CharlesUrban]

"The paying customers are the enemy" is the battle cry of the modern corporation. How I long for the days of my youth, when "modern" was understood to mean "better."

[@some_guy117]

Instead now we live in a world where modern feels like dystopian

[@M167A1]

The real issue is that the business model has changed to what I will call the "plantation" model. Customers are treated like serfs whose main job is to generate a steady income for the corporation, and they get very testy when that is challenged.

[@bothpartiesaretotaldogsht5750]

​@@M167A1 yup spot on! It's the difference "customers" like we were 40 years ago and the "consumers" that we are today. I mean we actually have to sign away our rights TO GIVE COMPANIES OUR MONEY! And if you dont, you basically get kicked out of society! We are just cattle...

[@KopperNeoman]

@M167A1 Slaves, not serfs. Old feudal culture placed far more respect on the Serf than the socialist places on his Customer. In the Socialist's eyes, the working class need to be put back in their place and have capitalism stripped from them, because they'll resist The Revolution otherwise.

[@theeccentrictripper3863]

@@M167A1 This in flashing lights with river dancing and fireworks

[@jennycomelately]

Imagine white-knighting for a corporation just to dunk on those dastardly evil gamers.

[@mechwarrior83]

Honestly these studio simps are worse than the studios themselves. My personal conspiracy theory is these are mostly paid shills, industry suck ups and bots.

[@datboiashy2957]

@@mechwarrior83 Most specifically those OW2 dick riders/shills. Its honestly funny to see these streamers apologizing and saying they were "duped", like get off your high horse. You know damn well most of these OW streamers knew what they were getting into with those OW2 keys and codes. Sure they may not be in the studio but commercialize and incentives their audience to buy skins, battle-pass, keep up with content still keeps Blizzard afloat.

[@zionleach3001]

Some did it with Forspoken. They gaslight crazy, accusing people of hating the character cause she's not 'attractive' enough.

[@CurtyTails]

@@zionleach3001 that’s half true-the main way they gaslighted audiences is with a tactic Hollywood has used for the past decade when something doesn’t go well-blaming all the racist trolls which being anyone how hates their product

[@CaspianNomad]

​​@@mechwarrior83 Even Hollywood studios were caught out using bots and paid shills so no doubt some game studios would go that far too

[@DoctorDave5]

Behaving like an adult and accepting responsibility for your own failure is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

[@stellviahohenheim]

No it is not, it's just a series of dumb tweets by one guy. This video have no value whatsoever and wasted 10 minutes of everybody's time

[@cartooncritique6625]

That's because a lot of "adults" these days skipped that whole "growing up" phase.

[@drakron]

Well I will be pointing out a company is not a person and taking responsibility for a company is very different as well. The reason they dont is because companies have investors and putting out a flawed product affects the company value thus they have no incentive to say "we bad" because it affects then in a negative way, it can be more complicated then that as it also affects relationships with other companies were problems wont be reported because it would affect sales. As in gaming ... well, ever played Daggerfall? its a bug ridden mess like most Bethesda games and this is before Gamebryo so this aint new, heck Star Trek 2013 videogame is another hot mess, it would be a extensive list of games released in poor shape and as in some cases they were budget games without much expectation, in others they were high profile such as AssCreed Unity, decisions are often made to push ahead because even if it doesnt work that doesnt change the cost already invested as few games are shelved after announced but a lot more games never made pass planning stage, never officially announced because they are killed due to lack on the project. A good example of that since we at it is Mass Effect:Andromeda that was a game with incredible poor design management stuck with a engine that couldnt do what they wanted and the realization of that come too late so we got what we got, its also a example of what happens to the developer studio as that one was closed and staff moved ... another recent example would be last year's Saints Row reboot. Also notice how the games I mentioned are across 20 years ... does Bethesda apologizes for TES being buggy as hell? No, you have Todd Howard going "it just works", people have long accepted games have bugs, there are some games that are mediocre at best and unplayable at worst even in high profile games but companies wont acknowledge it since it would affect investment.

[@JohnDoe-zw8vx]

I wouldn't say it's a thing of the past. More of an unlockable achievement for people who live through Tiktok and Twitter 😂

[@SaberInferno]

​@@stellviahohenheimMan I'm sorry, all I could read was "I didn't like the video and instead of disliking it and moving on I scanned the comments to bitch about it."

[@eddthehead123]

"Just get your money back" This guy has never had to refund a game.

[@iamtetsuo8348]

Owner of the company i work for says "the customer is the boss, if they dont like our work they can fire all of us, by spending money else where"

[@zeldaprincessgirl100]

That's just basic 101

[@slinkerdeer]

CORRECT. oh, keep working there that's a good boss you have by the sounds of it

[@hoof31]

thats a great boss

[@jimluebke3869]

Yeah, this idea that companies aren't supposed to serve the customer, and the employees don't ultimately work for the customer, is just weird.

[@slinkerdeer]

@@jimluebke3869 companies exist because of the customer lol

[@demoulius1529]

Ah yes. Attacking your customers. This has never gone horribly wrong for the person doing it!

