Stellaris: A Shift In Consumer Taste

[Duuk]

So till now Duuk maybe right, now they are angry and in half a year they buy the new DLC anyway.

There you go. That's the key problem with the vocal internet ragers.

Activision's stock price is going to be just fine once they ship Diablo mobile and 89% of the Diablo fanbase buys it and plays it and happily clicks away at the in-game shop for all of the shiny upgrades and it brings in a billion dollars to the bottom line. Because, after all, all of those ragers DO have phones.

The 11% of Diablo players that don't buy it because it isn't Diablo 4 won't be missed. And the money from My Little Diablo Happy Adventure Island will fund Diablo 4, and when the Diablo 4 trailer launches the 11% will come running back saying "SEE111!!! this is what they should have done before! Our protest made a valuable point!" and the irony will be totally lost on them.

 

[Greenslade]

Can I just say that there really isn't any such thing as "the video game community"?

There are lots more people that play games than that come onto forums.

There are lots more people who will pop onto a forum once than will post regularly and keep up with updates from devs.

Of those who post regularly, there seems to be a weighting in favour of those who see devs not as a team of workers labouring under the various constraints set by economics and physics to deliver something good, but as magical game dispensers that you drop coins into and games fall out of.

But that, to be honest, isn't *my* community, and anything calling itself a "community" that doesn't treat game developers as part of it isn't worth the name.

 

[Greenslade]

There you go. That's the key problem with the vocal internet ragers.

Activision's stock price is going to be just fine once they ship Diablo mobile and 89% of the Diablo fanbase buys it and plays it and happily clicks away at the in-game shop for all of the shiny upgrades and it brings in a billion dollars to the bottom line. Because, after all, all of those ragers DO have phones.

The 11% of Diablo players that don't buy it because it isn't Diablo 4 won't be missed. And the money from My Little Diablo Happy Adventure Island will fund Diablo 4, and when the Diablo 4 trailer launches the 11% will come running back saying "SEE111!!! this is what they should have done before! Our protest made a valuable point!" and the irony will be totally lost on them.

See? Why are you so *angry*? Because people like a thing you don't like? That's life, buttercup.

 

[Duuk]

See? Why are you so *angry*? Because people like a thing you don't like? That's life, buttercup.

I literally have no idea what you're trying to say here. They like raging so I should just suck it up because that's life?

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

If I'm not mistaken, HOI3 and Victoria 2 were literally unplayable at launch.

Victoria 2 had a system where POPs consumed goods, but because of bugs related to how goods were produced and consumed, the entire world economy crashed and burned by the 1860s, causing every in-game country to be blanketed with anarchist rebels.

Paradox releasing buggy games, patches, or DLC is nothing new.

 

[ragehavoc]

I'm saying, quiet openly, as I've said many times in this thread, that consumer threats of boycotts and complaints really aren't all that serious if the company keeps selling product.

Basically, no matter what the howling on the forum here or on Steam is Stellaris' sales numbers are and have always been strong. At the end of the day that is the only customer satisfaction rating that really matters. The rest is just King Canute and the Tide.

than why are you here if it doesnt matter? why are you saying anything? why do you care so much about the people vocalizing their frustrations if it doesnt matter? it seems to me you are either a hypocrite or lying to yourself.
if the game is so great, go play it...

 

[monkeypunch87]

There you go. That's the key problem with the vocal internet ragers.

Activision's stock price is going to be just fine once they ship Diablo mobile and 89% of the Diablo fanbase buys it and plays it and happily clicks away at the in-game shop for all of the shiny upgrades and it brings in a billion dollars to the bottom line. Because, after all, all of those ragers DO have phones.

The 11% of Diablo players that don't buy it because it isn't Diablo 4 won't be missed. And the money from My Little Diablo Happy Adventure Island will fund Diablo 4, and when the Diablo 4 trailer launches the 11% will come running back saying "SEE111!!! this is what they should have done before! Our protest made a valuable point!" and the irony will be totally lost on them.

Well, there is also the problem that I want to form my own opinion before I start to criticise. And of course I need to buy the game for this.

The problem starts if a company only measures sales figures to prove sucess and failure, and then my behavior starts to be part of the problem.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

if the game is so great, go play it...

If pizza is so great, go eat it. Never be not eating pizza. Its great, so you must clearly only ever want to interact with pizza to the exclusion of all other things.

 

[danfarnsy]

I literally have no idea what you're trying to say here. They like raging so I should just suck it up because that's life?

We also have no idea (okay, no, we have two ideas) what you're trying to say here. Specifically, people buy games because they rage, or people buy games in spite of rage and should lay off it. You've supported the first argument very well yet concluded with the second. As if you're not raging against the ragers. Yeaaah, I'm wrong, but also not wrong. Casual gamers play Angry Birds and Mario Kart and Madden. They don't balance production economies in grand strategy games (small galaxy, though!) only on their days off. Nor do they enter into FORUM KOMBAT! to tell the ragers they should chill out, citing detailed usage statistics from Steam to support their arguments. Well researched arguments in a pointless place to pointless people about game sales aren't the antidote to rage. They're the embodiment of it.

You're not doing anything wrong. It's fun. But pot, kettle, etc.

 

[danfarnsy]

The problem starts if a company only measures sales figures to prove sucess and failure, and then my behavior starts to be part of the problem.

Wonderful illustration of the point. When you buy a desk fan, you're buying a desk fan. When you buy a computer game, you're sending a message. If we're seriously asking about the optics of buying a game (but not a desk fan!), what behaviors we're encouraging/punishing/rewarding, then we're full on raging narcissists. We probably also argue about politics. Not here, though, that's against the rules.

 

[Duuk]

 

[Duuk]

Specifically, people buy games because they rage, or people buy games in spite of rage and should lay off it.

I don't get where you think I said "because they rage". I've repeatedly said that the people that buy the games will buy the games anyway and the sales numbers are all that really matter. The angry ragers will either buy or not buy but it won't matter even a fraction of an iota because they're an insignificant part of the overall sales figures, much like the number of people that will boycott Hello Diablo Adventure Island Mobile because it's not Diablo 4 are insignificant compared to how much revenue it will generate.

 

[Alexander Seil]

I would argue that over the last 2 years there has been a shift away from Early Access games in the industry as a whole.
Probably due to so many games failing to meet goals or lofty expectations and the videogame consumer feeling cheated or mislead.

Add to this how other companies who are notorious for releasing buggy games but issued a pass due to on-going support , aka Bethesda, have been getting backlash by burning up the good will they built up over many, many years.

2018 was a rough year for Stellaris and a change in attitude on the higher level could make 2019 far better.

Yeah, so, maybe look around for a bit if you want to understand how the dynamics of this forum interact with Paradox's development philosophy, because you have no idea how any of this works.

 

[FiddleSticks96]

I am a simple man. If I like something, want something, and can reasonably afford that something, I buy it. If I don't meet those 3 qualifiers, I don't buy it.

I don't think most people buy things out of anger. It is the opposite. If someone was "angry" about a product and then bought it anyway, they weren't truly angry to begin with.

For the record, my "taste," my expectation, always has and always will be that the product I just bought works as intended, immediately, without additional aid.

I don't normally quote myself, but I am baffled that this comment got a disagree. It mystifies me to know that, someone, somewhere, would prefer that the product they just bought NOT work.

 

[Ashantai]

Sigh. Please try and keep threads on topic and constructive.