Blizzard can do whatever in the world it wants. I am just going to take their suggestion and play other people’s games.

Its. ITS ITS ITS ITS ITS.

(Yeah, I’m THAT guy.)

Now, for example:

Runic is releasing Torchlight II soon. From what I know about both games, it is going to be better than Diablo III. We can’t know, of course, until we play, but I, for one, liked Torchlight a lot more than I did Diablo II. Of course Torchlight is made by the original Diablo team who had left Blizzard…

Anyway, unlike Diablo III, Torchlight II will have the ability to mod and no DRM. In fact Runic pretty much said that they think DRM is a waste of time. So there. Choose wisely.

I’m buying Diablo 3 and I’ll probably order Battlefield 3 on Origin. I just don’t care enough about most games to want them around in 2 or 3 years. I trade console games in when I’m done with them, then buy something else. I understand both sides of the issue, and I think the always-on and DRM crap sucks for people that value owning games more than me or who are without reliable/fast internet connections. I want companies to make more money, but it seems they are between a rock and a hard place. I have no solution, and so far I haven’t heard a solution from anyone.

Blizzard is owned by Activision wich in turn is still ruled by Kotick, the same idiot who threw a wrench into Infinity Ward then took a stupid look when the studio desintegrated. Activision has only one philosophy: games and creators are not important, money is.

Some would argue that they need to make a profit but this is not the question. The game industry is one that generates billions in sale, profit is not a problem. What is a problem is: how much profit is *enough* profit? The answer is: there is never *enough* profit.

Whether its Ubisoft, EA or Activision they are all the same. They look at your pocket, see that you still have a penny there and ask their overpaid managers to figure out a way to remove it from your pocket and put it in theirs. Do they really need it? no. But, like the mafia, they always want a bigger share of the pie.

Those games generate a little economic activity outside of their reach, for the time being. I’m talking about the used game market. This is what they are obsessed with, this is what they lust for, this is what they want to control or destroy if they can’t control it. Being online all the time means you have to give your serial number to be connected wich also means you cannot resell the game.

Their ultimate dream is the same dream as when DIVX started a long time ago: have the customer pay everytime he plays a game (in the case of DIVX it was: have the customer pay everytime he watches a movie). You install a game, you give your credit card number and $$cha-ching$$ when you click.

Maybe the future is not so far away after all.

Finally, someone who is against Activision and Bobby Kotick! I was thinking it was a lost cause. I must admit, your arguments were entirely convincing. I had almost forgotten that most large businesses and corporations focus on profit and increasing profit. I myself care nothing about profit or income. I hope my income remains stagnant or shows little growth over the next 15 years.

“Those games generate a little economic activity outside of their reach, for the time being. I’m talking about the used game market.”

Please cite some credible resources and numbers to back up your claim, because my initial reaction to hearing this is “B.S.”! There’s no way I’ll believe the used game market has a negligible affect on major developers of console games – unless I see facts and numbers.

A lot of people hate Ubisoft, EA or Activision for whatever reason, but there are a lot of gamers – like myself – that still believe they put out awesome games that are enjoyed by a massive amount of gamers. You can hate DRM and the always-on requirements, but reusing the “they just want money and I hate them” argument is an extremely worn out diatribe, and has no place in a discussion about why DRM or always-on is unfair to gamers. Media ownership considerations and the isolation of non-connected gamers are far weightier arguments against the topics in this article.

One of the things that makes this discussion interesting is that gamers have varied sub-cultures. Matthew wants to play now, trade in later. Alaric has already made his choice about Diablo III and simply won’t buy it no matter the cost or other features. And Michael is more worried about the impact of this practice on the used game market.

