Asmongold TV - Most Basic Game Features Are Now PAID Content | Asmongold

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

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This is a big deal. If you would have asked me what my worst case scenario for what micro transactions could look like in the future, I don't think what we're going to talk about today would have been on the list. Sega is bringing gaming to a new low. A phrase I never thought I would ever say, but damn, does it suit it so well? On this channel, Sonic 2 kind of sucked. I didn't like Sonic 2, to be fair. I tried to do my best to make videos with the intent of raising consumer expectations.

At least for my view I didn't like it If I can even enact A small bit of change That is something That's better than nothing Yeah Because there are things that we should pay for

And there are things that we should not pay for And one of the things that we should never pay for Are core game mechanics True And I think that really should Mike there is no consumer Bill of Rights There's no constitution

That tells us that We are entitled to six wifus per week. But if enough people say fuck this, then that game doesn't sell and the market adapts. So I have to say that with this kind of stuff in a game, shoulds don't really matter. Shoulds should matter, but they don't. And so if you don't like these things, please do not support these games. And that's what we're going to talk about today. in an article from PC gamer by Molly Taylor titled Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth is making the utterly bizarre decision to lock New Game Plus behind a $15 upgrade.

There it is. Sega is gating a very- New Game Plus now costs money, gentlemen. Yakuza fans, dick riding this game so hard, they don't care about the paid New Game Plus. Well, that's always what happens. It's always I don't care about it. It doesn't matter to me. So it's okay.

And again, if there's enough people that feel like that, it becomes true. That's why gotcha games are so popular. Like, I don't understand. Like, if you're playing a gotcha game as a free-to-play player, like, do you just like having somebody hit your dick with a hammer? Is this just what you do? How do you, like, are you wearing a chastity belt right now? Why?

Why? What are you doing? Like, how can you possibly play these games as a free-to-play player? Like, it's just, it's so sad. It is, it is honestly sad. And, like, I always see them. They see it as a challenge. And this is the best thing about it.

It's like, it's a challenge to them to try to overcome and beat somebody who spends, like, $1,000 on the game by working at it for 18 hours. And then whenever they finally get up to the level that the person who spent $1,000 on the game is at, the person just spends another $1,000. Or they add a new character that's better, so they have to do it all over again. It's just like,

it's so fucking pathetic. I don't know, guys, it's so fucking sad, man. Like, I remember in Lost Ark, there are people that were like, well, I'm only 15 item levels lower than you, and I'm free to play. I have 11 characters, and I do chaos dungeon, on 10 of them every single day. I max out my six Legion raids on six characters,

and I also have all the island's holds. It's like, okay, so you've played the game this much, and your claim to fame is that you're only slightly worse than a person who spent money? How can you be addicted to getting your dick hit with a hammer that much? Like, how is it possible to be that much of a fucking cook? I don't use that word in hardly any circumstance

but I think that free to play players in gotcha games are cucks Tectone is the exception because he's doing it for content These people aren't doing it for content They're not making YouTube videos about it They're doing it for free Remember this?

I can't Playing these games free to play Is the most autistic fucking retard shit I have ever fucking seen in my life. And it actually pisses me off. It actually pisses me off. Here comes.

Because I could be playing darkest dungeon right now. I could be playing persona right now. I literally could be playing any PVE turn-based fucking game has a thousand times better than this fucking dog shit. I could be playing XCOM 2. Literally anything! That's wipe! That's the way I feel about free-to-play players in these gotcha games.

But there's a lot of people that do it. So the gotcha games are still popular. So if you don't want this, don't buy the game. Normal and staple RPG feature behind its premium editions. Guys, I'm going to be honest. When I read this headline, I thought it was a joke. I actually didn't know how to make a video about this because the premise of it is so absurd to begin with. It's difficult for me to really voice all of my issues that I have with it.

Well, the thing for me is like whenever I read this, I thought it wasn't true. I'm the kind of person that like if it seems too good to be true it's probably too good to be true it's not real so like whenever I see something that's like just so outrageous I immediately think it's fake I'm like no no this is this is too much I don't believe this and this actually like I had to go to the Sega

website and like look it and read it myself to believe this this is so slimy so grimy that the $50 to $100 Diablo 4 expansion looks like a good deal. Jesus Christ. Imagine using Diablo 4 as a good example of proper business ethics. Which, to be fair, I mean, it kind of is. It's just an expensive fucking game that's overpriced.

