Tell GR: What's The Biggest Ripoff In Gaming?

Charging $60 for a PC game.

I think subscription-based mmo's are the biggest ripoff. I put hundreds and hundreds of hours into World of Warcraft and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I also spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on monthly subscription fees. Looking back, I just don't think it was worth it. I could have spent far less and had just as much fun playing other games. Unless it's like $5 a month, I don't think I'll ever pay an mmo subscription fee ever again.

I played in the beta for SWTOR and am hoping that it goes free-to-play soon. Just adding up the total fees paid is what gets me. I've spent a few hundred dollars, but someone who started playing WoW at release continually to this day would have spent over $1300 not including the costs of the game & expansions. No game is worth that!

f2p games are the worst mmos out there. Even if you wait for one to go f2p and don't spend anything you are just being a cheapskate getting some cheap entertainment off the dime of someone else. And those f2p games make their money by charging micro-transactions for everything under the sun. In the end, to enjoy everything the average f2p mmo has to offer a lot of lazy asses will spend more on microtransactions in a few months then you would in a years worth of subscription fees.

As an avid Free to Play user there are many solid games that you can play for a good amount of time that is fair and balanced. Crimecraft and realm of the mad god come to mind. It's all about being smart and seeing the balance of the game.

@Noritama: f2p games have always and will always be complete garbage. They only exist to squeeze as much money from their players in the shortest amount of time with putting as little effort into the actual game as possible. They exist for the sole purpose of coming up with grinds to get you to buy mirco-transactions. A subscription game will always be better because they have to be. The only way they keep people paying month after month is through the game play.

And if everyone was like you and didn't pay a dime to play do you think those f2p games would even exist? So you are either a player that spends on micro-transactions (that always add up to more that monthly sub costs) or you are a freeloader playing off someones elses dime.

f2p gaming is one of the biggest scams out there now and will always be a bigger rip-off than sub based system.

MMOs that were designed as subscription based games that then TURN ftp are obviously of better quality. MMOs that come out as ftp lack content and any real substance compaired to monthly subscription games.

Micro transactions are garbage.

Based on what evidence do you think ALL F2P games are garbage? What experience do you have to back up such an opinion.
Crimecraft I didn't need to spend any money in that game because I figured out ways to get free goldbars *Money items* and there was balance between what Money items can do and not.
I think F2P is a great system if the company running the game knows how to keep Pay items strong but not ground breaking Over Powered. I just think your experience in F2P games is limited and you need to try more things.

The subscription model just isn't working for the new mmo's anymore. DCUO started seeing way more $$ when they went f2p. Now Star Trek Online is f2p, and I think SWTOR is soon to follow. The quality of STO & DCUO hasn't fallen either since the switch. WoW is the obvious exception, but even their numbers keep falling. If they lose a few million more users with the new expansion, maybe they'll even adopt a f2p model of some sort eventually.

Gnome, don't you think it is a bit odd or strange that after a game becomes "Free" to play, they start making MORE money? Hmm, how do you think that works? Simple, they nickle and dime their customers to death.

Those mmos you mentioned were not designed as f2p from the start so of course they will retain the quality they started with. The thing to look for now is too see how much of that money they reinvest into the game. Once an mmo goes f2p they usually stop investing as much money into development and and do just enough to keep the game running to maximize their monthly profits from micro-transactions.

Over enough time in a f2p game anything and everything becomes for sale and pay to win. The don't care about game balance, they care about how many sales they can make in a month. Sure you can say it is all optional, but you will never experience everything a f2p game has to offer without dropping some cash on the game. They aren't free to play, they are free to pay.

Whatever dude. All I know is I (ME) am enjoying all these f2p games, some of which I used to pay for, for FREE: League of Legends, DCUO, STO, LotRO, D&DO, and there's soooo many others I haven't played.

Lotro is a perfect example, I'm glad you mentioned it. I played it before it went f2p and after. Did you know they just added gambling...err, I'm sorry, loot boxes to the game? Only 50 cents a key to open them and "maybe" get something decent. Buy early, buy often!

But hey, if you enjoy them, then that's your thing. Different people enjoy different things and I'm not trying to rain on that. I just think f2p games are a much bigger ripoff than sub based games. Guess we'll just agree to disagree.

The Horse Armor DLC pack for Oblivion.

