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Cliffski's Blog | Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please ...
http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2015/12/13/hi-im-from-the-games-industr...
Positech
Games
(http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog)
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Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business...
1 of 16
Hi, I’m from the games
industry. Governments, please
stop us. (http://positech.co.uk
/cliffsblog/2015/12/13/hiim-from-the-games-industrygovernments-please-stop-us/)
About Cliff
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December 13, 2015 | Filed under: business (http://positech.co.uk
/clif f sblog/category /business/)
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This may not be popular, but its how I f eel. First, some background
and disclaimers. I run a small games company making games f or the
PC, strategy games w ith an up f ront payment. We don’t make ‘f ree to
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play’ games or have micro transactions. Also, I’m pretty much a
capitalist. I am not a big f an of government regulation in general. I am a
‘get rid of red tape’ kind of guy. I actually oppose tax breaks f or game
development. I am not a f riend of regulation. But nevertheless.
I aw ake this morning to read about this:
(http://positech.co.uk/cliff sblog/w p-content/uploads/2015/12
/Image1.png)
Search
Some background: Star Citizen is a space game. Its being made by
someone w ho made space games years ago, and they ‘crow df unded’ the money to make this one. The game is w ay behind
schedule, and is of course, not f inished yet. They just passed
$100,000,000 in money raised. They can do this because individual
ships in the game are f or sale, even though you bought the game. I
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
2 of 16
guess at this point w e could just say ‘A f ool and his money are soon
parted’, but yet w e do not do this w ith gambling addiction. In f act w e
some countries have extremely strict law s on gambling, precisely
(http://w w w .bigpharmagame.com)
(https://w
Big Pharma
/bigphar
because they know addiction is a thing, and that people need to be
saved f rom themselves.
Can spending money on games be a problem? Frankly yes, and its
because games marketing and the science of advertising has
changed beyond recognition f rom w hen games f irst appeared.
Games ads have of ten been dubious, and tacky, but the problem is
that now they are such a huge business, the stakes are higher,
people are prepared to go f urther. On the f ringes w e have this crap:
(http://w w w .gratuitousspacebattles2.com
Gratuitous Space Battles 2
(http://w
/pages
(http://w w w .positech.co.uk/democracy3
/index.php?src=cliff ski.com)
Democracy 3
(http://w w w .positech
(https://w
/democracy3 /democr
/taprao.png)
But in the mainstream, even advertised in prime-time TV spots w e
have this crap:
(http://w w w .gratuitoustankbattles.com
/index.html)
(https://s3.amazonaw
(http://w w
s.com
w .gra
/gratuitoustankbattles
/register.html)
Blogroll
Categories
Archives
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
3 of 16
/hqdef ault.jpg)
And this stuff w orks. ‘Game of War’ makes a lot of money. That ad
campaign cost them $40,000,000. (Source (http://w w w .f orbes.com
/sites/insertcoin/2014/11/16/a-40m-ad-budget-buys-game-of -w arf ire-age-kate-upton/)). Expensive? not w hen you earn a million
dollars A DAY: (Source (https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/3352
/game-of -w ar-f ire-age/)).
/Image2.png)Now if you don’t play games, you might be thinking ‘so
w hat? they must be good games, you are jealous! But no! In f act all
the coverage of games like Evony (http://w w w .theguardian.com
/technology/gamesblog/2009/jul/15/games-evony-spam-internet) and
Game Of War (http://w w w .148apps.com/review s/game-w ar-f ireage-review /) illustrates just how bad they are. They earn so much
because the makers of those type of games have an incredibly f ine
tuned and skillf ul marketing department bent on psychological
manipulation. You think I’m exaggerating? Read this
(http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/w e-ow n-you-conf essionsof -a-f ree-to-play-producer/). Some choice quotes:
“We take Facebook stalking to a w hole new level. You spend
enough money, w e w ill f riend you. Not off icially, but w ith a f ake
account. Maybe it’s a hot girl w ho show s too much cleavage?
That’s us. We learned as much bef ore f riending you, but once
you let us in, w e have the keys to the kingdom.”
