GTA5 was out for like three years on PC before I bothered with it. I found it to be… fairly mediocre. There’s nothing in GTA6 that would make me feel otherwise. I’ll eventually play it… at great discount, or not at all.
I thought it was pretty cool, as a crass story, mockery of aspects of corporations and society, and as a driving sim. My least favourite part of any MMO is its griefing potential. Fallout 76 was okay because while you, a roleplayer/gamer interested in the game, still got hurt by griefers only interested in murdering other humans, it reduced damage to a miniscule level.
GTA V Online required that you either secede from society entirely with a private lobby or become a true pacifist, meaning no PvE. Later on they stopped selling exclusively weapon-free vehicles to players and the entertainment level of free roam for me dropped to zero. After that it became just a hub for racing, FPS or sitting in the apartment watching TV, all of which can be better achieved elsewhere.
Very early on they had an actual player investible and influenceable stock market, in Online.
They shut that down quite quickly though.
Because you could make money too easily.
Shark Cards only baby!
Fuck our interesting gameplay mechanic, strip that shit out, MTX, make RockStar into the comically evil tech corpos they mock in GTA V’s own story.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Heh. I have played a few games, and the only ones with functional auction houses and economies had ways to put real money in, but not get real money out.
Well the original GTA stock market did not let you take real money out.
That would have been completely insane.
Basically only EVE online, I think, has anything close to that, kind of, its complicated.
But the point I’m getting at is… they had a game mechanic that, if you were clever, could make you in game rich.
They destroyed this mechanic, and replaced it with ‘if you want to be in game rich, give us actual moneh.’
I started playing GTA 5 shortly after launch and could make the same statement.
I’ve bought launch day on this series for a few iterations now.
People have the power to shut down bad practices if they had even a modicum of restraint. They don’t, so here we are.
It’s kind of disheartening not having solidarity as consumers. It also feeds this kinda FOMO because you showed restraint and are missing out on something.
I’ve come to terms with this. I view fomo content as disrespectful and I do not support the companies that use it as a tactic.
People are desperate to latch on to any morsel of media that can distract them from our burning planet, our exploitative society, and their resultant miserable life
Thats why they dont have control, they need this desperately
Idk how this was downvoted. This plays an extremely heavy influence on people’s decisions.
No one wants to hear it because its them too
At some point though you have to accept that if the vast majority are ok with something, it’s probably not an actual issue.
You don’t have to like it or agree with it, and you have the ability to vote with your wallet. Digital only people have been voting with their wallet for years, and physical copy buyers haven’t.
This is a defeatist mindset.
Most people accept the enshittification of the world because they do not know better or they just go with the flow. This is why we have so many problems outside of gaming as well.
Most people weighed up the pros and cons of digital vs physical, chose digital, and haven’t looked back. There is no “do not know better”. Hundreds of millions of people think digital is better. Pc has been all digital for an eternity and it’s been going great.
"oh it’s popular, so it must be okay’
What an utterly braindead take.
It’s more like “Over 90% of people chose this path by their own free will, and are happy enough with it that they choose to continue doing it rather than stop, so it’s not inherently bad like I think it is”.
Only someone who is brain dead could not understand that.
You’re literally engaging in the popularity fallacy. You’re an braindead idiot who just wants to suck corporate boot.
Word of advice: when you start quoting a fallacy, you’re wrong almost every time.
Oh look, more fallacious logic.
You’re two for two.
So I was watching JoeFromSeattle and he basically has an observation/theory from repeatedly interacting with these people on Twitter.
… They literally do not count themselves as ‘gamers’, they use the word to identify others.
These are the people who buy Madden/FIFA every year, every COD, every Battlefield, and assume everyone does that, to the point of projecting it without realizing it and then not believing you if you say you didn’t do that as well.
… they are very often illiterate, cannot understand sentences above roughly Grade 5 complexity, always assume they are correct and work backwards to attempt to form a justification for whatever they’ve decided is corrrect.
… they’re morons.
Like just… complete fucking morons.
And that’s not an insult, its simply accurate.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there and I’ll extend as someone who used to love sports games, I haven’t physically bought one since like Xbox 360 when I think my system was bundled with it. All sports games are digital now because it’s the same goddamn game at this point with roster updates what is the bloody point? Lol
So even then I agree but I don’t think it’s just that they’re morons they are either disingenuous morons or truly stupid because I sense a lot of them are not buying physical media of their FIFA or NBA games anymore.
Used game stores back this up. What you see at used game stores now are the ever popular mainstream shit that has no replay value, where are all the FIFA copies? Oh right everyone downloads now.
You know what you don’t see at gamestop? Elden ring. It’s good. Replay value high.
You know what else you don’t see at gamestop? Clair obscura. It’s new. Physical media is dead.
I appreciate the perspective and refinement of the idea.