But God damn. This is ridiculous. It's absurd. And what's worse is that Sega has done such a great job at building up all of this good will over the last few years, especially with the Yakuza franchise. That has been a franchise that has been a state. There's been a lot of people who have asked me to play that game. I didn't know it was as big as it was. I had no idea for that company for a long time. And for them to do this in the one franchise that people absolutely love them for. Yeah. Man. Man. Man. Molly Taylor writes, when it comes to trying to

experience everything, a sprawling 100-hour RPG has to offer new game plus can often be an essential tool for running through a game a second or a third time without cause this guy swall limpid what the fuck are they doing over there digital damage some games like the persona series even require new game plus if you want the full completionist adventure sure it makes it all the more baffling then that saga's upcoming like a dragon infinite wealth is locking its New Game Plus mode behind its deluxe and ultimate editions, which costs an extra $15 and $40 on top of the base game respectively. This is a series which traditionally has featured its own features locked behind New Game Plus runs, such as a legendary difficulty mode. Specifically, New Game Plus is being folded into the Master Vacation bundle, which isn't included with the

game's base version. According to the game's official website, the bundle also includes a bonus dungeon, special Sujiman, a Pokemon-like mode, resort guests, outfits, and more. Now, for me to add on to what Molly Taylor is talking about, core game modes like New Game Plus are meant to give players more replayability of a game. I feel like it's obviously a huge difference because, like, with any of these games, the general understanding is that if you buy the deluxe or like the super deluxe edition of the game, you just get a bunch of cosmetics. Like you don't actually access more gameplay.

Bizarre about this move is that the replayability helps to sell future content for the game, whether that's micro-transactions or expansion DLC. The longer they play, the more they pay. Not only is this disgusting that they're paywalling new game plus, but it's also incredibly boneheaded of a move for Sega to do because it's contradictory to how games monetize themselves in the future. Now imagine just for a second

You just finished the campaign for Diablo 4 You're about to head into World Tier 2 3 Whatever If you're working at Blizzard still Please stop watching right now I don't want to give you any ideas Please stop, do not listen to this

For it is, ah sorry Man I know you want to do those nightmare dungeons But you should have got the ultimate edition Don't fucking do not fucking do this That sucks Baldur's Gate 3 You know those characters you love so much Side Stories learning about them

romancing them. Oh, the romance scenes. Sorry, super ultimate mega supreme edition. You didn't think you get that, did you? Oh, loser. Silly. I realize that this isn't a one-to-one comparison for new game plus, but I'm just trying to- It is like an armored core six. Imagine if you had to play new game plus. If you, like, you could only play it if you bought like the deluxe edition of the game. Like I just, I don't think that there's any benefit. Like basically for a lot of times, deluxe editions of games were viewed as like you're taking the game from 100% to 110% or 115 or 120%. But like this is one of the first instances of a game being at 90% and you have to pay to get the deluxe edition to get it back up to 100. That's, I think, where the problem is.

Illustrate the absurdity of locking core game features behind a paywall. Because these features are there specifically to keep you. in the game longer, playing the game longer, which then leads to more sales for that company. Right. Not just in micro-transactions, because obviously the longer you're in that game's world, the likely you are to purchase more things from them,

but also because it continues to keep the game relevant for longer. The longer a game's being played, the more it's being talked about to other people, the more people. And I think also, like a lot of people are saying that most people don't use New Game Plus, and so that's okay. I think that that's why they're doing it.

I think they're doing it. it to a feature that's extremely unpopular so they can set a foundation for doing it to features that are more popular to drive more sales of higher price additions because if I were them and I was trying to make money that's what I'd do we'll hear about the game watch the game on Twitch or YouTube or wherever and more sales end up coming as a result

so the idea of locking a core game feature that gives the game replayability at all is just a my brain turned off I would imagine whoever came up with this idea also had theirs turn off Taylor continued Well they didn't have their brain turned off

They had the accounting department turned on That's the real reason why they're doing this They're just doing it to make more money Like that's that's why These things are happening It's just for more money With frustratingly None of the specifics are included on the game's Steam page

It lists out each edition And what bundles you get for them But it fails to detail what's included in each one. That means if you're just going by the Steam page, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that a series which traditionally included new game plus for no extra price would in fact have it in its standard edition.

It feels a little rancid to me to have such a basic feature require at least a $15 upgrade in order to have. Sure, you get a couple of other goodies for your pleasure, but they're considerably more optional in nature. And she's right, it is rancid, because in most occasions when we're buying Ultimate Mega Super Deluxe Editions, and all the extra bells and whistles,

it's just that extra bells. Let's go ahead and be a little bit more realistic here. The reason why people used to buy these old editions is because they came with like an art book. They came with a bunch of other really cool stuff. Like this bullshit that we're having now where like, oh, you need to buy a deluxe edition. Bro, the reason to buy a deluxe edition died whenever you're not buying a box.

