What now? Pokemon do not deserve better, because it sells anyway. Hindsight is always 2020

Last year a new Pokémon Game hit the market, Sword and Shield.

Disclaimer: This post was written in February 2020, but mistakenly not published until June.

There was, let's call it now controversy, because the game was 50% more expensive than past Pokemon games, did only include half of the existing Pokemon and did not really add anything other than some gimmicks.

Long time fans were enraged and suggested a boycott. (You can read my post, punch drunk on optimism, here).
That boycott failed. Epically, and maybe forseeably. Sword and Shield is one of the best selling Pokemon Games and one of the best selling Switch games.

To add insult to injury, shortly after the failure become apparent, Game Freak announced DLC - a first for the series. The DLC will include 2 more areas and new and many old Pokemon, and those will be available even to those who not have the DLC.

Jim Sterling has a video on gamers boycotts, and how they all failed, arguing that boycotts create buzz and most consumer succumb to the sirensong of consumerism after all, because that is what capitalism is about.
He also mentions the case of Star Wars Battlefronts II, which had loot boxes. However, people did not primarly threatened with a boycott, put complained about the loot boxes (and the progress) so long and effectively, that Disney interfered and some legislators started to put restrictions on predatory gambling mechanics in video games.

It is worth mentioning, that there was a lot of confusing communication from Gamefreak and Nintendo. I have not dived enough into it, and I do not know Japanese, so I have no idea, if this was just bad (or brillant?) marketing, mistranslations and misunderstandigs, bad cosumer relations or simply lying.
What baffles me most is, that they first said there will be no changes to Dexit (and at least implicitly, no Pokemon will be added later to this game), when they most likely already started to work on the DLC and had at least Switch models for alle Gen 1 Pokemon.

What now?

Sword/Shield sells well and has at least acceptable reviews. Like the game itself most reviews are rehashes of the past, telling us how great the journey with our Pokemon is, like the last x times.

Dexit will be partly reversed. The exact number of returning Pokemons is not yet known, but it can be expected, that at least 3/4 of all Pokemon will be included, when the games are complete by the end of 2020.
Theoretically, they could use the half a year and include the other missing Pokemon as well, but at this point I see no reason economically for them to do so.

The DLC will boost sales again.

Whatever Pokemon deserve, consumers as a whole are content with the way they are and have been for literally decades. They will not become much better in the foreseeable future, and if they do, there will be considerable trade-offs.

It also was a bubble problem:
If 30 000 people on Reddit like a topic about why we should not buy Sword/Shield, these numbers mean nothing when millions of people will do buy it.

Pokemon Home will launch soon and - surprise, surprise - it will be much more expensive than Pokemon Bank was. There will be a mostly useless free version, though.

Is this not merely a pricing problem?

It can be seen that way.
If Sword/Shield had been 30€, I would have argued, the content delivered is fair for the price. If it had been 40€, I would have probably bought it, played with my kids and did not talk a lot about it.
90€ with the DLC is clearly too much.

But this is similar with other games. I enjoyed Let's Go Evee, because it delivered what was promised, but it was clearly overprized.
I have not bought the remake of Link's Awakening, because I find 60€ for a game with the content of an already remade Gameboy game, which did cost maximum of 35€ when it was released, too much. (Yeah, I know, graphics are completely new.)

I tried the demo of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and it did not convince me. Many told me, the game becomes really great, but I am not sure, if the price tag is justified.

And what about this rando's personal and completely useless boycott?

90 € for that content is still too expensive for me.
For now, I have Yokai Watch and SMT: Strange Journey to finish, and the recent Digimon game is still much cheaper.
If somewhen Sword/Shield with DLC will be available for 45€, I will buy it.
I have not made up my mind about Mystery Dungeon.

However, I might get more Pokemon Amiibos, if I find them cheap.

And I would still buy a Let's Go Snubbul game .

But yes, I would like to keep playing Pokémon games, with my kids, but I would prefer to not be overcharged.

After the Pokemon-Controversy, shall I cancel my preorder? - YES!

edit: This controversy is already over - you can ignore older posts and just read the most recent one.


