7 Deadly Gaming Sins - ENVY

It might seem strange to single out just one game on a format like this, but trust me The War Z is quite possibly the most pathetic and desperate example of video game envy out there.

It is a title that flagrantly steals all of the worst aspects from so many other games that it's a Frankenstein's monster of bad business decisions, horribly aggressive monetization and copied ideas. In fact, the only thing original about this experience is that its litany of transgressions is truly one of a kind.

To begin let's take a look at what motivated the game in the first place, with it being an almost direct rip off of the incredibly popular mod for Arma 2, Day Z. The War Z's title and entire gameplay mechanics mirror the formula to such an extent that even the menu layout and keybindings were identical. The developers had seen the rampant success of Day Z and thought "yeah I'll have me some of that"

However this was just the beginning, as clearly the surge of attention it was getting wasn't enough, as at the time freemium and loot box mechanics were starting to enter the market with more force, and The War Z wasn't going to tolerate sharing the shady spotlight, so incorporated aggressive freemium model tactics like a cooldown timer of an hour per death unless you paid to bypass this IN A PAY TO PLAY GAME.

Fans were understandably irate about all of this but stuck with the title because of promises that they would be receiving huge updates with features like skill-based progression trees, bigger maps, and more modes. Yet nearly all of these were fabrications, buzzwords taken from other titles in order to draw focus back to The War Z.

This was a skip fire that the devs only poured petrol on, and as a result, left a tonne of people burned by their actions.