Ah, my hard line stance of “never buy anything ubisoft” is still working out for me.
Ubisoft, epic, ea, Blizzard/Activision…
I wont say Bethesda because I’m hoping for another Doom or Quake.
_EA is the fucking devil. They bought my favorite game, Ultima Online, and ruined it. _
I don’t mind in-game ads printed on in-map billboards and stuff, but ads that interrupt gameplay? Fuck that. Especially if you’ve paid for the content.
Gaming has been following the shitty trends of video streaming companies for a while now. I bought RDR2 on the Steam sale to finally play through and immediately refunded it when I saw they force you to sign in with a Rockstar account. I don’t want any offline games where I have to sign in.
I remember putting a cartridge into a console and powering on to an immediate start screen. There shouldn’t be EULA or T&C prompts or inescapable splash screens on timers for any of these games. There shouldn’t be standalone studio launcher applications that take up nearly a GiB of hard drive. Nobody wants them, nobody is impressed by them, and it takes away from the fun. It seems I’m done with all Blizzard, Origin, and Rockstar games for good now, where in the past I would’ve gladly shelled out $$$ for deluxe and ultimate editions like a chump.
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I don’t mind a little ad in the menu, about stuff directly related to game I’m playing. Those little “Hey we released a new content dlc to this exact game” infos can actually be informative. What I really can’t stand is stuff breaking the immersion of the game. I’m not even mad about product placements, when they fit the theme and are sparsely used.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was probably the best game of this year (?), but it has an advert for the DLC as soon as you launch it
However, it’s also probably one of the least-bad “triple A” games of this year when it comes to overall monetisation, that singular DLC of cosmetics and the soundtrack being the only one available
Unfortunately, I think this one is a losing battle
Advertising dlc is ok in my opinion, it’s for the product you’re using and not everyone checks for new dlc
I was going to ask where the ad was, but I forgot that I turned off the launcher specifically because of that. I have no idea about PS but you can add the following on PC to skip the lau8
--skip-launcherYeah, you absolutely can, but knowing to do that means that the advert has already delivered its message to you.
Futzing around with the launcher settings seems like more work than just clicking “no” on an advert that pops up.
You’re right, once. But adding that one time means I never have to see the launcher again. Clicking no means extra launch time and looking at it every time I launch the game.
But different strokes for different folks. If it’s not worth it to you then that’s cool. It was worth it for me and I thought I’d drop that for anyone else who may want it.
The first time I saw Ubisoft doing this was actually kinda neat because it was done well.
It was Rainbow Six Vegas/Vegas 2 and the billboards and posters scattered around were real ads. I thought it was a clever way to improve immersion.
Funny, cause nothing breaks immersion faster for me than product placement.
The way they did it was actually, dare I say, tasteful. Basically the only time you’d see ads is when realistically it’d be likely for a poster or bill board to be present.
I remember one map was set at an exports event and they had esports sponsors everywhere.
The way they did it was actually, dare I say, tasteful. Basically the only time you’d see ads is when realistically it’d be likely for a poster or bill board to be present.
Placement isn’t the issue though.
If you recognize it as a legit/real advertisement, that breaks the immersion.
Your mind thinks “Why am I paying money to watch commercials?”, and that breaks the immersion of whatever virtual world you’re in at the time.
If the game is set in the “real world”, an advertisement for a fake brand of a real product is, to me at least, more immersion breaking than it being a real brand for that product. Now if the game isn’t set in our world it’s a completely different story.
The thing though is that the real advertisement will remind you that you paid money to watch a commercial, and that’s where the immersion breaking happens.
With a fake ad you know you didn’t pay real money to some other real human being somewhere else, and that your purchase went just for the recreational value of the game you’re playing.
In other words, it’s not the content of the ad, but the realization that it’s a real ad, regardless of it’s content, that’s immersion-breaking.
Clever or not, you’re not paying to watch advertisements, you’re paying to play a game as a recreational activity.
