10 Most Desperate Ways Video Games Got You To Play
Video games will pander to your basest instincts whenever possible.
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00:00So the video game industry is now bigger and more lucrative than it has ever been,
00:04registering global revenue upwards of $180 billion last year, far outpacing the profits
00:11generated by even Hollywood. But here's the thing, it is a very saturated market as well,
00:16and so you're going to have to do a lot to stand out, to make people want to buy your title and
00:20sit down and engage with it for between 30 to 100 hours. And therefore some publishers,
00:25developers and advertisers have gotten a little desperate when it's come to getting you to play
00:29their games. So let's take a look at them today, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:33and these are the 10 Most Desperate Ways Video Games Got You To Play.
00:3710. Bullshots and Misleading Trailers
00:41Perhaps the single most nefarious way that a desperate publisher can try and entice you to
00:45play their game is to straight up lie about it, or if we're going to be polite, which we're not,
00:50mislead is the term we're looking for. Now bullshots is another term that stands
00:54for promotional images and trailers for a game which aren't in fact representative
00:58of its final release quality. In extreme cases this might lead to something like the infamous
01:02Killzone 2 E3 2005 trailer, which was actually a target render intended for internal use only,
01:08but ended up being used to sell both the game and the power of the PS3, absolutely inaccurately of
01:14course. Ubisoft was also memorably dragged for their final versions of Watch Dogs and The Division,
01:19which were severely visually downgraded from their original gameplay demos. In rarer cases,
01:24developers might even straight up mislead the public about the content of their game,
01:28like Hello Games over-promising what No Man's Sky would offer straight out of the box.
01:32Whether the marketing has overstated a game's graphical or gameplay merits,
01:36the result is almost entirely the same, frustration from players who feel that
01:40they've been duped into spending cash on an experience different from the one that was advertised.
01:449. Being As Edgy As Humanly Possible
01:48Less deceitful, though arguably more annoying than bullshot culture, is the tendency for some
01:52developers to make a living by pandering to the surprisingly lucrative, edgelord contingent of
01:58players. This isn't to say that games shouldn't challenge social norms or ask provocative
02:02questions, but far too often developers will willfully create offensive and objectionable
02:07material simply to ride the wave of anti-PC fervour, because of course, as the saying goes,
02:12controversy creates cash. Perhaps the most outrageous example in recent years
02:17is Hatred, the game in which players control a mass-murdering misanthrope,
02:21with the only goal being to slaughter as many innocent human beings as possible before he dies.
02:25Less a game created out of artistic inspiration than a lazy attempt to cash in on reactionary
02:30politics, Hatred was critically reviled and yet a considerable commercial success,
02:35so the ruse unfortunately worked.
02:378. Promising To Make Up For Previous Failures
02:41We're all sick and tired of corporate apologies from video game publishers who've
02:45basically attempted to swindle players and been categorically called out for it,
02:48and no company has more egregiously attempted to wipe the slate clean with an insincere promise to
02:53do better next time than EA with their treatment of the rebooted Star Wars Battlefront franchise.
02:592015's Battlefront was broadly praised for its graphics and gameplay,
03:03yet many were left colossally disappointed at the lack of release content,
03:06feeling that EA was basically milking the cash cow in a supremely half-arsed way.
03:11But when it came time to marketing 2017's sequel, EA held their hands up and acknowledged that the
03:16original Battlefront was a relatively piecemeal experience on launch. They promised that Battlefront
03:222 would be considerably more content-rich, with a full narrative campaign and all DLC arriving free
03:28for players. Everyone makes mistakes, for sure, but billion-dollar corporations aren't people,
03:32remember? They're money-motivated behemoths, driven to see how much bad faith behaviour they
03:37can get away with in the pursuit of colossal profits. And so it shouldn't have been surprising
03:42when EA's pre-release spiel about Battlefront 2 was frankly a load of toss.
03:46For starters, the campaign was a thoroughly naff, low-effort affair, and the multiplayer was
03:50derided for its slow progression system, which appeared to incentivise microtransactions above
03:55anything else. EA did eventually work the game into better shape, but at this point,
04:00the damage had already been done. After all, as the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you,
04:04fool me twice, shame on me. The response to Battlefront 2 was volatile enough that an expected
04:10third game never actually arrived, allegedly in part due to the high licensing costs involved
04:15with making Star Wars video games in the first place.
04:187. Nostalgia Pandering
04:21Ah, nostalgia. It's one hell of a drug, right? Hollywood has perhaps proven more than any other
04:26entertainment medium the intoxicating power of dredging up people's childhoods and selling it
04:31back to them with a shiny new lick of paint. But gaming isn't that far behind either,
04:35with publishers well aware that raking over their legacy hits is much easier than actually
04:40coming up with a compelling new IP or ideas. Take Sonic Mania, a game which single-handedly
04:45reversed years and years of critical misfortune for the platformer series,
04:49and yet one which largely functioned as a reimagining of its earlier, better entries.
