Where was I…Oh Yes! 2018 and the changes for the better. Lets start with the death of Net Neutrality for a second. It sucks, like a lot, but in my attempt to see a brighter side of things I came to a certain realization. Online gamers will have to literally nickel-and-dime a way to a competent gaming connection. With a good chunk of people barely playing online modes at all, and more and more people having to work harder and for longer, they’ll probably let the competitive connection die out for basic (we can assume) crappy speed. If online modes become less competitive then all the pay to win lootbox strategies will go out the window. This means no more public lootbox openings so other people can see what you get, and in a lot of shooters no more gun drops from lootboxes. Think about it, you will have to “Get Gud” at your shooters to unlock more options! Its almost like a return to the ORIGINAL Modern warfare (the one without the lootboxes…it sickens me that I have to make that distinction) Or Halo 3 where you unlock different armor pieces based on achievements.
Also, just think of what this would do to the STORY in games now. We can go to games like Final Fantasy (any really) or Horizon: Zero Dawn. Games that put story in the forefront and not an afterthought like Destiny and SW: Battlefront, which puts 90% of their time milking gamers, 9% on multiplayer, and 1% on the story. (This is just an exaggeration let’s not get butthurt about what you know to be true). We could go back to the old days where you pay for a full game, complete the lengthy story with a satisfying conclusion and not a cliffhanger (looking at you Asura’s Wrath) and when DLC came out, Gladly jump to buy it because we didn’t want our story to end. If Final Fantasy X and X-2 came out when DLC was prevalent and you didn’t need a modem to connect, Do you know the content we would get? It would be astounding! How about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) and its sequel Knights of the Old Republic 2 (KotOR: 2) Both games you can buy for dirt cheap (click the links to see how cheap) and both WAY BETTER star wars games than Battlefront 2 with no multiplayer. Just story, and an engaging one at that. Because of the time they came out, they weren’t even able to put in all of the quests they had for us to do, and there were no patches so we got what we got which was totally satisfying. If there had been DLC back then, Whooo boy.
We could go back to that golden age where games would tell us stories and take us in their universes for us to relax and just admire the world these devs have built and spent countless hours on. Instead of this lootbox hell that has us gambling on everything to unlock absolutely nothing in an effort to make us shell out more money.
So, to restate. The death of Net Neutrality might make competitive gaming internet prices unreasonable, so more people will do less of it. With not as many people and significantly less kids whose parents don’t deem it a relevant expense, the lootbox option will lose a lot of steam because there’s no more bragging rights on items you gambled for. With no way to leech off children’s gambling addictions, Gaming companies will have to resort to a new option to promote their games ; Immersive story.
Of course, this is all wishful thinking, and i’m hoping that this year our collective outrage and protests and calling the AAA companies out on their crap will build up to something. A gaming revolution if you would. We cannot let our games, our escapes, our hobbies, become consumed by greed and corruption. We can make a difference if we stay vigilant enough and not let our guards down. Praise the games that deserve praise, and condemn the cash grabs. We’re the consumer, we pay for the product. So let’s not pay for S***.
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Gamer Machinations 