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Forums - Politics Discussion - Gaming companies are a perfect example of the failure of unregulated capitalism.

It's become very common for gamers to protest against shitty actions taken by gaming companies. And that's undoubtedly a good thing. But it's a bit counterintuitive that a lot of these people are the first to agree with anti-left, pro-free market ideas. Because when you really think about it, the gaming industry is perfect example of how destructive unregulated capitalism can be and how far these millionaires (and billionaires) will go to get more and more money, and it seems a bit naive to think that these issues occur only in the gaming industry, and that unregulated capitalism would work just fine outside of it. So let me try and expose some parallels:

  • Devaluation of the workforce in favour of CEOs and executives: The most emblematic case of this was Activision-Blizzard laying off 800 employees after making a record 7.5 billion dollars in 2018 (that's more than the GDP of several countries, and 7% up from 2017), while its CEO Bobby Kotick made 26.8 million dollars in the same year, 306 times more than the average Activision-Blizzard employee.[1][2] When the capitalist system lacks regulation, CEOs will always get abnormally huge paychecks while treating the workforce as commodities that can be easily laid off and replaced. It's rare that you know the names of the people behind the most popular games, for example. Do you know who was the director of the last CoD? Maybe the last FIFA? Anthem? Wolfenstein II? Far Cry 5? You most likely don't. Because if you do, you'd feel bad when they're dismissed.
  • Tax evasion: Rockstar North has paid a total of ZERO pounds in corporate tax in the last 10 years, but claimed 42 million pounds in tax relief.[3] Taxes are supposed to be used for the good of the people. Don't you feel bad paying your taxes while these companies with more money than you'll ever see are literally stealing from you? Big corporations will always try to avoid paying taxes, and that has become quite a standard in most industries. Because they only want more money, doesn't matter if a few people will end up not having food or hospitals or education because of that.
  • Predatory microtransactions and electronic gambling: Corporations will do everything in their power to get all the money. Doesn't matter if they're exploiting people with addictive tendencies to spend the little money they might have, as long as they're getting that money. Doesn't matter if kids are being bullied into spending money. Doesn't matter if they're ruining the game for people who don't spend. They don't care about anything other than more and more money inside their pockets. In an unregulated capitalist environment, powerful people are happy to exploit the lower classes so they can get even richer, and only want the lower classes to have enough money to give them, but not enough money to actually change anything.
  • Nothing is political (unless we can make money from it): AAA companies will always try to avoid picking any sides or doing anything that might divide their audience (unless it can make them even more mountains of money). That's why David Cage said that Detroit: Become Human was "mostly about androids",[4] or why Ubisoft insisted that The Division 2 was "not making any political statements".[5] They know that, if they say they're being political in any way, they'll get a massive backlash from the community and will probably lose money. Big corporations will never do anything because they believe in it, because they only believe in money. Nike didn't side with Colin Kaepernick because they thought it was the right thing to do. They did that because they thought they could get even richer (and they did!). Pride Month has become a big capitalist exploitation party, too.

I think these are a few of the important topics that I noticed where the gaming industry exemplified what unregulated capitalism is like. If you can remember any more examples, I'd appreciate if you can help me expand this list, too. I know most of you are against at least half of those things, so if you're a super anti-left, pro-free market person, please explain to me your train of thought.

Last edited by Lucca - on 04 October 2019

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Atleast the gaming industry doesnt fuck the climate



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I wonder how much worse they can get in an environment where streaming and digital licensing are the main gaming medium.



 

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't even need to read what you write to say failures come from government "regulating" capitalism.

After reading your OP I can confirm I totally disagree of your premisses, at most I can agree that corporations only look at profit and that is exactly what they have to look at.



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DonFerrari said:

I wouldn't even need to read what you write to say failures come from government "regulating" capitalism.

Please explain how LESS regulation would make:

- Corporations respect more their workforce and have smaller payment gaps between CEOs and workers;

- Corporations stop evading taxes;

- Corporations stop exploiting addictive tendencies and psychologically manipulating players, including children, to give them more money.

DonFerrari said:

After reading your OP I can confirm I totally disagree of your premisses, at most I can agree that corporations only look at profit and that is exactly what they have to look at.

I'd love to know what premises you disagree with.



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DonFerrari said:

I wouldn't even need to read what you write to say failures come from government "regulating" capitalism.

After reading your OP I can confirm I totally disagree of your premisses, at most I can agree that corporations only look at profit and that is exactly what they have to look at.

