Honestly, this shouldn't be a post I have to write. A lot of this should be common sense. From a business perspective, PR people should be in full panic and damage control mode right now. But they aren't. Why? What's happened to the hobby that I love? Have we strayed so far that we're now completely off base?

Before I go any further with this, I feel like we need to back up a bit. Look a little further back, before 2018 even existed. Back to a more "radical" time period. Of course, I'm talking about the 90's.

Some 25 years ago, playing video games was not a "cool" thing to do. Sure, there were exceptions. If you played Mortal Kombat or Madden Football, you more or less got a pass from the "popular" kids. But if you liked Sonic, or Final Fantasy, or (god forbid) Pokemon, you were the lowest of the low. I distinctly remember a moment when I was off doing my own thing in Pokemon, and a nearby classmate shouted, "GAY BOY! GAY BOY!" to belittle my tastes.

Thank god times have changed! We now see gaming has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry. We've got people like Ninja making half a million dollars a year playing Fortnite. Modern Warfare 2 beat Avatar (the movie) to $1 Billion in sales. Gaming is more mainstream now than it ever was. And that's great! People have finally realized that it's okay to like video games as a hobby.

And yet...

Not everyone agrees.

Gamers are a fickle group. Immensely passionate, dedicated, voracious, and opinionated. They are rabid in their love of their medium unlike any other interest group out there. They are also probably the most invested in the growth and development of the products they consume. As a result, you would think that the companies that cater to gamers would do everything in their power to keep their customers happy.

I mean, it makes sense. Customers are happy, they spend money. They spend money, shareholders are happy. The Shareholders are happy, they pay the devs. Happy devs make great games, which keeps the customers happy. I don't even have a business degree, and even I get it. It's not a difficult concept!

And yet, we have this:

In a way, I feel like gaming has come full circle to my story earlier. Sure, gaming has evolved. We're seeing more and more people gaming on mobile devices than ever before. Sure, it's a great market to tap into. But the way that Blizzard presented Diablo Immortal does not show signs of good PR.

Diablo on mobile devices is a great idea. I think it's a fantastic foray for the IP. But at the same time, The majority of Diablo's fanbase is on PC. That's the main crowd that follows Diablo. You would think that Blizzard would work with the things that make money for them. Nintendo sure did...

Nonetheless, Blizzard isn't the only company with this issue. Bethesda has run into a whole host of problems with Fallout 76. Everything from game breaking bugs to making the game grindier to the newest allegation that lootbox monetization is incoming and it's supposedly very predatory. I know, I couldn't believe it either when YongYea covered it:

This could be quite the problem for a game that's been plagued by trouble from day one. What's worse is that we're seeing journalists from Kotaku, Engadget, and other media companies calling gamers entitled for wanting something better. This isn't the first time this has happened, either. Similar utterances were issued after the Mass Effect 3 fallout over the different endings changing the color of the explosion without any other major changes. And that game touted a branching storyline that it never truly delivered.

What I'm noticing here is a pattern. Gamers are a voracious group that set a very high standard of quality for their games. They genuinely want to see games succeed. Nobody wants a bad game, and can you blame 'em? Who would want their customers to spend $100 and get basically nothing in return?
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Oh, right...casinos...

Anyways, the reactions from the gaming community at large can be over the top. We are nothing if not passionate about our hobby. That said, when legitimate criticisms are met with derision and deflection, it does not bode well for the industry we all love. When we're met with derision, told we don't matter, it turns into the "gay boy" scenario all over again. And really, that's not where we want to be. We want to build up those that love us supporting them.

Hopefully developers learn this soon...

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