- 6 weeks ago
Video games will pander to your basest instincts whenever possible.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00So the video game industry is now bigger and more lucrative than it has ever been,
00:04registering global revenue upwards of $180 billion last year, far outpacing the profits
00:11generated by even Hollywood. But here's the thing, it is a very saturated market as well,
00:16and so you're going to have to do a lot to stand out, to make people want to buy your title and
00:20sit down and engage with it for between 30 to 100 hours. And therefore some publishers,
00:25developers and advertisers have gotten a little desperate when it's come to getting you to play
00:29their games. So let's take a look at them today, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:33and these are the 10 most desperate ways video games got you to play.
00:3710. Bullshots and misleading trailers
00:40Perhaps the single most nefarious way that a desperate publisher can try and entice you to
00:45play their game is to straight up lie about it. Or, if we're going to be polite, which we're not,
00:50mislead is the term we're looking for. Bullshots is another term that stands for promotional images
00:55and trailers for a game which aren't in fact representative of its final release quality.
01:00In extreme cases, this might lead to something like the infamous Killzone 2 E3 2005 trailer,
01:05which was actually
01:06but ended up being used to sell both the game and the power of the PS3, absolutely inaccurately of course.
01:14Oops, developers might even straight up mislead the public about the content of their game,
01:28like Hello Games over-promising what No Man's Sky would offer straight out of the box.
01:32Whether the marketing has overstated a game's graphical or gameplay merits, the result is
01:37almost entirely the same. Frustration from players who feel that they've been duped into spending cash
01:41on an experience different from the one that was advertised.
01:459. Being as edgy as humanly possible
01:47Less deceitful, though arguably more annoying than bullshot culture, is the tendency for some
01:53developers to make a living by pandering to the surprisingly lucrative, edgelord contingent of
01:58players. This isn't to say that games shouldn't challenge social norms or ask provocative questions,
02:03but far too often developers will willfully create offensive and objectionable material simply to
02:08ride the wave of anti-PC fervor, because of course, as the saying goes, controversy creates cash.
02:14Perhaps the most outrageous example in recent years is Hatred, the game in which players control
02:19a mass-murdering misanthrope, with the only goal being to slaughter as many innocent human
02:23beings as possible before he dies. Less a game created out of artistic inspiration than a lazy
02:28attempt to cash in on reactionary politics, Hatred was critically reviled and yet a considerable
02:34commercial success. So the ruse, unfortunately, worked.
02:378. Promising to make up for previous failures
02:40We're all sick and tired of corporate apologies from video game publishers who've basically
02:45attempted to swindle players and been categorically called out for it. And no company has more
02:50egregiously attempted to wipe the slate clean with an insincere promise to do better next time
02:55than EA with their treatment of the rebooted Star Wars Battlefront franchise.
02:592015's Battlefront was broadly praised for its graphics and gameplay, yet many were left
03:04colossally disappointed at the lack of release content, feeling that EA was basically milking
03:08the cash cow in a supremely half-arsed way.
03:11But when it came time to marketing 2017's sequel, EA held their hands up and acknowledged that the
03:17original Battlefront was a relatively piecemeal experience on launch. They promised that Battlefront
03:222 would be considerably more content-rich, with a full narrative campaign and all DLC arriving
03:27free for players. Now, everyone makes mistakes, for sure, but billion-dollar corporations aren't
03:32people, remember? They're money-motivated behemoths, driven to see how much bad-faith
03:36behaviour they can get away with in the pursuit of colossal profits. And so, it shouldn't have
03:41been surprising when EA's pre-release spiel about Battlefront 2 was, frankly, a load of
03:46toss.
03:46For starters, the campaign was a thoroughly naff, low-effort affair, and the multiplayer was derided
03:51for its slow-progression system, which appeared to incentivise microtransactions above anything
03:56else. Now, EA did eventually work the game into better shape, but at this point, the damage had
04:00already been done. After all, as the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame
04:06on me. The response to Battlefront 2 was volatile enough that an expected third game never actually
04:12arrived, allegedly in part due to the high licensing costs involved with making Star Wars video games
04:17in the first place.
04:187. Nostalgia Pandering
04:20Ah, nostalgia. It's one hell of a drug, right? Hollywood has perhaps proven more than any
04:26other entertainment medium the intoxicating power of dredging up people's childhoods and
04:30selling it back to them with a shiny new lick of paint. But gaming isn't that far behind
04:35either, with publishers well aware that raking over their legacy hits is much easier than actually
04:40coming up with a compelling new IP or ideas.
