The state of the gaming industry and scalpers

[_oBSOLEte_]

Nothing has to be done really. It will all just kill itself, like a cancer.

 

[PlusK1n]

Maybe, i'm just looking at it all logically.

Software should fall under copyright, not patents. Locking generic ideas like 'being able to play a mini-game during a loading screen' and the more recent patents from N and WB trying to lock out others from using them, or attack others for doing a better job than you. It's like the pharmaceutical companies pushing for much much much higher regulations, which makes new startups too expensive to be able to get off the ground, keeping a monopoly and removing the ladder that let them succeed.

Patents should be for a physical process to make or run something. Example being say a electric motor, which then gives a limited time for them to own the singular invention. Patents are also put on drugs.

Patents should also get increasingly more expensive to keep. Say filing a new patent is $1,000, then it's a thousand times more every 20 years. A company making billions on something may pay but once it's ubiquitous and not on high demand as it was in the beginning, going into public domain is good for everyone.

These companies are creatively bankrupt, and are only interested in circle jerking to help towards their own means.

Innovation to them = money, nothing more.

They provide not real value to any one and definitely not the the wider world.

There is a philosophy i remember hearing about when i was young, do not pee in the water supply as we all need to drink.

The idea is based on maintain environments (industry, company, society,,,etc) by feeding in to it, not only taking away.

The trouble is that the mindset, regardless of politics, is always on survival and fear, meaning people at the heads of these companies are used to a quality of life, and having that quality to them means they will do anything not to go backwards, they are addicted to it.

So what is the best way to maintain thier quality of life?

Taking away from others innovation, pulling up the ladder behind them, and this is why nin and WB and the like act the way they do.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 6:15 PM

Nothing has to be done really. It will all just kill itself, like a cancer.

The trouble will be what is left? As the companies who protect and go after others to "protect" IP are an industry in themselves, and as such, they will be gate keepers, once the industry is dead. Automated ones with AI will probably the future.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I got disenchanted with game collecting really early into my journey when I saw someone selling an SNES game without a label and with the words "DON KIKON" crudely scribbled with permanent marker on its front... They asked the price of an NES for it.

And it was far from the only example of highway robbery I encountered while trying to build my collection.

 

[PlusK1n]

I got disenchanted with game collecting really early into my journey when I saw someone selling an SNES game without a label and with the words "DON KIKON" crudely scribbled with permanent marker on its front... They asked the price of an NES for it.

And it was far from the only example of highway robbery I encountered while trying to build my collection.

I can completely understand and agree with your stance! Do not blame you at all.

The only reason i keep at it is to preserve stuff.

I have seen some horribly priced stuff recently.

Haunting ground was going for £1000 "sealed".
When you inspect the plastic tear strip, it did not had the PlayStation logo on it, so i questioned him. Was told that was how he bought it, and as a result, this is how he is selling it!

Asked if the disc was scratched would be provide a refund, said no, and if i want it to buy it or go away..

There are so many stories that i have like this, not to mention what i have seen on ebay listings.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

These companies are creatively bankrupt, and are only interested in circle jerking to help towards their own means.

Innovation to them = money, nothing more.

They provide not real value to any one and definitely not the the wider world.

There is a philosophy i remember hearing about when i was young, do not pee in the water supply as we all need to drink.

Yeah, which is corrupted up at the top. Good companies have a creative head and a business head. The creative can see what people want and cares more about the workers who make it, while the business head just sees the numbers.

"Oh look, we'll have a higher Q3 Bump if we FIRE ALL THE EMPLOYEES".... and then they wonder why all their future products are crap and their companies goes down the drain. Short term gains over long term profits.

Just... let them die. The cycle of businesses is creation, growth, bankrupt, and then new companies picking up where the old companies failed. In 2008 with a ton of buyouts... helped no one. Instead banks took the money and gave it to the CEO's as tens of millions of dollars of bonuses and nothing changed. If they potentially died a new company would have picked up instead and been lean clean mean, and maybe it would have had a couple year hickup but the real risk of failure would have been good.

 

[thanonyx]

Scalpers need to be scalped.

 

[mel]

The state of the armored core franchise is a bit heartbreaking.

Around the launch of the ps4 I got 3 of the ps3 games from a gamestop bargain bin for a little over 20 dollars. Buying the same games from ebay now would cost around 300.

Hopefully they're still in a bin somewhere, because if they were disposed of I'll have to wait for ps3 emulation to become viable on lower end hardware (or waste several hundred dollars on a better laptop).

I try not to live in the past (admittedly this is a funny thing to say on a forum dedicated to retro games), but it's hard not to given the present.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I got disenchanted with game collecting really early into my journey when I saw someone selling an SNES game without a label and with the words "DON KIKON" crudely scribbled with permanent marker on its front... They asked the price of an NES for it.

And it was far from the only example of highway robbery I encountered while trying to build my collection.

