Why is 'milking' considered inherently bad amongst gamers?

[Dodece]

Milking can be described as putting forth the least effort possible for the greatest possible gain. Which in the case of game development usually means that a developer is cloning their previous game, and making only enough changes to get away with what they are doing. The time frame is pretty irrelevant as far as the workmanship is concerned, but it does make milking far more obvious to the casual observer. After all when installments are a few years apart it is much easier to miss the duplication. Then if the two games were just a year apart.

Milking is entirely detrimental, and in no way should be condoned. Even by ardent supporters of a game series. For one simple reason. There is a more common usage of the term, but it is keenly in the minds of those that are applying it to a game series. It is a term used to describe abusing the system, or unjustly taking advantage of the system. There are few things that rile people up more then the notion that someone is cheating to get ahead, or even think they can cheat us into getting what they want.

This is fundamentally human psychology. We expect and demand reciprocity of a equal nature. We expect to get the same rewards for the work we put out as another, and we expect the other to work just as hard as we do to get their rewards. Be honest if you go to work, and your coworker fucks around for ninety percent of the time, and still draws the same pay as you for months and years. You really start to hate that person don't you, and even if you understand how fruitless that hate is your still going to have that hatred burning you up inside.

Developers milk properties, because it is both quick and lucrative. They can make a lot of easy cash fast. That has a downside though. In that they generate a lot of ill will directed not only at the series being milked, but at the developer who is doing the milking. Their short term success is usually costing them their good reputation with the people they need to buy their products. It is like slash and burn farming. Sure you get a bumper yield for a few years, but after that you got a wasteland to try and make a living off.

I suppose the irony of it all is the people pointing the finger aren't the problem. They are usually the people who are doing the right thing. Even though it may not feel that way right now. They are demeaning a developer in the hope that the developer will see the error of their ways, and return to the honorable path. The problem is those people that defend a milked series right up until the point that everyone finds in obscene. You really shouldn't defend the indefensible. It is wrong to misuse a franchise, and buying into it is like feeding a addiction that in the end is going to kill the series off altogether. Developers that milk get addicted, and if you let it continue on long enough then it becomes virtually incurable.