Thing is, that’s how a lot of people treat games. They play them for a few days when they come out to extract the novelty of the new experience. They get annoyed that it isn’t as novel or new as when they were kids and experiencing it for the first time. Then they buy a new game. Rinse and repeat.
Games as a service just take advantage of that by promising that experience but in one convenient package: We’ll change the game every now and then to keep you interested instead of satisfied.
It’s no shock when a game developer builds a bunch of content on a platform like UE5 and charges for it. No shock that Epic might take a cut. But when it’s a game developer building content on a platform like Starfield and Bethesda would get the cut, it should be free? Why exactly? Because you’re used to it?
What I think is astonishing to some people lately about Cyberpunk, is that they got most of their information from the popular channels on the internet. Despite its name, these channels (reddit r/all, Twitter, etc) are a (loud) minority of the actual opinions.
Pretty much every one I talked to IRL about Cyberpunk was aware of the controversy, but had a much more nuanced opinion than I was seeing online. Many of them enjoyed it and weren’t really experiencing that many bugs (myself included). But this wasn’t an “allowed” opinion online. Anyone who said the game was enjoyable or they didn’t personally experience many bugs were attacked for being a CDPR fanboy (myself included) and down voted.
The whole game has an amazing story, that actually hooks the player’s emotions. It’s fantastic. It’s so refreshing after so many games with lazy writing or voice acting. I also played shortly after release, only experiencing 2 major bugs in my playthrough. I know others had it worse, but it was actually refreshing on that front too.
I also think there’s a genuine drop in satisfaction when people are presented with more options. I limit myself and only buy new-ish games when I feel like I’ve extracted as much enjoyment out of the last one I bought as I can. I think this helps a lot.
Because what I see a lot of people doing is jumping to the game-of-the-week and then getting numb and saying “there’s no good games” even as they continue to buy new ones every week.
Artists and performers need the freedom to be able to chase viable opportunities that excite them. You’re watching them for their passion after all. If they get paid better to do it, great. This is their job, after all.