It took me a second to put together it was a Donkey Kong game. Funny misspelling.

 

[Ikagura]

The worst thing is that Scalping is not illegal, it's pure free market capitalism.

My worry is that, to stop scalpers, they'll remove our rights as consumers and make us own even less than we already do...

Imagine if we got something worse than Denuvo and Starforce to the point that we cannot even lend a game to a buddy.

 

[PlusK1n]

The state of the armored core franchise is a bit heartbreaking.

Around the launch of the ps4 I got 3 of the ps3 games from a gamestop bargain bin for a little over 20 dollars. Buying the same games from ebay now would cost around 300.

Hopefully they're still in a bin somewhere, because if they were disposed of I'll have to wait for ps3 emulation to become viable on lower end hardware (or waste several hundred dollars on a better laptop).

I try not to live in the past (admittedly this is a funny thing to say on a forum dedicated to retro games), but it's hard not to given the present.

100%

This kind of thing is a dang shame! As there must be a body of work that any one can access and learn from / experience.

Gaming history should not be behind a paywall, and this kind of thing continues to saden me to this day!

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 6:41 PM

Yeah, which is corrupted up at the top. Good companies have a creative head and a business head. The creative can see what people want and cares more about the workers who make it, while the business head just sees the numbers.

"Oh look, we'll have a higher Q3 Bump if we FIRE ALL THE EMPLOYEES".... and then they wonder why all their future products are crap and their companies goes down the drain. Short term gains over long term profits.

Just... let them die. The cycle of businesses is creation, growth, bankrupt, and then new companies picking up where the old companies failed. In 2008 with a ton of buyouts... helped no one. Instead banks took the money and gave it to the CEO's as tens of millions of dollars of bonuses and nothing changed. If they potentially died a new company would have picked up instead and been lean clean mean, and maybe it would have had a couple year hickup but the real risk of failure would have been good.

It is a crying shame, and they are peeing in the water supply, drinking the same pee later down the line until is is nothing but acid which will erode it. Might be best to let it die, but then what can we learn from the death, how can we make change to it, so that people can continue to make money, cash flow can continue to happen (money in and out to real people and products, not just CEOs and the like). And to safegaurd the body of work done towards the art and history of gaming?

Who ever picks up the peaces will need to consider this, or like always, as humans, we will be doomed to make the same mistakes as history has shown, all becouse we could not over come the biggest issues related to the human condition and the god complex.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 6:45 PM

The worst thing is that Scalping is not illegal, it's pure free market capitalism.

My worry is that, to stop scalpers, they'll remove our rights as consumers and make us own even less than we already do...

Imagine if we got something worse than Denuvo and Starforce to the point that we cannot even lend a game to a buddy.

This is true, and any system including capitalism is not bad at it's heart, but greed has to be a considered factor related to supply and demand, rather then exploitation of system with things like false scarcity.

Any news system i guess would need to look at what worked, and what could be added to prevent things, and the top of the list for me is management of Intellectual property.

Education also related to people being wares and less reactionary, such as lessons on how to manage their money, and balance books would help here. Two of which are still not given as lessons in any school.

Managing onces money and the difference of want and need where the first things my family teched me and i contiue to teach.

 

[mel]

Gaming history should not be behind a paywall, and this kind of thing continues to saden me to this day!

This is the problem I have with classic games being available for digital download on newer systems. They either are overpriced or require a subscription. They also are subject to the same risk of being revoked that all digitally purchased games are.

Another solution that comes to mind is consoles being made with backwards compatibility, but without new copies of games entering the market it would do nothing to discourage scalping of discs.

I suppose the problem is that putting resources into producing discs/hardware for a niche market isn't as profitable as charging for a glorified emulator on a digital storefront.

 

[PlusK1n]

This is the problem I have with classic games being available for digital download on newer systems. They either are overpriced or require a subscription. They also are subject to the same risk of being revoked that all digitally purchased games are.

Another solution that comes to mind is consoles being made with backwards compatibility, but without new copies of games entering the market it would do nothing to discourage scalping of discs.

I suppose the problem is that putting resources into producing discs/hardware for a niche market isn't as profitable as charging for a glorified emulator on a digital storefront.

Just wait, as that will start inflating also, just have to look at the cost of cloud service vs on-prem to see where digital storefronts will be going. Companies are going mixed cloud, if not back to on-prem as a cheaper option.

Discs in my view where more environmental friendly, and cheaper in the long term, as the costed allot less in terms of environmental impact. The problem is that the potential profit of such things are lower, which is why companies went towards digital to make savings now.

But look at the cost of some of the digital games out there, Sakero is a very good example, and that game was made years ago!

The argument can be brought right back to companies who pay licences for tools when developing games on systems vs companies who make there own.

It has gone back to companies looking at a middle ground as the tools they use are ever not good enough or limited.

These tools also bloat the cost, initially allowing the company to bring to market sooner (time to triangle), but as a result the games cost more, or the company has to sell more to recoup the costs.