[@enocescalona]

Aaron be like : don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next product.

[@a.malsuwaidi2776]

I made the mistake of checking out his tweet despite knows exactly how they will be

[@irishsage2459]

"Give it to us raw and wiggling" said no one ever about games.

[@CesarJoel94]

All those who fall for never ending early access scams would disagree

[@irishsage2459]

@@CesarJoel94 I think those people preorder under the pretense that the game will be finished. Naive maybe, but I don't think anyone drops money on a game hoping it's half finished.

[@toothgrinder2760]

@@irishsage2459 Apparently the industry didn’t learn from Cyberpunk 2077. It took CDPR 2 years to get that game to where it should have been at release.

[@FourOf92000]

not the ones they allow on Steam anyway

[@zeldaprincessgirl100]

We pay for the games, no gamers, no money, no money, company goes bankrupt, this is business 101 😂

[@shadowsnake5133]

And nobody in the industry has past it and thus should starve. If you fuck up once, I'm not buying your products from then onwards, I have no more fucks to give! My fucks have gone and fucked off and left me out to dry!

[@rh906]

They must think that ESG grift money is eternal.

[@EliSkylander]

​@@rh906 they'll think so until a Bud Lite happens to them.

[@KAMFP]

between whales and ESG, gamers are going to loose.

[@wolftv1233]

@@KAMFP Don't be so pessimistic, Its smoke and mirrors. They want you to think that so you won't fight back. Remember saints row reboot and forswarn were both elbows deep in ESG and woke investors and there developers are right where they belong... dead and gone. Thinks will get better, got to have faith :)

[@UnwantedGhost1]

*"A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."* - Based Shigeru Miyamoto

[@FretboardToAsh]

What about Cyberpunk 2077? That one was both rushed and delayed.

[@Gaz4113]

No amount of time would save this game from itself.

[@BahamutOmega]

How about E.T. on the 2600 as prior art? Given it's a case of morons in marketing and management releasing stuff so broken that it's not even worth the price of a new game.

[@Drag0nvil]

I've heard good stories about the current no man's skies from several friends. Though the public image of the game will probably never be what it could have been, due to it being nuked at the rushed launch. The game itself is good now, or so I've heard.

[@bradtorville5526]

No and no. It really depends on the testing and since the gaming industry seriously no longer bothers to test anything, it doesn't matter how long they work on a game or when it is released. It was be a major clusterfuck regardless. Then they spend the better part of a year or two patching and updating, fixing this, revising that and honestly just waiting for some modder somewhere to do what they couldn't during the entire development cycle and the eternal subsequent patching. Why is modders can do what these highly trained professionals cannot? Even when companies hire modders, the results are the same crap since they then tie their hands and expect them to show the same level of incompetence that the rest of their development team had while making their games. I'm done. I'm getting too damn old for this shit. I sit and watch as others come up with a myriad of excuses for why this failed and why that is broken and I'm tired. I stopped pre-ordering games over a decade ago. I've stopped getting excited for any game title. I've just come to realize that no matter what, it'll suck and disappoint. Money is tight and these games are simply not worth it. I'm looking at the last few years of my life and not looking forward to putting up with this crap any longer.

[@theeyemaster3832]

"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." Chefs don't have to be in the kitchen, they can just throw in their towels and leave. Just like Game Devs don't have to make video games, they can just quit their job and build another career. Honestly, for them to paint themselves as "Victims" truly does amazes me. We truly do live in a weak society.

[@Rezzanine]

The kitchen in this situation being Twitter. If this guy just left Twitter, he wouldn't be exposed to the bulk of whatever he's complaining about, and instead he would be exposed to the negative reviews and consumer rights stuff he says he agrees with. And he'd have one less avenue of social media to potentially embarrass himself on.

[@northstar6920]

This is like paying $50 to go see a comedy show, except the only punch line is the comedian comes up on stage, flips everyone the bird, walks off, the curtains close and then expects glowing and rave reviews the next morning.

[@nodiggity9472]

So . . . . it's like watching Brendan Schaub's stand-up?

[@PrimaryRavioli]

Sad part is every damn company seems to have gone fucked in the head by deciding that putting out a good product, and standing behind that product is the worst idea ever

[@Rezzanine]

If companies view feedback from paying customers as being 'entitled', then I don't really know what to say. Those companies are not composed of enough actual businesspeople, I guess.

[@MickeyMulligan]

Why take time and effort to hire good talent people and artist and produce something good or great when there is a whole ocean of uniform parents buying games for their kids or neices and nephews, a young generation of condition children and teenagers who have never know what a complete product is. And you can make a few quick million or more foe you and your investors and then drop support of the game a year or even less nowadays after launch and laugh all the way to the bank and do it again next year. Thats the problem.

[@jimluebke3869]

Makes it easy to save money, especially in June.

