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Voting With Your Wallet [roundtable]
 
I wanted to make this a roundtable but since I don't have that ability can a mod edit it in to one?

Voting with your wallet is often said to be the best practice consumers can partake in if they are unhappy with a company's decisions. How often do you find yourself not buying something you otherwise would have purchased because of some factor? What products has it happened with in the past? Do you have any plans to alter buying habits in the near future or are you currently doing so? Remember, this is about products you would have otherwise bought.

The topic by its nature is going to have a lot of references to services and products people like and for reasons they might not agree with. Could we not reopen old debates? Think of this as a thread where people give their stances and don't try to argue with them or change them.

I cannot think of too many previous examples but currently there are quite a few ongoing and upcoming.

Evolve was a game I was interested in but the sheer amount of DLC announced before the game releases has made me decide to hold off. When a game is multiplayer only and you plan to splinter the playerbase that drastically upon release it is clear you don't have the game being the best it can be as the top priority.

The Battlefield series. Battlefield 4 was an absolute mess at launch. Months and months passed and the game still only worked some of the time. That series will never get the benefit of the doubt from me again.

Assassin's Creed. These games have always been home to some questionable practices. With Unity though and the introduction of microtransactions, review embargoes, poor QC it has just reached a breaking point.

Virtual Console. The lack of crossbuy and a proper account system has me not using the service nearly as much as I otherwise would have. This also applies to Nintendo's digital offerings of retail games.

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01/29/15, 15:21    Edited: 01/29/15, 16:22
 
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@kriswright I don't think we are just talking about buying what you want and not buying what you don't want, because doesn't everyone already kind of do that by default? I thought it was more about using purchasing power to send a message, which generally requires you to step outside of your regular purchasing habits. For example, a boycott of a place you buy things from.

But I have a sense there is no clear one thing we are talking about here.
02/01/15, 02:02   
@Zero

But boycotts can work, if they're well-organized. Surely that's not particularly debatable.

And if it's just a one-man boycott, which wouldn't be all that effective, surely then it's just a question of what suits your own conscience. I don't eat at Chik-fil-a anymore, which is a shame because I really really like their food, but I can't support the public positions of certain members of the Cathy family. I don't think I'm bringing "Big Chicken" to their knees with my personal boycott, but it's a matter of conscience for me. (I'm also aware that I probably give money to worse people, only I don't know about it. But this is a minefield. Or, like, the foggy corner of the Johari Window of capitalist ethics - how can you respond to something you don't know about?)
02/01/15, 02:13   
I don't think there's ever been something that's completely stopped me from buying a game I was going to buy otherwise, but it would make me wait and buy it later. Like I didn't like the direction of the Wii U so I waited for the price to come down a bit and see where it was headed first.

I have been unhappy about the direction of certain things but I don't really feel like not buying them would help anything so I usually buy it anyway. A good recent example is Fantasy Life; the DLC situation for that game is awful, but I bought into it anyway because I really wanted the game. Given it's a niche game, if I didn't buy it I think the lesson Nintendo would take from low sales is just that nobody wants this kind of game and they wouldn't release them.

Then there are also games I think could be better like Mario Kart but Nintendo won't stop making them if I don't buy them so that isn't a way to send a message, only a way to deprive myself.

And of course the whole third-party situation is kind of like that, though I probably shouldn't get into that again because it's also about how hundreds of companies get lumped under one blanket label. But yeah, there are third-party games I want but not the few that have come to Wii U like ZombiU, Assassin's Creed, Batman, etc. and so I don't want to buy junk I don't want just to have a chance at getting stuff I do want in the form that I want it.
02/01/15, 05:24   
I was thinking about it and I think there are a few instances when I vote with my wallet. I generally try to buy 3rd party games on Nintendo systems. I'll buy Call of Duty on Xbox because of multiplayer, but unless there's a big reason like that I'd rather play on Nintendo hardware. Along these lines I also vote with other people's wallets. I often ask for games on Nintendo systems for presents. I probably wouldn't have bought Captain Toad, but I'm happy if someone buys it for me.

Another instance is when it comes to the VC. I'll rebuy games with two purposes in mind. One is the fact that I'll have the game easily available to play and all that. The other is I want Nintendo to know people want Metroid games or whatever series I rebuy.
02/01/15, 23:58   
@gojira

Actually Cassamassina is exactly who I think of when I hear "vote with your wallet" when it comes to gaming. Because I'm fairly sure the guy was inflating the score for GCN and Wii games he reviewed that were "what he wanted", i.e. M-rated games, or just gritty action games in general. He kept saying everyone should buy games X and Y so we would get more "hardcore" games released on the Wii.

And while I get that while on the whole, it's true that consumers need to demonstrate there is a market for that type of game, the idea of "supporting" a genre or style with your dollars is ridiculous. You buy the game if you want THAT game, sure. You don't "support" that game in the hopes that you'll get something else.

Which is what Cassamassina was all about.
02/02/15, 04:43   
Guillaume said:
You buy the game if you want THAT game, sure. You don't "support" that game in the hopes that you'll get something else.

Exactly.
02/02/15, 04:46   
Eh, I think buying what you want so you can get more of what you want makes sense. Though to the question of, "will you buy something you don't want to get something that you do" - I can't think of too many times where I "stepped outside" my normal buying habits to do that. Other than that time where I bought two copies of Xenoblade when it was finally released here in North America. Which was unusual for me. That was mostly for collection/potential re-selling purposes, though. And I doubt my double-purchase is what convinced NoA to continue the series in the West. (though if it did....YOU'RE WELCOME, AMERICA )



@Guillaume, @Secret_Tunnel

Agreed. The silver lining there is that, at the very least, Mattamassina (lulz) was promoting good games. It's not like he was trying to get us to buy Geist or the Wii version of Dead Rising or some other crap.
02/03/15, 16:29   
@GameDadGrant

I personally bought Geist because I wanted more games where you could possess dog bowls.
02/03/15, 19:12   
Guillaume said:
You buy the game if you want THAT game, sure. You don't "support" that game in the hopes that you'll get something else.
The problem is, I feel like this is what people and companies expect us to do with the Wii U. And probably what happened with Wii as well. That's a tough thing to fight.
02/03/15, 22:09   
Edited: 02/03/15, 22:10
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