MultiVersus Sent Me Into A Techno Existential Dread Spiral!
Setting up a game for my brother went from simple affair to me questioning relationship with modern Technology. Now let me rant to you about my philosophy on the matter. Excuse me if I sound like an Old Fart.
My Family didn’t want a lot for Christmas this year. In fact, I didn’t really ask for anything but an air purifier as my job requires me to work from home, and dust is a constant no matter how much a clean. Unironically, the best gift I’ve gotten this year was some slippers. I’m having a good Christmas all things considered.
My brother only want like two games, Hyrule Warriors, and MultiVersus. MultiVersus is a free to play game but if you pay for basically standard game retail pricing to unlock characters. I feel that’s a fair trade, right? It’s a online focused game with a rotating cast of characters you can play for free.
So we download the game I pay for the deluxe edition… and then I paid for the standard edition as well because I thought I deluxe was having issues. Not a great start, I feel like I got a little ripped off there, but you know what? It’s fine! At least I got the total amount of character tickets for each pack. Spent a little too much due to an error, but I’m not strapped for cash, and it’s Christmas present.
With the game downloaded, I figured cool he can start playing now… Wait he needs to connect to the internet? Okay, I guess he’ll have to play on my user for the ps5, but that’s okay so long as he can…
I have to make a wb account and link it with my playstation account? Okay sure fine, it iiiiiis a free to play game, I guess that’s not unexpected. Wait… are you telling me to even play with bots or with local multiplayer it need to connect to a central sever? Even if I want offline play?
Nemes, is getting upset.
My brother plays a match… The game is having a hard time saving for whatever reason as it struggles to connect to a server.
When was this acceptable? When was this okay that even something that you’d expect to be a single player experience?
“But you agreed to a licence. That’s more like renting out the media or software. You don’t own anything. A private business can do whatever they want.”
Man, hate when people say this as some sort of “gotcha.” A re we really past the point where it was expected that when paid for a piece of software, you’d owned a copy of that software. Then with the digital age it became the access to copies linked to your account. Now it feels like you have access to RENT a copy for as long as you paid a fee or as long as gatekeeping servers are up.
WHY IS THIS OKAY?! Why is this okay that seems to be only option going forward.
That’s not even getting in the fact this a smash bros clone guys. A SMASH BROS CLONE! It’s reasonable that some might want play locally, or expect a single player mode with challenges or SOMETHING!
And I’m only talking about low stakes here. Only a geeky, nerdy, dork like myself is going to care about access to a WB game long after it serves it’s purpose as a cash cow. It’s not going affect anyones life in a serious way. But don’t worry it gets worse!
Want to fix your tractor? Only a John Deere technician can do that. You try to fix it yourself? We can sue you!
Want a new car? Well, if you pay for subscription you get access to features that are already in the car, but hold it hostage until you want to pay. Even though you didn’t have to pay for that for a car that you OWNED? Is Public Transit going to face the same hostage situation? I wouldn't be surprised!
How does that not sound like dystopian nightmare to some? How do we look at this and say that’s the industry, I guess? What else are we going to allow this to spread to?
Long Rant About Why I Care About Certain Things
You why stuff like this bothers me so much? Aside form me being a millennial so I’m from generation that is this weird in between VHS, and High Speed video streaming. Two man reasons:
Internet can go down at anytime thus locking my out of games or even tools if it’s not phoning home.
The erosion of any sense of ownership of my media (and as I pointed out almost any part of technology be it software OR hardware)
So hey let me tell you somethings I personally care about, believe in and why! (If you don’t care I don’t blame you in bouncing now.)
You know why, I am obsessively backing up all my old retro games? Because physical media degrades and if I don’t act those save, and games are gone forever! Even with convince that a value-added rerelease might bring, I still might want to go back tot he original. AND not every game gets rerelease some even lose there source code making it next to impossible to port! (See any lost media searches)
You know why the news about Metroid Dread and other switch games being emulated is a GOOD thing. Because Nintendo has a terrible track record of preserving there own history, and it now really digging there heels into. Knowing that people can play that game 20 years from now should not be a luxury.
NOTE: Of course, I’m not advocating to emulate for free, or download when the game is still available from official sources. Game Devs deserve to be paid for their work, and there should market signals that people want say a Metroid. Though there is a discussion to be had on if the current system is doing that, that whole other discussion I’m not equipped to tackle. What I am saying, is I’m a strong believer that piracy is a customer service issue. Especially when you can no longer use the media you bought.
You know why I started looking more and more into FOSS? Because I thought it was ridiculous that for many pieces of software, the perpetual licence is a thing of the past. Even though for many users, the older version can still do that job! From there I realized that many project RESPECTED THE USERS TIME and their RIGHT TO USE THE SOFTWARE HOWEVER THEY WANT. Hell, even if I want to modify the software for my needs, it’s nice to know I can do that.
You want to know why that’s a good thing for gaming, Because you have people working their butts off to ensure a game runs better on modern hardware and OSes if at all. I respect every and all people who do that sort of work. No matter how OBCURE! And that goes for volunteering their time, I’m just sticking to games because that’s on topic!
You know why Right to Repair is so important? Because if you have the technical skills you should be able to go in and fix the issue, swap out parts or even make the design if I was a maker type. This doesn’t mean I HAVE to but I want the OPTION!
It’s because of that I want the Framework laptop, or any highly repairable laptop (most linux vendors for example) to succeed.
You know why I use Mastodon? Because even though I use a public instance ( mstdn.ca btw), I was tired of the data not being at least some what under my control. And that even then, if my current instance was to go under, I could always spin up my own if I was that desperate. And with the underlying software being Free and Open Source, it isn’t dead unless you scrub code into oblivion.
You know why I really want the fediverse to succeed, because if self hosting instances were to go way, platform interoperability matters! It is the only reason I’m even THINKING about Tumblr is the advent of the team having fediverse support. Plus write as has integration sooo….
I could go on for good while but I think you get the point. I think we are inching towards a dystopian hell and you can say I’m being over dramatic all you want but I think the evidence is clear. I think we all at least need to be aware of our increased lack of ownership and take steps to regain even a little bit of it. Be it personally, legally, or through our choices.
The reason I exploded this 1300+ word essay about this topic was because of a GAME WITH BIG CHUGNUS IN IT AND THAT THING DISCORD IS A GOOD SUPPORT PLATFORM FILLED ME WITH EXISTINAL DREAD ABOUT THE FUTURE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Absurdly Yours,
Nemes
#Gaming #saas #technology #ownership #retrogaming #RightToRepair
A Nemes Content Blog 2022.