Yeah, I’m in the crowd of like, bought a Madden game once, had decent fun with it… and then realized the business model is just ‘add two features, take 2 away’, every fucking year and the whole thing is a scam.
I’m looking for actually new kinds of gameplay, something novel, or maybe a hodgepodge of mechanics tuned or arranged in a new kind of way, or like, absolutely perfected.
Either that or compelling stories and characters, or something with a really distinct art/graphical style.
Like uh, Clair Obscura arguably checks at least most of those boxes for most people… Elden Ring is basically the ‘perfected’ version of Dark Souls, etc.
But yeah… either disingenuous or just truly stupid, as you put it.
Corporate Serfs is the word you may be looking for
I mean, I play a lot of video games. I don’t identify as a gamer mostly because of the gamergate bullshit connotations.
There’s a distinction between gamer and capital G Gamer
I’m sorry but if you’re not playing at least one of those games every year, you are the minority. Those people who constantly buy and play games are more of a “gamer” than a judgemental arse like yourself. Those games you criticise are by FAR the most played and bought games every year, played by tens of millions of people - the majority of gamers.
People like you give “gamers” a bad name.
How are they giving gamers a bad name? Even assuming they’re wrong, how does that work? They give gamers a bad name because they got a statistic wrong? Makes no fucking sense.
They just called the MAJORITY of the video game buying population “fucking morons”, and “nOt ReAl GaMeRs” because they have a different opinion to them, even though that opinion is the overwhelmingly popular opinion.
You don’t see how that gives “gamers” a bad name? Gatekeeping “gamers” to the tiny minority of people who buy physical games, don’t buy the biggest and most played games, and calling everyone else a fucking moron?
Ahahah!
No, no… you can’t read that well, can you?
Try again buddy, go … slower this time, understand how qualified statements work, and keep in mind the entire context of what I said.
You’ve concluded that I said a whole bunch of things that I did not say.
Apparently I’ve triggered you quite seriously… I wasn’t intending to, but uh… yeah, try again, try to read the words that I actually said.
If your first rebuttal has you calling someone “triggered”, while offering no counter points, it’s safe to say you have already lost.
Got it, understood, you can’t read.
Sorry about that for you, good luck with life.
You’re basically just following the “what to say when you’re losing an online argument” guide 🤣
Officially the first account I block on lemmy. Ain’t no way this isn’t AI-generated rage bait.
Oh no, whatever will I do……
Oh my god one of you actually showed up!
I’d ask you what its like to so thoroughly lack self awareness, but unfortunately, you wouldn’t be able to tell me, by definition.
Also just no, your ‘facts’ are bullshit.
You know what category of games consistently earn the most revenue?
Mobile games. Cell phone games. That’s over half of the money getting spent on video games.
The majority of gamers, people who play video games, people who spend money on video games… they play gacha games on phones… they’re not perennial Madden/FIFA/COD players.
So if you don’t have a gacha game waifu… you’re actually in the minority too.
So yeah… fundamentally ignorant, extremely overconfident… wanna check any more of those boxes, buddy?
Just imagine me bouncing a ball off of your forehead repeatedly, I’m sure that’ll put you in the right mind state for this.
We’re talking about console and pc players, not mobile. Did you not know that they are separated out in all of the reports? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
No. We are not.
And no, they are not.
You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.
Do not preorder anything ever
deleted by creator
Cyberpunk 2077 was the last game I’ll ever pre-order. I’m more of a wait for the complete edition to go on sale kind of guy now.
Oh I’ll preorder from soft games. Preorder when you trust the source and they don’t have a history of fuckery.
I just pre-ordered fallout 6!!! Even though fallout 5 will never see the light of day /j obv
Post-covid inflation proved to companies that customers will pay up regardless because they want it and they want it now, no matter the price. Hell, we laughed at horse armor but microtransactions caught on anyway. Voting with your wallet doesn’t work because there are an endless swarm of consoomers itching to blow their money on product.
Consent is actually way cheaper to make than a product that’s good for people.
Sad reality
GTA is the exact same formula since GTA3.
Sure you get a different story, visual upgrades, and some newer cars. But you’re not paying for a new gaming experience, it’s essentially become what people made fun of CoD or Nintendo games for.
In that sense you’ll get the same thrills from past games. That’s also why I didn’t give a shit about anything past 3, because I like to play new games not reskins.
I think it’s only survived because it is in this niche of socially acceptable “cool” games. You can admit to playing GTA to almost anyone and your not as much a “gamng nerd”, but if you like a fantasy RPG your some basement dwelling dweeb. Honestly they are not all that different from each other.
different story, visual upgrades, newer cars
Just spitballing here, but isn’t that like 90% of what makes a game? Or at the very least, literally any sequel?
Replacing “cars” with whatever is game-appropriate, of course
My idiot brother learned the term “fetch quest” and then snobbed himself right out of gaming. He couldn’t see anything happening around “go here, interact with mcguffin, go back”
The family grew up loving Sierra games, especially stuff made by the Coles, so I don’t know where he got that.