04:43Sonic Mania, a game which single-handedly reversed years and years of critical misfortune for
04:48the platformer series, and yet one which largely functioned as a reimagining of its earlier,
04:53better entries. By creating familiar but different remixes of the franchise's most iconic levels,
04:58Sega was able to pander to players' gravitation towards familiar comfort food, yet offer just
05:03enough new content to not be outright self-cribbing. The Pokemon franchise has perhaps been most criticised
05:09for dining out on its prior successes and failing to bring sufficient innovation, while the gaming
05:13industry's current obsession with remakes and remasters is further indicative of the commercial
05:17viability of the past. And we, as consumers, are certainly pretty much to blame here, because if it
05:22didn't work, they'd stop doing it. This isn't to say that nostalgia can't be invoked in creative
05:27and interesting ways. I mean, take Final Fantasy VII Remake's interesting new take on the original story,
05:32but it often feels like a crutch that imagination-devoid developers lean on for easy profits.
05:376. Introducing Goofy Peripherals Nothing screams desperation quite like a clunky
05:43peripheral being packaged with the latest entry into a hit video game franchise in an attempt to salvage
05:48flagging sales. There's no single example of this more egregious than Tony Hawk Ride, which released
05:54in 2009 as the skate series' best days were long behind it, and hoped to rekindle its connection with
05:59players en masse by releasing an accompanying plastic skateboard peripheral. In the era of Guitar Hero,
06:05it wasn't a terrible idea, even if it clearly was a Hail Mary pass to try and rescue a franchise on the
06:10commercial skids. The end result sadly confirmed the full extent of the desperation. The skateboard
06:16peripheral was a fiddly, unresponsive disaster, and releasing it to the tune of $120 simply hammered
06:22another nail in the series' coffin. External peripherals are admittedly a drastic enough
06:27step that few games even dare to implement them. I mean, the financial risk massively outweighs the
06:31potential for successful market innovation, which really only further confirms just how desperate
06:36Activision were on the Tony Hawk franchise. Ultimately, it won fans back not with silly,
06:42clunky plastic skateboards, but in a feat of nostalgic pandering, remaking the beloved first two games in the
06:48series. 5. Releasing Things as Free to Play
06:51There's perhaps no simpler way to entice somebody to play a video game than telling them that they don't
06:56need to pay a penny to do so. As such, the free-to-play movement has flourished in recent
07:01years, with publishers realising the lucrative potential of luring players in with no upfront fee
07:06before charging them for all the extra stuff. Some games handle this much better than others.
07:11There are many great free-to-play games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Warframe, and so on that
07:15don't design their gameplay in an excessively predatory or exploitative way, but there are so many
07:21more that do the absolute bare minimum to hook addiction-prone players and then attempt to milk
07:25them for every possible buck through pay-to-win mechanics, heavily incentivising them to part with
07:30their real-world cash for a superior experience. And I mean, the most recent free-to-play disaster was
07:35Konami's eFootball 2022, which launched in an extremely compromised state, all while Konami busily
07:42shield expensive premium DLC packs to anyone with a functioning pair of eyeballs. Publishers are well aware
07:48that most players won't fall for these tactics, so they're always after the whales, a rather
07:53dehumanising term the industry uses for big-money power users who will drop thousands of dollars on
07:58a game, possibly while hopelessly addicted to it. The desperation in the free-to-play market is palpable,
08:04because why bother making an artistic game that people will gladly shell out top dollar for,
08:08when you can just exploit people's addictive tendencies for far less effort instead?
08:13Hiring Hollywood Talent
08:15One of the easiest ways to give a video game press in the wider entertainment world is to hire a
08:20name actor to star in it, ideally lending both their voice and likeness to play a part. Now,
08:26this isn't to say that every celebrity role in a video game comes from a place of desperation.
08:30Rockstar has done a consistently good job of not letting A-lister voice artists hijack their GTA games,
08:35but GTA is also in the unique position of being among the most critically and commercially successful
08:41IPs on the bloody planet. Even with video games being taken more seriously by the wider world
08:46these days, for the most part, it's fair to say that Hollywood actors are hired to serve as the
08:50marketing face of a game and impress a greater sense of prestige upon it. Take Bruce Willis in
08:55Apocalypse, or more recently Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077. Hell, while Peter Dinklage didn't
09:00physically appear in Destiny, his voice was a major aspect of the game's marketing, even if it ironically
09:06ended up being removed at a later date. There's no denying that the presence of a beloved, well-known
09:10actor in a game will make just about anybody perk up and pay attention. Take Vin Diesel's bizarre
09:16involvement in the upcoming arc too, which has gotten considerably more eyes on that game than it
09:20would have otherwise had, no matter how it turns out. 3. That Sweet Sweet Loot
09:25The mere whisper of the word loot is enough to make millions of players' ears prick up and pay attention,
09:31so ubiquitous is the presence of glistening things for them to hoover up after defeating an
09:36enemy. While finding currency or a new weapon and armour is nothing new for video games, we've
09:40come a long way from the comparatively quaint days of Diablo's loot hunt. Loot is commonplace
09:45amongst game genres these days, as publishers have discovered that few things get players'
09:49dopamine receptors firing up like a shiny purple pick-up. While loot appears in many great games,
09:54some are so singularly focused around their collection that it feels tantamount to shining
09:59a laser pointer at a cat, and loot can be weaponised more nefariously in games that feature loot boxes,
10:04where players are encouraged to develop a gambler's mindset to RNG elements. This is particularly
10:10troubling when players are able to spend real money obtaining or unlocking more loot boxes.
