Asmongold TV - Did Dragon's Dogma 2 Creators Hide This? | Asmongold

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

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Did I hide information about Dragon's Dogma 2? So there's been a lot of conversation recently about people that got review copies of the game being shills for Dragons Dogma 2. Hey all, this is Reda Tusker. Yesterday I made a video talking about the recent controversy with Dragons Dogma 2. And in that video I explained why I didn't mention microtransactions or performance in my own review of the game. The explanation I gave for the micro-transactions is that those items weren't available for use when I was playing the game. They didn't start being sold until the store turned on.

Capcom did provide me with a media kit that told me what was going to be sold in the store, but the items that they were selling were useless and stupid and didn't seem like a big deal to me. So I forgot about them. Which they're not. He's right. He is right.

They are useless and they are stupid. That's true. By the time I was writing my review, I didn't remember. Yeah. Or even think that it would be my responsibility to review something I didn't have access to. But a lot of people are dissatisfied with that explanation. Their takeaway from that statement was, aha, so you did have access to that information.

You and the other reviewers did know about the microtransactions. You're under contract not to talk about it, and you didn't talk about it until after the game released. There's no way that you could have forgotten, such an important piece of information, something so crucial. It would have loomed heavy in your mind. You would have known how much of a big deal it was. And now that you see that public opinion is swaying against them,

you have gone with the mob, you've gone with the flow, and now are attacking Dragon's Dogma too. So I'd like to give another attempt. You can never reason a person out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. You're not going to convince them that they're wrong because they've already made up an idea in their head. Anything that you tell them, it's damage control. You're under NDA. You're getting paid by them. You don't want to, you will always, people that want to think that you're a liar will always find a new way to invent that you're a liar. So it's not about like you can't have a

reasonable conversation about it because these people aren't reasonable in the first place. Because they're mad. That's all they are. They're mad. You can't fight illogical people with logic. Yes, they've already made up their mind. Yes. So there's no reason to do that. Not a liar, just a bad reviewer. Well, I mean, here's the thing.

Is somebody a bad reviewer because they don't care about micro transactions? I don't think that's really true. There are a lot of people like, and this is what's so good about YouTube video reviews, is that people can follow a content creator and decide who they want to watch based off of what that content creator's values are. So, for example, if you follow Gotcha content creators and you get mad that they aren't complaining about micro transactions, you're kind of playing yourself, aren't you? But conversely, if you follow a content creator who's very anti-microtransaction, and so you can assume that things like that will, you know, bother them and they will bring it up, then that's good. But I don't think that it's fair for you to say that everybody has to have the same value system that you have with video games. Like for me, I think the story in Dragons Dogma 2 is mediocre, but I don't care about that because the gameplay is good.

So what ends up happening is that people get angry at somebody for not having the same value system that they have, which is very accurate. I don't give a shit about the microtransactions in this game. I think they're stupid. I think they make the game worst, but they don't tangibly affect the game in any sort of real way. So, yeah, who cares? You could have just mentioned it instead of forgetting, but why? It's simply not relevant. And today's day and age of micro transactions are such a controversy and it's a single player game that's almost never has micro transactions.

It's kind of weird. You didn't mention it at least. But what you don't understand is that it's not such a controversy. And this is what people on the internet don't seem to understand is that a few thousand people sitting together and agreeing with each other about how something is bad. It might make you think that the world is on your side. But the reality is a lot different. The reality is that millions upon millions of people are playing games. and just because you're in like a handful of echo chambers of the most experienced,

the most serious hardcore gamers that all agree with themselves about certain viewpoints, that doesn't really mean that these viewpoints reflect the general public. And I think that that's the example that, like a good example of that is like, wow right now. For example, like I think that I speak for a lot of the people that aren't on social media talking about wow all the time. Because like you would think that if you followed social media wow players that everybody is doing Mythic Plus. Everybody is rating. And that's the main content in the game.

But the truth is that most people aren't doing that at all. Because whenever you talk about everybody in the community being mad at something, most people in whatever community it is don't even know it exists. They don't even know it's there. So I think really

with any of these things, people need to understand and be able to have the self-awareness that not every person out there is going to have the same value system that you have. Peak players 200K, your channel 20K, YouTube videos blasting the game are 500K, how is it a few thousand? Because a lot of people watch the videos and they do. So like, for example,

disagreement with the way a game is monetized is a spectrum. So for example, there are sometimes people don't like that, like, for example, I don't like that it's monetized this way. I think it's bad. But am I going to change my behavior because of it? No. Are there games that that are so paid to win that I have no interest in playing them. No. Or sorry, yes, I mean, yes, they are. I know I don't want to play them. And if I go and I'm playing a game and I feel like my time's being wasted, then I'm sorry, I'm probably going to quit.

