RE: Non-Assortative User Matching For Profit And Anti-Fun – Activision Patents Matching Players For Curbstompings In Cynical Cash-Grab
I had thought to make a post on this the other day, but you beat me to it. Damn my mortal body for getting behind on my required posting! lol
This is the kind of bullshit that is going to ruin the game industry. It won't kill it, because people will begrudgingly buy games even with all of the nonsense attached (just like people go to mediocre movies), but it is going to negatively impact gaming to a severe degree. There are so many different methods of trying to fleece customers that games are little more than glorified cash grabs. Destiny comes to mind, which by any reasonable account was an incomplete game that required you buying the expansions and add-ons to even have a reasonably complete game.
EA is, as expected, the worst offender, but Activision has knocked it out of the park with their matchmaking patent. It's awful. Truly, truly awful.
"because people will begrudgingly buy games even with all of the nonsense attached"
This is how I convince myself this rant is not totally pointless.
"EA is, as expected, the worst offender, but Activision has knocked it out of the park with their matchmaking patent."
Konami is also awful, relegating franchises to pachinko machines. Ubisoft has been as bad as EA recently. Nintendo is practically colluding with scalpers to drive up the price of their shitty plastic overpriced emulator boxes. Sony and Microsoft have almost nothing to offer over a PC/Nintendo combination.
It's a pretty grim market. "Voylent Green".