You're buying a deluxe edition to get like, like, I can't, it's out of reach. But the Melania statue from the Elven Ring deluxe edition. You're buying it to get like these little cool things, like actual things that are like deluxe merchandise that are added with the game. There's no reason that a digital fucking download should have a deluxe edition. It's the dumbest fucking thing. Like how is it?

I can't believe. How are people, like they're just, and they're buying it. They're buying it. I'm getting mad. You're getting mad. We're all mad. And it doesn't matter. I'll be right back. Deluxe, dude, bro, digital deluxe edition. Like, what do you get an extra JPEG? Like, digital digital deluxe edition. Like, what? What the fuck? And whistles, it's mostly optional content, though I guess from the eyes of sales.

Sega playing their game is also optional at this point. Yeah, true. The thing is, is that when we're looking at something like New Game Plus, this is often seen as a core mechanic because many games, including the Yakuza games, have used it to be able to deliver. Yeah, many games used to also have armor for horses that was earnable in game, too. Alternative stories, different endings, or just completely different modes of game to play. You could play a game like near Automata.

Yeah, you could play a single playthrough. However, that's really only one-third or one-fourth of the entire experience. Armored Core 6 is another really good example of this. Playing the game through one time isn't the full experience. There's all kinds of different endings, more story to be told, more experiences to be had, more game to play. And a lot of these things... Which, to be fair, this isn't happening with Armored Core 6.

But if it starts happening with one game, I think it'll start happening with a lot of games. designed specifically for the base game experience, for the main narrative experience. So by paywalling these kind of things, you're actually actively hurting the end product as a result. You're making it worse. You're destroying the narrative that your writers have been working so hard to make in the first place.

You're actively making your product worse. And it's like if you buy the base edition of the game, it's cuck behavior. And if you buy the deluxe edition of the game, it's also cuck behavior. It's like I couldn't buy this game and not think that like somebody was getting me. Like, because if I buy the deluxe edition, well, like, the only way I could buy the game and not feel stupid is if I bought the most expensive one because I know that I'm stupid. Like, that's the only way I can like imagine in my mind that I wouldn't feel like an absolute fucking. fucking idiot.

Also, cutting off potential consumers that would have bought more things in the future. Yep. Pirate? How stupid are you? Now, in the last part of Molly Taylor's article, she brings up how, of course, there is a chance that this could be

some rather confusing wording on Sega's part. But considering one Eagel on Redditor noticed this situation about a month ago and got in touch to be told, yep, this is legit. I'm not too confident. I thought this game was going to be a lot different than fighting a fucking lobster.

in a fucking parking lot. Like, I had a totally different perspective on what Yakuza was. I've asked Sega for clarification about the situation and I'll update this article if I hear it. I really didn't know this. That was four days ago and she still hasn't updated the article.

I wouldn't check the initial Reddit thread and sure enough, there was a user over on the Yakuza games. Y'all I remember whenever McDonald's did this with the barbecue sauce? Back in the 90s, you got them for free and then they started charging for him. And you know what? fucking happened.

Now everything's fucking more money. Now everything costs more money. You've got McFlurry and it's $8. They charge now? Yeah, they've been doing it for 25 years. I should read it that it asked Sega support specifically about whether or not the New Game Plus was held in the

Master Vacation Pack and sure enough they responded saying, I have checked back and can confirm the New Game Plus function is indeed only available with the Master Vacation. pack. We hope this information is of use. Best regards. Oh, sweet summer child. I commend them for hoping that this is just a nightmare. A silly little mistake, but however, this is something that's a part of their major promotional material and it's also on the official website for the game as well. So I have a

hard time believing otherwise. And this isn't the first time that we've seen a company try to do something like this in the past. And maybe it wasn't new game plus, but back in the day, we saw Destiny with the curse of Osiris D.L.C. where we had access to strikes and raids and dungeons. However, the minute that DLC came out, they locked all of that behind a paywall

and we could no longer interact with content. We already... People keep playing the game after this. Like, how do you play this game? It's like, you remember what what Belliour said about, like, wow is like a game with like a dick in the salad?

And you just want to get the dick out of the salad? a salad of dicks. How do people keep eating? How? Like, I don't understand this. This is crazy. He had access to before then. So this isn't the first time that a company is going to attempt something like this and this isn't the last time

that a company is going to try to do something like this either. Oh, I know that. And time again, they just wait for the first company to make the first mistake. Yep, to break the ice. They're just waiting for the first guy to step on the hot coals. and then they use him as a bridge to walk right over him while they're getting burned and they just steal all of our money.