It's the same as like any PVP game like that. It's just lost arc. Yeah, but I did that for content. And the moment that I stopped streaming the game, I quit playing it. Like, that's really the truth. So most of all of yours failed to report the Zoom, in microcontactions are in the game. I have no idea.

They're called chronically online, and they care way more about small things that normal people don't care about because they have nothing else to do in their life. Yes, I'm sorry, guys, but like people act like this is some sort of like big issue. It's not. And I've learned that firsthand by watching the game that I loved, wow,

just deteriorate over years because I could never reach an audience of people that was large enough to make Blizzard make a difference. And nobody can. can because those people aren't reachable in the first place. It's like you can't convince a rock to move. It doesn't understand what you're saying. And so, like, you can't do anything.

You can't communicate with these people because they're in a completely different world. So, yeah, people can't form their own opinions anymore. Well, I think it's more that people do form their own opinions. And then they think that anybody else who forms another opinion is, like, compromised or bad or wrong in some way. Like, guys. And I know this is like kind of. like I'm kind of going against the grain a lot with this

because a lot of the people that watch videos like me videos like mine are the ones that people are very upset these are people that are like they're the ones that are mad about micro transactions I'm mad about it I think it's bad but will this cause me to change my behavior no I no it's not that bad that's basically the decision that I make it's not that bad this is a new Capcom yeah it's a trend of gaming to automatically hate games microtransactions and de novo yeah but like what i'm saying is that like that trend is not relevant to anything more than the people that are watching these videos and they are a very small

subset of actual users and that's why these things keep happening because like if you looked at you know youtube videos or steam reviews you would think that this game is the worst game ever but if you look at the actual numbers it's the same you know what a really good example of this is It's like ads in videos, in streams, right? Everybody says whenever a stream plays an ad, I leave. But that's not what the graph says. And the graph is the truth. Not the individual person saying this is what happens.

That's the point that I'm making. The graph is what matters. I'm defending myself because I don't think these characterizations are fair. So let me just try and convey my perspective here. Every time I've tried to talk about monetization. monetization and microtransactions. I've gotten huge pushback from people. When I talked about it at Monster Hunter Rise, another Capcom game,

and how I didn't like the layered armor being sold. That's stupid. People told me I was being ridiculous. I didn't have to buy it if I didn't want to buy it. It was just cosmetic items. I've gotten reactions like this any time I've talked about microtransactions. And when I'm on my streams talking about this. This is the problem, is that both sides of this are unreasonable.

and they are unwilling to see any reason at all because they're thinking about it ideologically and not logically. So both of these things are true. Microtransactions should not be in Dragon's Dogma 2 and they're garbage. And also, they don't really affect the game that much and it doesn't matter. But like you can't have an even-handed perspective. Because if you have an even-handed perspective, you just get people mad at you from both sides.

Because internet discourse is dominated by the most, extreme and the most emotionally charged rhetoric as possible. I think it makes everything worse. Don't be a reviewer then. Well, why would somebody not want to be a reviewer? I'm talking about like the state of things. I'm not really like, yeah, I'm complaining about it a little bit, but like this is just the way it is. If you don't like people saying this about you, just ban them. It's actually so simple. If people are making comments that are negative, hide the comments, delete the comments, shadow ban them from your channel. Get rid of them. It's so easy. Like, that's what I do. If somebody is hostile or rude to me, I instantly ban them.

I don't try to argue with them. I don't try to explain things to them most of the time. I just instantly ban them. There's no reason to. Yeah, just live in a bubble. Yeah, just live in a bubble. Of course. What do you want to spend all your time dealing with people that want to argue and fight with you?

Get the fuck out of here. No. I have enough turmoil in my life for me to want to invite more of it because of some bullshit. No, I don't want to... Absolutely not. No. Trying to explain to people like I did in the past video. that they can lead to bad incentives for companies and developers.

Because if the micro-transactions are a sizable percentage of a game's revenue, then they become the goal. The higher-ups can put it. Well, I mean, they always are the goal. I mean, if you have them in the game, it creates an issue where, like, you don't know whether it was put in the game as a decision for development or if it was a decision by accounting.

pressure on developers to design the game in such a way that you want to buy the micro-transaction item and the more you spend money on something, the more you incentivize a company to keep doing it and things like it, inevitably leading to the bad situation I just described. But people don't find this argument convincing.