Lets think about this f or a minute. A company hires people to stalk its
customers and bef riend them so they can build up a psychological
prof ile of each customer to allow them to extract more money. This is
not market research, this is not game design. This is psychological
w arf are. Lines have been crossed so much w e cannot even see
them behind us w ith binoculars. We need to reign this stuff in. Its not
just psychological w arf are, but w arf are w here you, the customer,
are w oef ully outgunned, and losing. Some people are losing
catastrophically.
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
4 of 16
You know how much you hate those ads that track you around the
internet reminding you of stuff you looked at but didn’t buy? That is
amateur hour compared to the crap that some games companies are
pulling these days. The problem is, w e have NO regulation. AFAIK no
law prevents a company stalking its customers on f acebook. We live
in an age w here marketers have already tried using MRI scans on live
subjects to test advertising responsiveness. You think you are not
manipulated by ads? Get real, read some of the latest books on the
topic.We are only a short step aw ay f rom convincing AI bots that
pretend to be our new f lirty f riends in game that urge us to keep
playing, keep upgrading, keep spending.
Modern advertising is so pow erf ul w e should be legislating the crap
out of this sort of thing. How bad do w e let it get bef ore w e get some
government imposed rules? We are in the early days of
mass-population study and manipulation, the days w here us, the
gamers describe a game as ‘addicting’ as a positive. Maybe it isn’t
such a positive af ter all. Maybe w e need to start w orrying about if a
game is actually good, rather than just ‘addicting’. Maybe w e need
people to step in and save us f rom ourselves. We are basically still
just hairless apes. We do not possess anything like the self -control or
f ree-w ill that w e think w e do.
Like alcohol, gambling, smoking or eating, most of us do not f ind
gaming addictive. Thus w e f ail to see the problem. it depends how
you are w ired. See this ‘aw ards screen’ in company of heroes 2:
/2i9pao3.jpg)
To most of us, thats just silly, and too big, and OTT. But if you suff er
f rom OCD, that can be a BIG BIG problem f or you. They KNOW this. Its
w hy it is done. it w orks. Keep playing kid. keep playing. KEEP
PLAYING. This sort of thing doesn’t need to w ork on everyone. If it
w orks on just 1% and w e can get them to spend $1,000 a month on
our game (w ho cares if they can aff ord it?), then its w orth doing.
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
5 of 16
I hate regulation, but sometimes you need it. Stopping a business
dumping w aste in a river is a good idea. Stopping companies treating
their customers like animals that can be psychologically trapped and
exploited is a good idea too. This stuff is too easy. Save us f rom
ourselves.
32 Responses to “Hi, I’m from
the games industry.
Governments, please stop us.”
1.
Jason says:
December 13, 2015 at 2:27 pm (http://positech.co.uk/cliff sblog
/2015/12/13/hi-im-f rom-the-games-industry-governments-pleasestop-us/#comment-57824)
I am with y ou on Star Citizen. I think it’s getting way out of hand. But check
out the circlejerk on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments
/3wlblt/star_citizen_just_reached_100_million_in_f unding/
(https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/3wlblt
/star_citizen_just_reached_100_million_in_f unding/)). Seems like ev ery one’s
super happy f or Chris Roberts and company. I had expected more outrage,
honestly.
Yeah, sex sells. That’s why we hav e those ads. Some of these pay -to-win
games are just designed to cause psy chological pain so people will pay more
money. I guess that’s good “game design” in that it makes people throw
money at y ou. I v ery much am a games purist like y ou but I think these
new business models in the mainstream are here to stay, sadly.