That's the sort of top-notch, thoughtful discussion I visit VGC for.

"None, you're wrong, I win, bye bye."

To elaborate: imagine being near 2020 and you still believe consumers are enlightened choosers who always make rational choices while corporations are dumb constructs who will never opt for swindling or band together for mutual benefit in detrimental ways to the market.

Or ignore all evidence that the world saw its greatest years, in terms of productivity, per capita growth etc. during the Keynesian politics of the 1930s - 1970s, later for certain places in Europe and Asia but following the same guidelines.

Last edited by haxxiy - on 05 October 2019

 

 

 

 

 

Please. The last thing we need is yet another over budget government organization filled with bureaucrats meddling in something they haven't the slightest idea about or enjoy themselves. We already have a body governing them, us gamers. Whenever someone wants to pull a bullshit move, like MS's DRM fiasco, we rise up with our voices and, more importantly, our wallets.

Your problems actually lie with consumers who don't mind the nickel and dime crap, as well as actual government. You complain about tax evasion, but that is 100% on the government and its crony capitalism, which yes, the Left loves to partake in, too. The government makes and enforces the taxes. They have made taxes so complicated and filled with loopholes for their buddies that we get things where companies like GE had to pay little to no taxes. Of course, the real solution would be a fair or flat tax, with no loopholes, but I'm sure you are against that.

The political point is just odd. It seems you want them to push your politics. But, what if they decided to push politics you disagree with? Would you be fine with that? Either way, them being regulated wouldn't fix that. Many devs just want to tell a good story, with maybe hints of politics, not piss off their potential customers, whether left or right. Unless you think it's the government's job to force business to promote their political ideologies. There's a certain Na sty anti- zi on group that believed that, as well, so I hope that's not what you are implying.

In the end, regulation would do nothing, or make things worse. Especially when there are many politicians who would love to make gaming an easy scapegoat for the ills of society. At it's worst, it would try to regulate what kind of content could be put in a game and tax the Hell out of the industry, which would be passed down to consumers. In the most likely scenario, they would put a sin tax on games, which might also be passed on to us, but still allow any shady business practices to continue. And that sin tax would be wasted on some other government project that the common folk would see no actual benefit from.

Last edited by thismeintiel - on 05 October 2019

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thismeintiel said:

We already have a body governing them, us gamers. Whenever someone wants to pull a bullshit move, like MS's DRM fiasco, we rise up with our voices and, more importantly, our wallets.

Yeah, that's a great premise, but it's clearly not working! AAA Publishers keep pushing for more shitty monetization, and while a game or another might suffer backlash, the majority won't.

thismeintiel said:

You complain about tax evasion, but that is 100% on the government and its crony capitalism, which yes, the Left loves to partake in, too. The government makes and enforces the taxes. They have made taxes so complicated and filled with loopholes for their buddies that we get things where companies like GE had to pay little to no taxes.

Yeah, I'm sure they're not paying them because they're too complicated, and not because they're shitty human beings.

Asking for less taxes because corporations don't pay them is like asking for worse teachers because there are people who cheat on tests. You have to be stricter to the ones doing it wrong, not the opposite.

thismeintiel said:

Of course, the real solution would be a fair or flat tax, with no loopholes, but I'm sure you are against that.

Yeah, I'm obviously against punishing the workforce for corporations being assholes.

thismeintiel said:

The political point is just odd. It seems you want them to push your politics. But, what if they decided to push politics you disagree with? Would you be fine with that? Either way, them being regulated wouldn't fix that. Many devs just want to tell a good story, with maybe hints of politics, not piss off their potential customers, whether left or right. Unless you think it's the government's job to force business to promote their political ideologies. There's a certain Na sty anti- zi on group that believed that, as well, so I hope that's not what you are implying.

I'm not asking for developers to be forced to push politics into their games. I love my Marios, my Goose Games and etc. What I'm asking for is that publishers be honest with the content they're offering.

I disagree with The Division 2's politics, and that's an example I used where I asked for them to be more honest about being political.

My point here is not that I want government to enforce politics onto games. I'm trying to show how, under this capitalist system, art is being held back because corporations don't want to piss anyone off.



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BraLoD said:
Gaming companies are like any other kind of company.

Yeah, I know that. That's the point. I'm using gaming companies to exemplify how unregulated capitalism works, because it's easier to understand when they're so openly shitty.



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