@tony56723: I've been playing Madden 20 since prelaunch, no attempt to sell me anything whatsoever. You've got no idea what you're talking about. I've built great MUT teams multiple years without spending a cent and I play a franchise very deep every year. EA is a competitive gaming company. Most of their IP is in competitive multiplayer games, why wouldn't they espouse the superiority of those types of games. Why wouldn't a single player game focused company focus on single player games and say how those are the future. The two have nothing to do with each other, they service entirely different aspects of the market. That would be like saying Bioware spit in the face of Zynga by not making Dragon Age a free to play iPhone game. There will always be spots in the market for a type of game that people want. You just need to breathe, and just play games you enjoy rather than complaining about ones other people are enjoying.

@tony56723: Do you recall how many "unlockable" poses street fighter II came with, how about how many "unlockable" constumes Goldeneye came with, or all those "unlockable" announcers from Halo? 0 So you're just asking for less content. You're again missing the point. See because you seem to again miss the point, no one used to throw this stuff in for free. It did not exist. Prior to these things there weren't hundreds of different looks for the characters. There weren't poses let alone unlockable new poses. Maybe some games had one alternate look, usually just different colors with identical rigging. This is the part I don't understand, you don't want the additional content and are somehow simultaneously enraged by not having the additional content fully available all at once when you buy the game. Why be mad at loot boxes if you don't care about the stuff inside?

You claim that games like Witcher have been around for 10 years. I'll see maybe Skyrim was closest but with weaker graphics, irrelevant NPC character development/interaction, weaker side story, clunky combat etc. So probably the single greatest game of all time up to its release and easily one of the top 10 games all time was miles behind Witcher just a few years later. Yes games of the genre existed but not games like what we have now. I've been playing for years, and a ton of that is RPG's. Recognizing significant improvement generation on generation of games is a result of that. I can appreciate how great the games we have now are because of that perspective. I can also appreciate the little free bits we get in loot boxes without blowing my top because I have the gaming experience to know that these are additional items we never used to get. Its all perspective. Think of it like this, for years you get paid $1000/wk (for easy round numbers), now I tell you that you'll get $800/wk with $200/wk based on performance, suddenly you're all upset about 20% of your pay being at risk, trapped behind a performance wall. Instead assume you were getting paid $800/wk for years and then I told you that additionally I'd start adding a $200/wk bonus. In both scenarios you make the $800/wk plus a $200/wk "bonus/in jeopardy". You mistakenly think that the former scenario is the state of the modern videogame industry when in fact its the latter.

No they won't find out about the limits of their greed due to this because while the gaming community forums are ruled by the squeaky wheels the decisions are ruled by gamers who love games. Most of us recognize the strides forward and appreciate how far video games have come.

You're angry because you're angry. The gaming industry hasn't been unfair to you, you just deserve too much. Look on the bright side, you live in the age of entitlement, so there's plenty of company. Roll this around for me though, if you're being cheated so badly, why not just stop buying. Hop off this message board, cancel your xbox live (or whatever) subscription, and stop throwing away money on things where you're being cheated.

@tony56723: OK well I'll concede the Elder Scrolls series and Fallout series are both great. That said you've targeted two of the best game franchises of all time, both of which came out in their current form in the 2000s. God of War 1-3 weren't God of War (2018), not by a long shot. You're talking about the exceptions of the 2000s are the measuring stick for an 8/10 in 2019. Additionally both the Witcher 3 and God of War stepped beyond where Fallout or TES have ever been. Admittedly they stood on the shoulders of giants but they are better for it.

Black ops 2 made 500 million in 24 hours, and 1 billion in half a month. Context and expectations matter. As does invested capital and expect return on investment. Anyway that genre has been stagnant garbage for decades, luckily some people just love to pull the trigger even if the game isn't anything special.

Time will tell on Anthem, I'm hopeful as I think the premise, the open nature, the flight, and several other features have promise. I feel like maybe you're just kinda an angry person, which is cool and all but I don't start my games already mad. Seems like a waste to me.

As I said Fallout 76 never looked like it would make sense to me. I felt like TES online didn't make the jump either. Some games aren't suited for online.