When I purchase a full... Why are we told to not expect games like Baldur's Gate but we should expect games like this where we need to buy New Game Plus? You want to know why? It's because you keep buying them. Not you, but the collective you. If people actually just stopped buying them,

these people would be out on their ass and out of a job. Like, I don't know how to communicate and break through to the average gamer and get people to see how this is a problem. Because if you can't do that, and I don't think I can. Like, to be honest with you, I don't think that there's a happy ending to this. But that's what you have to do if you hope to solve this. Price game, I expect to receive a complete experience, including all of the core gameplay mechanics. However, if these features are locked behind additional payments, Is my initial purchase complete?

No, it's not. We've already been fed lines by studios in the past, claiming that the purpose of micro-transactions and these larger editions of games are just there to further the ongoing development of a game to give us more content, or just to add a couple extra bells and whistles. However, this is what we...

I don't think anybody cares about that. That's not a problem at all. Like, I don't think anybody... Like, whenever you're talking about a game that's being continuously developed, asking players to pitch in with cosmetics is not a big deal. But like we're talking about a fucking base game where like a functionality is removed to put it on the paywall.

That's a very big difference. No is the ultimate end goal of predatory monetization. Less game for more money. Add infinitum. Yeah. What Sega is doing is setting a precedent. Yeah. This practice will lead to more developers locking

essential parts of their games behind extra payments. Establishing a norm where we, as consumers, are required to pay more for a full experience of a game. And this is what happens is like once a few games start doing this, then other games start doing it and people start defending it as if like, oh, well, this game did it, that game did it. So now it's okay that it happens. And then before you know it, it's normalized in the eyes of a consumer.

And that's just how it is. to the point where this is now turning into economic exclusion. Not that it hasn't already been for years. Not everyone can afford to pay beyond the initial game price. Locking core gameplay features behind progressively more expensive editions of a game is going to prevent a large portion of the community from experiencing an entire game in the future. We've had a lot of discussions on this channel

where I've talked about different things that I think are and are not worth my money, mostly just to try to bring awareness to some of these topics that I think while we do talk about them... It's crazy. Like, I feel like more people should be talking about this. But, like, I don't know. Maybe people just don't care. Like, I'm really kind of shocked. Because I feel like this is a really...

It's a really big deal, in my opinion. I can easily see us looking back at this moment five years from now and saying, oh, my God, this was the horse armor. I can easily see that. Most people just go the Dumer approach and say, Walt, it's just going to be the silent majority that's going to keep buying it so it doesn't matter

whether or not I think about it. That's such a stupid thing to think. Well, I don't think that it might be, I don't know if I think he's right to me. I think they're right. But the reality is like not everybody in the world has the mental and emotional energy to invest

into caring about video game issues. Like, these are people that have like 10 other problems in their lives that are more important than whether like a mode of a video game is behind a paywall. So, like, I don't, and, like, they just like Yakuza and they want to play the game. And, like, I feel bad for them.

I do. And, like, I could say, oh, I'm doing it for your own good. But, like, I can't really expect somebody to, like, pick up my standard and run with it. Like, I can't expect them to see the same way that I do, especially whenever I think that they're kind of right. You know, like, that's, that is what I think is going to happen. This is spreading games. Yeah.

I mean, it's just crazy. that don't know. It's sad, man. Who is they that they're talking about? Because many streamers get paid sponsorships to push these products. Well, I mean, I don't think you can really fault somebody for taking a paid sponsorship for a game, right? I mean, and at the end of the day, like, is this really a moral line that, like, somebody shouldn't cross to take a sponsorship for? I mean, come on. Like, everybody takes sponsorships for games like this. Everybody does things at their job, you know, their company they work for, like, doesn't do something right. It's like, I mean, really, guys, it's not that big of a deal.

It is just a video game after all. But at the same time, I think it does suck. It does. It does really suck. And that's why I'm talking about it. Bad take. I mean, you can say that all you want. But aren't I right?

Like, if somebody paid you $10,000 to play a video game, I think you'd do it. I think most people would do it. Like, what are we talking about? Are we really like, what are we doing? Like, what is this? Like, what are we talking about here? Even the smallest bit of change is still change. And if anybody is bringing these kind of discussions,

thinking about the things that we should and shouldn't buy, this is one of those things that we should not buy and we need to be talking about. Because this isn't something that we would normally see in a DLC. This isn't game files that we discovered and said, hey, you know, it was in the original game. Why are they making us pay for this? No, no, this is something that has always been a staple part

of just about every video game release, especially games like a dragon. So for us to start paying for these kind of things. Yeah, it's like if the market, if the market shows that it's accepting of this, then this is going to be the new norm. Like, that's really what it comes down to. And it's easy for us normally to tell somebody

to turn down 10 to 100K for playing a game on stream for an hour. Yeah, and like here's the thing, right? As I've said this before, I think that the people that try to, the people that try to make that, you know, like a high ground argument, like, oh, I'm not going to play this game because I'm like morally better than it. Like, these are all people that can't even maintain moral consistency across consuming entertainment. You know, they're watching, you know, something on Amazon platform.

