A Video About Playing Videogames From Terrible Companies (The Jimquisition)

Thanks for this Jim. I had been thinking about this myself and being a socialist gamer is rough due to the obvious problems involved... I do like the idea of buying used or waiting til its on deep discount to buy it... thats what I do if the company involved is that egregious. For EA, I buy their “EA Access/Play” because its a massive savings compared to buying their games...

The Magical Gurl

It's not even hard to boycott Ubisoft/EA/Activision (aka 'AAA' industry) since most of what they release is shit anyway.

Timeyy

Only Amiga makes it possible.

Pete Spicer

Games are better on the Amiga.

gridsleep

Haven't bought a game in decades. Read a lot of good books though. And people give me old consoles and games all the time. It's amazing how fast this year flies by if you get a hobby other than spending money on video games too. Hell, play some games you already have a second time and make up challenges for them! Way more entertaining than a lot of the new stuff out there.

Trevor Bond

Fortunately, most AAA games are over-produced, over-monetized, and un-fun, so I haven't felt especially compelled to give the big devs much money in recent years. I still like purchasing new copies of games though, just like I still enjoy (and miss) going to an actual movie theater. It's something I grew up with.

Alyena

I wouldn't call pirating normal, most consumers won't do that.

RedBedroomRecords

Yeah I never got behind the whole "kill the landlords" mentality, I say force them to live in a normal apartment(and that sometimes is a punishment handed out by judges, where if a landlord is determined to be providing substandard living then they are forced to live in the areas as the rest of the tenants).

RedBedroomRecords

Could also just buy a used copy from EBay/GameStop/GameFly/Family Video & put zero dollars into any micro transactions.

Jason Billingsley

I really really wanted to grab the remake of Tony Hawk, but I just can't give Activision any more money.

Mithos56

So far I've stopped preordering, stopped buying Ubisoft, Activision, and EA altogether, and cut my Nintendo consumption in half. I feel like there's room for more, but i feel pretty good about the ethics coming out of my wallet compared to average

Thomas Halpin

I wonder if these guys know you can just... buy indie games instead. They're just as good, if not better. Do they really think the latest Ubisoft title is going to be the best game around? There's plenty of competition to go around, and if you're going to be a devout supporter of the free market, you should do the one thing that's supposed to keep these companies in check: Compete. Or just pirate the damn thing like a normal person.

NEON725

Dragging VG execs through the streets isn't proportional response. Make them do weeks/months of crunch game development. Give them a taste of their own medicine that way - much more "ethical", and if crunch is supposed to work, you'll get a really good game at the end of it.

LonMcGregor

not just America, every country where games are sold.

RedBedroomRecords

30 Bucks for Mulan honestly isn't THAT big of a deal when you consider how much a family night out at the movies usually costs with tickets, concessions and everything, next to that 30 bucks is downright reasonable, Disney is squarely aiming at families with this movie and to be fair it's not a rental-once you spend that 30 bucks you get to keep the film, though yeah it's definitely not worth it if it's just you or one other person wanting to see it. I don't really see the point in pirating something if you aren't going to watch it though, that's just weird to me. If you HAVE to buy a game because it's got some pre-order bonus you want(though frankly these days pre-order bonuses are getting less and less attractive) then trade in a bunch of older games for store credit at Gamestop(and/or use Power Up Rewards coupons) so that way you get the game on day 1 without the publishers getting anything in return. If you plan on buying digitally(or if that's the only format the game is available in)then buy PSN/XBL/Steam cards and use your money from that to get the game. Prime example of an indie dev being an asshole is the guy that made Kingdom Come Deliverance who made a bunch of bigoted statements about history. I do think Ubisoft genuinely didn't realize the implications of using the fist symbol in Elite Squad, but they definitely should've done their research first.

RedBedroomRecords

Much of america benefits from the game industry and it's evils you have discussed because it produces the games they like and want to play. Reminds me of how much of america benefits from systemic racism. It's frightening to see how many folk will tout that they don't agree with, or hate, the abuse of video game workers, and also are against racism, but continue to benefit from both and make no reparations or changes to their own lives to stop said benefit. It's kind of.. baked into the system for both so folk be like "What ya gonna do? "

Sterling Treadwell

Supporting you on Patreon is equivalent to lootboxes? Uh... last time I checked it isn’t really possible for me to *accidentally* give you an entire months wages in an afternoon...

Yes Jim, they got you and us in the process. This is no different to million dollar bonuses for executives that if not directly involved themselves in every form of abuse they turn a blind eye or two to it. Busted.

Fermin Ayucar

I think the last time I pre-ordered or got a game on launch week was Civilization IV about 10 years ago. You're right, there's no incentive to buy a game immediately but the publishers still put a big emphasis on launch day sales. Why not wait for the GOTY edition to go on sale on Steam? Why play new games at all if the game companies themselves are shit?

Jason Youngberg