Battle passes and most microtransactions in games. Day one patches, and GaaS games, always online games and expiring media licenses. VAC bans on Steam.
I bought a game a few years ago (can’t remember which one) and there was barely anything on the disc! My xbox copied maybe 100MB of data from the disc, and had to download the remaining 30+ GB. The disc is essentially just a giant license key these days.
It made me think of this revolutionary idea: Why not finish the game before the deadline, and put the game on the disc? Wow.
Oh, yeah, that’s the new normal, I’m a bit surprised they gave you a whole 100MB to call your own.
The modern Dad pro-move for giving the kids a game console for Christmas is to sneak the box open, set it up, do all the ridiculous downloads and patches then sneak it all back into the box nice and tidy so that the kids can just open it and go on Christmas morning.
Oh, yeah, that’s the new normal, I’m a bit surprised they gave you a whole 100MB to call your own.
…and then you realize that they will eventually shut the online service down for that console and you won’t be able to play the game you bought anymore at all, despite buying a physical copy.
Wait, why VAC bans? You need to earn those by cheating in a multiplayer game. Ultimately, the game company is responsible for combating cheating and moderating the game, otherwise its value is plummetting. Also, you get warnings first / time bans till you get caught too many times doing the same thing.
Because they’re automatic and irreversible, and mistakes happen. I once worked for a different game company that auto banned people from games too, but I know at least some of them didn’t, it ability to detect wasn’t perfect and we absolutely banned people from time to time incorrectly. We just left people with no recourse and pretended that just wasn’t possible. We never reversed our bans either.
I think that expecting no day 1 patches is kind of unreasonable. More specifically for PC games at least. It’s really not the end of the world if they have to fix a few bugs in the first couple of days. It’s the companies that don’t fix broken content for weeks or even months+ that are problematic. It’s not like back in the day where they could ship a game out and know exactly what equipment people are gonna have. People are playing Skyrim on toasters ffs no company is gonna get it exactly right for everyone at launch. I’m pretty forgiving for the most part as long as they communicate and make it up to the players when appropriate. I have considerably less patience for bigger companies that release dumpster fires or incomplete games on purpose. They can rot.
It’s actually pretty reasonable for console games as well, if not more so. Because consoles get physical releases, they need to put a version of the game onto the disk/cartridge long enough before the launch date to produce, ship, and stock the game where ever it gets sold. So the physical release gets a 1.0.0 version, and by the launch date, whatever other bug fixes and the like we’re done get pushed as a day one update.
How are day one patches a “scam” exactly? Maybe they’re inconvenient, but calling it a “scam” is a bit of a stretch. There’s really nothing malicious about the idea at all. Also VAC bans, really?
I know people who used to work in game QA work, the key term is used to, the work isn’t there anymore. Yes those jobs literally still exist, but it’s not like it used to be, they’re almost always contractors and where they used to hire in droves, the cycles are shorter and more last minute, with less people.
The dirty truth is that day one patches are a result of trading a release date for money - they budget for releasing, getting money from the sales, and using that to pay the last part of development. They’re borrowing against the future, and they collect so much data from games that they get to effectively test games they know are not finished on consumers.
I should’ve added patents as well. They both have a purpose, which is to compensate creators and researchers. Although I agree with that purpose, imagine how much further society could progress if we could freely build upon each others creations, as soon as they come out. I believe medicine, technology, and art would benefit immensely. The ones who benefit the most from patents and copyright are for profit corporations anyways. It seems like the whole thing works against society, rather than for it.
The best part is it didn’t really start as a scam. It started as “health assurance” in which you paid a membership fee and they covered all your medical expenses.
Before I agree with that one I’d have to add some more details. Patents–entering the details of your invention into the public record in exchange for temporary exclusive right-of-way over the monetization of your product, after which it becomes public domain for others to expand upon–is a good idea. It hasn’t been managed particularly well of late, but the concept is sound.
Copyrights as a concept are great. They’re meant to protect inventors/creators by giving them guaranteed exclusivity over the implementation of an idea or the sale and use of a product.
The problem is the fucking things can be held by corporations, and keep getting extended to ridiculously long durations.