I think they would say like that Amazon isn't morally right. Like, I don't know, which one's worse? Like paywalling, a new game plus or Amazon warehouse stuff. Like, oh, I wonder, right? And so whenever people can't even maintain moral consistency for consuming their own entertainment, and then they expect other people to maintain moral consistency for like taking care of themselves and, you know, in their career, it's just so hypocritical and ridiculous that it's just not really worth listening to or taking seriously at all.

So, yeah, I don't, I don't like that mindset at all. So anyway, but let's get past that because obviously, you know, there's always people that like to talk about how, how virtuous they are on the internet. but we're never going to get to the bottom of that. The reality is that I do hope that a lot of people are aware of this, and that's why I make the video, right? Like, I'm putting my perspective out there. I think that if people buy this and people accept it,

it will become the new normal. I do. Just the same as, like, do you remember five years ago? Three-day early start, like early access to games was seen as, like, disgusting and like nobody would consider it. And now it's the norm. and it's the norm because people accept it. And to be honest, even I don't really give a shit that much about it.

But, I mean, I would have if I thought it would matter. A bunch of people already bought it. Yeah, exactly. Talking about it for it not to be the forefront of discussion is ridiculous. This is something that we have to be talking about. We have to be sharing it and discussing it and bringing it to the forefront of discussion every chance that we get because this is not something that we want to see going on into the future. Someone says Yakuza has paid new game plus since 2009.

What was the game that came out before this? What was the last Yakuza game that came out? Like not this one, but the one before that. Uh, Giden. Did that one have paid DLC? Or sorry, paid new game plus? No. Why would somebody say that?

This means is the next thing we're going to see is, oh, you want to play hard mode? Man, you're going to have to buy the hard mode edition. Because, well, you know, most players, they only play story. you're normal. So making a hard mode, it's a little bit of extra work and we'll have to charge you for that. So it's going to be about 15 bucks

if you want hard. Naturally. Now, if you want super hard mode, that's going to run you real high. That's the future we're headed to. Whatever that Unity CEO had said before, John Rickettel. Make us buy ammo in games

in the middle of a match. We're headed right for that at this point. And I'm not sitting here trying to tell you guys how you need to spend your money. That's on you. Do what you need to do. Do what makes you. you happy, but I can't think of anybody that would be happy paying for things that have always

been included in products they've been purchasing for- I know a lot of people that are happy paying for things that had always been included in products that they had purchased in the past. I know a lot of them. Wow. As long as they can remember. And this is one of those situations. And it will only get worse from here. Why?

Because this is Sega doing it. It's not even one of the most notorious of the worst- to AAA developers or anything like that. It's not Yubis. It's not even close. This is an Activision or EA. This is Sega. Out of all companies,

what does that tell you? The whole gaming has just become sad. I feel like gamers are... I have never met a group of people that have less willpower than gamers. I've never seen... It's as incredible. like everybody will be like so totally down on a game

and then the trailer for the game comes out it's totally fucking different and they're like it's tripping over themselves trying to like justify why it's not the same fucking thing and it's like it makes sense right because like you have an audience of people it's like selling cigarettes like I mean I feel like selling cigarettes is gonna be the easy

thing ever, right? I mean, fuck, the product does the job for you. It literally gets you addicted to it. So you have a group of people that is like self-cureated to have the least amount of self-control possible. And this is your audience that you have to try to convince them to do something. And it's just so easy. Like I, how is it so easy? It's crazy. Like, what is this? industry for the most part, at least on the higher levels, is laughing at us. They see how much of a pushover we've become. It's pathetic. And we'll just pay for just about anything at this point.

It's so pathetic. Now they're just making a random stab to see what we're just going to throw back out there. It's like what I was saying about the Gintchen players. It's like you get a three-year anniversary three pulls. It's like you're just poking the pig with a stick. It's like, what are you going to do to him? What are you going to do to him? Yeah, is it going to do anything?

No, it just still wants more food. and yeah, we're just going for it. God! How many times we've had discussions on this channel that's telling a story is what it's doing because we've talked about it in the past. Developers coming out talking to us about, you know, we work really hard on our games

and gaslighting us so that they can sell a slot but then tell us that we still need to pay full price for it and then wait for them to be able to patch and fix it later. It's not, listen, like I've said this about streamers, right? It's just it's not the audiences responsibility to care about

issues that people have professionally. Like, there's a lot of jobs that are really dangerous and really stressful. And I bet working at a game development studio can be really

stressful. I think so. I think being a police officer can be really stressful. I think being a police officer is probably more stressful. I think that Being a teacher is really stressful. Like a lot of these, a lot of these, like, jobs are really stressful. Sure.