[@jonathanwolfe2692]

Not Nintendo, though their customer/fan policy and interaction department is fucked in the head, and has really gone to hell. Though I suppose it is better that they ignore and/or mistreat real fans, as opposed to listening to fake woke activeist non-customers and pretend fans bowing down to the same idological demands that have already infested and ruined virtually every other major company in the video game industry (among other industies). I dealy They would treat their actual fans well, while ignoring the fakes. However as long as they remain uncorrupted by the woke, and refuse to participate in shitty modern industry businness practices like in the video (thus continue to deliver quality content), I really don't mind their poor policies, and interactions with the fan base they have never really affected me anyway as I stay out of the main stream fan base shit, that is to say I am first and for most a fan of the product not the company, as long as it does not degrade the product I don't really give a shit.

[@thedarkdojo5115]

69th like... Nice...

[@cathygrandstaff1957]

Honestly I could see Gollum being a decent wilderness survival game character. You’d start underground learning the basics: fishing and drinking to keep your food and water meter full, sneaking up on the occasional small goblin for a big cache of meat and of course sleeping. Then Baggins appears and steals your Precious and it’s time to leave. Now you have to leave, but Gollum is damaged by the sun so you have to manage a sun meter. That wouldn’t normally be a problem, you can stay awake at night, but if you want to track down Baggins you need to snoop and find rumors about him but the people talking about those rumors are only awake by day. OK, maybe we’re talking about a $20 game instead of a $60 game just because base creation is not Gollum’s thing.

[@RichardPhillips1066]

Maybe just me but I find him annoying, I don't want to spend 10 hours plus with him , he can barely construct a coherent sentence , and has the mind of a murdererous .. devious 8 year old

[@superdave8248]

This is what I think the game's concept was. A little puzzle, a lot of stealth, quite a bit of environment manipulation to avoid fights to reach a goal. Hell, there might even be a health meter that takes forever to replenish so any injuries have to be avoided. The problem is this type of game isn't for everybody. Because even the games that do this concept well tend to blend in a lot of fighting to keep it from getting ridiculously repetative.

[@Spamkromite]

Return to Monkeh? 👀

[@superdave8248]

@@Spamkromite I'm think more like Jedi Fallen Order. Where you deal with a few puzzles. But the vast majority of your travel is leaping from object to object while engaging with Storm Troopers. But you still had quite a bit of fighting to breakup the travel via "Pitfall". (An Atari 2600 game from 30 years ago.) I just think this developer tried to stay within the confines of the character which limited their options to basically no options. It probably looked good on paper but by the time you got several million in development you realize that the idea just doesn't work. But you can't afford to write off the several million you already invested. I have played several games over the past 40 years of my gaming life that looked good on paper but just didn't work in actual game play. Fallout 76 just didn't work with the lore. And several in game concepts just didn't work at all in the game. Which made it for a bad MMO in general. Fallen Earth (which I think is shut down at this point) have a six faction system that looked great on paper. Every faction had two allies and three enemies. And the reasoning for those distinctions worked. Until you played the game. Because if you raided with people outside of your own faction, somebody was going to be attacking an ally with did harm to their reputation. Which meant nobody really raided with their allies. Which meant the six faction system was a farce in game. I can think of some other games too that just didn't work. A RPG I played many years ago had a combat system where weapon types played a role. For example, if you used a bow and arrow against a skeletal enemy, it did little damage. But take a warhammer to said skeletal enemy and you could shave off the health bar like it was nobody's business. So having to carry multiple weapons to get the max benefit in a fight was problematic for your inventory. I use to joke about 10 years ago that the problem developers have is that they don't have people my age on their development team consulting. Because there is nothing a developer can do that hasn't been done before. People my age can already tell you if something is going to work before you even get past the table top discussion phase of the game design. Somebody like me sitting in a chair at Bethesda would have told them that a nuclear launch sounds cool but in a MMO it doesn't work. Because how do you top that? It might work in a RPG but not in a region limited MMO. So what did Bethesda do? As they added new content and events they continued to require a nuk launch to initiate the event. Which made for very dull game play as the nuclear launch was a tedious process. People just used cheats to speed up the nuk launch so they could play the very end game event they wanted to play to begin with. It became a very dated process and just one of the reasons I stopped playing that particular game.

[@anomonyous]

I would've made it a point & click. And put the work in the environment, options, voices, etc. They're good at point & click games.

[@Volper1]

These people have very obviously never worked in a service role before. The customers pay your salary, even if their name isn’t on the check. And yes, customers are frustrating, sometimes they can flat out piss you off. But at the end of the day their patronage is the only thing that keeps the company afloat.

[@100Servings]

The Styx games are everything people wanted in this game, just without the LotR license. Play them.

[@Spamkromite]

💯

[@Shadow952013]

Agreed. With the bonus of the MC being snarky and sassy, not someone that was twisted by dark magicks

[@magentapurpleyap5566]

absolutely.

[@lightborn9071]

​@@Shadow952013 You mean 'not JUST corrupted'. But yes, the games are great and even with a great sense of humor compared to other games. There should really be more games like that.

[@whiterabbit75]

"Stop calling me out for my shitty work!" Sincerely, A Game Dev

[@youmadbro3961]

Have mercy on me for giving u a bag of crap

[@lightning116]

In a perfect world, Aaron San Filippo would've been fired for constantly antagonising gamers and blacklisted from the industry. But because failing upwards is the norm of the western entertainment industry, they'd probably promote him to a supervisor position.