REPLY (HTTP://POSITECH.CO.UK/CLIFFSBLOG/2015/12
/13/HI-IM-FROM-THE-GAMES-INDUSTRYGOVERNMENTS-PLEASE-STOP-US
/?REPLYTOCOM=57824#RESPOND)
BlehManx (http://[email protected]) says:
December 14, 2015 at 1:05 am (http://positech.co.uk/cliff sblog
/2015/12/13/hi-im-f rom-the-games-industry-governmentsplease-stop-us/#comment-57847)
Oh, Hi Derek’s alt
REPLY (HTTP://POSITECH.CO.UK/CLIFFSBLOG
/2015/12/13/HI-IM-FROM-THE-GAMES-INDUSTRYGOVERNMENTS-PLEASE-STOP-US
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
6 of 16
Poor quality of deb ate here says:
Of course, any one who disagrees with this article is obv iously circle
jerking /s. I f ind it especially ironic that y ou are say ing this about
/r/games when in f act /r/games disliked Star Citizen f or y ears. It looks
really unintelligent to paint any one holding a dif f erent opinion than y ou as
f anboy s or circle jerkers.
2.
mendel says:
This needs to be more widely known.
“Free-to-play games aren’t af ter ev ery one f or a f ew dollars — they ’re af ter
weak people in v ulnerable states f or hundreds, if not thousands.”
Source: http://www.gamasutra.com/v iew/f eature/195806
/chasing_the_whale_examining_the_.php?print=1 (http://www.gamasutra.com
/v iew/f eature/195806/chasing_the_whale_examining_the_.php?print=1)
Anecdote on the same topic: http://notalway sright.com/just-crushed-her-saga
/35799 (http://notalway sright.com/just-crushed-her-saga/35799)
3.
Vanessa (http://informationredux.com) says:
Thank y ou f or posting this. We need more people like y ou to speak out
against what many “game” companies are doing to exploit their own
customers.
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
7 of 16
He’s a no name in the industry. He’s just salty he can’t make $100mil.
Tyrx says:
December 14, 2015 at 2:28 am (http://positech.co.uk
/cliff sblog/2015/12/13/hi-im-f rom-the-games-industrygovernments-please-stop-us/#comment-57852)
You’re simply prov ing his point that some people hav e become
mentally unf it due to addiction problems. In y our case it’s Star
Citizen – seriously, not ev ery body who talks negativ ity about SC is
Derek Sharts. A normal person wouldn’t bother ref reshing a blog post
to continually spam comments bashing the author because they
discuseed SC in that manner either…
4.
Jagerb ab omb says:
I’m with y ou on this f or the most part, but comparing Star Citizen to the
some of the big ‘f reemium’ heav y -hitters is intellectually dishonest. Yeah,
they ’v e gotten $100 million, but they ’v e done so in such a way that it’s hard
to be mad at them f or it. The people throwing money at them did so because
the product in dev elopment legitimately excites them in a big way. RSI has
made their money on people’s *enthusiasm*.
Now compare their $100 million and sev eral dev builds released to
something like Candy Crush or, as y ou pointed out in y our article, Game of
War. Those games, ostensibly ‘f ree’, f requently earn the creators upwards
of $1 million *a day *. The biggest f reemium game dev s hav e earned
*billions*. With a ‘b’. And they ’re doing it the cy nical, manipulativ e way with
v ery little in the way of an actual f un experience to show f or it.
TL;DR: Don’t compare apples and oranges. It hurts y our argument.
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
8 of 16
Colonel Mustard says:
Star citizen is not a f ree game, but the comments about addictiv e
behav ior relating to ship purchases (in an incomplete game) are a spot on
comparison.
Also take the current misinf ormation about star citizen dev elopment time
as an example of disingenuous marketing, right now people in gaming
f orums around the net are pushing the line that the game has only been
in dev elopment f or 3 y ears.
This is seen as a blatant lie when compared to what Chris Roberts
himself said about the game’s dev elopment time “We’re already one
y ear in” on 18/10/12. This is deliberate disinf ormation to excuse the
current state of the game as being the product of 3 y ears or
dev elopment, not the f actual (and less impressiv e) 4.
Link to original interv iew
https://www.themittani.com/f eatures/exclusiv e-interv iew-star-citizenschris-roberts (https://www.themittani.com/f eatures/exclusiv e-interv iewstar-citizens-chris-roberts)
Halcyon says:
December 13, 2015 at 8:05 pm (http://positech.co.uk
So y ou are going to f ault them f or dev elopment bef ore they had
kickstarter f unding? When they were only people working with 7-10
employ ees f rom their house, while they had morning jobs?