What’s funny is that I had originally concieved of this post as a discussion about different digital download services and their different DRM methods; when the news about Diablo III broke, I changed my mind. But the core of what I originally wanted to say was that different developers and publishers do have different “solutions” to these issues. Gamersgate lets individual developers pick their DRM (surprisingly, Paradox, the head honchos of Gamersgate, have NO DRM on most of their titles; seriously, go look up their titles on Gamersgate) while Steam is much more focused on uniformity. Alaric pointed out that Torchlight’s developers are not bothering with DRM at all because they see no point in it. Bioware has used a variety of methods over the years.

These differences open up and close certain markets of gamers. And that is what is important here, because gamers are not uniform. If gamers are not uniform, then there are pockets of money out there waiting for games and developers to tap them. There is money out there for developers and publishers who do not choose to simply copy Blizzard or Activision.

And you know what’s even more funny? Even “freebies” like the ability to mod a game or old game engines that are no longer in use anymore can generate revenue. Paradox has published some games recently based on content from the modding community. Hard core modders basically contracted with Paradox to take the source code for old game engines and put out new, refurbished versions of those games based on their extensive modding. Both the modders and Paradox gets a cut of the sales. Sure, no one is making millions of dollars doing it, but if you could take the previous generation’s game engine and let someone else refurbish it and then you both make money off it, and if the modders can actually get paid for their modding, then everyone wins.

That is why I think both Matthew and Alaric are both right in their own ways. Voting with your dollars (or yen, yuan, euros, or whatever) can encourage development of games that fit gamer markets that suit your style.

Speaking of publishing mods, I just bought Dino D Day on Steam which started as a Half Life 2 Mod. It’s by no means an awesome game, yet somehow it’s still addicting.

In the end I like your approach Jason. There seems to be no absolute truth with any of these business models or decisions since they are all based on what the market (or sections of the market) will tolerate.

I was a vegetarian for a while but missed eating steak. Now I try to purchase meat that was treated humanely while it was part of a living animal. I can see validity in being vegan and vegetarian, but I also agree with a lot of decisions made by carnivores.

In the end it comes down to what you as a consumer want to support, whether that’s based on moral decisions, convenience, income or whatever. If I want to pay to be abused there’s nothing wrong with that, ask a sadomasochist, they’ll agree.

Used games business is worth about $2 billion USD.

http://gamepolitics.com/2010/07/22/jjgames-used-games-market-worth-2-billion

As for your irony concerning revenues, Matthew, most people would be happy just keeping a good job, if such a thing still exist. Maybe you haven’t been following the news lately. Let me refresh things a bit. In case you haven’t noticed the middle class has almost disapeared in North America. All the manufacturing facilities have been moved to third world countries. The last stronghold that is under attack is the unionized public workers and their rights for collective bargaining is being fired upon from the right as we speak. This is the world we live in and not some fantasy island.

‘They just want money’ is still as true now as it was before. 2 billion dollars in used game market *is* something they will try to get their hands on, trust me on that!

And here I must disagree with you, Michel. Your statement that “the middle class has almost disapeared in North America” is factually false. Similarly I disagree with you entirely on your assessment of the union situation. They are not being “fired upon” for no reason. At some point their hands, which they kept inside the public treasury for decades, have gotten too greedy. In better economic times people weren’t noticing that, but as of late it has become more and more visible. Their racket has grown to such proportions that nobody is willing to tolerate them anymore.

One thing you are right about is the fact that game publisher (specifically console ones) are working hard at eliminating the used games market. Such a thing never existed on the PC due to DRM, but if they get their way it will soon disappear from the console world as well.

Alaric, could you define both “middle class” and “factually false”, please?

I don’t live on a fantasy island. I went to college and work my a$$ off to earn what I do now. And when I’ve developed my career enough to make more, I go where they pay more, even if that means moving cities. Every time I go to a new company I make significantly more than staying with the same company and waiting for small raises. I can’t help that there are a lot of Americans that are jobless or are content with working at dead-end jobs. That in no way devalues my work ethic or pursuit of higher income, and it’s a stupid way to support your claim that game publishers seeking more profit is bad.

