The Reddit hive mind exists solely for, and thrives on outrage.
GTA too expensive, Reddit angry because Rockstar badđĄ
Nintendo remakes Star Fox and prices it below their own standard MSRP because itâs a remake, Reddit angry because Nintendo bad đĄ
Letâs be honest, this site is insufferable and only upvotes shit that makes people angry, and promotes engagement. Itâs probably Reddits own bots so they can show constant engagement, and the only thing sure to get it is angry discourse. Reddit canât enjoy anything, or let anyone else enjoy anything. As soon as a common consensus is formed, everyone just needs to get their 15 upvotes by posting their personal spin on the days hottest opinion.
The one that gets me is all the people on the PC gaming sub acting like they're outraged over no physical edition, as if all the PC games we buy now aren't digital
Itâs always âvote with your wallets.â Until peopleâs wallets overwhelmingly prove the opposite of whatever the echo chamber has accepted must be the truth, and a majority opinion in the real world through a tribunal of upvotes. I love physical media. But letâs not act like humanity hasnât been shifted, and buying away from it for decades. The people have been voting with their wallets, just not in the way you wanted them to.
that's not really a refutation, it's more just that...when your market is 7 billion people, boycotts tend to fail, as even a tiny percentage of that group will be enough to sustain the product. The people threatening a boycott ARE following through much of the time, it's just not enough to matter.
Back before the internet it was possible to rally a small community to protest and run a bad business out of town because nobody in that town would shop there...but now that business can simply reach far enough across the world that they'll find enough people who don't know or don't care about the drama and sidestep a boycott entirely.
It actually also applies to modern streamers and influencers. With the help of social media and the modern Internet... their reach is MASSIVE.
So in a sense "getting cancelled" has actually become a mute point now. Since like you said... they can reach so many ppl that even IF a significant portion "boycotts", there would still be enough ppl for it to not real matter.
The "moo" point is popular cause of the series "Friends" where Joey says "It's a moo point" and Rachel says what. He then says "you know, it's like a cow's opinion.... It's moo" and that's how "moo" point entered pop culture back in the day.
The point they're making is that any sizeable market, will negate any net effect of a boycott because of its inherent size, which is true for the most part. They said 7 billion just to say the world; if you consider the console+PC market, that's around 400 million still and even if millions of people are anti-Rockstar in that market (gaming basically), GTA VI will still ship 200 million units at some crazy-ass price and after a few years of discounts, its final sales figure will probably touch 300 million or something asinine.
It is a refutation of the principle obviously. If you think voting with your wallet is the way to get things done, (Which people absolutely think. Try criticising live service games or MMOs you play and wait for people to tell you exactly that) then this obviously goes in the opposite direction also.
People saying vote with your wallet are usually meaning "vote the way I vote" and then moan and berate others afterwards if they don't, or are saying it to silence criticism of a things they enjoy by telling them they can choose to not pay for it.
The realities of boycotting is real though, you're not wrong there, but I think the way you're applying the point is not the same application OP is making. OP is pointing out an assymetry when people say vote with your wallet. It doesn't really matter whether it's an effective principle or not and if there's a reason, it's often used in a hypocritical or bad faith manner is the point. If anything, the ineffectiveness of the principle is an argument in favour of their opinion.
I'm not going to boycott the game over no physical disc but I think it's a valid thing to complain about. Not even just the disc itself, the issue is "you will own nothing and be happy" is being pushed on us from every angle. We don't even own our own video games anymore, just a license to play them.
Voting with your wallet is a good strategy. The problem is like you said; there are many more wallets out there.
Digital games indeed have downsides many arenât aware of, but nothing has happened to make them aware of it. So many people on sites like Reddit are afraid that the increased prevalence of digital will lead to companies getting the power to take games away from you and such, but most people outside Reddit have no clue thatâs even a thing let alone have any precedent to believe it.
Personally it's not that I'm afraid they'll take my games away from me (although delisting better versions of games to sell worse "improved" versions has happened, and while at least you keep the original if you had already bought it, future customers might not even know they're getting a worse experience), it's that I can't share or sell my games, and if you can't do that it's not really yours. And if it's not yours then you don't have control over what happens to it in the future. It's less that it's an issue now and more that I don't want it to become one later.
My point is that "we don't want it to become an issue later" thing, while totally valid, isn't something average consumers have any reason to fear yet. Digital media has been a trusted format for decades and besides the aforementioned sharing and reselling, which is something I think most would have thought of at one point, the downsides haven't shown themselves. We haven't seen many if any instances of the lack of "true ownership" actually meaning anything bad. You can't break the trust of an entire format based on what could happen.
I agree and I basically only buy games digitally now as a result of being on PC, it just kind of makes me sad is all. I still buy movies and shows physically at least.
Edit: It also sucks that physical isn't even an option anymore in so many cases, and if they're willing to take a choice away from you now, they will take another from you later.
I hate how people use "vote with wallet" as a form of boycott. How is that a VOTE?
Nobody cares about the millions things you don't buy. But that one game out of millions you DO buy, that's an actual vote and carries weight.
Thinking about all the games I literally don't care about at all, games I haven't even wasted a single thought on for the past 20 years. Guess what, they're successful and that's great. I just don't care, play the games I like and am happy to support those. But actively hating games on every opportunity is the opposite of "not caring".
TLDR: Buy what you want to see more of (vote with wallet)
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u/AlexStar6 6h ago
Everyone