We've come a long way in the video game industry with leapfrogging technological advancements, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:greater realism, and stunningly awesome game experiences, but there's a dark side festering underneath, as w🧸eဣll.
The rise of the internet introduced us to many bad video game habits that we still have to work on. Here are 10 truly bad v💎ideo game trends that started a🌄s internet access became ubiquitous across the globe.
10 Spoilers
Spoilers suck, but the internet has made it extremely difficult to guard against them. News sites and forums🌳 are loaded with rumors about developer shakeups, upcomingℱ release dates, and specific game intel that can whip the community into a fever with little effort.
Most rumors turn out to be patently false, while ot♍hers have some merit. Regardless, it's hard to enjoy a surprise when in⛄formation gets unceremoniously leaked online, ruining a game's debut before it's even had a chance to reach its release date.
9 Pre-Ord🅰er Bonuses ไ
It sounded simple enough. Hardcore fans could plunk down some extra cash for a nifty pre-order bonus ♉offer that included special packaging, in-game items, and physical memorabilia.
Then companies got lazy, and the whole notion of the pre-order bonus took a nosedive. Whether it's Resident Evil 5 snow globes or glow-in-the-dark Infamous: Second Son condoms (no, we're not kidding), things got weird quite fast. It eventually got ugly when Bethesda shipped the Fallout 76 Collect🦋or's Edition which included a canvas bag that was a far cry from the one originally promised, leading to a massive fan uproar.
8 ꦰMMO Addiction 🔴
Video game addiction was far less a problem in the pre-internet days, mostly due to the fact that the games themselves were rarely so engross🍨ing. 8-Bit and 16-Bit era games were designed to be played in quick, short bursts with only a few titles ever requiring dozens of hours to beat.
When the internet became a thing, MMOs quickly foll🌱owed. An entire generation of kids and adults became instantly sucked into these virtual worlds, often spending more time within them than the real world. Reports of people dying from malnutrition and lack of sleep began popping up, and in some extreme cases, parents let their own children starve to death while raising virtual kids in a game world. We never thought it could happen, but it did.
7 Trolling
If you thought your gr🎉ade school classmates were bad, you haven't seen anything until you've gamed online. The anonymity of⭕ the internet has allowed every Tom, Dick, and Jane to act the fool without (generally) fear of real-world repercussions.
It's a symptom of a bigger problem rooted in malignant narcissism and need to get one's rocks off by behaving ꧅in an unacceptable manner. When it comes to online play, this kind of behavior ruins the fun for everyone by giv🍷ing bullies a platform to spread their negativity. It can also spread outwards into a person's social media sphere in what is now known as "cyberbullying," an insidious practice that has led to severe psychological harm (and even suicide) in young people.
6 🌸 Internet Piracy
Even in the early PC days, piracy was a thing. Back then, the method of transmission was enough to curtail piracy (for the most part), and all we needed was some rudimentary 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:anti-piracy checks to deter would-be offenders.
When internet sp⛄eeds began rising, the illegal MP3 file-sharing craze gave way to bigger things, such as movies and video games. It became easy to download entire games either in trimmed or full formats. While many predicted the crushing doom of the video game industry, that day hasn't come just yet. In our current age, video game piracy has become largely unfashionable, thanks in part to the rise of DLC🎉 and constant game updates which have made it a hassle for would-be pirates. It's easier just to buy the game outright.
5 Review Bombing ❀
Another unfortunate practice that has picked up steam in recent years is Review Bombing, where a particular group coalesces to attack a particular game by loading prominent gaming sites with negative reviews in an attempt to harm sales and destroy its reputation. The practice has turned ugly, with both sides attacking one another ideologically. While developers see Review Bombing as a malicious act designed to attacꩲk them, many bombers see it as a legitimate means of protest against certain creative developer decisions.
In the case of Star Wars: Battlefront II, early Review Bombing campaigns were arguably fair game due to extremely controversial decisions taken by DI♏CE early on. Rather than fight back, DICE revamped the game from the ground up, and turned it into a success. This, however, is rarely the cas🥂e. Review Bombing can artificially distort a would-be player's perceptions of a game, possibly convincing them to take a hard pass. This has serious ramifications for game companies who live or die by the success of their titles.
4 Cheating
In the early days, it was hard to cheat in a video game unless both parꦯties were in on it (think the Konami code). The internet age infected video games with a cheating pandemic that is still going strong today.
Rudimentary hacks soon gave rise to sophisticated cheats that were sold online either in subscription or one-time fee formats. They allowed for cheating on popular multiplayer games, which in turn destroyed any incentive to keep playing. Several prominent games lost a huge chunk of their multiplayer base due to sheer frustration. While defenses against cheating have come and gone over the years, it's practically 𒁃impossible to stop them all.
3 Pay-To-Wi🍌n Titles & Microtransactions ▨
When the internet got big, so too did gamer's tastes change. They ཧwanted bigger, better, more amazing play experiences, and with them, instant gratification. MMO grinding became tedious, as did working one's way u🍸p the ladder in FPS combat titles.
Any sense of accomplishment became second fiddle to various pay-to-win schemes ranging from paying a company to grind your character while you were at work to the infamous loot-box controversy. In fact, loot boxes and microtransactions became so notorious that they caught the thousand-dagger stares of prominent politicians who ruled them a form of illegal gambling that preyed upon victims. Pay-To-Win quickly turned into an ugly (very ugly) pra𓄧ctice𝔉 that is only now starting to put its brakes on.
2 Patche♋s Galore
In 💜the old days, the final product is what came in the original shipping box. Games were largely locked down due to the lack of internet connectivity, which meant developers had to be extra careful when it came to polish and quality.
The arrival of the internet age saw many developers rushing their games to launch without proper bug-testing and playtime. We've lost track of how ma⛄ny games were completely brok🌞en on launch day - everything from multiplayer connectivity to infrequent (or very frequent) game crashes. Patching soon became the norm, rather than a rare occurrence, and gamers haven't taken kindly to it. Unfortunately, patching doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.
1 Swatting
This ugly practice has become notorious in the gaming community, especially on Twitch. The premise involves phoning the local police to call in a fake threat of violence or terrorism aga🔯inst a person, at which point they show up to the door (or break it down) and make an arrest.
Besides being the pinnacle of vulgarity and irresponsibility, swatting ties up valuable police resources that could save lives. Worst-case scenarios involve the victim being inadvertently shot to death by police who mistakenly believe the 🧸person is a threat, which has happened several times. This practice requires an extremely harsh penalty against those who perpetrate it, with a zero-tolerance policy in full effect at all times.