10:15No loot-driven game can survive for long unless it offers up fun cosmetics and meaningful upgrades,
10:20but even so, these games are typically designed around manipulating human behaviour first and foremost.
10:26They are industriously committed to maximising player engagement in order to fill their coffers,
10:32and it doesn't get much more desperate than that when you're apparently making art.
10:372. Offering Pre-Order Bonuses
10:40Pre-order bonuses are an attempt by publishers to incentivise players throwing down money for a
10:45game before it's commercially available, and typically before reviews have been released.
10:49This isn't to say that all pre-order bonuses are inherently bad or maliciously inclined,
10:53but they do nevertheless feed into a wider culture of publishers trying to wring as much money from
10:58potential customers as possible before the game has even come to market. After all,
11:03once you've pre-ordered a game, you're probably not going to cancel it, and even if you've lost
11:07interest in the game, you might actually forget to cancel. The bonuses range from plastic tap
11:12figurines to multiplayer maps and in-game advantages, which won't be available to regular players for some
11:17time, if ever, and they're all conceived with the hope of parting you from your money as soon as damn
11:22possible. Some bonuses are more controversial than others, with the gameplay advantages proving
11:26especially divisive given their potential to create a divide between the players. Clearly,
11:31there's an exploitation of FOMO going on here as well, with publishers again manipulating human
11:36psychology for maximum financial gain. This is all because publishers know that consumers waiting
11:41for reviews is absolutely not in their best interest most of the time, and they will do anything they
11:46can to get your money early. 1. If all else fails, sex sells
11:52The oldest adage of them all, and the one that will likely never not be true as long as humans
11:57remain sexual beings, is that sex sells. Well, quite a lot. Gaming has certainly come a long way in recent
12:03years in moving away from the excessively sexualised marketing tactics of decades past, but it's still
12:09fair to say that many games are sold on the presence of scantily clad individuals, and let's be honest,
12:13usually they are a woman. To be blunt, let's just say that Dead or Alive extreme games weren't shifting
12:18units because of their admittedly surprising robust volleyball gameplay. We all remember
12:22the blatant fan service in the earliest Tomb Raider games, and in a most extreme example,
12:27the cynically over-sexualised nudity-filled sports games like BMX XXX. More recently,
12:32Final Fantasy XV made side character Cindy a comically over-sexed object of player lust,
12:37and Soul Calibur VI offers up an Ivy so impractically clothed as to basically become a self-parody.
12:43There's nothing inherently wrong with sexualised characters, male or female, though it is easy to
12:48become jaded when it feels like publishers are using that sex to desperately pander to your
12:53basest instincts and desires, when they consider you little more than a single-minded horny teenager.
12:59It's easy to become suspicious that this fleshy smokescreen is here to distract from the fact that
13:03the game itself is actually lacking in the gameplay or story department. Yet, sex continues to sell games
13:09by the bucket load and probably always will, while the debate about what is sex positive and what's
13:14exploitation will forever rage on as well. And yes, before you say anything, we've noticed the
13:19thumbnail. We chose that to make a point, and that point is that sex, like I said, continues to sell.
13:25And there we go, my friends, those were the 10 most desperate ways video games got you to play. I hope
13:29that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section
13:33below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJWithAZero,
13:37or you can swing by Live and Let's Dice, where I do all of my streaming outside of work,
13:41and it'd be great to see you over there, my friend.
13:43But before I go, I just want to say one thing. If there is one thing that I am desperate for,
13:47it is that you treat yourself with love and respect, my friend, because you deserve all
13:51the best things in life, like love, happiness, and success, and do not let anything or anyone
13:55else tell you otherwise, alright? You're a massive ledge, and I want you to go out there
13:59and absolutely smash it today. I believe in you. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome,
14:04never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
Comments