Kickstarter date f inished in Nov ember 2012 and that is where 3 y ears
of dev elopment comes f rom.
Cheshyr says:
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
9 of 16
December 13, 2015 at 8:11 pm (http://positech.co.uk
I’m not going to get into the discussion of project schedules, but I
agree that the ship purchasing model v ery much relies on the
certain addictiv e qualities of their marketing.
/2015/12/13/HI-IM-FROM-THE-GAMESINDUSTRY-GOVERNMENTS-PLEASE-STOP-US
Commentor says:
They paid them a wage ov er a y ear to dev elop a specif ic product
including artists. You’d need some serious double-think to wish
that reality away.
/2015/12/13/HI-IM-FROM-THE-GAMESINDUSTRY-GOVERNMENTS-PLEASE-STOP-US
It’s quite f rankly illogical to consider 10 people dev eloping a
game the same as 200 people dev eloping a game. If that was
true, all the indie studios out there would be spending as much
capital and manpower as EA, Activ ision, or any of the huge
AAA studio groups.
5.
Bob says:
Yup, and while we are asking the gov ernment to help stop innov ativ e
companies f rom making good v ideo games, lets ask them to stop Wal-Mart
($130.24 billion PROFIT in 2014) or Apple ($104.88 billion PROFIT) or a v ideo
game company, how about Electronic Arts at $3.31 billion PROFIT.
So someone comes up with an idea f or a v ideo game, of f ers to go
independent of major publishers of v ideo games. And people LOVE the idea
and throw money at them. At writing this there was $100,080,646 raised and
1,088,999 citizens. That’s only $91.90 per person. That’s not too crazy
seeing how Digital Deluxe games or Collector’s Editions go f or upwards of
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
10 of 16
$100 f rom major publishers, and generally those (CoD or BF) are generally
reskins of the prev ious y ears games. They run on the same engine as they
did the y ear bef ore and are nothing “new” or innov ativ e. $100 million is not
out of line f or AAA game titles (https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/List_of _most_expensiv e_v ideo_games_to_dev elop
(https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/List_of _most_expensiv e_v ideo_games_to_dev elop))..
So, I would say that bef ore y ou call on the gov ernment to stem f unding
f rom going into an independent company and try to stif le innov ation, may be
y ou should be asking the gov ernment to make Apple stop charging a $1000
f or the newest iPhone, or ask Wal-Mart to support local manuf acturing and
not get ev ery thing f rom China.
Commentor says:
You know as well as any one that the backer number is inf lated
dramatically by f ree trial accounts and people with multiple accounts.
The number thrown around is ~600,000 actual accounts.
But that isn’t ev en the issue. Most accounts only paid the minimum ~$30
f or an account leav ing the rest of the tab with Exactly the sort of person
this article was talking about. The addictiv es. The OCD. The
Completionists.
This isn’t about run away prof its or ev en expensiv e products. This is
about prey ing on people with weaknesses.
Bill Wattson says:
You’ll hav e to actually back this up with a source instead of just
say ing 600K. Where did y ou get this number? Or y ou just made it
up?
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
11 of 16
6.
Paul says:
Using Star Citizen and Game of War in the same article about the same
shitty practices is really strange to me, especially happening af ter Roberts
and his team just released one of the most ambitious pieces of interactiv e
entertainment ev er created (y es I am talking about the alpha 2.0). Game of
War and its ilk is pure trash…Star Citizen is marv el of art and engineering.
Commentor says:
The alpha is not great and if that is actually indicativ e of what the f inal
game will be then it will be in no way innov ativ e. Don’t conf late and
extrapolate what isn’t there. There is so much promised and a complete
lack of meat f or 4 y ears dev elopment.
You must understand there are space games that were started and hav e
been released since the start of their work. Games that not only hav e
done more but are now more polished and complete.
