welcome to watch mojo and today we'll be
counting down our picks for the top 10
worst things live service games have
done to take your money
for this list we're looking at the
shadiest things the publishers and
developers of games as a service titles
due to increase their bottom line
let us know in the comments which ones
you don't want to see in future releases
now let's guard your credit card before
we continue we'll be doing a deep dive
on this list's number one entry over on
mojo plays so be sure to check it out
once you've finished watching
[Music]
number 10 pre-orders for bad games
[Music]
it's not often that blockbuster titles
actually go out of stock
physically and they never go out of
stock digitally but publishers still
want players to pre-order all their
games and get them on release
this isn't so bad when a game is highly
anticipated and ends up being critically
acclaimed
but often players are duped by the
marketing into pre-ordering that turns
out to be disappointing games
pre-ordering can sometimes feel like
russian roulette because of this
and aside from a few in-game bonuses
players can gain
very little from pre-ordering and taking
the risk that they'll have
wasted money on a game that sucks
in volt 76 our future
begins number nine confusing season
passes
this is your hideout buy the battle pass
to recruit this team of agents
if you absolutely love a game you might
decide to cough up for post launch
content
whether that's additional cosmetics or
fully fledged story dlc
and in general buying a season pass will
give you access to all of that
but not always some games won't include
all the post-launch content in a season
pass
while many live service games have
numerous season passes that give players
access to different things
you can also pre-order editions of games
with season passes included but often
a lot of the content you're paying for
doesn't even exist yet
working out what season pass you need to
buy in order to get certain content can
be more trouble
than it's worth
number eight confusing currencies
[Music]
microtransactions aren't always a bad
thing particularly
in free-to-play games where in-game
transactions are
the only way the game actually makes
money but micro transaction systems are
still
often unnecessarily complicated
featuring at least two
if not more virtual currencies there's
the standard currency that you earn by
playing
and there's the premium currency you can
sometimes earn by playing
but mostly you're expected to pay real
money for unfortunately
premium currency is what's relied upon
to unlock many of the better items
making the more readily available
in-game currency feel worthless by
comparison
grind as hard as you might if you want
the best stuff you gotta pay
[Music]
number seven in-game ads ea
a company that's no stranger to
controversy and bad press
made headlines yet again in september
2020. what did they do this time
they put actual ads inside ufc 4
specifically a pop-up during action
replays for season 2 of the boys on
prime video
players are understandably enraged when
a 60
aaa release featured ads the ads were
only turned on a month after the game
was released so ea was showing them to
ufc's biggest fans
and the game's most loyal players faced
with a major backlash
ea was forced to remove the ads
eventually but many players were left
in disbelief that the company actually
had the gall to try it in the first
place
ea sports ufc 4 offers the most
authentic intuitive
and exciting gameplay experience in
franchise history number six
identical sequels and for centuries
humanity thrived
until it didn't when you find a game you
really love you may find yourself
wishing that you could just have
more of the exact same thing that's a
wish that plenty of big publishers are
more than happy to fulfill
live service games frequently get
sequels that don't innovate on their
predecessors
at all seemingly serving no real purpose
other than to get more money from
players
the division 2 was derided as a
pointless sequel that added absolutely
nothing to the series
while being forced into making
underwhelming sequels was one of the
reasons bungie took the destiny ip and
left activision
these sequels leave customers feeling
ripped off and solely the reputation of
the studios behind them
number five always online
where am i while live service games are
generally based around robust and fun
multiplayer content that you can't
experience without an internet
connection
many games that do have single player
components have gone the
always online route ghost recon
breakpoint forced players to always be
online despite the fact that if you want
you can play the entire game completely
alone there's no solo
offline mode you can even load in
without an internet connection
this is bad for players who don't have a
high speed or consistent internet
connection
which many people can't help why should
people miss out on games that have
perfectly good single player gameplay
because of this system
[Music]
number four grindy progression
if you don't have the means or the
inclination to pay for premium
currencies
the only way you can get through these
games is by committing to the grind
jumping in and out of live service games
every so often is fun
but to actually get anything that feels
worthwhile you've gotta buckle down and
start grinding
nowadays you're often not rewarded with
cosmetics and unique items for playing a
game well
but rather just for playing a game a lot
you could be the best player in the
world but if you haven't invested dozens
of hours getting the best skins
you'll have nothing to show for it
number three loot boxes
the biggest gaming controversy in recent
memory is the addition of
loot boxes you get a virtual pack either
through progression or micro
transactions
and in that pack is a random assortment
of items some of which you may already
have depending on the game
many countries have investigated and
even legislated against loot boxes on
the basis that they're gambling
and not just any old gambling gambling
marketed to young kids
worse than just wanting one particular
skin however is when loot boxes and
other microtransactions give players an
actual gameplay advantage
this is completely unfair to anybody who
can't or won't pay for loot boxes
and many publishers have been slammed
for the practice
number two unfinished games
whatever happened here is beyond
anything we expected
and we expected a lot the promise that a
live service game will eventually be
good is made every time
an unfinished game is released to the
public for full price
games like anthem fallout 76 and sea of
thieves were all
empty at best and completely broken at
worst when they launched
people shouldn't be encouraged to buy
full price games in the hope that
someday
maybe in a few years that game will be
halfway decent to play
and there's no guarantee that will ever
actually happen if developers want
honest feedback from early builds of
their game
that's why we have alphas and betas
releasing games in an unplayable state
is
bad for everybody before we continue be
sure to subscribe to our channel and
ring the bell to get notified
about our latest videos you have the
option to be notified for occasional
videos
or all of them if you're on your phone
make sure to go into your settings
and switch on notifications
number one upfront costs whoa
this just got a whole lot more
interesting let's make this quick
when live service games that are free to
play use microtransaction as the game's
primary way to make money
that's fine but when a game has a
full-priced retail release
and then also includes predatory micro
transactions
that's just greedy big publishers like
ubisoft ea and activision continue to
charge
sixty dollars for their flagship games
and up to seventy dollars for certain
next-gen titles
and then push in-game microtransactions
on players as well
trying to get as much money as possible
from willing consumers
it's not only rude but also insulting
that players are asked to continue
paying for a game they already paid full
price for
aaa games that are generally hugely
profitable without implementing any
microtransactions at all
the world will remember this day the day
their
heroes failed them
if you want to know why we chose our
number one pick for this list head over
to mojo plays and watch our in-depth
analysis of the entry
check the link in the description below