Come December, we’re going to be starting up our end-of-the-year roundups, including one of my favorites: the one where we pick out all our favorite MMO dev quotes of the whole year. But before we get there, I want to talk about the sweet little lies devs told.
As I’ve previously mentioned, one of MOP’s first rules for writers is “save your recordings” because you will not believe what studios will say right on the record and then claim they would never. Heck, never mind that – just think of all the stuff they say without even the grace to blush. Last year, I nominated ESA president Mike Gallagher, who claimed lockboxes aren’t gambling because “video games never take money from a player and leave them with nothing.” Are you even kidding me right now? This year, I’m going with the EA rep who went before the UK parliament and lied that lockboxes were “surprise mechanics” akin to “many other products that people enjoy in a healthy way.” Dammit, people.
Spill that tea. Which MMO studio or gaming company told the biggest fib in 2019, and what was it?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
Tough one, Bethesda just have not stopped with the lies this year so I’d of said them if it wasn’t for ActiBlizz.
Even though the release of Fallout 76 was in 2018, they continued to BS about it and make people rage over and over most all of 2019. So I’ll have to go with Bethesda and the repeated lies and deceptions over Fallout 76.
It is easy to tell when Developers are lying, their mouthes are moving :P
Now, now…be nice, lol. :)
Can we call Google a gaming company with the release of Stadia? Because I nominate them for many things claimed about said service.
I’m going to go against the grain here and say Activision-Blizzard and their recent statement where they said “we try to stay away from politically charged topics”. Between, the Hong Kong fiasco, Overwatch (all the characters are polticized to be used as a selling point), and the reason why the new Modern Warfare is banned in Russia. I’d say they’ve made absolutely zero effort to stay away from politically charged topics, and is in my opinion, a much bigger fib than EA’s “surprise mechanics” line.
I was very tempted by that one. I am also very used to Acti-Blizz, and even just Blizz when it wasn’t, using a lot of double speak, term redefinition, and so on. So I considered it a little old hat, even if people were suddenly seeming aware. As such, even though I noted it in my response I felt like it was an issue well over a decade old, and that sudden awareness of that issue didn’t validate it being a new fib.
Only reason I chose EA over them, as the follow up to it was a spectacular show (in a bad/fail way) of attempting denial through word twisting.
I’ma throw it to the “Suprise Mechanics” not because I think lock boxes are gambling and not because I think they need to be regulated but simply because there is no one who actually enjoys lock boxes. The entire idea behind lock boxes is to get people to pay more for something or to sell to more people by price sinking something behind a cheaper lock box price. Everyone knows what they are doing. No one enjoys it. No one is saying “Oh boy I wonder what I’ll get!” they’re saying “Oh boy I wonder how much of this crap I’ll have to buy before I get what I want.”
Not a particular sentence but the whole situation around Camelot Unchained.
Where after god knows how many years of development there is still no sight of playable beta. And Mark keeps chilling on his cozy sofa, telling how everything is fine.
Looks like obvious bait, to get him to reply in here…
People are already playing the beta. It’s just behind an NDA. Complain about NDAs if you like (I do!), but nobody’s lying, and you can still get a full refund.
Saying “beta” i didnt mean their interpretation of the word beta. I meant the term that MMO players are used to – when most systems and gameplay mechanics are working.
OK, here’s one, last summer MJ stated in this site a full release was still possible by the end of 2019.
Latest word from him is maybe…maybe by the end of 2020, and if so, very likely to be feature “incomplete”
The whole point of waiting for many years, (or so I have often been told) is so indie devs don’t have to “rush” games out the door too early like evil big publishers like (EA) force them to do.
Looks like that might be the real lie…
Oh boy, the irony.
I want to say, “every year that Star Citizen doesn’t go full release makes a liar of CIG”, but that is old news at this point.
The biggest lie wasn’t told by video game companies, but by Trump and other Republicans who continue to advance the specious (or straight-up debunked) narrative that video games cause violence. This go-to deflection against arguments for responsible gun control continues to harm the perception of video games as an industry.
Way to drag politics into things..
Whether or not you support Trump, it has obviously been disproved. Heck it was disproved in the 90’s. When they recently mentioned video games was to blame it was quickly dismissed by everyone. In fact, I haven’t even heard about it until you brought it up.
Your not having heard about it does nothing to diminish the force of the lie.
Politics is in everything there, chief. No “dragging” happening here.
This literally all got dredged up just back in August after multiple mass shootings and political attempts to pin the violence on games (an esports event was even kicked off TV over it). Our editorial links copiously to the conversation across national media and politicians. I dunno how you hadn’t heard about this. It went on for months.
I meant I haven’t heard about it since it was brought up back in August. I assumed you understand that, especially if you read the part where I wrote “When they recently mentioned video games was to blame it was quickly dismissed by everyone”… So yes I did hear about it.But not since then. Don’t assume I read Massively every day..
But what boggles my mind is that Bree would allow politics into this forum, especially when the title of the post was “which gaming company”. As you know, Trump is not a gaming company.
The ESA president isn’t a gaming studio either and it’s one of the examples I used in the post, so I believe I already set the stage for stretching the word company into entity. A giant lie is being used to harm gamers and the gaming industry by politicians; it’s not about which politicians. If the lie in this case weren’t related to gaming, then it would be off-topic and I’d have removed it. As I will be doing with your personal attack accusing mods of political bias.
My only contention here is that Orange Buffoon and his supporters are not an actual game developer, most thankfully. However, when it comes to the gaming industry as a whole, that would be one of the biggest lies perpetuated against it this year, bar none IMO.
…and what Ms Bree said.
Definitely EA with their surprise mechanics lie.
I mean, it’s a governmental investigation looking into the specifics of gambling within the gaming industry. The fricking government investigating you, and you lie straight to their faces! That takes balls
Let’s see, is it canvas-bag-gate, or DBG claiming that CN never bought SOE and it was always a private transaction?
But those were 2018 lies. We need fresher lies!
Man the years blend together
Heh. That’s what happens when you get old.