[@JoeSyxpack]

"Who cares if it worked or not?" If your position is the same as the villain from Robocop you should probably check your priorities.

[@jamie1224]

Game companies SHOULD be servants to the customers. I mean, it makes sense, right? What we need is more people just blacklisting publishers and dev companies when they get bad experiences instead of just complaining.

[@keungwan5901]

Please don't pre order games, thus enabling a tidal wave of garbage, that everyone has to deal with. You are an obstacle to the corporation's cash.

[@jakelockley4693]

I mean, more like doing it when they refuse to change

[@toothgrinder2760]

I’m done with CDPR because of CP2077. Took them _two years_ to patch that game to where it should have been at _release_. I got Jedi: Survivor for free through my Game Stop points and that game is a hot mess. I put the game down till they fix it. Buggy, screen tears, fps drops, stuttering when panning the camera, blurry hair/fur on humans and animals, water looks pixelated etc. The entire game looks as if I’m viewing it through a blurry lens. Something has to change and not just with game companies. It’s E$G that’s infected everything.

[@AndrewChumKaser]

Servants isn't the right word. We're giving you money to do a job. You don't do that job, you don't get the money. Simple as.

[@heypistolero]

I remember when this game was announced, and all I could think of was: "Why?" Maybe if it was a phycological horror game where you're convincing Frodo that Samwise is actually the bad guy or something, and leading the hobbits into traps like Shelob or something

[@Kserijaro]

Saw the first trailer and I said "it looks like trash and if this is the trailer they are going with it will be a disaster" People call me retarded and "give them time" YEah well...

[@toothgrinder2760]

⁠​⁠@@Kserijaro I said AIoy in the Horizon sequel looked as if she ran face first into a beehive causing anaphylaxis. I was called every poIitical activist pejorative one can think of…I mean, does she not? Guerrilla games totally redesigned the way AIoy looks but if you point this out you’re a se%ist. It’s wild how consumers defend corporations that despise us. They take peoples money then have the audacity to gasIight and shame.

[@Joe-xq3zu]

@@toothgrinder2760 And those very same people will turn around and endlessly screech at you about 'the evils of capitalism' and how the rich need to pay more taxes

[@hoppa_2184]

Some arguing mechanic could make for some great gameplay. The game attempted it, but failed. If you have the right creative behind it, it could be great. And yeah. Maybe actions that change the regular story could be interesting.

[@therealfriday13th]

Y'know what's really sad about this? I was thinking of getting this game once the patches dropped. But the dev response to reactions to their game? Never touching this game. And probably not touching anything from this studio again.

[@ARStudios2000]

What did the devs say? I didn't see what they said, but judging by your comment, probably something insulting

[@SumStupidPunk]

I don't think this guys is with the company that made the game. Judging by his twitter feed, he's just a prick who argues with everyone just for the sake of it.

[@Pokeringo]

I don't think you will ever touch their games, because you have to be interested in this genre that they made. The Gollum game is an exception. They normally made cick and point adventure games. If you're into this kind of game then you know who Daedalic is. They made games like Deponia.

[@ARStudios2000]

@@Pokeringo ah. Never heard of Deponia.

[@therealfriday13th]

@@Pokeringo I know.

[@javonyounger5107]

I agree with that theory that this game wasn't originally made about Gollum, but he was thrown in there for marketing.

[@thebibliophilering8881]

Ordering a mediocre meal is one thing, but a meal full of bugs!? Unless the chef is Timoan and Pumba, they better apologize if they ever want to see my money again.

[@VorxDargo]

Remember when the phrase "The customer is always right" was a thing? Now they treat the customer as the enemy when they can't do the very thing people expect them to do, produce a working, finished product.

[@206Zelda]

Agreed, and the opposite can be true in some cases: As an example, WoW just recently canceled out an entire questline that stayed true to the older books because one SJW on Twitter cried and whined about "how dare they make a queen dragon force-breed, that's demeaning of women", even though the quest was faithful to the source material and that's how that fantasy world worked.

[@linusgustafsson2629]

@@206Zelda That is always the problem. 500 fans complain? Nothing, just excuses. 1 woke person says it is not politically correct? Apology within 3 hours and the thing changed within a week.

[@alexkats30]

Tbh, a stealth game featuring Gollum is a great concept. The execution is what's lacking. And the pricing is ridiculous... Or as Gollum would say "We told you he was trickssy, we told you he was falsse"

[@cecilyerker]

Styx already did it

[@mojus2890]

I agree, it is ridiculous they didn't add pay2win.

[@OrhallaZander]

:( I love stealth games like old school thief.

[@206Zelda]

If they had even played Styx: Shards of Darkness they would have been remotely close to what they were advertising. Instead we got catfished.