04:54By creating familiar but different remixes of the franchise's most iconic levels,
04:58Sega was able to pander to players' gravitation towards familiar comfort food,
05:02yet offer just enough new content to not be outright self-cribbing.
05:06The Pokemon franchise has perhaps been most criticised for dining out on its prior successes
05:11and failing to bring sufficient innovation, while the gaming industry's current obsession
05:14with remakes and remasters is further indicative of the commercial viability of the past. And we,
05:19as consumers, are certainly pretty much to blame here, because if it didn't work,
05:23they'd stop doing it. This isn't to say that nostalgia can't be invoked in creative and
05:27interesting ways. Take Final Fantasy VII Remake's interesting new take on the original story,
05:32but it often feels like a crutch that imagination-devoid developers lean on for easy profits.
05:376. Introducing Goofy Peripherals
05:40Nothing screams desperation quite like a clunky peripheral being packaged with the latest entry
05:45into a hit video game franchise in an attempt to salvage flagging sales. There's no single
05:50example of this more egregious than Tony Hawk Ride, which released in 2009 as the skate series'
05:56best days were long behind it, and hoped to rekindle its connection with players en masse
06:00by releasing an accompanying plastic skateboard peripheral. In the era of Guitar Hero, it wasn't a
06:06terrible idea, even if it clearly was a Hail Mary pass to try and rescue a franchise on the
06:10commercial skids. The end result sadly confirmed the full extent of the desperation. The skateboard
06:16peripheral was a fiddly, unresponsive disaster, and releasing it to the tune of $120 simply
06:21hammered another nail in the series' coffin. External peripherals are admittedly a drastic
06:26enough step that few games even dare to implement them. I mean, the financial risk massively outweighs
06:31the potential for successful market innovation, which really only further confirms just how
06:36desperate Activision were on the Tony Hawk franchise. Ultimately, it won fans back not with
06:41silly, clunky, plastic skateboards, but in a feat of nostalgic pandering, remaking the beloved first
06:47two games in the series. 5. Releasing things as free-to-play
06:51There's perhaps no simpler way to entice somebody to play a video game than telling them that they
06:56don't need to pay a penny to do so. As such, the free-to-play movement has flourished in recent
07:01years, with publishers realising the lucrative potential of luring players in with no upfront
07:05fee before charging them for all the extra stuff. Now, some games handle this much better than
07:10others. There are many great free-to-play games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Warframe, and so on
07:15that don't design their gameplay in an excessively predatory or exploitative way. But there are so
07:20many more that do the absolute bare minimum to hook addiction-prone players, and then attempt
07:25to milk them for every possible buck through pay-to-win mechanics, heavily incentivising them
07:30to part with their real-world cash for a superior experience. I mean, the most recent free-to-play
07:35disaster was Konami's eFootball 2022, which launched in an extremely compromised state,
07:40all while Konami busily shilled expensive, premium DLC packs to anyone with a functioning
07:46pair of eyeballs. Publishers are well aware that most players won't fall for these tactics,
07:50so they're always after the whales, a rather dehumanising term the industry uses for big
07:55money power users who will drop thousands of dollars on a game, possibly while hopelessly
08:00addicted to it. The desperation in the free-to-play market is palpable, because why bother making an
08:05artistic game that people will gladly shell out top dollar for, when you can just exploit
08:09people's addictive tendencies for far less effort instead?
08:134. Hiring Hollywood Talent
08:15One of the easiest ways to give a video game press in the wider entertainment world is to
08:20hire a name actor to star in it, ideally lending both their voice and likeness to play a part.
08:25Now, this isn't to say that every celebrity role in a video game comes from a place of desperation
08:30– Rockstar has done a consistently good job of not letting A-lister voice artists hijack their
08:34GTA games – but GTA is also in the unique position of being among the most critically
08:39and commercially successful IPs on the bloody planet. Even with video games being taken more
08:44seriously by the wider world these days, for the most part it's fair to say that Hollywood actors
08:49are hired to serve as the marketing face of a game and impress a greater sense of prestige upon it.
08:54Take Bruce Willis in Apocalypse or, more recently, Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077.
08:59Hell, while Peter Dinklage didn't physically appear in Destiny, his voice was a major aspect
09:03of the game's marketing, even if it ironically ended up being removed at a later date.
09:08There's no denying that the presence of a beloved, well-known actor in a game will make just about
09:12anybody perk up and pay attention. Take Vin Diesel's bizarre involvement in the upcoming
09:17ARK 2, which has gotten considerably more eyes on that game than it would have otherwise had,
09:21no matter how it turns out.
