I live in a nearly perpetual state of outrage over the need to sign in and be tracked for things that have absolutely no reason to require an internet connection.
I'm even more outraged when I see popular video games that are clearly targeting children to become addicted and buy in-game currency to progress (or worse- not do anything at all like Fortnite skins). I played fucking The Legend of Zelda on my Nintendo and it was great. What ever happened to creating a product and selling that product once? If it doesn't suck we might buy the next product(s) you make.
I am no fan of IAP-laden games but there’s a lot of stuff skins with no obvious game effect do in a multiplayer game.
* status games - I have this old/hard to get/expensive skin and you do not.
* social games - me and my buddies all dress identically/similarly. Gang colors, the All-Shrek Squad, GTA’s roving gangs of purple/green alien gangs...
* role play games - does dressing up like Superman make you want to play the game differently than dressing up like Little Bo Peep, or like Freddy Krueger?
This has very little effect on a single player game (though I know I sure do spend a while making my character look cool in games with character creation and visible equipment) but “choosing your visual style” is an important part of social signaling.
And of course selling this stuff to the captive audience in your popular game is a pretty nice way to keep a small army of artists busy cranking out stuff, so you don’t have to worry about firing them while the next big project is in the planning stages. Or to just have a giant cash cow of a gentle IAP funnel with a few bits of whale bait here and there.
actually let me amend "no obvious game effect" to "no effects with regards to the games mechanics or statistics" since these can be some pretty obvious game effects
A few years ago, I made the mistake of installing the utility software that came with my new Razor keyboard - I thought it was some special driver thing - and I had to make a new account and sign in? It's a keyboard.
When you plug Razer stuff into a modern Windows 10 computer in the default configuration, Windows will actually silently download and install their crapware. Even if you are not admin. Even if the machine is part of a domain(!)
Oh no! That's awful. I'm still on Windows 7 and I moved to a Logitech keyboard that I prefer - but while I don't think I'm going to try any other Razer products in the future I'm aware many other hardware companies do this sort of thing as well.
None of the games I play on my switch is nagging me to sign up or buy anything. Mostly Super Mario Odyssey, New Super Mario Bros and Zelda, but the same goes for most Nintendo games.
I'm even more outraged when I see popular video games that are clearly targeting children to become addicted and buy in-game currency to progress (or worse- not do anything at all like Fortnite skins). I played fucking The Legend of Zelda on my Nintendo and it was great. What ever happened to creating a product and selling that product once? If it doesn't suck we might buy the next product(s) you make.