8 Times YOU Changed Video Games
Royalty cheque's in the mail.
"For The Players" "Your Game Your Rules" "You're In The Driving Seat"
We've heard it all before, an empty platitude slung out and slapped onto a video game in order to make players feel like they have agency over the games they own. Spoiler (and dream crusher) alert, we don't own these experiences in the slightest.
Hell, thanks to the pervasiveness of digital e-stores and online downloads, you likely don't even own physical copies of half your library and thus it's down to the publisher's good graces not to straight up delete your catalog overnight.
It's all just marketing, it's all just a means of selling your identity through conformity, of waiting in line and playing the same game as everyone else but convincing you that it's a unique experience.
Yet don't get too down in the dumps friend, because it turns out that we do still have a lot of control when it comes to the video game experience, just not maybe in the ways you imagine.
Through fan backlash, petitions, competitions, and sheer determination, fans have upended developers' plans and changed games forever.
8. Robot Master Competitions - Mega Man Series
Excuse me while I put on my "old man hat" for a second, but kids today really don't know how terrible they have it when it comes to video game competitions.
Sure the prizes in today's giveaways are likely worth more and come with better specs but thanks to the likes of Nintendo Power and countless other publishers in the 90's we got to win prizes like Super Mario showerheads, guest cameos in films like "The Mask 2" (which never happened), and best of all the ability to design actual bosses for Mega Man games.
Beginning with Mega Man 2, Capcom opened the floodgates Willy Wonka style with the declaration that they wanted "YOU" to design the Robot Masters who would form the bosses of this outstanding sequel.
Over eight thousand designs were sent in and after these were whittled down to the eight best, Keji Inafune tidied up the design and the team went to work programming them.
This is as close as fans could come to designing the game themselves and the sheer amount of pride those lucky winners must have felt upon seeing their robots on screen must have been immeasurable!