The new Pokémon Game is disappointing long-time fans of the series and the makers could not care less (for a quick summary see here), and YES, you should cancel your preorder. Why didn't you already?

But ask yourself, why do you even pre-order?

You buy something, which quality you can not yet judge, but pay full price.
Obviously you do not believe in capitalism, because for capitalism requires both parties to be informed.

Games are not scarce at launch anymore, because you can get everything via download now.
"Special editions" are usually overpriced and add nothing of worth.

There is no advantage for you, as a consumer, for preordering.

And if you want support Indiegames and small studios, use crowdfunding.

#pokemondeservebetter - and we consumers deserve better as well

edit: This controversy is already over - you can ignore older posts and just read the most recent one. 

Just a quick recap:
2 new Pokemon Games, titled Sword and Shield will be launching later this year on Nintendo Switch.
A presentation of the game so far at E3 was disappointing at best:
The game does not look much better than previous entries an the 3DS (eg here), the Pokémon animations look bland, all in all there was no kind of progress or improvement recognizable. The straw, that broke the Camerupts back was, that the game will not include all Pokémon - you cannot transfer many Pokémon. It is unclear, how many are affected, but it will be clearly a considerable number.

The outcry in the interwebs was impressive, and Gamefreak, the company that makes this game (and owns part of the IP) even responded, but as the game appears to be it was uninspired and not very helpful, basically saying "Thanks for your feedback, cut Pokémon might appear eventually in future games, and we will not change anything".

Many have summed up the problems quite eloquently (eg this Reddit-post), and I will only repeat some parts of it:

They obviously do not care about making a great game. They just put some new "flavor-of-the-month"-gimmick into it (Dynamaxing in this case), which they will drop at the next convenience. And a bunch of new Pokemon they can market.
Besides that, they recycle everything and without any effort to improve it.
And it has been like that for several generations. That might be tolearable for portable games for some time - each game costs like 35 €. But now they want 60 € on the Switch.

They blatantly overcharged for Pokémon Let's Go, especially the Pokéball-Controller (which likely will not be usuable for this game). I confess, I paid almost 90€ for both (already a discount!), and I liked it but even then I wanted improvements for a sequel,

Some people have defended them, again I will just pick a few arguments (but the others are not more convincing).

- There are so many Pokémon, eventually there will be too many.
Maybe. But not yet and not soon. (The repeated mistake is adding too many new Pokémon instead using the many that they have already, so they should limit themselves to about 50 per generation.) There is no reason to start culling Pokémon now or in the technically foreseeable future (see here for details).

- But they will be good games.
I suppose so, because they will be more or less the same as before. But not more, not better, not great, and they do not even try to be. Good games, we have played already several times. Good games, for which we paid at most 40€. Now they want to sell us a good game with slightly improved 3DS graphics for 60€.

- It is their IP. They can do, what they want. You are entitled.
 They can do with their IP, what they want. Disney was allowed to ruin Star Wars, Marvel was allowed to ruin their comics (at least for me they did), and EA was allowed to ruin many IPs and studios.
They are allowed to ruin Pokèmon with low effort, overpriced releases and mobile releases which rely on gambling mechanics.
But they actually want something from me and many people like me - cold, hard cash.

Why do the producers of the Pokémon games do not care? - Because it will sell anyway.

This is capitalism. They want to sell us something. They should give us our money's worth.
But they do not

What now?
Do you want great Pokémon games?

Then vote with your wallet!

- cancel your preorder and do not buy the games
- convince people you know, to not buy overpriced games for their kids (unless they are really rich)
- do not spend money on gambling mechanics in games (not only Pokémon, but especially there)



I for my part will further
- do not buy any Pokémon-Amiibos anymore
- do not buy Pokémon-themed cloth or toys for my kids
- continue to not watch Anime or the movies in the cinema or spend money otherwise on Pokémon stuff.

Luckily there are many other, great games out there.
I for my part always enjoyed the Shin Megami Tensei Series and will try Yokai Watch and Fossil Frontier (they cost like 10€ each) and maybe even Digimon.

Nintendo, Gamefreak and The Pokémon Company can easily fix this - Pokémon makes absurd amounts of money.