The Last of Us

Half-assed, full-price ports

Almost any PC port where they just completely ignore the capabilities of the machine. Resident Evil 4 tends to be the most glaring recent example--what with not supporting a freaking mouse at launch. GTA4 was pretty bad... Bioshock's widescreen FOV solution to literally chop off the ends of the regular 4:3 display. Heck, I've heard that the Syndicate PC port ignores a ton of DX11 features and won't even let you turn off bloom.

If you want to talk console to console, I'm still scarred by Max Payne for the PS2.

x-box live. thats why i got a ps3, and now only play games on that (single player games and online).

i brace myself for a few thumbs down. and being told about the possible superiority of xbox live, like better online support or whatever - i dont know much about the service at all - but all that matters for me is that you gotta pay for it. i'm already payin for my internet, i dont wanna pay more.

then again, i was asked for my opinion.

I thumbs-downed you not for your opinion itself or your admitted ignorance concerning your choice, but because you couldn't think of a bigger ripoff. Regardless of the pros and cons, XBL only costs around $3/mo. (or less) to people who are smart/thrifty. You must have knowledge of far bigger ripoffs than that.

fair enough, but to be honest after i buy a game (which sometimes in itself is enough of a ripoff) i rarely buy anything else to go with it i.e DLC. sure i may have seen stuff around, but nothing that i've actually wanted to buy but been hesitant of the price comes to mind. i chose XBL purely because for me it's always been a turn off.
the only DLC i can think of buying right now would be a new map-pack for BF3. i do want more maps/assignments/weapons but not at any price. perhaps a future rip off.

also Dan, i guess i've always been lucky with my PSN experiences. i sometimes had to wait a bit for Black Ops to find a server, but so far on BF3 i connect to one in seconds.

Thumbs down. Only because what constitutes a rip off may not be the overall price but bang for the buck as well and if Dirty_F feels that even at 3/mo there isn't enough a reason to justify the purchase of XBL, then it is still a valid ripoff...For him.

/waits for his thumbs down.

For me, the biggest rip off...Hmm. Day one DLC is right up there but I never get it anyways so it doesn't effect me. I'd say the price of games in general. 60 dollars for a game that in most cases will be 30-50 percent off in four months time or in the case of all the November releases see those discounts the same month for Black Friday or in December for Christmas sales.

Oh! "Ultimate" editions and GoTY editions.

Goty editions are a bargain in that they collect all DLC in one place and charge you what the game costs new with 0 DLC so I call out this statement

Biggest ripoffs... hmm, Capcom releasing the same game 2 or 3 times a year. Or costume packs. Nothing says money well spent like buying Ryu a different colored outfit. Basically most things Capcom, Seriously, Fuck those guys.

Buying a game the first day it releases... only to get owned by DLC content and then in six months time a complete/ultimate edition with all DLC, for less than what you payed.

Bought Fallout and some dlcs while back now they got a new edition with all the non inventory dlcs included.

Oh I know, I had Fallout 3 but traded it in a while ago and now they have the complete edition at Walmart for $20 so I picked it up to replay through it with all the DLC

One company owning the exclusivity rights to make pro sport games for years, no real competition means no real innovation... well maybe every 2 or 3 games.

I thought nfl2k was so much better than madden with alot more potential than that bloated sunuva batch Madden... Stupid exclusivity...

Last Madden I have is 2008, have they even added anything to the Superbowl game so its doesnt look like a regular season game with a new logo on the field? That always aggravated me. A birthday party at Chuck E Cheese has more bells and whistles to it.

Mandatory proprietary (Sony Brand) memory cards for the Vita at a price that is MORE THAN DOUBLE the price of any other brand of memory of virtually the same type.

All of the above plus stickers on the games they sell at GameStop. I hate peeling 5 or 6 stickers off a used game. I rather buy a game new.

To be honest the biggest rip off is Gamestop used game trade in. The rates they give you are completely stupid that you are better off using it as a paperweight then selling it to them. When I worked there I made an amazing profit abusing that.

It's really simple. Lets say Madden X Warfare 24XX came out today and for some reason Joe didn't want to keep his purchase and sell it back to the store. He'd get about 35$ in Credit but in cash he'd get about 25$. Now as a guy who just bought the game not to long ago you think to yourself," Crap I'm about to lose 35 dollars on this crappy game" So I tell the guy who is trading it in to just let me buy it from him for 35 bucks so can can feel like a "Champ" then after my shift I sell whatever game I bought from someone online for full price. It adds up over time. Also abusing the 7 day used return is amazing as well. When I was working gamestop had a horrid system of keeping inventory.

It's like a loan from a pawn shop without the interest. But now I just get my games from amazon since I'm too lazy to go to gamestop plus People that work at the ones I go to are annoying.

