Rockstar Games = Copycats

[[deleted]]

Thats what you get when you trust a game developer who copies everyone else in the industry to make a game first do a half bodged job then pretend to maintain it to milk it for all it's worth when they only lose sight of what the game was actually meant to be about. Kudos rock-star. it was fun while it lasted...next time don't rip off the industry to create a cash cow...

EDIT: GTA FIVE = EXPLOITED...

[UrbanFreakOut]

GTA V "online" and the rest, still has pretty much of what was in GTA from DMA Design's 1997 game nutjob... I paid £12.98 on sale for this game and nothing else, like I've done forever with any game I've bought. what you talking about?

[Dryspace]

...Or you could just be an adult an not have anything to do with Online.

[Ceres Moogle]

Cry about it, or grow up and move on like an adult.

[BORG]

I see the lynch mob has already started to show up with insult and to tell you what to do.

@cosmicchemical, talk with your wallet. Money is the only language Rockstar speaks. That's all these big corporate bank note junkie companies pay attention to.

[Wizzen One]

So, who did GTA copy? Mafia? No, played them. The storylines are completely different.
Maybe they copied Fallout? Noooo.... Cyberpunk?..... nooooo... Lord of the Rings? Nope...

Let us consider for a moment what it is you think was copied.
You cited nothing.
You made a blind statement and accusations but gave not even a thought to reality. You must be a politician. Possibly a past President of the US.

So, that aside, GTAV has it's own story line, you can bounce between protagonists and set the ending according to your choices, successes and failings.

If you are referring to Online, (you do not really state anything but an opinion and give no basis for that opinion), then maybe you are referring to The Bunker... Nightclub... arena war, heists, warstock.... I do not see these things in other online games, even the social is different. Well a few games have passive.... are you referring to WOW?

Quests have been the same for a long time, long before GTA was made. Cookie cutter repeats and grinding. What, did you never play DnD? Go out, kill this or that, retrieve this or that, do not kill this or that but get this or that, come back, get rewarded. You do realize that game concept is just over 100 years old.... older if you consider the 1923 version was just a better copy with more rules.

The origins of role-playing games (RPGs) can be traced back to the 1880s with the game Strategos and the hobby of wargaming:
Strategos
In 1880, Strategos was a game that inspired David Wesely, a US wargame enthusiast, to develop a game where players controlled individual characters.

So everybody is copying this guy. Damn you GTA, how dare you copy that guys stuff! I am so outraged, I should go post about it.

Ok, so my sarcasm needs work but you did not make a point... Are you sure you are not Ronald Grump?

[BORG]

@Wizzen One you completely missed the point and discussed something OP wasn't even talking about.

[Man o' War]

What is the need for a "launcher" and a "Social Club"?

Back in the day I just bought a game and played it.

Bards Tale, Tomb Raider, Baldurs Gate etc never needed this stuff to play. All games until relatively recently didn't need these prerequisites to play a game.

I can't quite understand what it's for, where it's going or why it's beneficial to the average casual gamer.

[Lefty[AGHL]]

Originally posted by Dryspace:

...Or you could just be an adult an not have anything to do with Online.

I dunno.... I milked single play pretty hard, unlike most before I went online. Online was a good bit of fun as long as you aren't one of those that gets bored when you are about half way thru a mission for the first time.......... There was a pretty strong variety, and they have f*ck*d it up a good bit.

[BORG]

Originally posted by Man o' War:

What is the need for a "launcher" and a "Social Club"?

Back in the day I just bought a game and played it.

Bards Tale, Tomb Raider, Baldurs Gate etc never needed this stuff to play. All games until relatively recently didn't need these prerequisites to play a game.

I can't quite understand what it's for, where it's going or why it's beneficial to the average casual gamer.

Corporate greed and control over the industry. The only ones it benefits are companies and launchers help lock customers into their ecosystems. Just look at Valve. Need I say more? No company could prove this to be more true, than Valve. I mean look at Valve's launcher and platform. It's a glorified storefront. It's not for our convenience though. It's to dangle candy in front us with hope we'll buy it. Where's this all going? A direction that is really bad. Purely cloud and subscription gaming. That's where things are headed because people just keep accepting where things are headed without pushing back, by majority.

Society keeps accepting being herded like sheep to the slaughter per se. There is nothing beneficial for the consumer when it comes to video game launchers. This is in part, is probably why OP is annoyed with Rockstar.

Launchers are the fishing lure, games are the bait and gamers are X,Y or Z company's potential catch. This is what the industry adopted. Once they've all got us on their launchers and locked into their ecosystems, digital access licenses will eventually phase out and cloud or subscription gaming will be the new thing.

That's where things are headed and it will take hold if people accept it. Once everything is on the cloud and locked behind a subscription, it's bye bye to owning copies of games. Beyond that, digital or physical copies of games (while they're still available and exist) is the only way we'll be able to play - the only way to play without repeat spending - playing when we want, how we want, when we want. This is why backing up games and preserving history is so important. If anything has shown how important it is, it would be the Internet Archive.