Is it me, or is economics managed by folks to are predatory by nature, and only finds ways to take rather then create?

 

[Samatonic]

To totally sum up the situation of gaming industry and scalpers:

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

I suppose the problem is that putting resources into producing discs/hardware for a niche market isn't as profitable as charging for a glorified emulator on a digital storefront.

You should just try Armored Core 2 on PCSX2 modded with Geo-11 to play in VR.

Guys... Your games are already saved. They're Emulated. Upscaled. Reshaded. Patched. They have transcended the mortal bounds of their plastic shells. This is the way.

 

[Samatonic]

You should just try Armored Core 2 on PCSX2 modded with Geo-11 to play in VR.

Guys... Your games are already saved. They're Emulated. Upscaled. Reshaded. Patched. They have transcended the mortal bounds of their plastic shells. This is the way.

 

[Jeff]

Scalping needs to be illegal and be addressed, last month scaplers were beating each other up at a Costco to nab the newest batch of Pokemon trading cards.

Why can't we go back to the good old days when games and consoles were locked up and it was sold 1 per customer or the tickets at
Toys R Us? Stores and businesses need to fix this sort of thing and have a wait page/ numbered ticket for each customer and buy only 1 quantity of that product.

 

[PlusK1n]

Scalping needs to be illegal and be addressed, last month scaplers were beating each other up at a Costco to nab the newest batch of Pokemon trading cards.

Why can't we go back to the good old days when games and consoles were locked up and it was sold 1 per customer or the tickets at
Toys R Us? Stores and businesses need to fix this sort of thing and have a wait page/ numbered ticket for each customer and buy only 1 quantity of that product.

I saw this, they have been at it with eggs and toilet paper also, if i am not mistaken.

And i too miss the days of 1 per customer! If i needed more, i would have to go to 3 - 4 stores to get it, like if i was baking back in the day and needed a tone of eggs to make a batch for a school fare.

 

[MasterEn]

Scalping needs to be illegal and be addressed, last month scaplers were beating each other up at a Costco to nab the newest batch of Pokemon trading cards.

you could probably make a tv show out of that. 2 scalpers fight, only the best one is allowed to buy and resell the product in question. only the best scalpers allowed. might deter a few from engaging in the practice.

 

[mel]

You should just try Armored Core 2 on PCSX2 modded with Geo-11 to play in VR.

Guys... Your games are already saved. They're Emulated. Upscaled. Reshaded. Patched. They have transcended the mortal bounds of their plastic shells. This is the way.

Emulation is the best thing we have for the preservation of retro games, I just favor original hardware due to the simplicity it brings (in theory at least).

Now I need to play armored core 2 again. I adore the graphics of third gen and the aesthetics of first gen combined.

 

[PlusK1n]

you could probably make a tv show out of that. 2 scalpers fight, only the best one is allowed to buy and resell the product in question. only the best scalpers allowed. might deter a few from engaging in the practice.

Loving this, i am seeing bender from futarama for some reason as the judge.

 

[MasterEn]

Loving this, i am seeing bender from futarama for some reason as the judge.

i think he hosted hobo fights in one episode, that and my idea are things that he would do.

 

[geckomantis]

The state of the armored core franchise is a bit heartbreaking.

Around the launch of the ps4 I got 3 of the ps3 games from a gamestop bargain bin for a little over 20 dollars. Buying the same games from ebay now would cost around 300.

Hopefully they're still in a bin somewhere, because if they were disposed of I'll have to wait for ps3 emulation to become viable on lower end hardware (or waste several hundred dollars on a better laptop).

I try not to live in the past (admittedly this is a funny thing to say on a forum dedicated to retro games), but it's hard not to given the present.

Forget PS3 emulation maybe we can soon recompile the 360 versions of 4, for answer, 5, and verdict day for pc.

 

[PlusK1n]

Forget PS3 emulation maybe we can soon recompile the 360 versions of 4, for answer, 5, and verdict day for pc.

That would be awesome, and the recompilation project has come along way. The ps3 version i have, and the 360 one. And i can say that the 360 one is superior in terms of performance, but that is due to not many companies being willing to learn how to utilize PS3 hardware properly. I think msg4 was one of the few games that did this, but that's because koji pros team where a special kind of dev unit!

There are no games imho as well made as koji pros games!

 

[Nerd_Solitude]

Scalpers are the reason I exclusively use emulation or modded hardware if I don't already own it. I see no point in wasting my time and money on artificially inflated prices. You win by not playing by their rules.

 

[SpcDaicon]

To me both problems with gaming companies and scalpers stem from the same problem: gaming has become an investiment opportunity rather than a pastime.

The higher ups just want to know if the games are turning a profit, artistic vision be damned. Same with scalpers, they obey the old investiment adage: buy cheap and sell on high demand.

Truth be told, everything goes to shit when their reason for existing becames being a product