[@joshsolders5543]

There's a difference between disliking a design choice and producing a non-functioning game. Lots of people will state they dislike a design choice and either continue playing or quit the game. In online games, unless its something pretty significant most people will just tell the few complainers to relax. This guy reminds me so much of the Genshin team. People pointed out some simple things to make the gameplay better, like consolidating individual elemental stats into a general elemental stat or increasing resin regen and cap slightly because how horrible the regen was, but they responded by saying that the tryhards suggesting all this should just shut up. People were suggesting how to make the game not feel like a tedious chore where you logged in, got very little or often nothing at all for relics, log out and question why you were still playing. The only thing that is unconnected to the combat system is their events that take 15 or 30 minutes to complete. I seriously question what a normal or casual player looks like in the game considering how low skill it is and the only difficulty in the game is winning the lotto on your 1000th artifact run to get the right mainstat artifact for your set. It still baffles me how insane developers can be sometimes.

[@Scamdar]

The fact that this team is also working on another LOTR game says a lot.

[@warriorofthewest3340]

The left wants to destroy Tolkien, as he was a straight, white, male, Christian conservative.

[@BeyondYore]

"He's not an action character, he's a tragic character and while that makes for great story telling it's not gaming material." Absolutely agree. It would have been far more interesting if they had incorporated Gollum's backstory into a game from maybe Aragorn's or Gandalf's perspective. Also I think it's very good, that the executives in gaming corporations do not get to work in construction or automobile-industry. Can you imagine buying a car and being told "Don't worry about the steering wheel, we will patch it soon."

[@Asobinotori]

I love when people don‘t get analogies right. The meal isn‘t just mediocre. The Meat is raw, still frozen inside. The potatoes are undercoocked and have eyes. The sauce resambles the bodyfluids of the chef for some reason. And to make the analogy perfect: It is full of desgusting bugs!!! Tell me you don‘t want a apology after this and you just eat it. 😂

[@blazichaos7181]

Its only now that I realise that linking a buggy game to food would hilariously backfire, "So what your saying is this is the equivalent of my 50$ dinner having live bugs crawling through it? Hell yeah I would complain, I'm calling health and safety on yall asses!"

[@Kserijaro]

"Just because the exotic cooking doesnt appeal to you it doesn't automatically make it bad. Stop shaming people for their hard work and support them instead. Mmmm disgusting overpriced goop... yup definitely good purchase. I am not mindcontrolled sheep that just buys what is trending. I am not a sheep" Retarded gamers, probably on the way to another preorder

[@Asobinotori]

@Palantiri I see what you mean. The Gollum game is like pineapple-pizza. Pinapple is tasty for itself but doesn‘t really fit on a pizza. (For many people at least)And now you got a pineapple-pizza with bugs crawling all over it.

[@theavatarofinsanity]

"Can we stop normalizing this idea that we have WRONGED people by making something disappointing" just says it all.

[@Arendelft]

I know I'm in a minority here, but the thought of a Gollum game got me kinda excited. A rogue in the dark kind of game, but where if you're discovered, you don't have a chance of winning a straight up fight, where disengaging and running the moment your discovered are your only options, but if you can get the drop on a solo enemy, you can take them out. I could see that being something, if they did it right and story wise, play into the tragedy of Smeagol, the duality of Golumn. Give the character a moment where they could choose to have mercy or not, with consequences unique to each. Have flashbacks of horrible things Smeagol did to survive, things that caused Gollum to emerge in his mind. You can also show the evils of addiction through Gollum's desire for the Ring. Maybe you chose mercy a few times and Smeagol is emerging again when, in the Mines of Moria, he sees the Ring again for the first time in who knows how many years, and in that moment, it call comes crashing down. All the progress, all the headway he made, all gone as his hunger for the Ring consumes him. Could have been good with the right people.

[@princeofqrow3181]

Ok that's fine but you have to agree on one thing this game is not worth 60 to 70 bucks.

[@Pokeringo]

Yeah, as a niche game it would be acceptable. But 50-60$ for an unfinished indie game is too much. The fact that they added predatory sales tactics like paying DLC for emotes is disgusting too. Only big gamer companies who lost their credibility to their old customers are doing that.

[@TealWolf26]

Oh I like the concept. I like it a lot. But it needs to not be buggy and broken. Baseline.

[@Kal_g]

You know, I was thinking if this game was actually decent, I would have loved to see JSG play the game on stream with his Gollum voice. To me, that would have been Internet gold!

[@DEATH-THE-GOAT]

Yes! *GOLD!*

[@franciscorui]

Like a golden Ring?

[@DEATH-THE-GOAT]

@@franciscorui no more of a pubic ring 🤪

[@Threadnaught]

Even if the game sucks, it'd be fun to have him play it.

[@Kal_g]

@@DEATH-THE-GOAT Uh...alright...

[@gronkgrunk]

How to kill your industry 101. Always blame the paying customer.

[@maguffintop2596]

“He’s not a gaming character, he’s a tragic character.” You are not just some guy. You are BRILLIANT! I mean it.

[@CaptainRC1]

I'm surprised that you didn't mention No Man's Sky. That game was the gold standard for "promises made but not kept" when it was released.

[@comfortablynumb2970]

Absolutely true, but NMS has had an Epic redemption arc in the years since. It's become the gold standard for digging themselves out of the hole they made, IMHO.

[@NotMorganFreeman.]