The concept of the patent office is a genuine one of too idealistic. Having been through the process it did feel like they pushed back for revisions with the sole intention of squeezing some more money out of the filer. Perhaps like insurance companies rejecting every claim initially.
The protection it affords is questionable. It’s really just a 1st place ribbon you can bring to court if you have the money to sue somebody copying you… A lot of that is glorified brand warfare: if you’re too similar to WD40 they’ll sue you regardless of what’s in your can.
Though originally encouraged to be layman friendly it now strongly uses overly technical jargon to obscure the invention while still legally protecting it.
That said, it holds a lot of collective knowledge that us nerd types can reference when innovating. Otherwise that knowledge is locked up in private corporate data stores or college curriculums. It’s the original open source repo. It eeks out a win in the big picture despite the abuses capitalism inflicts on it.
Thankfully they make their products easy to pirate. I didn’t mind forking over for Photoshop & Premiere CS6, but there’s no way in hell I am paying a regular subscription fee for CC. They already have my money.
In the ideal situation, resources are transformed into goods with zero waste and with fair compensation for every person involved in that process. Any expense outside of costs and pay for the people involved is either inevitable inefficiency due to our imperfect technology or the laws of physics, or it is some sort of scam, and thus profit itself is a scam.
Profit represents surplus value that can be excersized to either sustain an organization when demand is low or to increase productivity through expansion. If there was no profit then all businesses would be on the verge of collapse at all times
I’d argue profit is essential to capitalism, which of course is probably you meant, blaming capitalism I mean. I think charging interest on debt (some of which you are essentially forced to borrow) is what is truly scandalous. Sure it makes sense when it is oversimplified, and told from the point of view of the banks who need to make an honest living by risking money, but money is created from thin air from loans, so the whole thing makes no sense imo.
Profit is older than capitalism; capitalism is a particularly egregious form of it, but it is profit itself - intentional inefficiency in the conversion of resources to usable product, for the purpose of benefiting those creating the inefficiency that I refer to.
In theory, something very close to capitalism could exist without profit - with everyone getting back only a fair and appropriate compensation for their part in the process. It’s the 'put in a little and get back infinite returns ’ part that makes capitalism specifically a problem.
I’ll try to list things that aren’t in the typical internet echo chamber. Bring on the controversy. These are just my opinions.
50% of the shelf space at the grocery store is just different forms of corn syrup, sometimes with some trans fat mixed in, generationally twisting our idea of what food is in a race to the cheapest, most addictive product.
The only way it’s profitable for someone to knock on your door to sell ANYTHING is if they are obscenely inflating the price (think 100-600% markup)
Most supplements, especially expensive ones with TV ads
Dr Scholl’s and the goodfeet store
Genuine leather is just about the opposite of what you’d think
Bamboo fabric which is pretty much just a different way to say rayon but is pitched as a revolutionary and environmentally friendly cloth
Most bladeless fans just hide fan blades in the base
Many cleaning products don’t do better than diluted soap and water (even for sanitizing) especially the ones with TV ads
Financial planners who are actually financial product salespeople
Most single-purpose kitchen gadgets, especially as-seen-on-TV
The realtors racket: I just paid $30k for an internet posting and mediocre advice
Many personal hygiene products are just repackaging the same two or three active ingredients by the same one or two megacorporations
Essential oils (even ignoring mystical claims) big names charge an order of magnitude higher than they should
I believe he’s referring to “Genuine” leather as an industry term. Genuine leather is really low quality leather (but still comes from a cow). “Full grain” leather is what most people think of when talking about leather products.
The only thing worse than genuine is bonded, which is the plywood of leathers.
For some reason I was under the impression that “suede” was high quality. Is it just desirable because the collagen bundles are loose, and raise to make the surface fuzzy? Because it certainly isn’t durable, but my full grain backpack is.
Your list makes me realize just how far we peddle bullshit in our society. Virtually everything is lying to you, if only by omission or by being misleading. If you don’t know about cars, finance, food, technology, laws, housing, virtually anything, you will be taken advantage off, if only a little. Pretty much your whole list is spot-on, and it could go on for pages. Toothpaste? They’re lying about the quantity. You think your orange juice is healthy because it is very, very heavily suggested? Nope, it is old oranges with a lot of sugar. Anyway, I am not gonna type the entire comment I want to because it would become very rant-y.
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