But like, that doesn't really excuse a bad product. Like, oh, the police officer was really stressed out, so he shot somebody. Oh. Well, I would say then I guess we shouldn't charge him. But I think actually that is what happens. But it's not what should happen, right? Like, it seems kind of bad, doesn't it? how many of these companies are using different currencies

inside their video games to obfuscate that currency and then charge us more for it and quite literally scam us out of money something that legislatures for some odd reason don't even see. I just, that's astonishing. I made a video about that. Nobody watched that.

You need to go watch that. I'm going to put that up on the screen right here. Gaming's biggest lie. True. This is just disgusting is what it is. I don't have a whole lot of words for this because it's such an absurd situation. to be in where we're looking at a feature like this being sold in a video game.

Unbelievable. That's the world that we live in. There it is. Paywalling something that makes us come to play a game in the first place, what is the point of us buying that game? Is it really worth it at that point? No. No, it's not.

I think I'm going to try beating Yoshis Island. Well, you have to remember that, like, you know, like those extra bonus levels after you beat Bowser. Did you buy the Yoshi's Island, you know, like Omega Mario Edition? You know, did you get the King Cupa battle pass to where you can do the extra levels? Because if you didn't, yeah, I mean, you're not going to be able to do that. The Bosci edition, yeah. Obviously, inflation, but then also they have to pay their guys higher wages. Yoshi, but he's blue.

That doesn't mean that we should be getting a lesser experience. as a result of that. No, quite the opposite. They need to look to see how they can deliver more value to us and make more money. We shouldn't be paying for less, or sorry, we shouldn't be paying more for less.

It should still be an equal exchange, but we're getting further and further away from that. And most of it's just because... The companies will take as much as the market allows them to take. If the market allows this, the companies will take more. If the market allows that, then the companies will take even more. That's just how it works.

You have to stop. The thing is that we can always talk about, and I understand, there's a lot of you guys that are like, I am not an activist, I'm not a crusader, I am a 38-year-old man with 99 problems in their life, in my life, and a video game ain't one. you just want to play the new like a dragon game you buy the game you play it i totally respect what you're doing this is your life you can choose to do what you want but if you care at all man guys i feel like now it be a pretty good time to show it just just maybe i don't just in the slightest bit just if you want to maybe gamers rise up yeah i mean

And if people don't want to, that's it. I'm outvoted. I lose. But isn't it a fucking sad? Isn't that a sad thing? A lack of self-control, I guess. Again, I'm not trying to tell people how to spend their money, but at some point in time, we've got to reflect on this.

And I don't even think it's just the silent majority thing. It's not taking the time to bring these conversations into the light, as often as we possibly can. And then also at the same time, not sitting back and saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, true, true, true's in the chat, and then everybody goes and buys it anyway. At that point. Like Diablo.

Why? Why even complain about it? Just suck it up. Eat the slop. Eat your shit. Yeah, eat your shit. Eat your shit. Stop complaining.

Keep eating. I, for one, not buying this game. Which is incredibly difficult to do because I actually just bought the last game. on the last steam sale, I was looking really forward to playing the game. Yeah, now you can't do it, right? Or you feel stupid about doing it. And this is the thing, right?

And I want you to understand that, like, I totally understand where you're coming from. It's not a lack of self-control. I just don't care. I will buy and play the games I want. Now, you are kind of fucking us over by doing this, but it's your right to do this.

like I don't have the moral authority to tell you like what you can and can't spend your money on. Like absolutely not. Like what the fuck? No. It's disappointing. But it's your money. And the thing is like, and that that's just how it is. Base who the fuck cares?

Yeah, exactly. I get it. I understand. How can I possibly expect somebody who has a complicated life to care about this? He's the n-assol, but he's not wrong. No, he's not. And is he really an asshole because he won't care about my value system regarding a video game? A little bit.

I don't know. I mean, like, I don't think he's an asshole even. He just does it because it fucks all of us. But like, what obligation does he have to, like, he doesn't have any obligation? Like, why is he supposed to care about that? Like, it's just, it's, like, what is this? No, empathy? He doesn't need to.

What do you mean? no empathy? What about your empathy to him? Everybody always likes to talk about empathy whenever they want people to agree with them. Let's have empathy. Everybody have empathy for me. And what does empathy for me mean?