They don't care. They want to buy the stuff. The number of times I've heard, I'm an adult, I'm busy, it's good for me to have these things that let me get access to, stuff more quickly. I'm a father. I have a job. I don't have time to play video games all day. In talking about this issue, I've come to the conclusion that people have a desperate,

sincere need to spend money to not play the games that they like. I can come to no other conclusion. In the video... I think that people just want to be able to skip things and if they can skip things, then they will. If you give people a tool, they will use the tool. And then they will justify their own behavior. I don't think that people have a sincere need to to like to buy things in games. I think people have a sincere need to save to save time. They just simply want to save time. That I made yesterday, I got that same pushback. It's fine to have these micro transactions there. And not one comment that I read addressed the peril that I outlined. They never talk about

the situation that I outlined to the bad incentives of what it can lead to. to. Yeah. It's always just ignored. And it's no different this time. Bro, you can just get all those items in game. You don't have to buy them. Yeah, I know. That's why I didn't think that it's going to be a big deal. It's never a big deal to you people. And this is Capcom. They've been doing this forever. You didn't care when I talked about it with Monster. Which doesn't make it any better, but it also makes it to where, like, you shouldn't expect it to change. I've realized on the internet that you will never convince people that they're wrong. Even if you provide them with evidence that proves that they're wrong, they will still think that they're right.

It doesn't matter because nobody has an obligation to change their opinion based off of information. Nobody ever cares whenever I talk about it. And these... I'm not open to opposing views with logical-based disagreements? In a lot of cases, no, I'm not open to that. I don't want to go into my stream and have people that are constantly trying to fight with me and argue with me.

I don't care about that. I don't want to do that. Specific microtransactions are the least egregious that I've ever seen Capcom do. These are the least severe. Those items are useless. They're no good for anything. All of them can be found in game and all of them are... This is again another comment that I would like to address.

If a few big streamers took a stand and refused to play games with microtransactions in single player games, it would change overnight. This could not be farther from the truth. No, it won't. It doesn't matter because they'll just sponsor other people instead. And also, like, so big streamers are big streamers because they create content and they make content that people want to see. So if you're a big streamer and you're not streaming the big game that people want to see, whether or whether or not it has microtransactions, do that enough times and you won't be a big streamer anymore. Because streamers are only as big as the community lets them be. and if the community doesn't agree with what the streamers doing and the values aren't the same,

then people leave. That's what happens. Like most gamers don't watch streamers. Yeah, exactly. Like, streamers play a role in making a game popular. They can get the ball rolling for certain things, but like streamers don't really have a lot of power at all. Like, streamers can shine a light on a good game that people aren't aware of, but they can't make people change their purchasing decisions. Of course not. Do you really think people are not watching big streamers because the game industry gives them exclusive access to content?

Well, I'm talking about, like, post-release. And also, like, so this is, I guess, like, you don't really understand how it works. So I'll look at this. Do you really think people are not watching big strangers because the game industry gives them exclusive access to content? If the games industry, if streamers won't take sponsorships from certain games, then other people will take it instead. other streamers will. And then when other streamers take it, then no streamers will get the views instead. Do you understand how it works? Where like, just because if like, if I have a moral obligation or I, I think that I disagree with a certain type of game. And so I tell everybody, well, I'm not going to play this game. Well, then everybody who wants to see it is just going to go and watch somebody else.

Like, that's it. They're just going to watch somebody else. So it doesn't really matter like whether a streamer does it or not. And, well, the point is that it's inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. But yeah, I would like to let you know, like big streamers don't have any real power to change the way that a big company like Capcom does its monetization. We don't have any power. What about Jenksie? You played a dead game and now it got popular again? Well, why was it a dead game?

Like, what was the reason for it being a dead game? And also because people liked it. So like there has to be a, what I'm saying is that like people started playing Rainbow 6 again because it was a fun game to play. It's not like Jynxie is playing a terror. He's not playing Superman 64 here. He's playing a game that is fun to play. So of course people are going to go and play the game. That's my point.

Is like a streamer can't make people play a game if the game sucks. Because if they could, Immortals of a Venom wouldn't have probably seven players. Found naturally relatively quickly. there is no sponsorship. I'm not getting paid by Capcom. I don't believe anybody that got the early review is getting paid by Capcom. There's no contract.