09:233. That Sweet, Sweet Loot
09:25The mere whisper of the word loot is enough to make millions of players' ears prick up in
09:30paired tension, so ubiquitous is the presence of glistening things for them to hoover up
09:35after defeating an enemy. While finding currency or a new weapon and armour is nothing new for
09:39video games, we've come a long way from the comparatively quaint days of Diablo's loot hunt.
09:44Loot is commonplace amongst game genres these days, as publishers have discovered that few
09:48things get players' dopamine receptors firing up like a shiny purple pick-up.
09:52While loot appears in many great games, some are so singularly focused around their collection
09:57that it feels tantamount to shining a laser pointer at a cat, and loot can be weaponised
10:02more nefariously in games that feature loot boxes, where players are encouraged to develop
10:06a gambler's mindset to RNG elements. This is particularly troubling when players are able
10:11to spend real money obtaining or unlocking more loot boxes. No loot-driven game can survive for
10:17long unless it offers up fun cosmetics and meaningful upgrades, but even so,
10:21these games are typically designed around manipulating human behaviour first and foremost.
10:26They are industriously committed to maximising player engagement in order to fill their coffers,
10:32and it doesn't get much more desperate than that when you're apparently making art.
10:372. Offering Pre-Order Bonuses
10:40Pre-order bonuses are an attempt by publishers to incentivise players throwing down money for
10:45a game before it's commercially available, and typically before reviews have been released.
10:49This isn't to say that all pre-order bonuses are inherently bad or maliciously inclined,
10:53but they do nevertheless feed into a wider culture of publishers trying to
10:57wring as much money from potential customers as possible before the game has even come to market.
11:02After all, once you've pre-ordered a game, you're probably not going to cancel it,
11:06and even if you've lost interest in the game, you might actually forget to cancel.
11:10The bonuses range from plastic tat figurines to multiplayer maps and in-game advantages which
11:14won't be available to regular players for some time if ever, and they're all conceived with
11:19the hope of parting you from your money as soon as damn possible. Some bonuses are more controversial
11:24than others, with the gameplay advantages proving especially divisive given their potential to
11:29create a divide between the players. Clearly there's an exploitation of FOMO going on here
11:33as well, with publishers again manipulating human psychology for maximum financial gain.
11:39This is all because publishers know that consumers waiting for reviews
11:42is absolutely not in their best interest most of the time,
11:45and they will do anything they can to get your money early.
11:49If All Else Fails, Sex Sells
11:52The oldest adage of them all, and the one that will likely never not be true as long
11:56as humans remain sexual beings, is that sex sells, well, quite a lot.
12:01Gaming has certainly come a long way in recent years in moving away from the excessively
12:05sexualised marketing tactics of decades past, but it's still fair to say that many games are
12:10sold on the presence of scantily clad individuals, and let's be honest, usually they are a woman.
12:15To be blunt, let's just say that dead or alive extreme games weren't shifting units because of
12:19their admittedly surprising robust volleyball gameplay. We all remember the blatant fans
12:23service in the earliest Tomb Raider games, and in a most extreme example, the cynically
12:28over-sexualised nudity-filled sports games like BMX XXX. More recently, Final Fantasy XV made
12:34character Cindy a comically over-sexed object of player lust, and Soul Calibur VI offers up an
12:39Ivy so impractically clothed as to basically become a self-parody. There's nothing inherently
12:45wrong with sexualised characters, male or female, though it is easy to become jaded when it feels
12:49like publishers are using that sex to desperately pander to your basest instincts and desires,
12:55when they consider you little more than a single-minded horny teenager.
12:59It's easy to become suspicious that this fleshy smokescreen is here to distract from the fact
13:03that the game itself is actually lacking in the gameplay or story department. Yet,
13:07sex continues to sell games by the bucketload, and probably always will,
13:12while the debate about what is sex positive and what's exploitation will forever rage on as well.
13:17And yes, before you say anything, we've noticed the thumbnail,
13:20we chose that to make a point, and that point is that sex, like I said, continues to sell.
13:33As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ with a zero,
13:37or you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice, where I do all of my streaming outside of work,
13:41and it'd be great to see you over there, my friend.
13:43But before I go, I just want to say one thing. If there is one thing that I am desperate for,
13:47it is that you treat yourself with love and respect, my friend, because you deserve all
13:51the best things in life, like love, happiness, and success, and do not let anything or anyone
13:55else tell you otherwise, alright? You're a massive ledge, and I want you to go out there
13:59and absolutely smash it today. I believe in you.
14:02As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon.
14:07Bye.