Technically correct. Why play any other game if you’ve played Fallout? It’s all going somewhere to get a thing to do a thing! I’ve been screwed this whole time!
We know next to nothing about GTA6. It could be a revolutionary game for all we know. It could be the greatest game of all time.
I’m down with a boycott. Let’s do it.
This is how it will go:

Probably. A man can dream of successful collective action though.
Hold on, we need a boycott song. We want it about gta or boycotts?
edit i’ve decided. can’t go wrong with buffalo springfield
I still haven’t played GTA 4 or 5. I own them (got 'em cheap long after release) but I haven’t gotten around to playing them yet. Maybe by the time I have GTA 6 will be a reasonable price.
Remember the words of Guybrush Threepwood:

They’re fine.
The hype is inordinate
I felt GTA V was boring, and it had unnecessary glamorisation of criminal life. The story was also pretty mid.
I really liked GTA IV, especially the DLCs, the story is intertwined with the three characters really well. The driving was much more realistic in 4.
I don’t have the GTA IV DLCs. Just the original PS3 disc.
I could have sworn it was Elaine

edit well that’s not what i was expecting but i’m leaving it
Kind of random but I hope they do the game comparisons not just with GTA 4 & 5 but also GTA clones like Watchdogs or even Cyberpunk 2077.
For all the graphical “upgrades” we’ve gotten, the physics and dynamic open world has fallen far behind.
What’s the point of all that graphic fidelity if NPCs still act like scripted bots from Skyrim?
I was an adventurer too, until I took an arrow to the knee.
I’m out. I know that it wont amount to much in the grand scheme of things. I switched from a pure Playstation background (owned 1 through 5 on release day and had hundreds of games for each generation) over to PC. I wont partake in this, and I have spent thousands of hours with GTA.
Between Playatation being shitty and now Rockstar being extra shitty, I’m out.
Gamers are so impatient these days. I guess all that instant access via online platforms has spoiled them.
I still remember when you ordered physical games via mail and had to gulp actually wait a 1-2 weeks for delivery.
Either that or actually go into a store.
Back then you really looked forward to a game and you actually played and finished it. Also, patches or updates were either rare or non existent depending on the platform, so Devs actually had to release a complete game. There were no DLCs, there were expansion packs, if anything.
I never understood people who need to have a game or a piece of hardware on release day. There will always be bugs. When it comes to hardware, I always wait for at least one revision, before I pull the trigger. As for games, I no longer pay more than 20€ for a game. It’s on my wishlist, I only care about the single player experience, my backlog is huge, sales happen all the time,… I can wait.
I don’t think the “no patches” thing was all that true for PC games. I’ve been gaming since the first Fallout and for practically every game I could/had to download one or more patches from the official website. For multiplayer games like Warcraft 3 you had to make sure everyone was using the same patch. One of the major advantages of Steam was automating the update process.
It’s been that way for a while, but before the usenet turned into the internet it was hard to download shit. Especially compared to now
I’ve been gaming since the late 80s. This was before people had internet. Patches for games were very rare on PC back then. If anything, the developer had to re-release a game to stores. Consoles of course didn’t really get that capability until the PS3 era.
When CD-ROM games became common people still only had dial-up internet, if at all and patches were very rare back then.
It was just a different mindset back then. Companies actually took the time to polish their games before release.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t touched a GTA since Vice City on the PC.
Liberty city stories on the psp on my end. I got the last one or PC installed it played it for two days and then I threw it out after playing multi-player and the only thing people wanted to do was heist.
You should play gta4 it’s a masterpiece
Confucius say: Do not lament the bootlicker giving over their paycheck to Rockstar for their entry price to microtaxation. Celebrate instead the indie game that fulfilled your dream of slapping Nazis with a trout.
Is that real? I wanna slap some Nazis with some trout
The main factor for me will be whether or not their employees are unionized.
look…at this point I don’t know why we keep complaining about it. there are still plenty of people out there who just don’t give a fuck about physical media, price points, industry profiteering, etc. we just have to accept we don’t have the numbers to make a difference. I feel it’s an age thing for one. when I was younger I couldn’t wait for any this type of stuff. if I didn’t have money I’d bug parents for it, sell my shit or whatever to get the new hot thing…then I got older and didn’t care as much and now couldn’t give 2 fucks. I’ve become patient and wait out for cheaper pricing, better content, better reviews even though I could buy 10 of anything new that comes out…I want to make better decisions about giving money to companies that don’t exploit their people, so on but there are not enough of us to make a dent so we abide and continue to influence others to our side until we have more who believe like we do. having all these streamers review content doesn’t help. they add to the hype. for them it’s business so they pump this shit up and hype it up and people eat it up because they have the self control of a toddler, amen. touch some grass y’all and then play a little skyrim…