Aliens Colonial Marines would like to have a word.

[@cosmog420]

ET caused the 1st video game crash, Gollum will cause the 2nd

[@ottagol1985]

I'm surprised that they made a game about Gollum to begin with.

[@drewhalcro6082]

Thing is, if you go to a restaurant and are not satisfied the restaurant WILL apologise.

[@danielmostert993]

No gamers. No gaming industry, People like this do not get that if you make garbage games you go broke. Broke companies cant pay off investors. Making good games is not just necessary, it is a strict requirement of being able to sustain your company.

[@cmdrfunk]

They do? Tons of companies release broken games all the time and they make money just fine. Overall, consumers just bend over and take it. There's exceptions but Bethesda and a number of others rake in cash regardless of releasing bug filled messes.

[@PeculiarNotions]

"Mediocre" is a generous description of that state of most AAA games, especially lately.

[@comradekitty3759]

Theres a reason there are recalls of equipment that fails. It wasn't up to par on what they promised. Maybe we need a thing like that for games if the games crash in 1st 5 min, npcs float vs walk, etc. Then it gets recalled and you can take back to store. (Then the stores get to deal with devs and companies instead of the customer.

[@henrymcbark7337]

i think you have two hours on stream. That if you dont like it you can return it for income

[@comradekitty3759]

@@henrymcbark7337 sadly gamestop walmart and others don't got that luxury

[@henrymcbark7337]

@@comradekitty3759 Hmmmm maybe not gamestop but maybe walmart and target would if you return in on the same day and just say you got the game for the wrong plateform

[@comradekitty3759]

@@henrymcbark7337 walmart might or they might only do exchange of same game for different consoles. I know the didn't except a book I bought the day before that was a duplicate of one I already had (very short return time on books they don't tell you about till to late)

[@KrytoRift]

Imagine if ford came out today after making a new model of escape where it only started half the time and the wheels constantly fell of, but their only reaponse was, "we dont work for you"

[@blackdragon5478]

I miss the days when game devs releases full, no micro transaction, and respectful games.

[@pranavnaiduraovelpula5811]

I miss the days when devs released games and not files.

[@DestroyerJamie]

As much as I mirror that sentiment, the truth is that the games industry always had its stinkers. The real problem is that within our community that's people that continue to support companies purely for their IP. CoD, Halo, Fallout, etc. Which allows them to be lazy, these people will always pre-order and shovel money to them just cause. Devs are getting too used to us paying them for beta testing access.

[@JohnDoe-zw8vx]

I'm glad you brought up that refunds aren't that easy. When Filippo wrote that, I wondered what fantasy world he lives in 😂

[@forgenorman3025]

Not just underwhelming, sometimes flat out broken! Just watched Kaif of Salt Raiders play it and he literally ran into a game-breaking bug!

[@V-RADIO]

I went and read more of his comments. He literally seems to live in a world wherein we as consumers are obligated to buy their product. They are entitled to OUR money. It's like they want to live in a reality that they can go to work every day and people will buy their product regardless of how well they did their job. They will collect their paychecks, and we will attempt to use their product and then delete it afterward.

[@BadNessie]

I just watched the trailers, and to be fair, it seems like they delivered what they promised. The non up-to-date graphics are visible, in the gameplay trailer Gollum just crawls, climbs and throws a rock at some point and there are environmental shots he's not visible in, so they must be from some sort of cut scenes. It was kind of possible to see it coming.

[@youmadbro3961]

Lol right? Whoever bought it has some blame as well

[@quantgeekery6358]

Interesting note: In many East Asian cultures the owner of a restaurant would apologize for a terrible meal even if it was for reasons out of their control. That shows an outcome orientation instead of an opportunity orientation. If everyone expects everyone *else* to be outcome oriented while they *themselves* are opportunity orie ted, the world is filled with delusional assholes that expect everyone to cater to their whim while they act like petty despots to anyone around them. If everyone believes the opposite: There Isa world of extreme accountability and conscientiousness that covers massive distrust in those around them.

[@CplYakob]

It's such a pisspoor analogy as well, since I probably wouldn't expect an apology from a restaurant that delivered a full meal that I just so happened to dislike. I *would* expect an apology however, if that same restaurant delivered me a half-eaten meal, missing most of its components, and served up on a broken plate that reads "our roadmap is to deliver a fix for this in the next 6-8 months".

[@ExtremeMan10]

​@@CplYakob weeb spotted

[@pugonadrone976]

@@ExtremeMan10 damn you’re so cool

[@voen]

That Guy doesn't seem to understand how money is made, don't spend a dime with him and see how long his company stays afloat!

[@katarinakremberg1319]

That is what makes me appreciate dev like Larian Studios for example. Not only have they been testing their upcoming Baldur's Gate game extensively since 2019, they also have allowed their players to playtest the first act of the game and taken their feedback into consideration. We need more devs like this, or like From software who always deliver

[@OmarLozanoArt]

Imagine the posibilites of having differents POVs in this game... starting as Gandalf, meeting with Aragorn to start looking for Gollum, change to Gollum escaping barad dur, then back to Aragorn when he finds him and bring him to Mirkwood, change to Gandalf doing something in the way to Mirkwood, then again Gollum trying to escape Mirkwood... I don't know, it hurts it's this bad

[@NerdettesNewsStand]

I miss the days when you got a game and it was playable with no day one patch... now I sound old

[@SilverSidedSquirrel]

Translation: "Wallet-slaves arent allowed to have free will! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!"