$2 billion for the used market might seems like a small number compared to the NPD for new games, but that leaves me with two questions. The article you link to says the business is worth $2billion, so how much money is actually being spent on used games? That $2billion could be profit, which doesn’t account for what is actually being spend on a game after a company like Game Stop purchases a used game, then turns around and sells it. In the end, all of that money exchanging hands is still money not making it to publishers and developers (the people who make/publish the game should be profiting from them).

My second question is more of a critique of the linked news article. A $2 billion worth is not the actual amount of money publishers are missing out on. The true loss would be a much higher number since it would include the missed opportunity of the publisher selling the game at their price-point and seeing revenue from that sale. When I was a console gamer and bought used games, not only was Game Stop making profit of a game the paid very little for, I would purposefully not buy new games and wait until a game was less than $30. So it’s not $2 billion vs. $20 billion, an accurate figure would be, if all those used titles were being bought new, how much more revenue would a Publisher be seeing? Used games exchange hands many times in their life spans, each exchange is a lost sale for the publisher/developer.

Middle Class being wiped out: http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here%27s-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html?tickers=^DJI,^GSPC,SPY,MCD,WMT,XRT,DIA

Sorry Michel, I’m not trying to be a jerk or rude to your opinions.

But I’ve been poor all my life, and I work more hours in a week than most people I know so that I can stay out of debt and have security in my future. I worked for $8.25 right out of college so that I could get enough experience to work where I do now, making a respectable living.

I refuse to hold it against any game publisher for wanting to be the biggest or the highest grossing company in the business. If that means they trim the fat and isolate some gamers, that’s their decision to make and I have no right or claim to how they choose to release games or what titles they focus on our abandon.

As it has been said multiple times, I spend my money how I want. No company has control over that. I can be disappointed in a company, but that doesn’t make what they do inherently evil or corrupt.

Certainly, Michele.

Middle class is one of the socio-economic groups as defined by Maximilian Weber. It falls between the Upper class and the Working class. Middle class is consists of white-collar salaried workers and other educated professionals.

Those who earn in excess of $100,000 per household are considered Upper Middle class. Those who earn anywhere between $35,000 and $75,000 are considered Lower Middle class. Just as the distinctions between classes themselves, these divisions are not set in stone and vary somewhat depending on many factors such as location. The above, however, gives an acceptable heuristic for understanding what Middle class is.

Upper Middle class makes up for approximately 15 per cent of the US population, while Lower Middle class is closer to 32 per cent. Together they are the single largest social class with 47 per cent of the overall population.

Median household income in the US has been steadily increasing. In 1967 it was $40,000 and in 2009 it was $49,777. Naturally the graph is not a linear one, with dips and spikes, but the overall trend is to increase.

Recent economic troubles have chipped at incomes, moving some of the Middle class bottom earners into the Working class. This, however, DOES NOT constitute a “disappearance” of any kind. The Middle class had decreased in a statistically insignificant way, over a statistically insignificant amount of time. Anyone who says otherwise is selling you something or enticing you to act in a certain way.

And “factually false” means untrue, against the facts, not so.

Not disputing most of your facts, Alaric. Just checking to see what your definitions were. And while I’m not a huge fan of using median incomes, factor your numbers for inflation from 1967 to 2009, and you’ll see what I was trying to get at.

As a side note I’m not Michele White. I’ll return tomorrow to check on comments.

Michele, that is tragic indeed, and I shall mourn for three days and flog myself for two days, but what does it have to do with the allegedly “disappearing” Middle class?

I think her point was that while the middle class’s median income has been increasing steadily, the rate of increase for inflation is higher. The cost of living is increasing at a faster rate than the income of the middle class, which would mean the middle class is getting poorer when inflation and cost of living is taken into consideration.

and a link: http://bit.ly/q3TbSd

1. LOL.
2. Booth, dude, please never again use mybudget360.com as supporting evidence for your claims. =) That is if you want to be taken seriously. Yes, I know that’s one of the first results when you google “disappearing American middle class,” but that doesn’t make it a reliable source.
3. The fact that inflation moves slightly faster than the rise in mean household income does by no means translate into “disappearing middle class.” Really, it doesn’t. If you tried to publish these “findings” in a scientific journal, you’d be laughed out of town.

