Game blacklist/boycotts

1996FordMondeo

Lads I have a question for you to ponder.
Do you have any conditions to blacklist a game for yourself?
I am not talking about not playing games of genres you dont like.
I mean, boycotting game you might love due to certain conditions?

Personally for me these are.
Basically almost anything that has smth to do with epic games.
Game was an exclusive? EOS? EAC? Blacklisted.
Only exception is games made in unreal.
have too many of them to purge.
Additionally anything not recommended by this curator
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41451689-Owned-By-China/?appid=1631670
I am trying to avoid buying chinese products and gaming is also part of my purchases

Ofc there will always be an exception.

Lumeinshin

1996FordMondeo
I made this thread into its own because i think it would fit and be big enough for one. Let me know if you'd like a different title, I saw the post when on a walk and quickly split it

I tend to get games from GOG or other DRM free sites when possible. That is probably my main consideration, aside from being compatible with linux (either native or via proton/wine). This does somewhat ban a lot of the DRM and such that i imagine you avoid as well. Aside from those requirements I just like to make sure that the game is good and the devs respect the consumer, good updates on patches and such.

frijole del alta

Khastle
I'm kind of on the same page as you. I sort of stopped focusing on games for a long while and only play titles I'm familiar with already.

Alot of the games today that are popular seem to be the lackluster pay to win stuff, which I guess would be my blacklist kind of game. kind of the reason I'm fine with just playing counterstrike source and not csgo(or 2 i think what its called now). I'm sure great games are still around, I just don't necessarily go out of my way to buy and play one unless it really interests me.

1996FordMondeo Ofc there will always be an exception.

this pretty much sums it up perfectly.

1996FordMondeo

Lumeinshin I tend to get games from GOG or other DRM free sites when possible.

I personally buy games only on steam and Gog.
Gog for their offline installers and steam because convenience and linux support

h8net boycotting purchasing Nintendo games since late 2020

I am on a similar but different boat. I never liked nintendo as a company but since they never made games that I was interested in, so it isnt really a boycott if i wasnt going to buy their games in the first place.

Ross_R dislike all big corpos, but I just don't buy their games - I pirate them, period.

I am no stranger to piracy also.
My policy usually is, if im interested ill pirate and if ill like it ill buy it.

As for big corpos, I usually avoid their games not due to blacklists but mostly because im not interested in them. Though I still buy NFS games from EA and id buy call of duty if the price was lower. I grew up with these franchises and I will always have a softspot for them.

Ross_R it is usually when I strongly dislike something about someone from the dev team

I do try to separate artist from an art but sometimes its impossible.

Ross_R Steam is cancer that ruined gaming as I knew it.

Personally I believe that while flawed, steam more or less saved PC gaming.
Afaik there have been lots of games in 6th and 7th gen that were console exclusives only. As in you can only play it on PS, xbox and nintendo but not PC.
Or you would have to deal with even worse DRM in pc discs.
hell even epic games did leave pc market due to piracy.
while steam pretty much helped to tackle the problem.
Consumer is happy because its convenient and publisher is happy because less piracy.

I may be bad at explaining what im saying but I hope you get my idea.

h8net

I've pretty much been boycotting purchasing Nintendo games since late 2020. I still enjoy many of their games, but I have just stopped buying anything from them altogether. I have a general distaste for the company as a whole, and unlike most others who like to complain about them online, I'm not emotionally attached to a multi-billion dollar company.
Besides that, there aren't really any games in particular that I blacklist. I guess I avoid playing most games by Riot since their anti-cheat system with Valorant puts me off, and also being owned by Tencent raises a few red flags. Thought most of their games sucked anyway, so it really doesn't matter too much to me.

Fantasy

I don't have any developer blacklisted and nothing boycotted.
There are things I avoid but if my most hated developer manages to make a game that's appealing I will play it, I do not care.

Sergeek

Fantasy this.
I don't want to be judgemental, but this looks like your bizarre Western trend of Cancel Culture, even if the idea behind it is just. I was always taught to judge the product itself, not the producer. If the game is fine, I would play it. And it goes deeper than that, way more nuances.
When you boycott a huge brand, you boycott a lot of people. Large companies often have multiple teams working on games, with different styles, different working ethics. Sometimes, they employ various freelancers, outsource to personal smaller brands. So if you're thinking that you're getting back at some inhuman corporate suits with such boycotting, you're far from the truth. They can afford to cut their losses. But various programmers, designers, artists, musicians can't. And you screw them over the most.
It's also even more bizarre to see the praise of Steam in such thread. It was the first service to bite a piece out of PC gaming's digital distribution industry, yes. But assuming that it saved PC gaming, the gaming on the most accessible, most flexible, most technologically sophisticated platform is preposterous. There was nothing to save, PC gaming was booming way before Valve. If it wasn't them, it would've been Microsoft.

Ross_R

First of all, the platform I absolutely hate and despise is Steam and, subsequently, Valve. Steam is cancer that ruined gaming as I knew it.
Anyway, I dislike all big corpos, but I just don't buy their games - I pirate them, period. After all, there can be very talented and passionate teams hidden behind the big names.
On the other hand though, I just pirate all the games since 2022 or so. When I give someone money, it is usually when I like the game so much I feel the need contact the devs and ask him where I can donate.
And finally, when I actually strike a game from my wishlist, it is usually when I strongly dislike something about someone from the dev team. For example, I know there's a game in development on Kickstarter with a notorious furry porn artist being in charge of art. I know I won't touch that with a ten foot pole.

sanner

Ross_R why has steam ruined gaming as you know it?