I got paid, but I didn't get the early review. I kid, so that we would talk about it. I just didn't think it was an issue, and I forgot. The fact that all of the reviewers apparently also forgot signals to me that nobody thought it was an issue. There was no way for me to predict that this was going to be the time that people finally got upset at micro transactions

and didn't defend them as hard as they have been. Well, nobody, like, the thing is that this will be forgotten in like a week, in two weeks and a month. Nobody's going to care about it. It's the same as anything. Like, even, it doesn't matter whether it's, so do you remember whenever that localizer drama happened?

And now nobody, it's like, if somebody brings it up, they're like, oh my God, we have to hear about this shit again. but for like two weeks everybody was really mad about it and it's the same thing with sweet baby like if i bring this up in a month nobody's going to give a shit about it people don't even give a fuck about like like big things like covid like people just move on to the next thing people treat outrage like entertainment on the internet it is it's like outrage entertainment and what happens is that people get outraged about something enough and then eventually they move on. They don't give a shit. Are people talking more about Palestine and Israel now? Probably

not as much as they were. Because there just becomes fatigue and people want to go to the next thing. It doesn't matter if it's as extreme as a geopolitical conflict or as minute as a video game reviewer having an opinion that's disagreeable. People just consume outrage and news like entertainment. That's it. No reason for the microtransactions to have special importance in my mind. because there are much worse examples from this same company that people just didn't care about. So I don't understand this attitude that people have where I must have known that this was going to be a big deal. I must have known and deliberately hid the micro-transactions. It's just that simple.

And then some people have said, well, then you should take down your review. And I'm not going to do that, of course, because everything I said in that review is true. Every single thing that I said in that review is true and is my opinion. Well, this is the problem. and this is why the people that are pushing for this will end up losing, is that most normal people don't want to be told what to do on just a very, very basic level. People don't like being told what to do.

And this is true with World of Warcraft Stormouts. It's true with Hogwarts legacy. It's true with Dragons Dogma 2. It's true with boycotting any other like game or a website or anything like that. People don't like being told what to do by other people on the internet. And to the extent that you think that you have the moral authority to tell other people what to do, you will lose because you don't. The only way you can do it is by convincing people with a sound argument that they agree with.

And even then, it usually doesn't even work. You can't tell people what to do. The moment that you start telling people what to do, you lose. Because nobody wants to be pushed in a direction. That's why I think in a lot of cases you see so much people that are pushing back against woke stuff right now is because people feel like they're being told what to do. They're being told what to think. And so now you see pushback on it because people don't like being told what to do.

It's that simple. The inclusion of micro transactions wouldn't change that. that. Because again, I remind you, I don't think those micro-transactions are worthwhile. They don't do anything. They don't even make the game easier for you. Not by any significant degree. I'm opposed to them in principle. And I'm happy to see other people finally also opposed to them in principle. But I don't consider them to be consequential enough to change one sentence of my review. Again, I repeat what I said yesterday. If you think it's unacceptable for a game too long... Bro, like, look at the damage this guy's doing.

Remember whenever I killed this guy, it was so fast? Onch with the performance issues that Dragon's Dogma 2 has, then I encourage you to refund the game or avoid buying it until those issues are resolved. I think you're right to take that attitude, if that's the attitude that you've taken. Absolutely. If you, in principle, don't like microtransactions, then I encourage you, like me, not to get them. Or to abstain or refund the game, if the matter is that same.

serious for you. Exactly. There's no conspiracy going on here. I didn't hide things to remain in Capcom's good graces, and I suspect after yesterday's video, I'm not going to be in Capcom's good graces anyway. Yeah, you will. Of course you will. We all will. Because they just want people to see the game. They don't give a fuck about this. You think they give a fuck if I make a video about it? So I had a sponsorship with the skull and bones, the first quadruplea game. And I remember somebody messaged me about it and they were like, you still want to do this? And I said, do they still want to do this?

I just made a video saying it was dog shit. And the publisher didn't even know. They didn't even care. I don't give a fuck. Yeah. No. Like, the only reason I didn't do it is I missed a date.

So I asked that people don't call me a liar. Because at worst, I'm simply stupid for not having realized this would be such an issue. It's not. And that's the end of this video. As always, thank you very much for watching. Yep. And this is kind of what happens is like you have these like super emotional, hyper, paranoid, like accusatory, hostile people that go out of their way to get mad at you and, you know, argue with you and all this shit. If you waste any time trying to like justify yourself to these people, like, you're just wasting your time. Like, because again, you can't reason a person out of a position.

they didn't reason themselves into. It's that simple.