Pluralistic: “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing” (08 Dec 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
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Pluralistic: “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing” (08 Dec 2023)::undefined

  • @jordanlundEnglish
    52•1 year ago

    Forget about features and prices, how about actual content?

    2017 I buy this space shooter game called “Destiny 2”. It has some problems, but it’s decent enough. $60 buy in. The single player story missions took you through four initial planets/moons, the European Dead Zone, Titan, Nessus, and Io, recovering your power and kicking the asses of the space turtles who tried to kill everyone.

    Expansion 1, 2, 3 and 4 come out widening the story, adding more locations, Mercury, Mars, The Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City, the Moon… with all the associated story missions, strikes, raids…

    And I bought in on those too. Some hundreds of dollars.

    Roll forward to 2020, almost 2,000 hours in game. Bungie decides they’re done with story missions and removes them from the game. They also decide that the game is “too big” for new players to get into, and seeking a Fortnite, free to play style audience, removes 1/2 of the content from the game.

    Existing players like me drop the game because content we paid good money for and hours we spent exploring, collecting and curating gear, just went up in smoke.

    New players now have no onboarding point and are incredibly confused because there’s no story and no real way to get into the game.

    So Bungie managed to completely alienate both their existing user base, and the one they hoped to attract.

    Oh, and they have now promised not to do it again, but at the same time, haven’t brought the content back either.

    It’s an online service as a game too, so piracy is not an option. The only way to experience the original content is through YouTube videos.

    https://youtu.be/EVH865r2J8k

    • MrScottyTayEnglish
      15•1 year ago

      I was interested in playing at some point and it was around when they took out content that I was considering it. Then I find out it’s missing the beginning and because of FOMO I’m like, nah I won’t even bother then because if I do end up liking the game I’ll just end up sad or annoyed that there’s parts I’ll never get to experience.

      • @[email protected]English
        7•1 year ago

        whoa, next thing you’re gonna tell me is that the “you are the product” one hasn’t been coined by Lemmy either!