Those debates have positive impacts as i can see. On one hand we have Alaric scrambling for a dictionnary to give weight to his arguments while we have Matthew exposing his philosophy about life wich could be resumed by: why should i care for others as long as i personally succeed. Very cute indeed.

First of all, Alaric, i’ve studied philosophy at a local university for years and i can tell you that that concepts are neither owned nor fixed in stone by dictionnaries but created by the common usage people make of them through langage. Secondly the ‘median household income’ doesn’t give any of us a sense of the ‘distribution’ of income, nor of the impoverishment of the restless many for the profit of the joyful few in the past 30 years. Thirdly, the ‘median household income’, since you like that nonsense statistic so much, was $31,000 in 2007 for the US, far away from the $49,000 you claim. $31,000 for the accumulated revenues of working families, couples for most, plus kids sometimes… wow i’m impressed.

In the past 30 years we have witnessed an increased of productivity of around 50% and, at the same time, absolutely 0 (zero) increase in revenues for workers. The concentration of wealth in the hands of the joyful few has reached proportions bordering on indecency while the restless many got more working hours and more pressure to compete with cheap labor in poor countries.

Now for middle class i’ll tell you what middle class is. Middle class is the hope of people of getting out of misery, of having enough to feed their family and be able to live in something else than a cardboard box, of being able to afford health care and not run into debts if someone close becomes ill, to live decently, have some extra if possible and a little security about the future. Well that middle class is dead and the hope of it is also dead. It died with all the unionized jobs transfered to the third world.

And since you like statistics let me tell you about infant mortality rate wich tell us a lot about the quality of life in a country. You do realize, don’t you, that in the US it is at the level of poor third world countries? That the great US is between Lithuana and Belarus? Even Cuba takes a much better care of its citizen! (wich is no surprise to me btw)

As for Matthew since you don’t mind moving between cities to look after your career i think it is fair to assume you don’t have any wife with a job, family and friends, kids going to school who also have friends, friends and family you love and you want to stay close by, a place where you have memories, a house in wich you put some sweat. Good for you and good luck. If some day what you do in life can be done by a machine, by some software or by someone in India working for a quarter of what you get you’ll understand. You seem to be young so until then enjoy life while you can.

As for games the used game market doesn’t translate in loss of sales of full priced new games because when someone buys used games it is *because* he doesn’t want to pay full price for that game (or any game in some cases). Like piracy, the stop of piracy wouldn’t necessarily translate in higher sales if it could be achieved (and it can’t). But if it did i suspect it would translate in lower sales of new games for reasons i could discuss another time.

Now a little solidarity with fellow human beings would be in order, i would say.

I understand. Not everything is in the dictionary, and taking philosophy classes at a local college would open my eyes to the depths of depravity into which out world has fallen. Woe is us.

Forgive me, but I find it a wee bit odd that first you decry something as a meaningless statistic, and then immediately provide numbers. If it is in fact meaningless, then your figures are meaningless as well and prove nothing. If it’s not meaningless, why did you dismiss it when I used it?

Also, I’d be very curious to see your sources. I used the officially published US Census data, and since our results do not match I am assuming you used something else. What might it be?

Now so far as what Middle class is – I do not accept your definition. Middle class is not “a hope for a better tomorrow,” it is a social class, a reasonably concrete group that can be defined without resorting to vague (and therefore meaningless) concepts.

You seem to believe that people are owed something by the very virtue of their existence. Maybe I’m wrong but the “solidarity” you call for seems like a euphemism for redistribution of wealth. “How dare anyone charge me money? I want a house and a car, and a TV and everything else, and I don’t want to be in debt, so everything should just cost less!” How about trying to live within one’s means? It sounds almost ridiculous in today’s society where everyone fully expects to be bailed out regardless of what they do.