Like looking in the mirror

It's good to be the King

Könige unter sich.

Ursprünglich wollte ich ja nur King Dededede, King K. Rool und King Bowser knipsen, aber dann kamen mir Zweifel, ob Ganon(dorf) nicht auch ein König ist. Zumindest ab und zu nennt man ihn quer durch die Zelda-Spiele "Demon King", und wenn ich mich richtig erinnere, hieß es in OoT er ist als einziger männlicher Gerudo automatisch deren König.

Wenn wir schon am Haarspalten sind, Marth wird erst später zum Hero King, der Amiibo-Marth basiert wohl auf Marth aus Fire Emblem I.

Streng genommen müssten dann noch ein paar mehr FE-Amiibos dazu, Alm wird ja auch ein König, und Chrom eigentlich sogar während FE: Awakening.

Naja, eigentlich wollte ich nur ein Themen-Foto mit K. Rool haben, den ich gestern bekommen habe, und wollte es nicht unnötig verkomplizieren... hätte wohl antropomorphe Echsen-Wesen als Thema nehmen sollen...

Als Bonus noch ein Foto aus einer anderen Perspektive

https://www.reddit.com/r/amiibo/comments/aritm4/a_meeting_of_kings/

Amiibo Collection rearranged and with lights

First posted on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/amiibo/comments/9xuth0/collection_rearranged_and_with_lights/

I must say thanks to u/AirDancerExtreme, because that is where I got the idea and advice.

The free space is reserved for the Ice Climber Amiibo (and the Ice Climber NES cartridge), because Ice Climbers was my first video game ever.(If somebody can tell me, where in Austria I can preorder them, I'd be thankful, so far only Libro has Wolf, Ridley and Splatoon characters).

Normally there are doors, but the pictures are bad enough with them open.

PS: If you have an IKEA Billy shelf, do not use IKEA Ledberg to light them - they are ~1,5cm too long to fit in (or 25cm too short).

Umgestaltung, die Zweite

Falls wir einander nicht mehr lesen sollten:

Frohe Festtage und einen guten Start ins Jahr 2018.

Die Kamera ist seit neulich leider nicht besser geworden.
Und ja, Mr. Game&Watch steht tatsächlich auf einem Game&Watch (Trickundtronic) aus den 1980ern. Es ist das mit der Krake und dem Taucher, welches er bei seinem Upwards-Smash emuliert.


PS: Wer das Regal als erstes richtig benamsen kann, bekommt einen Twitter-Shoutout.

Umgestaltung

Es war an der (Weihnachts-)Zeit, alles mal wieder zu rearrangieren:

Für einen Third-Party-Amiibo wäre noch Platz. Und ja, dass hinter den Amiibos in der obersten Reihe sind tatsächlich NES-Spiele.

PS: Bildqualität eher bescheiden.

Überwachungsspiel überwacht dich

#Ubisoft ist mir in letzter Zeit weder besonders positiv noch negativ aufgefallen - habe AC: Unity und Far Cry 4 gespielt, dazu schreibe ich bei anderer Gelegenheit vielleicht etwas mehr. Vor einiger Zeit brachten sie das Hackerspiel #Watchdogs raus, wo der Spielercharakter binnen Sekunden alle möglichen Geräte hacken kann, zB Ampeln umschalten, Straßenbarrieren ausfahren, Kameras, sogar Handgranaten.


Das Spiel hat eine ziemlich schwache Story und war bis auf die Hackingfunktion ein bestenfalls durchschnittliches 3rd-Person-Openworld-Spiel. (Außerdem wurde die PC-Graphik downgegradet, damit die Konsolenversionen nicht im Vergleich zu hässlich werden).
Trotz aller Mängel und Schwächen hat es eines gut geschafft: Den vernetzten Überwachungsstaat anschaulich dargestellt und als Instrument einsetzbar gemacht (natürlich etwas überspitzt, vereinfacht und übertrieben und aus Tätersicht, aber immerhin).

Trotz eher durchwachsenen Erfolgs gab es jetzt ein zweiten Teil, der besser in den Kritiken davon kam, sich aber weil der erste Teil spielerisch enttäuscht hat, schlecht verkauft.