Rockstar has never needed a launcher for their games. They don't even have enough games to sell, to warrant a launcher (essentially a storefront) of their own. They just did it cause everybody else is doing it - hence the copycatting references OP makes. The whole industry is copycatting itself in that regard and rather than all these companies doing something unique and progressing the industry in a positive direction in their own unique ways, they just do what everybody else is doing and go where the herd goes.

The only exception to that in recent years is Valve diving into the Linux gaming sphere to tap the Linux gamer market since no other company out there is right now, but it was only to influx more sales. They didn't reinvent any wheels. They just took things that were already created and put them together to make things more convenient for Linux gamers which in turn is done with the intention to encourage and incentivize more sales. Convenience equates to sales. It wasn't a genuine motive, but moreso a sales and profit motivation. Eventually other companies may get on board with supporting Linux and do the same to maximize their sales. The tools are already freely available for them to do it so it's just a matter of if and when they get on board with copycatting Valve.

[Lefty[AGHL]]

Responding to post #9. microsoft started that crap.... first I remember was Halo...never played that fricken game lol. I was p*ssed when I couldn't see the need for it in GTA4...don't get me wrong, you are absolutely right, but it ain't going away.

[Sofi]

Originally posted by BLACK 05:

Thats what you get when you trust a game developer who copies everyone else in the industry

Then I realized that Blizzard from World of Warcraft assimilated the Auction House from Ever Quest and the...

[Zero McDol]

Originally posted by BORG:

Originally posted by Man o' War:

What is the need for a "launcher" and a "Social Club"?

Back in the day I just bought a game and played it.

Bards Tale, Tomb Raider, Baldurs Gate etc never needed this stuff to play. All games until relatively recently didn't need these prerequisites to play a game.

I can't quite understand what it's for, where it's going or why it's beneficial to the average casual gamer.

Corporate greed and control over the industry. The only ones it benefits are companies and launchers help lock customers into their ecosystems. Just look at Valve. Need I say more? No company could prove this to be more true, than Valve. I mean look at Valve's launcher and platform. It's a glorified storefront. It's not for our convenience though. It's to dangle candy in front us with hope we'll buy it. Where's this all going? A direction that is really bad. Purely cloud and subscription gaming. That's where things are headed because people just keep accepting where things are headed without pushing back, by majority.

Society keeps accepting being herded like sheep to the slaughter per se. There is nothing beneficial for the consumer when it comes to video game launchers. This is in part, is probably why OP is annoyed with Rockstar.

Launchers are the fishing lure, games are the bait and gamers are X,Y or Z company's potential catch. This is what the industry adopted. Once they've all got us on their launchers and locked into their ecosystems, digital access licenses will eventually phase out and cloud or subscription gaming will be the new thing.

That's where things are headed and it will take hold if people accept it. Once everything is on the cloud and locked behind a subscription, it's bye bye to owning copies of games. Beyond that, digital or physical copies of games (while they're still available and exist) is the only way we'll be able to play - the only way to play without repeat spending - playing when we want, how we want, when we want. This is why backing up games and preserving history is so important. If anything has shown how important it is, it would be the Internet Archive.

Rockstar has never needed a launcher for their games. They don't even have enough games to sell, to warrant a launcher (essentially a storefront) of their own. They just did it cause everybody else is doing it - hence the copycatting references OP makes. The whole industry is copycatting itself in that regard and rather than all these companies doing something unique and progressing the industry in a positive direction in their own unique ways, they just do what everybody else is doing and go where the herd goes.

The only exception to that in recent years is Valve diving into the Linux gaming sphere to tap the Linux gamer market since no other company out there is right now, but it was only to influx more sales. They didn't reinvent any wheels. They just took things that were already created and put them together to make things more convenient for Linux gamers which in turn is done with the intention to encourage and incentivize more sales. Convenience equates to sales. It wasn't a genuine motive, but moreso a sales and profit motivation. Eventually other companies may get on board with supporting Linux and do the same to maximize their sales. The tools are already freely available for them to do it so it's just a matter of if and when they get on board with copycatting Valve.

Data collection, and as you say, Control over the industry. Outside of GTA V and GTA VI, I've pretty much cut off most AAA Publishers. The only ones that I give a pass are ones who release games with offline modes.

A offline mode won't protect me completely, since launchers, but it will keep the threat of a server shutdown at bay.

One other thing, there is a very real change that's slowly happening with games. Always-online games are dying. Paid always-online games at least. Less and less people are buying into these types of predatory games, and I have my doubts that always-online live-service will last another 10 years, if that. People are voting with their wallets, and that will be what changes things. Definitely not for GTA VI though, too much player support to stop that train.