10 Manipulative Gaming Tactics You Fall For Every Time
Pre-orders, false advertising and hype. When do we stop falling for such manipulative tactics?
Some claim the old snake oil salesmen died years ago, but that's far from the truth; they just got smarter at covering their shady goods. The video game industries of today want money, no matter the cost, from gamers. Recently, even real, quality businesses such as Nintendo have been known to follow certain less than wholesome marketing practices.
Now these corporations should lay their greed aside and attempt to put their games under a better quality control. The days of launching a game without a big one-day patch are gone, and digital storefronts being the way of the future, computer games have never been simpler for individuals to get their hands on. In order to increase profits, businesses want their games launched as quickly as possible.
These charlatans can employ several misleading and deceptive tactics when a they realise their game is not up to scratch or will not sell well to pry the cold hard cash from your pocket. They will entice you with their modern-day oils that do little but wring out your wallet, from misleading marketing to ludicrous pre-order incentives and collector's editions. In order to inject life into a dying game, even after it's out, most companies today employ devious life support mechanisms, such as loot-grinding.
For some of us, more than one entry in this list may apply. Let's not allow these companies to manipulate us anymore.
10. Social Pressure
"What, you don't play Call of Duty? What's wrong with you?"
How many times in your life have you heard that, not only about COD but about every mass-marketed gaming property? Some franchises, such as COD, have a large fanbase and typically release a new version of the game every year, selling millions of copies around the world.
For all these fans in a hugely popular franchise playing a new title, there are likely to be people who are simply not interested. The game is not their style; they may have tried to play it before, but they just couldn't get into it. The bottom line, whatever the situation, they don't play it and those who do can't understand why. In addition, look at popular game streamers. They are cool, huh? Look at Ninja. He makes a great deal of money playing Fortnite and streaming it. Wouldn't you want to be like him? Better play Fortnite until you're just like him.
Although social pressure may be an indirect form of manipulation, gaming companies are aware that it is out there and have come to rely on it to further their sales.