When Ubisoft showed off their CG trailer for their upcoming Ghost of Tsushima knock-off, they were rightfully shit on for their anti-consumer need for an Internet connection for a single-player game, even if you have the physical copy of the game. The physical copy of the game is essentially a paperweight, when they close the servers for this game. Then there is the fact that they are locking story content behind pre-orders. The same thing as Star Wars: Outlaws. One would think, with all these things showing that Ubisoft is anti-consumer, people would wise up and not fork over money up-front. To say nothing of the fact that we have seen ZERO gameplay. The only trailer released is a cinematic.
With as many games has Ubisoft has released that follow the exact same formula to a T, you would think that gamers would FINALLY wise up and realize that paying full price for their copy-paste formula of open world sandbox games where the open world is boring and overly huge and the story is grindy and there are microtransactions that let you pay to win is a bad idea. Better to wait for a couple years and get the game for what it ultimately is worth. Or at the very least when Ubisoft irons out the bugs, which all of these games have at launch. Ubisoft is notorious for their game-breaking bugs with their AAA games at launch. Oh, wait, I’m sorry, their “AAAA” games now. Because that’s what they said about Skull and Bones at launch. Where’s that game at, again? Oh, right, nowhere.
But nope! Instead, the pre-orders are massively coming in. The gaming public hasn’t learned a goddamn thing. Of course they haven’t. This shit ALWAYS happens! We are given EVERY reason to be skeptical, to learn from a company’s history and not indulge their stupidity twice, but instead what do we do?! We give them our money! Well, your money. I ain’t paying for this shit. I can replay Ghost of Tsushima, save my money, and wait for the sequel to that to come out. I get the feeling it is going to be announced this summer. Sony is teasing something big with their summer presentation. I have high hopes.
Ubisoft does this shit, over and over again, and they are never punished for it. They suffer ZERO repercussions for their actions. Instead, people pop open the wallet for them. I don’t get it! I’m starting to think that gamers deserve to be ripped off. When the reviews come out, talking about how this game has some cool elements, but they are held back by a world that is BORING and a world that is massive but not fun to explore, with all the same pitfalls as every other Ubisoft sandbox for it, they will still have sold millions of copies and make obscene amounts of money off the pay-pigs who will indulge the microtransactions so they can pay to win. Or, more likely, pay to get ahead for the final area that will have these HUGE level requirements, just so they can force people to either grind, or cough up cash.
I have no sympathy for people who indulge this madness. I really don’t. If you are one of these people who doesn’t even pay attention to the signs that should be painfully obvious to wait on this game, then you deserve the disappointment you get when it comes out and you are spending 40 hours grinding away for a place that is deliberately over-leveled, with the goal to force you to pony up irl money to get past it. You deserve the tedious collectibles and fetch-quests that are boring and just pad out the game’s length. You deserve the bugs that will have you falling through the map, or people’s faces as ghoulish textures, or have stealth not work because the environment mechanics are broken. That’s what it’s going to be, people! Over a decade of history with Ubisoft that informs this!
So why do people pony up cash anyway?! Part of me thinks it’s because the average gamer just doesn’t care. Or doesn’t pay attention. They didn’t see the stuff about the predatory practices with Ubisoft. They just saw “Assassin’s Creed game set in Japan!” and it was off to the races. The average gamer doesn’t do their due diligence to make sure they are not being jerked around. They just see the latest thing, and that’s all they need to know. The mafia wives of this industry. The enablers who enable these companies to screw over the consumer. You have no idea how much I want to do as Red says, and have my foot end up in these people’s ass.
Because this problem doesn’t get better while people are still engaging with it! That’s the thing that everyone seems to miss about all of this. There is a real issue here, but it won’t improve while people keep indulging these fuckers! But you can’t tell that to the average gamer, who either doesn’t know, or worse, doesn’t care. These people exist to be ripped off. And I just don’t get how nobody sees this coming. Then people will complain on Steam and various forums about this game, and for people like me, it will be – did you pre-order it? You did? Then shut up about the issues. You were warned, by Ubisoft. You had all the tools at your disposal to not make a stupid choice with your money. Guess you decided not to do that.
Until next time, a quote,
“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” – HL Mencken
Peace out,
Maverick
Lucien Maverick's Den 