I'm pissed at the Gaming Industry

I was once told by my sister that I was not born with an umbilical cord, it was more of a video cord. Ever since I was young, I have always loved video games. Imagine my surprise on Christmas morning in the 1990s when I opened one of my presents and got a Super Nintendo. I remember begging my parents to get me one because they were THE thing back then. I grew up in the original Nintendo era where you had to blow the cartridges if the game wasn’t working right. Those were the days.

Video games have come a long way since the 1990s. Technology has advanced so much and so far. Everything from the latest and greatest PCs and video game consoles with the latest graphics. Virtual Reality commonly known as VR is highly popular as well with millions of people taking to their Oculus headsets daily to play their favorite games. I’ve never personally tried it but I’ve heard nothing but good things.

Many people within my circle know that I’m a huge gamer. My absolute obsession right now is Final Fantasy XIV Online. I made the move from World of Warcraft to Square Enix’s popular MMORPG in the wake of Blizzard’s true colors emerging after fifteen years of throwing money at the company only to realize they don’t give two shits about the players. All they care about is the big P - Profit. After damning evidence of their shitty business practices and not to mention how much of a dumpster fire Shadowlands is, I was done. The final nail in the coffin for me personally was how the staff who created the games that I loved were being treated behind the scenes. Nope. Blizzard is never getting another dime out of me.

A second game that was dear to my heart was Destiny 2, Bungie’s massively popular first-person shooter. I say WAS because I can’t bring myself to play it; not right now at least. Bungie brought it upon themselves to lock their newest dungeons behind their newest expansion due next year: The Witch Queen. Here’s the problem: Bungie decided to lock the new content BEHIND either the Deluxe edition which values at about $80 or if you’re floating in money, the 30th-anniversary edition which values around $100; This means that someone who buys the standard edition is screwed because they are expected to upgrade to a more expensive edition of the game to play some of the newest content.

This pissed me off to the point that I haven’t opened Steam since. I know some people might find that selfish but in my absolute opinion, this is a very bad move on Bungie’s part. They have NEVER done this before; sure they required the Season Pass for some exclusive stuff but nothing as scummy as locking new content away unless you shell out the cash for the “Shiny” version of the game.

It takes a lot to make me lose respect for a company. With everything going on with Blizzard and their dumpster fire and now Bungie with this fiasco, my heart breaks. Two of the games I loved I refuse to play because developers aren’t thinking about the players, just profit. I was with Destiny 2 when it went live. I cheered them on when they told Activision to take a hike and became an independent developer. I was with Blizzard when Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, Battle for Azeroth, and Shadowlands went live for the first time. As soon as I found out Blizzard was always a shitty company, I automatically canceled my subscription and that broke my heart. I made some friends in that game which carried over to FFXIV thankfully so it’s not like I lost friends.

The gaming industry needs to do better.