Ross_R

1996FordMondeo but I hope you get my idea.

Your idea is expressed by many. It is a part of the larger issue of comfort making people willingly give up their freedoms, but it is a different discussion and way off the topic.
And no, whatever Epic Games stated, they did not leave the PC market due to piracy. It has been proven time and time again that piracy doesn't affect sales of PC games much. In fact, EU once spent some insane amount of money on independent research of the topic, and said research only proven the above statement. When it happened, they tried to hide the research from the public, but a member of german pirate party (not sure how it is actually called) leaked it to the public.
Same for consoles. Console exlusives are not for tackling piracy. I mean, I'm pretty sure people know that piracy exists on consoles as well. At least people up there in big corps are definitely aware of it.

1996FordMondeo

Ross_R
Yeah I think this is going off topic.

Porter the release of Classic

what is the classic?
I am not versed in blizzard games.
But yeah, lately Ive only heard terrible things abt them.
As someone on /v/ said.
Blizzard went from one of most liked devs to one of the most disliked.

Porter

Only Blizzard really. And just because I don't expect anything they make to actually be good these days. I quit just after the release of Classic, during that big Hearthstone debacle where they took a player's winnings for mentioning Hong Kong in his celebratory interview, but I was souring on them way before that. Warcraft 3 Reforged was about when I gave up on the company 'for good.'

Porter

1996FordMondeo 'Classic' was their re-launch of the original World of Warcraft as it was slightly prior to the Burning Crusade release event. Basically just the vanilla version of the game without the expansions and with the old design style.

It was a lot of fun honestly and validated a lot of my opinions about the design decisions in the newer expansions but I got fed up enough from other things that I canceled my WoW sub altogether.

1996FordMondeo

Porter
so wait is it smth like runescape and oldschool runescpape
that game changed over time so much that they rereleased original as its own thing?
or am i misunderstanding things

Porter

1996FordMondeo That's basically correct. WoW: Classic let's you play the game as it was during older expansion packs. I think they're working on getting versions for each expansion up and running, and they're closing in on Cataclysm right now.

Zergface

For me, it's any game with ridiculous DRM schemes like Uplay or Denuvo.
Also any remaster that butchers the original game or censors it like the 3D era Grand Theft Auto games Warcraft 3: Reforged. The day I found out about Reforged I literally threw my copies of Starcraft 2 and WoW in the garbage, after having to use a special program to uninstall them. I will never play a Blizzard game made after 2003 ever again.

I have a love-hate relationship with Steam: I don't like steamworks DRM, but Valve basically saved PC multiplayer after Gamespy shut down and they've done much for Linux compatibility.

1996FordMondeo

So I recently found a new curator to follow(picrel) and make more informed purchasing decisions(boycott)
To spend the least amount of time talking about identity politic bullshit. From my understanding SBI only exists to bring in diversity for the sake of diversity. Which in turn I believe hurts the actual quality of the game itself.

Zilants

Capcom updating their drm to older releases is a pain but ill put up with it for my sweet blue bomber…

1996FordMondeo

Zilants
honestly I considered buying RE2/3makes because i enjoyed pirated copies
but the drm thing was heavily discussed on /v/ around that time
I decided to not buy the games. Even if i was going to just buy the keys

Lumeinshin

Zilants
Interestingly I saw something relating to the Denuvo DRM in (Dragons Dogma II specifically but it'll apply to any others. ), if you are using a Steam Deck / Linux with Proton, Denuvo will see each proton version as its own install, so if you switch proton versions too much you will hit your 'game install cap' and not be allowed to play the game.
For me thats enough to not buy the game

SugoiDesuNe
Out of curiosity, if the game has come to a platform you would prefer after being an Epic exclusive, would you not think that it would be better to get the game on that then not at all?
I think for Hades, the devs said the game couldnt have been made if not for the timed Epic exclusive deal and its money, but its on most other platforms now. It's not on GOG so I get it if you wanted to buy the game DRM free but if you're happy to buy on steam and you wanted the game, I don't see why you wouldnt buy it, even at a sale if you felt iffy about it. There may be some Epic Games lore im not aware of that'd make me agree but i'm curious to hear your thoughts

Goodra

I don't principally boycott or anything but I do notice myself consciously avoiding more and more games. Obviously some titles just wouldn't be interesting to me but by now, basically any game with a battlepass, microtransactions, or time-limited/exclusive content has become a no-go. I dislike having to use multiple storefronts/launchers a lot as well, so I avoid games that require those as well. Unfortunately this will likely only continue to worsen, as excessive microtransactions have really taken a hold - which I reckon is a consequence of people being so bothered by the dreaded lootbox that they'll now tolerate a worse monetization model than they used to.

SugoiDesuNe

The only real boycott-ish thing I will do is just refuse to purchase a game if it was a timed epic exclusive.
the one I most wanted to play was the new mech warrior game, but oh well.
of course, there are other reasons I may choose not to get a game, like if it's a bunch of pozzed garbage or something, or if it's a japanese game that has been censored or localized to shit, but thats not really a boycott, I dont think, since it isnt focused on one specific developer.

And in the case of japanese games, more often than not you can purchase the japanese version and find fanlations and such for it so its not a huge deal, just cutting out the localizers.

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