It’s not the greed of the corporations, it’s the irresponsibility of the people that lead us to where we are today. And it will only get worse, because when presented with a choice such as cutting services vs. spending money we don’t have, we (almost) unanimously borrow. On a personal level and on the federal level alike. We’ll pay for it dearly as a country. and we fully deserve it as individuals.

So in essence, instead of blaming “evil corporations” for your misfortunes, how about you take a look at yourself, abandon the idea that you are owed something, and adjust your spending to fit your means? (Or not, but then don’t complain.)

Alex P. Keaton is apparently neither dead nor “blowing in the wind” after all.

If I sell a used Chevy to my neighbor or a used car dealer, does GM get a cut of that transaction? Of course not. What about selling a used DVD? Ditto. Why then should game companies expect to collect a tax on the resale of their products? Its completely ridiculous and anyone who says different is probably either dependent upon the profits of the game industry or compromised in some other way. The argument against the used game market has absolutely no merit. However, this is not the most spurious point in this thread. That honor probably belongs to this:

It’s not the greed of the corporations, it’s the irresponsibility of the people that lead us to where we are today. And it will only get worse, because when presented with a choice such as cutting services vs. spending money we don’t have, we (almost) unanimously borrow. On a personal level and on the federal level alike. We’ll pay for it dearly as a country. and we fully deserve it as individuals.

Well, I suppose corporations are just collections of people, and it was the boundless greed of those people on Wall Street and in Washington, DC who created this mess. Certainly there is a large minority of the population that will take any freebie it can get its hands on, but did you or I demand that Fanny and Freddy loan money to those who would never pay it back? No, that was the federal government being lobbied by the ACLU, ACORN and other carpetbaggers. Did we demand that all those high-risks stock traders, fund managers and other scam artists create an endless Ponzi scheme? No, they did that all on their own to boost their obscene bonuses. Did regular Joes working at the local bakery, gas station, grocery store or Walmart repeal the Glass-Steagall act? Nope, that was the result of the financial sector buying off senators. Did the middle class get any kind of “bailout”? We all know the answer to that: how’s that 401K doing these days? Whenever someone talks about “the people” they are invariably referring to primarily middle class taxpayers. Unlike the government, us regular folks actually have to pay back what we borrow or face a litany of penalties and headaches. The idea that “the people” played any significant role in the financial meltdown is so absurd I find it somewhat offensive. Likewise the suggestion that most of us prefer more debt to cutbacks in services is a huge and largely inaccurate generalization. First off, the vast majority of Americans have no say in these matters: any semblance of popular influence is political smoke and mirrors. Self-serving “leaders”, special interests and the rich control the agenda and always have. Average citizens have virtually zero say in matters of taxation and spending with the notable exception of levies placed on ballots. In recent years there has been a distinct national trend towards rejecting tax levies in most states, even for critical infrastructure upgrades and human services. As a result, states and the fed have increasingly resorted to stealth tax hikes. They’ll get the money to keep buying votes from the the groups they curry favor with (unions, public sector workers, the dependency class, etc) any way they can.

The bottom line is that, yes, a lot of people have been carrying far too much personal debt in the last two decades. However, unlike our politicians who can forestall dealing with those problems by rewriting the rules, normal people can’t. We MUST pay the price one way or the other. How does General Electric, one of the largest companies on Earth, pay no taxes on its sizable profits? How do financial institutions who abuse the public trust get rescued with our tax dollars while rewarding themselves for their cleverness? For about half of what TARP cost you could have paid off every bad mortgage in the country and reset the whole economic playing field..started fresh, if you will, hopefully with a complete overhaul of lending rules to prevent another Wall Street disaster. Instead we got a enough extra debt that it is mathematically impossible to ever pay it off. If our political and industry leaders had to play by the same rules as the rest of us, we would never have gotten into this mess to begin with. As it stands now there’s virtually no hope of ever getting out.