There’s been 3 y ears of dev elopment since the Kickstarter, I’m not
sure where y ou pulled “4 y ears f rom” (no, pre-production doesn’t
count and if y ou think it does y ou don’t really understand sof tware
dev elopment). For context, 3 y ears of dev elopment is absurdly little
f or any MMO. World of Warcraf t took 4 y ears, Guild Wars 2 took 5
y ears, and Elder Scrolls Online took a whopping 7 y ears to complete.
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
12 of 16
Star Citizen is a v ery ambitious MMO, so it’s totally reasonable to
expect it to take at least as long as Guild Wars 2.
7.
Dave (http://n/a) says:
I generally agree with y ou that many of the business practices y ou hav e
raised in y our post are abhorrent. Many businesses now f eel obliged to use
these sorts of tactics in order to compete with other more unscrupulous
competitors. This is not a great place to be and I’m pretty sure that it is not
healthy f or the industry. I don’t think f ree-to-play is inherently bad. I think
as an industry we need to encourage companies to ev olv e towards a cleaner
model that doesn’t require y ou to hav e contempt f or y our customers.
Whether regulation is how we get there is uncertain although I’m sure it will
be part of a solution mov ing f orward.
I’m not entirely sure why y ou keep stating that y ou are otherwise against
regulation. Are y ou against all f orms of regulation on principal? That seems a
bit narrow-minded. If it wasn’t f or some kind of regulation our society would
not be able to f unction. It is what keeps things f air (at least to some extent).
If the banking sy stem had been better regulated we might not be in the
post-recession mess we are right now. Just my thoughts.
8.
Snow says:
Hav e y ou read The Space Merchants (https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/The_Space_Merchants (https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/The_Space_Merchants)) .. weaponised adv ertising
9.
Mori Kopel says:
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
13 of 16
“The ultimate result of shielding men f rom the ef f ects of f olly is to f ill the
world with f ools.”
10.
Isthisa Joke says:
“Hi, I’m f rom the games industry. Gov ernments, please regulate my more
successf ul competitors.”
11.
Derek says:
As a f ormer blackjack dealer and poker play er in the US, I was upset when
gambling suddenly became illegal because a f ormer Senate majority leader
decided to shov e his little pet project through Congress without any debate.
Compared to what’s happening right now in the mobile market, the gambling
seems rather quaint, and less scammy.
You salty Dr. Smart?
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
14 of 16
12.
Lmao. I like how y ou guy s are so f ucking salty because y ou all hav e no
skill to raise that kind of money. You’d sell y our mother f or this kind of
money lol.
wesha (http://[email protected])
says:
*salt detected*
*irony slips by unnoticed*
13.
Oh, and Derek Sharts, go eat a bag of dicks.
14.
Dave Taylor (http://davetaylor.name) says:
/2015/12/13/hi-im-f rom-the-games-industry-governments-please12/13/2015 10:13 PM
15 of 16
stop-us/#comment-57857)
All good points, but decidedly on the other side of y ou making a shit ton of
money of f of Inf inity Blade, one of the highest-grossing f 2p games to ship
on iOS (at the time). How do y ou f eel about that? Do y ou plan to re-inv est
some of those winnings in a title to help combat the problem?
I’d say there are some outlier f 2p games that are particularly bad, but the
basic issue is that as game dev elopers, we prioritize addiction too much, no
matter our monetization method. Whether the play er is spending money as
he play s or not, the play er alway s, alway s loses time, and time *is* money.
Dave Taylor (http://davetaylor.name) says:
My bad. Wrong Clif f . :)
15.
Satoshi Kamasutra says:
“I am not a f riend of regulation. But nev ertheless.”
Translation: My business shouldn’t be regulated, but other businesses
should.
Yes, these are all sleazy practices, but what makes y ou think that any f orm
of regulation would be ef f ectiv e and not just another bonanza f or trial
lawy ers? It’s telling the y ou suggest that regulation these companies is
“easy ”, but don’t ev en hint at a suggestion of what kind of regulation y ou
hav e in mind. If it’s so easy, please tell us what y ou would hav e the
gov ernment do?
Outlaw companies f riending people on Facebook? Require game companies
to conduct double-blind tests on people with OCD? What?
12/13/2015 10:13 PM
16 of 16
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