Loyalty

What exactly a videogame company own their consumer? If they are selling a game and I decide to buy it, what I must receive? Usually a disc containing the game data, a manual and a case. If all those are working as supposed to and for as long as the warranty state it should, they fulfilled the part of the exchange. I got my game and they got my money. It is that simple.

But gamers seems to want way more than just the game they bought. They want to be rewarded by making a purchase. They seem to believe that what they are doing to the game company is a favor, giving money to them in exchange for the game. That they deserve way more than the game they bought. They want the company's undying servitude to their will.

They say that they deserve this because they have being loyal fans for years and make the companies what they are today. I always thought that a game company was successful because they make a great game, worth the price they asked for. And that gamers would buy great games if the price is right. Today it does not seem like that.

It feels like gamers bought awful games because of some distorted sense of loyalty towards the company and because of that, they feel like the company owe them something. I think sometimes that many gamers prefer to see those game companies go under as long as they do what they demand.

Videogames are business. Those game companies have employees to pay and bills to honor. It is irrational to demand them to lose money just to please gamers who had once bought a game or more. I understand that some good will to old time players is nice. But not at costs of company's profits.

The truth is that videogames companies owe you nothing. They sell a product that you can buy or not, if you will. Games must be bought out of its quality for the player, not because you 'like' a company who made it. And once the videogame company delivered the game you paid for, they gave you everything you deserved, complying with their end of the bargain.

Being loyal to a company is stupid. They don't care about it. They love your money and free publicity and they will play with this loyalty in order to gain more money. But gamers owe those companies nothing too. If they make a great game we want to play, they will get our money, as long as we feel the price is right.

But thinking that game companies owe gamers anything is naive at best. They are a business, and as a business they want to be profitable. Does not matter how gamers feel about it.