Doing what I want you to do. I get it, man. I get it. And I feel the same way that you do. But it's important to acknowledge that I just, I don't know, like, it's so depressing, man. Like, this just makes

me want to go play Honkai Star Rail and spend $100. You know, it's like, you know, you know the world is ending. So it's like, you know what? Like, it's like an asteroid is coming to the earth. I think I'm going to start smoking. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, that's the vibe that I get out of this. And I also saw the reviews for Like a Dragon come out.

And it's a nine out of ten from most, most reviewers. That's incredibly tempting. That's super sad because it's a game that I guarantee I would probably enjoy and have a lot of fun with. Yeah. But I normally only buy the base version, so that means I wouldn't get the full experience. I'm not going to tell people... Part of me wants to tell people not to buy this game. But, again, I don't tell people what to do.

Well, I mean, here's the thing. You buy this game. You're supporting the practice. It's whatever. You want to do it? Go ahead. Do whatever the fuck you want to do. But it's not good for games.

It's not so good. But you can do it. Do what you want to do. But if I were you, I wouldn't buy it. Yeah. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the video. If you guys did, yeah, true.

Subscribe to the channel or think about supporting the channel if you'd like. I have a Patreon link down below. Outside of that, stay cool, stay righteous, stay safe, my friends. I'll see you in the next video. Thanks. Some guy says, uh, I have a friend who buys micro-transactions in Assassin's Creed. I've never tried to convince him. He is just having fun.

And the thing is, like, I think about this a lot. And it was like that one picture. Where was that picture? It's the picture of the boar. Like, this boar is happy. This is your average microtransaction enjoyer. They don't know that, like, this boar could be in a barn with a bunch of, like, boar hose and, like, you know, he'd have, like, clean water and they'd feed them tomatoes.

But, like, he doesn't know that. and he just thinks that right now this is the best day of his life because he finally found a mattress on the side of the road and like how can you convince this boar to see the horrors of reality and like

are you stupid because is the boar stupid because he doesn't see them and he's happy or are you stupid because you do see them you're not happy but you have no power to change them you see what I'm saying because is the boar really stupid

I don't know No, cipher into Matrix. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just... What the fuck, man? I'll give the video a link you guys to video. Every time you think we've hit rock bottom, the industry finds a way to hollow out the floor. That's certainly right, man. Oh, my God. It's a good point, yeah. Sometimes the bore is not happy working 50 hours a week for the barn and those bore girls.

Maybe. Common Asmon demoralization content. Do you want me to, like, I can play like some fucking, you know, some hype music and I can do like a speech for gamers. And I could be like, yes, like, we're going to fucking, we're going to stop them here. They're not going to do this to us. I mean, I used to do this for years and it just, like, never did anything. And it's like at a certain point, like, you just look like an idiot. I don't know.

it's positive Asmon I mean I'm not really look I'm not like negative about this because I don't think it is I don't think this is

a negative really at all because the market needs to decide what these things are like the reality you can say reality is good or bad but the reality

is that it is and that's all there is to it you can't change the world you can change the world you can change the world You can change maybe yourself.

You can change a couple of people around you. And if everybody does that, then the world does change. But they're under no obligation to do so under the terms that you find acceptable. I mean, that's it. And it's just like Sega, unironically acting more Yakuza than Kyrieu. Isn't that the main character in the Yakuza game? Incredibly frustrating to watch companies doing crap like this. The only way these companies are going to learn is if we stop buying their shit.

Yeah, exactly. never by day one yeah exactly you can do big things step the fuck up I tried man and like here's the way that I see it and I'll give kind of like

maybe I'm a little bit of a of a dreamer with this kind of stuff but this is the way that I see it I think that people will eventually wake up I do I don't think that it's time yet because it hasn't gotten bad enough but eventually people will wake up.

And the reason why I think that is because that has been the there is no constant in any of human history. Like people have never accepted one bad thing all the time. Things always change, things always get better and then they get worse

and then they get better again and then they get worse again. It always, it always changes. And so there will be a time where people say enough is enough, too much is too much, and this is it.

There is going to be a breaking point. There is. Absolutely. I disagree because there's still a possibility of being convinced the bad, ain't too bad. Oh yeah, there will always be people that don't see that viewpoint. Why would people wake up? This is not a dream.

The part of the problem, this problem is not part of most people's reality. That's why stuff like this happens. Exactly. And that's my point, right? Because I think that game developers, so in general, this is a value that I, that I have, or like a mindset that I have. I think that people that are trying to do something will always try to do more of it. I think that there is no limit to human greed and there is no limit to the expansion of human influence. So, if people have $100, they're going to want $101. If people have a million dollars, they're going to want a million and $1. If people have a billion dollars, they're going to want a billion in one dollars.

