this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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I have been avoiding multiplayer Valve games like Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2, due to their in-game economies that have created an underage gambling gray market, which Valve has done little about. However, I am on Linux, and the choices for multiplayer shooters are few. Besides, my small boycott is not stopping Counter-Strike 2 from being the most played steam game. Are boycotts really the best solution to stop this epidemic in gaming? How can we best prevent these gambling grey markets and the gaming to gambling addiction pipeline?

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[โ€“] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It is important to question what you think a boycott will do.

Do you think you are going to make a giant movement that changes the world? If so... you should stop eating those lead paint chips. Consumers, historically, will only engage in a boycott if there are alternatives. Shop at Walmart instead of Target. VERY short term you might get someone to boycott Amazon for a few days but... just check "leftist" forums like resetera for everyone immediately losing their shit over how a few older activision games they will never play are on sale.

Video games, contrary to what people will say, don't really have alternatives. We'll joke that The Last Descendent was "waifu frame" but the people who love Warframe very much have reasons for not wanting to play TLD and vice versa. Let alone games like Call of Duty where there really is nothing close to an alternative.

So "boycott to fix the world" (and I am gonna expand on what THAT would be shortly...) ain't a thing.

So... now it is up to why? Personally, I "boycott" Ubisoft and have for the better part of a decade at this point. I think the last game I bought "from them" was GR Breakpoint and I got that years after the game was basically dead and on a hefty discount (see: lack of alternatives). I am under no illusion that my wallet is going to lead to yves et al leaving their own company out of shame for their role in enabling a culture of sexual harassment (and allegedly more). But I do know that I feel a lot better when I look at myself in the mirror and most games I am interested in DO have alternatives.

So do you think you are going to change the world? Cue Nelson Muntz. Do you just not want to contribute to the culture of loot boxes personally? Go for it. And it doesn't matter what people on not-reddit tell you.

As for what you think will happen: I think we can all agree that Nintendo upping the... Err, let me rephrase that. I think we can all agree that any company other than Nintendo upping the base price of a game to 80 USD (pre-tariffs...) is REALLY bad for the industry. But... inflation IS a thing and while game sales have skyrocketed... game dev has too. Money has to come from somewhere. And RMTs (lootboxes, cosmetics, etc) and constant flows of DLC have actually been great for the industry. It, for two decades or so, stopped the endless "ramp up, ramp down" model where people would be hired to work on a game, fired when it went gold, and then hired again 6 months down the line if it got green lit for an expansion. Get rid of RMTs and we go back to that for all but the largest studios because you don't need artists when you are fixing a bug in Batman's cape and so forth.

So, personally? I buy and play games that I like. And a lot of that does have to do with the monetization model. Something like Warframe is RMT based and has some sketchy purchases but also is (mostly) playable as a free game and is built around "free" content. Whereas something like Genshin Impact is marketed as "you never have to spend a dime" but... yeah. So the games that "do it wrong"? I am... kind of already "boycotting" them because I am just not interested in them.

Counterpoint - you can boycott whoever you want for as long as you want whether the world is getting saved or not. Try not to give a shit what other people are doing. You don't have to change the world. You just have to stick to your own principles. And if enough people do that, the world will change anyway. But all you can control is your own actions.

I have a long list of boycotted companies that I have never gone back on. Started with Blackjack Pizza in college when they wouldn't refund a pizza that had oven cleaner all over the bottom of it. Facebook gone for 15 years now, and I go without the cool Quest VR stuff. Walmart kicked to the curb around the same time for their gross abuse of their employees. Amazon ditched 3 years ago, don't miss it. I'd love to have Starlink to put on a vehicle when I travel the country, but it'll be a cold day in hell before Muskrat gets a dollar out of me. Canceled all my Target shit (20 year card member) a couple months ago over their DEI bullshit and won't set foot in one again. I shop at Costco as a single adult. The list goes on.

And while I wish other people would give these companies the finger so real change would happen, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that I am sticking by what I believe.