Dieses Überwachungsspiel aber überwacht die Spieler, wie ua der Standard berichtet.
http://ift.tt/2fZGO4B ... ware-am-PC
http://ift.tt/2gHh3EI ... ts-modding

And when there is a semblance of multiplayer, there must also be an anti-cheating mechanism. Watch Dogs 2 makes use of EasyAntiCheat, which has, embedded in its TOS - and even on its features page - a field that claims "Client data analysis to identify anomalies in the game process runtime" is used to enforce it anti-cheat detection mechanisms. What it basically means is that EasyAntiCheat installs a driver in kernel mode and a service that monitors your systems' operating files (when Watch Dogs 2 is running). This mechanism is also running even when you're in single-player-only - and even offline - modes, meaning that you're not getting out of its crosshairs no matter how you are playing the game. The addition of file-integrity checks at the start of the game, so as to detect any changes to the games' files also precludes modding, with some injection-type modding also finding troubles in being able to access the game, due to it checking game memory and system memory as well.

It needs to be said EasyAntiCheat is a legit anti-hacking, anti-cheating Software[...]But it seems that this anti-cheat mechanism is operating even in single-player offline mode, which simply removes from the player the ability to maintain his desired privacy. There should always be an option not to agree with the installation of this kind of applications, even if that were to mean no access to multi-player modes. I, for one, would make that trade willingly.
This looks like a possible way for Ubisoft to protect its monetizing programs with in-game purchases, which abound in Watch Dogs 2 - a way to prevent players from using exploits in the game that could harm the sales of in-game items.

Kaufbare In-Game Items - das haben wir ja schon bei AC: Unity gesehen und ist eine in Vollpreisspielen relativ neue und besonders widerliche Form der Monetisierung:
Dieses Vollpreisspiel (mit Season Pass) versucht dir dauernd für echtes Geld noch irgendwelche Power-Ups zu verkaufen. Würde man als Einzelspieler modden/schummeln können, dann würde niemand solche unsinnigen Items kaufen.

So aber sollte niemand das Spiel kaufen.


Statistics: Posted by ThePurplePantywaist — 02 Dec 2016, 12:32

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Spam - wieder gestiegen

Während Spam noch letztes Jahr abgenommen hat, verseucht jetzt wieder mehr davon den Äther:

Die Anzahl von Spam-Nachrichten mit Schadsoftware im Anhang sei im ersten Halbjahr 2016 explosionsartig um 1270 Prozent im Vergleich zum Vorjahr gestiegen. Gleichzeitig verlören bisherige klassische Abwehrmaßnahmen an Wirksamkeit. Die Spam-Aktivitäten hätten um etwa 73 Prozent zugelegt.

https://futurezone.at/digital-life/1270 ... 29.784.181

Spams mit solchen Programmen wurden dem Bericht zufolge vor allem aus Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländern wie Indien, Vietnam oder Mexiko verschickt. Angreifer verfügten inzwischen über leistungsfähige und flexibel einsetzbare Angriffsmittel und Methoden. Im Fokus der Attacken stünden Unternehmen sowie kritische Infrastrukturen, zu denen etwa die Wasser- und Energieversorgung gehören.

Ebenso seien Verwaltung, Forschungseinrichtungen und Bürger betroffen. Täglich gebe es Cyber-Angriffe auf die Regierungsnetze. Der enorme Anstieg ist vor allem auf die starke Verbreitung sogenannter Ransomware zurückzuführen, bei der Computer blockiert oder Daten verschlüsselt werden - meist um Lösegeld zu erpressen. Als große Sorge in Deutschland gilt, dass der Bundestagswahlkampf zum Ziel von Cyber-Attacken von Hackern etwa aus Russland werden könnte.

In letzter Zeit sind die gefakten Bankemails udgl auch immer besser geworden - nicht nur dass sie mittlerweile schon ohne sprachlicher Mängel daherkommen, sie sehen auch schon richtig echt aus - wenn man nicht weiß, dass einem die Bank solche Emails einfach nie schickt, dann muss man schon sehr auf Details achten.
Statistics: Posted by ThePurplePantywaist — 09 Nov 2016, 16:48

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