Many of the problems and potential of abuse as present in the entertainment industry, with none of the organizing to protect workers.

+1 for "incredible passion from consumers". I've never seen a mass of customers so easy to fool as gamers are. Imagine a washing machine company releasing broken products, and the average joe going "yup, I really want another washing machine from this company after seeing this ad which showed something I like, even though the last time I bought some they were barely working and only half washed my clothes, please take my money".

If bethesda/microsoft announced Fallout New Vegas 2, everyone would lose their shit and preorder instantly.

Also it disgusts me how happy everyone seems when a company announces that they won't do microtransactions. If the company has a history of keeping promises and releasing games without mtx, sure, it's warranted. But otherwise? Are you an idiot? They'll update the game half a year after you and the other fools bought the game and introduce microtransactions then. I wish there were laws that clearly defined what monetization in a game means and forbade developers from changing monetization schemes during the lifetime of a game, I just can't trust cloud-enabled games nowadays that promise a non-mtx non-p2w experience. It's worthless promises if you can change your mind down the line after I invested time and maybe money in your game. First get the money from the gamers who think they're really smart for "supporting games with fair monetization schemes", then when they're exhausted introduce mtx and go after the whales for the big bucks.

Fuck this industry, you don't even know what kind of product you're buying anymore. People waiting for "a full review of Diablo Immor(t)al to figure out how much money you need to spend to get a good build" - what's the point? By the time the review is out blizzard probably already changed the sliders and everything's different. Although from what I hear about the game, the only way they could change them at this point would make the game better, so there's that. $100k (that's one.hundred.thousand.dollars.) to get a fully equipped build. Jesus christ. Go back in time to when Diablo 2 is released and tell the gamers that soon they'll have to pay one hundred. thousand. dollars. to get a fully equipped build in the latest Diablo. They'll just cry and jump out the window. An even sadder thing is if you told them the latest Diablo will be a mobile game, they'd think "what? you can play Diablo anywhere like with a Gameboy? That's freaking amazing dude!" ugh. But you need to tell them this before telling them about having to choose between a nice house and a cool armor for their barbarian, burst that bubble properly.

I hate this. My comment here is the incredible passion from consumers, you can see it live now, you're welcome.

The incredible passion from developers is also me still being interested and working on gamedev crap even though I wish I could just turn back time instead.

At the end of the day basically all jobs little kids dream about (actor, doctor, astronaut, making video games) are either really hard to get into (like doctor) or pay very poorly for the majority of people (like actor and making video games).

IMO this is true for every field that has a similar draw. Working on anything that's perceived as "fun" or for the greater good will allow for lower comp and worse working conditions. I believe that that's also a factor why teachers in the US can be so underpaid and treated badly and why Musk gets away with some of the rougher working conditions at Tesla and SpaceX (at least the pay seems good at those companies though).

> You can run them ragged and then replace as needed.

Until you can't. A good case study is Dice Stockholm, perhaps best known for their stewardship of the Battlefield franchise. They butchered the launch of two titles in a row and lost much of their senior staff.

FWIW BFV became a good game. But the churn BFV (+Firestorm Battle Royale mode) caused has taken BF 2042 to a new low.