"Online, the Ruination of the Gaming Industry"

Growing up I was privileged to have participated in the best era of gaming to ever grace this world. As a gamer of the 80's, and 90's I got to enjoy years worth of quality gaming content on the offline consoles of yesteryear. What made this experience so grand, and memorable was the fact that every game, and product released by Nintendo, Sony, and the likes were of the highest quality possible. Nintendo, for example knew that as a rising gaming company they would have to pour their heart, and soul into the product, and do so in a single fell swoop. You have to understand that game releases back then were a one shot deal. They were created on cartridges, or CD discs that could not be altered after they hit the store shelves. There were no such things as patches, or bug fixes available to the programmers who helped make the games. It wasn't until later years that the introduction of online features became a thing, and began to become a mainstay in the world of gaming entertainment. As year after year passed the simple cartridge, and CD based consoles that we loved, and admired became more, and more like the PC experience that we hoped they wouldn't be. Game developers were eventually able to introduce online play, online patching, and a digital marketplace that would make going to the local gaming store a thing of the past.

The more, and more the industry leaned towards innovative solutions, and next-gen offerings the more the developers, and gaming companies lost touch of the quality production that had made them so noteworthy in the first place. Gaming business practices became more about money intake, and less about getting a gaming idea out there that would impress hundreds of thousands of gamers. Thus greed slowly, but surely worked it's way into the marketplace in the guise of online marketing practices. Subtly at first the gaming companies of yesteryear, and today introduced an amazing interactive genre of gaming known as "Online Gaming". Once the "hook" was secure, and the consumer took the bait the companies we had grown to trust began to whittle away at our hard earned money, and the hobby that we had grown so fond of.

Marketing practices such as charging full price for an unfinished product, and charging for content that should have been a part of the video game experience from the beginning became a dreadfully popular trend amongst game developers, and console makers alike. The unfortunate thing about it all was that most gamers still emptied their pockets for these incomplete gaming experiences. Instead of speaking with their wallets a majority of the gaming population accepted this as "The Norm". Seeing that they could get away with their greedy money making schemes developers, and gaming companies to this day continue to think up ways to beat the consumer out of their earnings. It is this mixture of greed, and addictive online gaming that has become the downfall of one of the entertainment industry's finest creations.

In a hopeful world one could sit idly by thinking to themselves that this is merely a passing fad which could be easily fixed by other gamers. Gamers, other than ourselves could begin speaking with their wallets, and demand their money's worth. In turn their collective actions, or lack thereof would make for a better gaming scenario all the way around. Unfortunately I feel that fixing the situation is so far gone of an opportunity that it will never see the light of day. If we were to speak with our wallets at this point the gaming companies we want to see do right by us would go bankrupt, and would not be able to provide us with the gaming experiences that we seek. I think the corporate bigwigs know this, and are using it to their advantage.

Of course there are still ways around the whole gaming industry Armageddon. Gaming development companies could start by simply providing DLC-free releases. This small yet huge step would gain the confidence of consumers, and would no doubt increase sales for the gaming companies who choose to utilize this method of self-promotion. More sales means more profit. While nickel, and diming for content that should have been included in the first place might seem more profitable imagine selling more than usual amounts of newly released games at their initial retail value. You'd end up at the same price profit range, or possibly even a greater one. Gamers would fight for your games, especially if they are complete from the start. Once you gain the consumers' trust concerning your practice of releasing complete gaming experiences you will no doubt sell more than you have in years.

Secondly, online games that are released with the immediate need of patches, and bug fixes should not be a commonplace thing. Put into place an effective Beta program for your game in which gamers can send you their input via console. I for one hate giving input on a Beta, because it's a heck of a lot of trouble to sign up for a game forum just so that I can tell the developer what bugs/issues I run into. I know for a fact that gaming companies who release these Betas often times don't get the proper amount of community input that they seek due to the aggravating methods required to do so. If a proper method of bug reporting is put into place, and made available via the console you'll more than likely not have to depend on the gamers who hate you for not getting the issues fixed before release.

Thirdly, you'll find that one of online gaming's greatest stigmas is the lack of a proper banning, and reporting system. The fact of the matter is that gaming companies often skimp out on this important feature since it requires more work, more staff, and more money to implement. As such hackers often times get away with things that they wouldn't have otherwise. Sony's PSN complaint system is a prime example of what not to do in a security risk scenario. If you are still playing online on the PS3, or even the PS4 you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. For one thing Sony's website based complaint form often times does not work. Your complaint will usually not go through because the complaint form recognizes odd words (including PSN IDs) as being unacceptable terms. As such filing a complaint is a waste of time, because you cannot mention the person you are trying to report. As far as their "Grief" report system goes it is just as useless as the online complaint form. In fact this method of reporting only becomes available if a person sends you a message. The added fact that the report options are only geared towards spam, and cussing/threats limits the options of a gamer who wishes to report an in-game hacker.

It is obvious to me that Sony, and other well known console creators don't want to deal with any complaints these days. Sadly this is likely the reason they've had so many hacking incidents in the past, and is why they'll likely have more in the future. When you allow hackers to do as they want within your console's online infrastructure you are asking for something bad to happen regardless if you want it to, or not. In order to fix the situation (which I don't imagine Sony, or any other console maker will) you simply have to put into place a reporting/banning system that is monitored by game developers and console makers alike. This possible remedy however is void due to the binding agreements we digitally signed earlier this year. The gaming big wigs know that we have no chance of winning in court against them, and as such they take our money a run leaving us with a less than perfect gaming experience. They could care less about our experiences online. All they see is dollar signs.

It is this realization that once again hits me like a ton of bricks. In one corner we have gaming bigwigs that are all about the money, and in the other corner we have money hungry game developers who are looking for their share of the profit. We, the consumer are on the sidelines handing out our money like bread crumbs for the birds hoping that one day we'll find the noteworthy entertainment we so desperately seek. In the end there is no hope for gaming though. Slowly, but surely it will die out, and make way for a new brand of entertainment, perhaps something that harkens back to the the day of gladiatorial events, or prostitution? The only hope there was has long since faded, and that my friends was when quality was replaced with greed back at the merging of offline, and online gaming. In closing all I can offer you in the way of comfort is that there's still quality gaming to be found in the retro console creations of yesteryear. You can't go wrong with retro.

"Online is the Achilles' heel of the gaming industry."
                                       
- Brad (OtakuDante) -