[@orionstark]

"the customer is always right."

[@BoomGiggity]

Companies used to hire beta testers. Now beta testers pay for the privilege.

[@soundcrave9490]

The thing with Jedi: Survivor was 1. The framrate issue was a problems for a couple days until DICE released one patch for it and it and 2. Even after the complaints, people still enjoy the game.

[@indecay8756]

A game can't be boring and mediocre at the same time.... if its boring then its definitely worse than mediocre

[@driguesbarcellos]

Weird logic

[@maxpudlowski8820]

Boring means the plot is uninspiring, no fun. The side quests consist of fetching items etc. Mediocre means the game mechanics, the riddles are easy, taken from other games without any improvements, graphics are from the last decade - not very bad, but not great either..

[@hideshisface1886]

@@maxpudlowski8820 Not exactly - what are the primary aspects of any game? Being able to play it, and being fun. Boring is anti-thesis of fun. The level of polish doesn't matter if these aspects fail. That is why we have very well received games that are objectively horribly buggy, yet people love them. Or games that are janky and weird. Take Kenshi for example - people love this game to bits, but it is objectively a bug infested jankfest that even comes with built in editor tools and ability to import saves from the main menu in case something inevitably messes up. But it is endlessly entertaining, partly because of that.

[@johngoldsworthy7135]

Boring and mediocre are not mutually exclusive

[@hideshisface1886]

@@johngoldsworthy7135 In terms of entertainment, they absolutely are, I'd say. Primary function of entertainment is... well.. entertaining. You entertain yourself to fight off boredom, not add to it. So if entertainment is boring, it, by definition, can't be mediocre, because it fails at being an entertainment.

[@cmdrfunk]

If you sold me a broken game, you've wronged me. And I may play your future games but I will be going to sailing to do so. You wrong me, I wrong you.

[@gibtsnicht1003]

Daedalic made very good point-and click adventures (Deponia Series/DSA - Satinavs Ketten + Memoria), so I don't understand why they didn't make one with LotR.

[@bencochrane6112]

"Stop calling me out for being crap at my job!"

[@phantomstarlight1366]

This is an issue I have been trying to push for a couple years now. Games should be released as a finished product or literally state that its not (like "early access" does). If it requires a day 1 patch, then it fails to live up to that and shouldn't be released until AFTER that day 1 patch is built into the game and thus not exist.

[@zmortis111]

I had it on my steam wishlist, but felt a bit hesitant so I waited for the first round of player based reviews to come out. After the first batch of player reviews I removed it from my list, money saved.

[@justareader____]

Not precious 🗿

[@mrpurple11]

😂this made me lol for real

[@nunyabizz8730]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@wraithreaper22]

I saw it, read the sentence about the "innocent" smeagle vs gollum part, decided the game was probably trash and skipped.

[@evildoughboy7773]

What is this guy talking about their job is literally to serve the Gaming Community with the product.

[@TheSo1963]

Beta testing seems to be non existed these days

[@cmdrfunk]

@@DruuzilTechGames And customers line up to do it willingly. I don't. I wait probably at least a year for almost every bigger game and at least a few months for a smaller one. And if the game did come out a buggy mess and i eventually play it, I won't have gotten it by paying for it. I don't reward these evil practices.

[@elgatochurro]

"companies providing a service aren't servants" What a take...

[@franciscorui]

It would've be better to make a game about the elves. They're always depicted as agile bad-asses, and sword and bow game would be fun.

[@Raptor302]

"I'd like a cheeseburger, please." *Tosses you a bun and a slice of cheese.* "We'll get you the beef in a month."

[@torva360]

"Developers aren't beholden to gamers." "Restaurants aren't beholden to eaters." "Plane manufacturers aren't beholden to airlines." "Films aren't beholden to an audience." If your company can't exist without people buying your product, you're beholden to your customers. To think otherwise is to plan to fail.

[@crownedshyness9656]

I loved it when Asmongold compared this game to make a game about Jar Jar Binks.

[@that1chickinFL]

I wanna hear snarky make the same argument for the company that made his car, or his smartphone. I'm sure he'd be totally cool with his brand new car being out of alignment, having the headlights point sideways, and needing 5 safety recalls within the first month.

[@eldarmark]

Game Journos who don't pay for games shocked paying customers might be upset that they got ripped off (after the Game Journos lied about the state of the game). Many such cases.

[@jeremiahgehrig5175]

The best part was that the ad before the video was for the Gollum game. And spot on on all points. Deliver what you promise and there will be much less complaining. You will still get some, but not roasted so badly that you even feel the need to apologize.

[@momaw_C1-10P]

Wonder what his employer thinks of his comments. The guy clearly doesn't get that a company is only as good as it's reputation.