Psycros, I respectfully disagree. Blaming our troubles on corporations and the government is hardly anything other than an easy cop out. The corporations and especially the government are often presented as an “opposing force” to that of the people, but that is simply untrue.

The corporations are not just created by the people, they are also fully dependent on the people. Only in bad movies can there exist a corporation that is in the business of brutally murdering their customer base. Corporations are created to turn a profit for their shareholders, and there is no need to be shocked when they take whatever steps necessary. Even the most odious of incorporated entities have full de facto support of the population. Do you have a 401K plan? Do you invest int he stock market? If so then chances are you own shares of all of the big players.

This may sound unpleasant, but if the people actually truly despised some company – it wouldn’t last a day. Sell-off of shares, dissolution of contracts, refusal to buy goods and services and the corporation disappears into thin air. That will NEVER happen of course. Why? Because of the people. Because they will never stand for it. So next time you are outraged by corporate conduct – take a good, hard look at those who enable it. You’ll find that the majority of the enablers are private, Middle class people.

Same holds true for the government. All populations deserve their government. We could argue about semantics and cases such as dictatorships and monarchies (although I still maintain that it still holds true) but there is no question that a constitutional republic with democratically elected, representative government is an absolute poster child for this axiom. We do fully and thoroughly deserve our government. Every single elected official is elected by the people, so we don’t have an excuse. Every single harmful law, every idiotic spending decision, every crime, every bit of buffoonery lays squarely on us. We did it.

I can even tell you why. Because “we the people” are evil, stupid, greedy and corrupt. Because “we the people” vote for whoever promises us the biggest cut of the public treasury. “Squatting” has become a national sport, did you know? And it makes sense. Why pay money back to the bank that gave you a mortgage, when you can just stay in the house for a few years (while the lender goes through courts to evict you) pocket the money, and suffer no consequences. Yea, sure, your credit will be bad for four years. Not that big of a deal, honestly. So now is it at all surprising that our country is on the same course. This is who we are, this is what we do, and this is whom we elect – our true representatives. Contrary to the popular opinion they represent us VERY well.

^ I agree with Alaric’s last comment. But you might want to take that with a grain of salt. According to university trainer philosophers, I am void of compassion and love as evident in my supposed lack of friends, family, spouse and children.

Regardless if you believe, as I do, that the middle-class is finding itself with an income that is worth less each year, or are in cahoots with Alaric and believe the opposite, it’s apparent that the gaming industry is in a scramble to increase profits – more-so than ever. Most gamers seem to think this is all over a made up notion that the profit of the industry is taking hits from external forces (whereas an internal force would be the production of low-quality titles).

Our discussion/argument over the middle-class has turned into a “we’re the victims” vs. “we are to blame” debate, and I would say most of the evidence points to this being the issue with the gaming industry debate. Except in the case of us gamers, casual gamers like myself are probably more to blame than hardcore gamers like Alaric. We both vote with our money in two contradicting ways. I support companies he dislikes, but I suspect there is even a lower category of gamer than “casual”.

We should name them “consumption gamers” and instead of attacking each other, we need to blame them. I rarely purchase a new game because I will most likely avoid disappointment with a sub $30 game (I’m easily entertained). However, a “consumption gamer” is one that frequently buys new titles just because that’s what everyone on Steam, PSN or Xbox Live are playing. It is because of the spending habits of these consumption gamers that a game like F3AR – on PC – is shipped to me in a case with a download code for Steam, even though I expected a disk. And it’s because of these consumption gamers that PC games have the strictly-programmed-for-a-console “press a button to continue” (when did PC games ever need that message!?). These consumption gamers have directed the industry’s profit to games like Rockband, Guitar Hero, COD, MOH, Halo and other mass produced video game.

But I still think the combined forces of GameFly and GameStop hurt the industry. Why else is Best Buy getting into the “used game” business? They see an area to make more money than dealing with strictly new titles. I fail to see how that has NO impact on developers/publishers.