Like, there's never going to be a point where people stop. There's never going to be like, oh, okay, we'll just let them do, uh, you know, new game plus and then they're going to stop doing this. And it's the same with everybody, right? Like people always want more. We live in a world where scarcity is the reason why I think all evil exists. This is kind of like, it's, it's, I don't want to get into that, but I do believe that, like, all evil is the root of scar.

scarcity is the root of all evil and because of that people people are like hyper fixated on trying to get as much of something as possible and it doesn't matter whether it's uh you know money gold while women uh power or anything uh everything is measured in scarcity so as as that happens the level of scarcity gets so high that eventually people hit a breaking point and i think that that happened Like, for example, that happened in our culture with McCarthyism. That happened with, uh, I would say like the weird fucking, uh, well, let me think a way to put it. I think it happened with Obama. Obama was a breaking point too in like in our history. Uh, same with Martin Luther King. Like, and by the way, guys, please, let's not get another fucking Twitter video about how I'm comparing Martin Luther King to New Game Plus in a video game. I'm obviously not doing that. But the point that I'm making is that society reaches points of breaking points, or society reaches a breaking point with everything.

And it goes one way or another way. Like you see that like with Bud Light, you know, for example, they did that campaign. It was a breaking point for people. Everybody got pissed off about it. And you see that with all kinds of games. Like Shadowlands was a breaking point for World of Warcraft. So these happen on like massive like worldwide cultural levels. and they happen on like micro levels as well.

And the reason why is because it doesn't matter if it's a billion people doing something or one person doing something. It's still a person doing it. And I think this is a personal trend that almost everybody follows. And especially the people that try to, you know, like get power. So that's what I think. So I do think that eventually this will stop. And gamers will just completely shit on everything.

about it. Like any microtransaction will be viewed as predatory. People will want it all made illegal. People will hate any sort of subscription. They will hate live service games. And I think that like it will just totally turn massively fucking toxic in the other direction. And it won't be good. It's not like this is going to be a golden age. It's just going to be a different kind of bad. So that's what I think is going to happen. You're too generous on the human condition? No, I I'm not. I think that my point of view is reflected in all of history. On a macro and a micro level. Like bad stuff like this always goes away.

It always resets. The pendulum always swings back and forth. The breaking point creates a divide, creates opposing laws, and creates fault with anything unsubscribes or zealots or any people. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Look at Steam page, people keep buying and giving it a positive review. That's because nobody really cares about New Game Plus, because most people don't play it. So because it's not affecting them, they don't care.

Like, there's people like me who I see, oh my God, if this happens to New Game Plus, then it's going to happen to this thing and that thing and the other thing, right? Like, that's what I think. Like, difficulty modes, for sure. But, like, other people don't see it that way because it's not in front of them. Like, think about how much more powerful. I don't want to get into this too much because it's kind of political. But, like, remember Andrew Yang, the universal basic income guy?

Think about how much more powerful his campaign would have been if it was during a year that was like after COVID. Like if he was running like now or like during COVID, you see kind of what I'm saying? Because like right now people actually see that and they realize because it's happening to them directly and they see like the immediate impact of it. And so I'm not saying he would win.

I'm not saying he would solve all of our problems. But I'm saying that that message would have been much more powerful. Because people don't care about things in an abstract. As I said, I think most people are completely self-referential in the way that they look at the world and all of their values. They don't actually have any values. They don't actually care about anything. They only want what they want. And the reason why is because they have been bred for millions of years of evolution to do exactly that. It affects fewer people. Then isn't this a good solution for more money? Yeah, until that group of few people is you.

Like, if the logic is that it only affects a small group of people, then I think that like, yeah, sure, you can. make that argument, but like whenever a change is made that affects you, then, you know, don't be surprised in our people use that same logic to disregard what you think to. Only in rich countries in third world countries. It's just rinse and repeat of what made money before in first world countries. The cycle never ends. I find it hard to really say that that's what happens in third world countries because I feel like they don't really have like a, and I don't know about every single one, right? But I think that a lot of them are affected by like nation building by first world countries. So they're not really able to like naturally progress as a country because they're

constantly being invaded or influenced by outside powers. So I'm not really sure I would agree with that. I prioritize my values. I care about things I care are more important. Me buying a game isn't a high priority. Well and and this is the same guy right. This is the same guy that was talking before and I'll pull it up again. Why should I have a bunch of empathy towards others I don't even know or care about? You shouldn't. But I don't care about other people's problems. Yeah, and they don't care about yours either. Like, people say they care about your problems,

but whenever it comes time to take an actionable stance that reflects that, then they don't. Like, everybody says, oh, well, we need to care about each other whenever they want people to care about them. But whenever it comes down to them actually doing something that is inconvenient, well, then suddenly this is different.