[@kylepage7491]

Guy can't understand that people's expectations aren't the issue. His team's failure to meet bare minimum standards is the problem.

[@copyninja8756]

Was waiting for this

[@nelguinevere4036]

I saw a streamer play this yesterday. I am eternaly grateful to the chap for doing it. This game is comedy gold. Never play it, or at least never pay any money for it, but if you want to have a good laugh and a challenge of drinking a shot of vodka every time the streamer gets hysterical, just watch a stream. You will never get so drunk so quickly.

[@chrisbaker8533]

And where does the 'refund' for our wasted time come from?

[@reviewman]

6:34 well, you doing a good impression of one.

[@shanenolan5625]

But we wants it , we needs it ( gollum voice) . Kidding

[@neithanhador8841]

2023's version of ET: The Video Game. Wonder what landfill this will end up in?

[@PrincessFionaYT]

If you think you’re not a servant to your customer than you’re about to not have any customers. I’m sorry but that’s exactly what these guys are. They are begging us to give them our money so they need to give us something of equal value in return, and if they feel entitled to not do this, they’re going out of business.

[@evanthesquirrel]

This guy downy realize that his boss's boss IS the customer. To be fair, I'm not sure his boss realizes who his boss is.

[@swimmingmide]

What really needs to happen is to have Developers, coders, play testers, and all the people who actually make the games unionize and set standards for the industry. Right now it is the wild west for the gaming industry. You can put out what ever you want, promis the moon, and then just say we will patch it later when the game does not have a moon graphic. Have the people who make the games say we will not release this until it is done, most if not all bugs are fixed/not found, and it works as advertised.

[@frederiktigerdyr1403]

How will unionizing fix the issues you mention?

[@josie_the_valkyrie]

Unionising would lower the standards, not improve them…

[@trollinthedungeon5255]

You would also only get worse products. If you ever got them at all.

[@scottmcmahon86]

In the good old days, you could buy a new game and it would be pretty much all complete and good to go, albeit sometimes needing an occasional patch.. But now, things are so broken, I'm at the stage now where I'll often wait about a year when new games games come out until I actually buy the game and it has the requisite amount of patches and fixes are added to make it playable (hello Cyberpunk 2077). The "restaurant" metaphor here would be more like ordering chicken, getting a dish that's not properly cooked all the way through and ending up with food poisoning....

[@BALAOFMANDALORE]

Aye, first one here lessgo I can already tell this one is gonna be quite the trip lmao

[@MegaHalofan11]

This dev reminds me of those ignorant chefs you see in Kitchen Nightmares

[@PwnySlaystation01]

I actually thought the premise was a pretty decent one for a story-focused stealth game. Maybe even bordering on stealth/survival horror. You know, threats everywhere, you have no weapons to defend yourself etc. I think you could definitely do something with that premise. But yeah, they sure didn't.

[@Wolver101]

"or that they somehow work for you?" im so tired of this notion that companies "dont work for" their consumer. if they didnt they wouldnt make money

[@leachicm8821]

I remember beta testing the original FF14, back when we actually tested games. That game was so broke Square had to start over. It's funny how they stopped doing betas and these train wrecks started happening.

[@harbl99]

The industry are happy to use paying customers as unpaid beta testers and bug finders these days. Day one releases are shipped as untested minimum viable product.

[@christopherconard2831]

Or FO76. Bethesda got everyone hyped up to beta test their new game. Pretty much crashed coming out of the gate. They blamed server overload and players doing things to try and cause glitches. Overloaded servers are hard to blame when they had everyone sign up in advance, so they knew how many people would be logging in at one time. Players making use of glitches and exploits is nothing new for them. This has been a normal practice for Fallout/Bethesda players for the previous decade. What did they expect? Then, after a week of people finding dozens of problems they changed..... nothing. The game was a rage inducing, random crashing, glitch fest from the beginning. A massive day 1 patch fixed a few things, but created new problems. Another patch, more problems. Rinse repeat. Some of the patches and updates didn't even fix the problems they were supposed to. It took months and updates larger than the original game just to make it playable.

[@omil4632]

Look at games like No Man’s Sky, Scarlet/Violet, We Happy Few, Cyberpunk, etc. All games with lofty ideas that, for the most part, people wanted a refund due to various reasons. For years we didn’t hold them accountable for the trash they gave us and, now that we do, they don’t like it.

[@Thomas20Smith]

Basically that dev’s attitude is shut up and enjoy product then get excited for my next shit product. Those types of devs need to be purged from the industry

[@Hackmeister-TV]

We need to bring back the concept of a Demo.

[@HybridSnake]

His profile pic tells you everything you need to know about this shill.

[@TheSleepLes]

Ridiculous. You buy a game and then have the balls to demand that it works? The ENTITLEMENT!

[@Fatal2408]

Game was a giant load of 💩

[@benmiles00]

5:20 - that's actually illegal in Australia. Steam were fined for their pathetic no refund policy and companies refusing to give refunds for hard copies have also been fined.

[@johnnyfatsacks5209]

Wise old men have warned, "Buyer Beware"