If you buy a Ubisoft game in this day and age there is no way you don’t know what you are getting into and the kind of shitty company you are supporting, and you still support it, and its practices, by buying their shit.
So you have absolutely zero right to bitch, moan, and be upset about the very Ubisoft style shit that Ubisoft does.
You do have a right to criticize bad business.
If you willfully stick your arm into a raging fire after decades of warnings not to, You don’t get to complain about the fire after it hurts you, or how much it hurt you, or anything else.
You’ve made your choice, now shit down, and shut up, because no one wants to hear it about how bad it is that you ignored every warning and sign and even common fucking sense.
edit
So many fucking butt hurt idiots cradling their metaphorically burnt arms and demanding sympathy around here, i swear.
You, for one, seem way better adjusted than anybody who willy-nilly sticks their arm into raging fires.
I know not to buy from known shitty companies, that they only get shittier with time and monetary support via continuing to purchase their crap.
It doesnt take a particularly massive intellectual might to figure that out, but apparently that is just expecting to much from the average gamer.
Your username is very fitting
Can we boycot the companies that do this already. I get the AC IP is nice, I’ve certainly enjoyed my fair share of their games.
But the ad industry is completely getting derailed. What’s next ? Watch a 15s promo video every time you want to open te fridge? Watch a promo video before you can open the door?
Have your walls randomly show you ads?
Stop buying their shit. Regardless of how decent the game is. Punish them for the predatory practices. Demand refunds.
But no. People will likely be outraged, and then next game angry and then the next game they’ll suck it all up and complain about the good all days.
#remindmein5years
I always thought the cyberpunk genre was a warning, not a blueprint.
When piracy becomes more convenient to actually play the game sail those ships boys
It won’t be long for publishers to offer cloud gaming platform only exclusive titles.
Gamers continue to tell these companies that they’ll put up with anything while complaining online and continuing to purchase shitty games from shitty companies. Rinse and repeat.
This is 90% on consumers. Stop buying shit if you want change and I mean in any industry.
this is what companies want you to think. it’s like expecting drivers to be sensible so that we can reduce deaths from traffic accidents. it’s not a solution. we have traffic lights, seat belts, all sorts of security systems and regulations on car manufacturers (though not nearly enough).
consumer protection doesn’t happen by telling everyone to be sensible. regulation is needed.
And how do we get that, bud?
One congressperson at a time.
Hahahahahahahaha hahahahahah…
You got a better alternative, than pulling down your pants and bending over?
You think voting in a system built to keep those in power and those like the ones in power isn’t functioning exactly as intended? Are you 12? Grow up.
Are you 12? Grow up.
Noticed you’re not answering the question…
You got a better alternative, than pulling down your pants and bending over?
though not nearly enough)
Yes…there’s enough. There’s a reason a new car costs 30k. We don’t need radar, adaptive cruise, and fucking front facing cameras (yes, thats a real thing) standard.
I just want a heavy duty roll cage, a 200cc engine, and seat belts. All for 2k.
(The car safety standards are a sore point for me)
Enshittification infects all.
I think we can stop this one at least
E: word
This is what I thought when micro transactions in paid games started around 10 years ago. I was wrong.
Ubi will pull the classic pretwnt it was an accident, then in two years slowly roll it out. People will kick and scream, but still buy their shit. Then it’ll become normalized and slowly get worse. Next gen of kids growing up used to this won’t know what the big deal is when we complain.
Same cycle over and over with all kinds of stuff over the past 20 years.
Fair AAA will always have a core demo who don’t care as long as their addiction is fed, but I think the fuss we raise should at least keep it out of the majority of games, and make people implementing it feel kind of scummy, so that’s something.
Like MTX are relegated to a very specific “type” of game which is instantly identifiable, and not that well regarded compared to more, uh, pure (?) games.
Summed up: ads and dark patterns will always work on a certain segment of the population, but they don’t necessarily get to be seen as normal or cool.
Take it back…call it defective. Fuck that shit, I don’t care how good the game is, they’re not getting my money ever again.
