Throwing Shade(rs)

Hi, I’m back. It’s been a while (thanks to real life concerns, really sorry about that), but a recent event has brought me back to the internets once again, and that event is the recent release of the Destiny 2 video game. And in my opinion, this game represents everything wrong with the AAA game industry.

I will present my case through a unique method; by responding to the comments about Destiny 2’s new way of giving shaders to players.

Shaders are color palettes that can be added to your in-game gear. You know; make your gun red, your boots green, your armor gloves purple, that sort of thing. In the first Destiny game, once you acquire shaders, you can keep them & apply them to all your gear.

In Destiny 2, shaders are consumable items that you apply to individual pieces of your gear. And once you apply a different shader, the original is gone. Same thing if you get better gear down the road. Once you get rid of the other gear you applied shaders to, the shaders  on them are gone too. This means that no one will apply shaders to equipment that’s going to be upgraded or traded for better gear anyway.

And just to twist the knife a little, you can’t buy the shaders you want. You buy random shaders from lootboxes with real money. Granted, you can acquire shaders from leveling your character, from the chests & engrams you find, and from rewards received from vendors plus endgame activities.

A lot of people think this is bullcrap. But every devil has its advocate, and Destiny 2 is no different. So, let’s see what these advocates have to say. Then I’ll respond with what I hope will be cogent arguments against these commenters. The link to the article by Jason Schreier is here, and the Twitter statement from the game's director is here. And please read the comments yourself just so you know I'm not misrepresenting anyone.

Leopard on Twitter says: “You know you made a great game when the biggest issue is cosmetics” [laughing emoji]---No, the biggest issue is the AAA game industry's tendency to nickel & dime you to death AFTER they already got your $60 to $100 depending on which version of the game you bought.

Rocker[DTP] on Twitter says: [To be honest] people will complain about anything. I have proof that they drop more than enough to make them expendable {and then shows a picture of the different shaders he collected and how many of each type of shader]---But I notice from the picture you used that you can only hold 50 types of shaders. Star Trek Online (a free game) has more than 50 types of shaders that I can use on my character, uniforms, and (sometimes) starships that never run out and I don’t have to buy.

Dang3rousFluffy on Twitter says: Look at it this way if I spray paint my gun and grind off the paint am I going to get my paint back---Let’s set aside the false equivalence here (a real gun vs. a digital space gun) and address this. Let’s say you went to a car dealership and bought a Porsche that has a really sweet-looking cherry-red paint on it that washes off at the first rainstorm. But you have the following options: bring it back to the dealership and pay for a new paint job (that also washes off in the rain) and get a RANDOM COLOR, or every time you complete a workday you get a paint can filled with a RANDOM COLOR you apply yourself (that also washes off in the rain). You would want your damn money back on the car.

 After some commenters talk about how making games are risky ventures and expensive to make thus making game companies continue to push the line a little each time regarding pricing scams, Jason Schreier says: The REAL problem is that the price of games hasheld steady at $60 despite inflation and the rising cost of game development. $60 is pretty expensive to begin with, so it's hard to imagine that changing, but this is unsustainable!---So either stop making games or raise prices. Or at least be more efficient with your resources so game development doesn't cost so much. In any case, I don't care about any of that. I'm a customer. I only care about getting a good game for a low cost.

Finally, AldoraGreel (commenting on the article) says: So what they're mad with is they use to be infinite use items and they're not now, right? Because as a Diablo 3 player, I have no issue with this. If you wanted to customize your look in D3, you paid in-game currency to do so. If you wanted to change colors, you bought one-time use bottles of dye to do so. Need to make your new armor red? Buy more dye. This is EXTREMELY common in games. I actually don't think I've ever played a game with infinite reuse color change items. Usually, if there is an item to earn to change the color or look, it requires multiple purchases. As long as the shades are relatively easy to buy/earn with in-game currency/methods, why would anyone give a shit if Bungie is trying to be scummy and sell people stupid shit? Sad your favorite developer isn't as pro-consumer as you once thought? Aw. Poor little guy. Must not have been paying attention for the past few years.---

This is a good comment to respond to. Number one, Diablo 3 is NOT Destiny 2. Different aesthetics, different game styles and mechanics, different everything. Not equivalent at all. Number two, explain to me how limited-use items is superior to unlimited use items. Number three, so you don't care that Bungie is scummy and sells you stupid shit? So you don't care if businesses sell you inferior goods and services? So you don't care if a car dealership sells you a lemon, or a realtor sells you a house filled with termites? Number four, I don't care if a business is pro-consumer or not. I DO CARE if a business is anti-consumer. Finally, I have been paying attention, which is why I haven't bought any AAA game except for The Witcher 3. Because game companies pull crap like this.

And the ONLY reason game companies pull crap like this is because apologists like the above people keep buying these games. Now if they find value in these games, more power to them. But please don't defend these companies. They don't care about you, anymore than they care about this blogpost. And that's fine. But any video game buyers out there reading this, I urge you to think twice before rewarding these kinds of anti-consumer practices by buying this game.