No they aren't part of the $60 game you paid for. They never will be. This isn't a debate its the reality of the market. If they were part of the game you'd have them, they aren't so you don't. If loot boxes disappear you don't suddenly start getting games with additional content that used to be in loot boxes. That stuff just never gets created at all. This is fundamental truth. I've said it to what feels like a universe already but again and I'm sure not for the last time, something existing doesn't mean you are entitled to it. They are making additional content for additional money and to keep community engagement up. If they get rid of loot boxes they don't make the content universally free and all available, they stop producing that content as its superfluous to the game as a whole.

@santinegrete: If you are too addicted to be able to say no to the loot box, you need to stop playing video games entirely and deal with your addiction. Arguing against loot boxes would be like me fighting addiction to alcohol by saying that Miller makes the beer taste too good and they should make it bad so I can still drink but not want to drink so much. You don't fight addiction with moderation, any recovering addict will tell you that. That's the problem with addiction, its all or nothing. If you're at that level you shouldn't be playing the games at all.

@sweet_jcs: So one at a time, being a multiplayer only game doesn't make a game incomplete. It's multiplayer only and its great for it. I find I enjoy games less that try to straddle the line and instead of a great single player or a great multiplayer experience they end up with middling experiences in both. Counterstrike was a mod but it invented a genre. It wasn't a full build game but honestly Counterstrike, with no story, no campaign or anything like that was one of the best games of all time. The fact that it still has an active community two decades after launch is a testament to that.

Second loot boxes have nothing to do with rushed development, releasing with bugs, or day one DLC. Loot boxes are cosmetic opportunities for the devs to offer something to keep engagement high. For people who don't pay it gives them additional reason to keep coming back and have a full community. For people who pay its an opportunity to offset the continued costs of servers, updates etc. The rushed development, releasing with bugs, etc tends to be more a combination of the fickle nature of the video game industry and the desire to meet the expectations of the market. Delays to continue polishing a game upset fans and hurt sales. If as fans we looked at a delay and said, 'hmm, they need more time to perfect that game. no problem' we'd see more delays and more games launching in a better state. We don't though so devs are often unwilling to delay games. It also has a LOT to do with the complicated and often imperfect relationship between devs and publishers.

@tony56723: Are you serious, games like Witcher 3 and God of War are getting scarcer. My generation didn't have games like Witcher 3 or God of War. They are some of the first few of their kind. I feel like you're pointing to a segment of the market (military FPS) that really has nothing new to say. That isn't because the developers are greedy its because military FPS has been done to death, done into the ground and then some. Those games started falling off when that genre moved away from WWII back in the late 90's early 2000's. I actually think Anthem has legs, I remember when Destiny launched marred by issues and people felt like there wasn't enough to do. MMO's take time, to build a community, to learn which daily quests are fun and which aren't, that kinda thing. MMO's are tricky, for Fallout 76 I didn't buy primarily because I didn't think Fallout with no way to do multiplayer VATS and otherwise middling FPS mechanics would transition well. It was a bold idea but not perfect.

I'd say Overwatch was a multiplayer match based fps like counterstrike. Everything that comes out of the loot boxes is bonus in that game. I've played it for awhile and its a great game even if it was literally just playing match after match.

@buzznugget: Agreed, I'm confused as it seems a lot of people are really put out having to actually play the game. If playing matches is too much work to get stuff maybe you just don't like that game. Like I never sit down and night to play a game and think well this will be terrible but soon I'll have that Saved by the Bell theme song to play when I'm on a killstreak and then the game will finally be fun.

@totallytc: I don't know I play a ton of games. Madden, HOTS, Overwatch, Souls series, Bloodborne, Witcher, Dragon Age series, Zelda series, Super Mario series, Red Deads, Marvel Ultimate alliances, Counter Strike, Starcrafts, Diablos, Warcrafts, Mass Effects, Bioshocks, Civs, and on and on and on. The last time I missed a system it was Turbo Graphics 16. This and working out are my hobbies. The only games I've ever played with "grind" are MMORPGs. I feel like a lot of people call having to play the game to get better stuff in the game the "grind". Like I bought a game and now I have to actually play it, yuck! Dude you bought a game, if playing it to get better stuff is work, have you ever considered that you don't actually like that game.