It’s true. I despise this company, and I despise what they’ve done to the franchises I love, and what they’ve contributed to the downfall of gaming as a whole. And for that, I am officially calling it quits.
I was stoked today to be able to play DOOM from the comfort of anywhere, with the earlier news of DOOM 1, 2, and 3 all being surprise-released across modern consoles. I immediately logged into the eShop, and downloaded DOOM 1, excited for the portable nostalgia trip that I’d soon be having.
It downloaded, I booted it up, and I was greeted with this:
That’s right. I needed to login with a Bethesda account. For a game that game out in 1993. When I was 5. That I can play, for cheaper I may add, on PC, downloaded from GOG with no DRM or third-party account required whatsoever.
Bethesda has a history of terrible business practices that I won’t get into now because they are well-documented elsewhere, but after the Fallout 76 debacle, and now I have to login to a service I don’t use to play a game that’s been out for over 20 years?
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU.
Gamers everywhere – I call upon you all and implore you to not stand up for this shit. Not just from Bethesda, but from all the megacorps that pray on your nostalgia, and try to take you for the proverbial ride every chance they get.
You might be thinking, “I don’t care, it’s not THAT big of an inconvenience” — and I will stop you right there. There has not been a single point in the history of gaming where a minor inconvenience didn’t turn into a huge fucking hurdle.
It happened with PC games and draconian DRM schemes, and we allowed that. Next, games went digital, and we let them charge us the same prices despite the terms of service clearly removing ownership from the players, and we allowed that. Then, there were retail chain-exclusive pre-order bonuses. Always-online DRM. Right after that, game developers started crippling games and selling you half-baked experiences, expecting you to pony-up more cash for more features. Finally, look where we landed: loot boxes, features gated behind DLC, and other trash is the norm. Games are made to please people in suits, not gamers.
The bigger this hobby has become, the more dollar signs the industry saw. Companies have tried to squeeze out of it every last dime they could – after all, many of these companies are publicly traded and have shareholders to please. We all need to stand up to this, because like everything else good in this world, it will fall to shit – free to play games with fuckity-fuck barrels of tokens or gems to buy, full games being split into episodic, subscription-requiring nonsense, and streaming-only “woops, better play it before June 30th when it gets removed from the service” woes.
This entire hobby has a rich history of companies trying to fuck players, usually in the name of piracy prevention. And what did we do? We handed over our credit cards, turned around, bent over, and let them have their way with us.
The next part of this will be streaming, where the same four companies will completely remove any rights whatsoever from you, the consumer, so that they can track what you do, sell your soul to third parties, and remove any microcosm of control that you had over the things you’ve paid for.
As a consumer, you should not stand for this crap. Vote with your damn wallets. Get mad, be pissed off for once – we gamers have kept the lights on at these major game studios, and every step they take, we get screwed even harder. Gaming has been on a downward spiral in the toilet, and this is the latest example of it.
My crusade against this bullshit starts now, with a boycott of a company that has made some of my favorite games. Join me, or be drowned of your money and your rights in this dark and bleak future of gaming.
nostalgia trigger 
I don’t agree with this, but it’s your decision. I will not boycott Bethesda because I love their games and I’m willing to think outside the box and go against movements like this. I did it with Mass Effect Andromeda and Fallout 76. I really enjoyed both of those games. I actually loved Andromeda. I buy 95% of my games digital and I love that. I can play all of them (except the multiplayer games) offline. Yes, that includes games I bought on Steam. You’re free to boycott whatever you wish, but you can’t expect everyone to feel the same way.
I’ll continue to support games and developers that I like. I’ve put over $400 in games like Warframe. Why? Because I enjoy them and it’s my money and I can buy what I want. I respect your opinion, but I can’t follow it.
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Hey, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed ME:A (never played a Mass Effect game but I recall it was a divisive entry in the series) and Fallout 76 (also never played but clearly people are out there enjoying it)!
Of course this is all my opinion – that’s sort of the point of a blog! 🙂 I spent lots of money on a few games – heck, I spent probably $300 on the Badge Arcade on the 3DS! I wish they’d bring something like that to the Switch.
Everyone’s different in where they prioritize purchases of course and we all draw our line in the sand somewhere. There are plenty of companies that make some solid games and other that have some shady business practices, it’s just a matter of where your line is drawn.
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I went through so much for liking Andromeda. I was made fun of daily for it and now I know more people that like it than hate it. If you ever get the urge I highly recommend playing Mass Effect. The trilogy is fantastic!
It’s good to know I’m not the only one that dumps that much cash on a game lol.
You’re right. Everyone is different and we all prioritize our purchases differently. I like to look at things from both sides before I take a side or not. I think it’s neat that you’re taking a stand for something you believe in even though I disagree with it :).
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So many times I said “fuck it, I’m going retro…” but then I always come back (damn it, Nintendo!! haha). I actually DELETED my Steam account a couple of years ago, even missing the Half-Life series isn’t enough for me to go to a service that FORCES me to have an active online service to play even in single player. What? You can use “offline mode”? Well, yeah, IF it works… and you need to be online every X days, and you can’t even download a patch. So if I can’t or wan’t to pay for internet at my house, I simply CAN’T use Steam. So long live GOG! Where I can download games, patches, everything from a free wifi at a near cafe and then go back to my house without internet (well I DO have internet at the time, but I move a lot, and who know if I’ll have internet the next month…).
The only companies that actually get my money nowadays are GOG, Nintendo (or Sony last gen with the PS3), and indie developers. I really don’t like most modern games. Well, some retro-revival games like Pac-Man CE or Space Invaders Extreme certainly are must-buys for me, but different than forking over 60 dollars for a game (remember taxes, people) and then forking even more money for DLC (remember Expansion Packs? Damn, those were the good ol’ days… oh crap, I became that guy haha).
No PS4, no Xbox One, not even a gaming PC… Just my laptop (with Intel graphics) and a Switch. There’s nothing else WORTH IT. Now, if you like something else and want to buy it, sure, go ahead… but to claim is “objectively worth it”, then no, it’s not… There are way more cons over the pros, so objectively is never worth it. Subjectively, is a different matter.
Gaming is dead. Long live gaming 😦
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