Guitar/Band games gaming instruments.

I'm starting to hate preorder exclusives. Imagine if they did that with other things. "Buy this house before it's built and we'll throw in 2 extra ceiling fans free." And I used ceiling fans because that's about the significance the preorder exclusives have ingame. A gun. A costume. An Avatar item. Yeah, they're cool, but are you really going to miss them if you don't have them right away?

That too. If it's something that adds to the functionality of the game, then it's fine as a DLC. Map packs, new abilities, etc. But if it's something that really should be in the game to begin with, then, I think, everyone has an issue. It's gotta go back to the publisher pushing a release date and the developer going "Well, we're going to have to make this mission a DLC, then" and the publisher going "I don't care! We wants our money!"

Disabled Online features for 2nd Hand Games - e.g. Cerberus Network for ME games, or online pass for NFS:Hot Pursuit - that cost around half of the RRP of the game to re-enable.

To fix the sticker residue use lighter fluid or fingernail polish remover.

How used games cost only $5 less than new, especially when you got so little money for trading it in

DLC itself is a complete ripoff. It has developers making games half decent just so they can charge for the **** they should have put into the game already. DLC that's already on the game disk that you then have to pay to unlock .... GoW3 style.

Why should I have to pay $2.50 for a new character for a game a month or so later ... then a couple weeks later they release another, and another a map pack here, map pack there.

What I really don't understand is how gamers ***** and complain about MMO subscriptions then go buy CoD "Elite" for $50, after purchasing the exact same game they played 2 years prior. Now thinking about it. CoD, it's a HUGE ripoff and its no different than fanboys of the iPhone. They never see how shitty there phone really is because they have there heads too far up the companies ass.

I only own one apple product, my iPhone, and I find it to be quite awesome

Then you've never had an Android.

On-disc DLC will always be one of the worst things for a company to do, on virtue that it isn't additional content, it is simply withheld content locked up out of your reach. As bad as downloadable day one DLC content goes, they simply could (however unlikely) just finished it after the game was printed.

However, the biggest ripoff is the different pre-order bonus promotional sale items from different companies. Best Buy has one thing, Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon have another. It irks me on some level of gamer OCD that no matter what, I'll never 100% own all elements of the game.

To continue the DLC hate: DLC which requires your machine to be constantly online in order for you to use it.

I can't play the undead nightmare, or a plethora of other DLC for Red Dead Redemption without being connected to XBL.
The same goes for a ton of other games.

I paid for it fair and square. I installed it all on my local HD (no cloud saving for me!)... However, once my connection goes down I can't access any of it. Savegames don't work, the nice extra bonus campaign is gone... sucks!

Hmmm...

For me its unnecessary DLC that you pay for. Hats in TF2 for example serve no purpose except to make you look pretty, extra guns for a dollar or two in games like Homefront, Alpha Protocol, singular guns I mean, you get one item that you can use in-game. Gun packs for the same price are ok, you are getting a slew of items and sometimes achievements for it too.

Basically, DLC that is poor quality that you pay for. Superfluous things like those examples above are what I mean. Costume packs are the same way as well, sometimes they are worth it but in most cases, definitely not.

On-disc DLC is a big FU and I have now revised my purchasing habits to account for GoTY editions...Skyrim I hear such great things about you yet I will not get to play with you for several years. I watched Game of Thrones this weekend and thought fondly of our future time together. Alas, due to your glitches and numerous pending DLC we will not share each others company for many moons. And Fallout New Vegas such an open world with so many glitches. The highest ranked GR game I think an "A" or "A-" which I could not get through because of game breaking glitches. Patch after patch, yet no avail. Beta testing for massive console rpgs please!! If you already beta then omega testing because putting out a **** game for $60 dollars that gets an "A" when you can play it is a FUCKING ripoff.

^This.

I really love TESV: Skyrim and SW:TOR, two of the most recent titles I've purchased. But I can't count the amount of times I had a random crash to desktop in Skyrim without any warning or reason.
At least the most recent patch seems to have straightened this out.
The amount of bugs in TOR is ridiculous as well. While still playable, being booted to character select screen for no reason, or being kicked back to the server select screen and having to spend 5+ minutes in a queue because of it -several times in a row- is disgusting. At least for SW:TOR patches are really forthcoming. But I'd rather have the dev's wait with bringing out new content and have them instead focus on bug hunting.
Oh, and in-game support is a joke. Worst customer service ever.