Will Greed be the Death Of Gaming?

One of my favorite childhood memories was going to an arcade and playing a game like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. I remember seeking out fighting games during field trips and making new friends at the arcade. I found new favorite games by chance and tried genres I normally wouldn’t have during these trips to the arcade.

Arcade cabinets were everywhere from restaurants to grocery stores, but gaming changed in what seemed like the blink of an eye. All of my classmates had home consoles, and my family made weekly visits to the local video rental store where I’d usually pick a game. We still visited the arcade, but now I had a console at home and games to entertain me.

I was young, so I didn’t realize that gaming at home costs more than gaming at an arcade. While players could budget the amount of quarters they spent at the arcade, home gaming introduced more ways to spend money. The games were put onto cartridges or discs, but you could play them as often as you wanted and there was often more content included.

I’m not sure when arcades were phased out, but I can still remember the first fighting game I played that didn’t have an arcade counterpart. Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance was the first game in the series to not have an arcade release. The reason given was that it was too large of a game to release. The explanation made sense, especially since the cut scenes were more extensive and there was more content than I’d ever seen in a Mortal Kombat game.

I didn’t mind the shift away from arcades at first. It seemed like we were getting more content with new unlockable characters and mysteries throughout the game. There were new modes to play. The game felt fresh and full of content and I spent a lot of time playing it, as I did every Mortal Kombat game that came after.

Mortal Kombat slowly strayed from hidden characters and secrets that needed to be unlocked. The fun gameplay had been replaced by a pay-to-play system that rewarded users for buying characters, fighting moves, and even finishers. Soon, even the story mode was split into multiple parts that you had to purchase separately.

I stopped playing the newest Mortal Kombat almost as quickly as I beat the original story mode of the game. I didn’t have the funds to invest in the game and didn’t know what came next. I was disgusted that I paid over seventy dollars and completed the story mode within a few days. I wasn’t interested in the character packs where I would have had to pay forty dollars for a handful of characters and a story expansion that I could have watched someone else play online.

As I watched more paid content being released, I realized that money had ruined one of my favorite games. The characters I loved could no longer hold my interest because they were behind a paywall. There weren’t any secrets to unlock or mysteries to uncover. There was simply an invasion mode where you could grind for goods. The magic of Mortal Kombat was gone.

A few months after the release, WB Games (the company that owns Mortal Kombat) announced that mobile gaming was the future they planned to invest in. That was the moment I decided that I would be more cautious when supporting Mortal Kombat in the future. There would be no more pre-orders for me. I’d wait to see if a complete version of the game would be released before buying.

I used to joke that Street Fighter did DLC before DLC existed, because of the amount of variations of Street Fighter 2 that were released. As we transition to a more digital gaming landscape, the joke is no longer funny. Everything seems to be pay-to-play, and you need to buy a subscription just to play online with your friends.

Gaming went from being a fun hobby to a bottomless pit to throw your money into. Sure, there were always special edition consoles, controllers, and assorted accessories that you could buy, but they weren’t required.

In the past, when you purchased a game, you got all the characters and the entire story. All the finishers and special moves were already included. Some games even had a larger roster of characters than modern games do.

While I understand that bigger games require more data and more people to program them, paying more for an incomplete game takes the fun away. I don’t like being constantly reminded through empty character select slots and trailers boosting new content that I bought an incomplete game.

If I had bought all the downloadable content for the games I enjoyed, I would have spent over $120 per game. In the past, I could have gotten a complete game for around $60 dollars. If I waited long enough, there would eventually be a ‘greatest hits’ version of the game that was $20 dollars.

DLC isn’t the only thing draining gamer’s bank accounts, with the prices of both games and consoles hitting an unhealthy high.

The Nintendo Switch is one of my favorite gaming consoles, in fact, it’s the only one that I use regularly. I was excited to see what was in store for the next Switch until I saw the price tags involved. Ninety dollars for cartridges that didn’t contain the game, a price hike for the online play services, and a console price that rivaled Playstation and Xbox.

When gamers spoke out, they were told to keep playing the original Switch, which is something I plan to do. Nintendo released a cheaper version of the Switch later in its lifespan, after more games became available and most bugs were fixed. It’s no longer worth it to purchase a gaming console or video game on release day when you can get a more complete version later.

Gaming greed is certainly affecting the way people enjoy the hobby, with many, including myself, being priced out of it.

While gaming is a hobby that I enjoy, and have even made small profits from, I have to spend my money wisely. I have plenty of uncompleted games that I can play if I feel the need to play a game. Many others may not have that luxury, as people tend to sell their valuables when they fall on hard times.

While I still plan to enjoy gaming and gaming-related content, my days of rushing to pre-order are over. In the future, I plan to be wiser about the games I purchase and wait for a sale before buying them.