You're not wrong. If the concurrent player count had dropped by 99% on announcement and stayed there for a week with no new sales it would have sent a message at least. But you remember the "shitstorm" around Hogwarts Legacy? 850 million in the first two weeks regardless 🤷♀️ that's the kind of shitstorm most would weather gladly, I'd bet.
But hey, you need blameless developers doxxed and threatened, gamers are your best option every time! Heheh yeah up top 🙌
And I mean, unlike the Hogwarts Legacy situation, this shit has a simple and 100 percent effective remedy.
Sony's asking for everyone's email address? Okay. EVERYONE give them throwaway email addresses, and NEVER interact with any of their mailing list garbage, or do anything else with those PSN accounts.
Let them have a huge list of completely worthless email addresses. There is no downside to letting them choke on that shit.
Like I said in another comment, there should be a continued campaign of everyone ALWAYS giving out throwaway email addresses that they never use to do anything other than sign up for the free shit, and nothing else.
Keep that up for long enough, and eventually the value of these bulk lists of email addresses will plummet to functionally zero. And that will mean less corporate nonsense, at least of that kind. And less attempts to hack companies for their email lists. I mean, why commit a federal crime, to obtain worthless data?
The funniest thing to me is that this lot will even admit that the Steam page said a Sony account was required from the beginning, even though it actually wasn't initially. Nobody got bait-and-switched, they either didn't pay attention or they think the temporary reprieve should have been permanent with absolutely nothing to justify that position. "It's not necessary!" is a shit argument, they said it would be and the game got bought anyway.
Though I'd say Hogwarts Legacy had an equally simple solution: people could have just not fuckin bought it. At least, waited a year. Fuck it, a month would have been enough. One month, zero sales. Fuckin ow, right? But no, kiddos gotta have their shinies. I still haven't bought that game, so I guess I accidentally did a better job of protesting than all the people screaming who went and preordered it 🤷♀️
Screaming is cathartic but doesn't effect change; you need action for that.
There's a huge back-and-forth going on right now, with people claiming Sony changed the fine print, and so it is bait-and-switch, and it just devolves into absolute fucking nonsense. It's like on South Park, when the crowd of townspeople are all yelling "RABBLE-RABBLE-RABBLE-RABBLE."
Screaming is cathartic but doesn’t effect change; you need action for that.
Exactly. And in this case, we can all have our cake and eat it, too. My point about Hogwarts was that people would still have to make a decision about buying it or not. But with Helldivers 2, there's ABSOLUTELY NO REASON FOR A BOYCOTT.
We all just have to give Sony email addresses that we don't care about. That will harm Sony's PR bullshit-artists, while continuing to reward the ACTUAL ARTISTS who made this game.
I mean, I saw people on Reddit talking about how Sony's response will be to make sure Helldivers 3 never happens. Well, if these people succeed in organizing a boycott of Helldivers 2, that IS TOTALLY WHAT WILL HAPPEN. Do they think Sony will give another dumptruck full of money to this studio, if they know the next game won't sell?
People are acting like it's the principle of the thing, because "Sony lied to us." Even if that's true, it doesn't matter. Corporations are always going to lie to you. When the lie is "maybe we technically said we didn't need you to give us any random email address, but now we've decided we do need an email address," just give them the stupid email address.
Take the win. It will literally cost them money to store that worthless data.
The simple reality of the situation is it was a business decision by Sony. They saw this groundswell of potential players to add to their huge database of people to market to, and said "we're getting those email addresses". If I had to venture a guess, the higher-ups at Arrowhead are probably livid and pushed back. They get zero out of this change and they have to deal with the fallout. It's likely part of the publishing agreement.
That said Sony knew this would happen, if probably not to this degree. Maybe they post a solemn jpeg talking about how they "fell short of expectations". Being Sony it's likely that they just ignore the backlash. Their projections say they'll make more money with all that new data than they'll lose on some half-hearted boycott. Gamers are notoriously horrid at sticking to that shit. And you know what? That next battle pass is gonna sell just fine even if the vocal folks don't buy it.
Yes, it sucks and it's reasonable to be annoyed. Yes, many loud people on the internet are acting like a helldiver kicked down their door and demanded a kidney. Yes, only one party gains from this and it's Sony. These things aren't mutually exclusive. No need for argument imo.
They saw this groundswell of potential players to add to their huge database of people to market to, and said “we’re getting those email addresses”
See, this is the salient point, right here.
The correct response to this action is "LOL, sure. You can have my protonmail account that I only use to sign up for free shit, anyway."
Checkmate. Internet 1, Sony 0.
But instead, we get all this shit-flinging, foot-stomping, childish nonsense.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, signing up for all the shit they ask us to sign up for, in an ORGANIZED WAY, could actually change the whole situation, for the better. Here's the plan that should be enacted:
Nobody gets screeching mad. Angry people behave predictably.
Everyone reminds each other to ONLY USE THROWAWAY ADDRESSES TO SIGN UP FOR CORPORATE SHIT.
Everyone reminds each other to NEVER ENGAGE WITH ANY MAILING LISTS OR OTHER BULLSHIT THAT YOU GET, ON ANY OF THOSE THROWAWAY ADDRESSES.
Stick to that shit, for EVERYTHING. Don't try and stop people from asking for your stupid throwaway email. Don't threaten anybody with boycotting. Just continue giving out the completely worthless email addresses.
Sooner or later, it becomes apparent that the majority of email addresses that are being collected in this manner are basically worthless.
Consequently, the value of these email addresses plummets, both as a tradeable commodity and as a means of mining further data.
Corporations slowly stop trying to track people via email.
For sure, there's no need for any fuss, just keep quietly taking all the corporate bs as always.
Next time when you'll need to submit an income form just to access a microtransaction-riddled single player game - just use your parents bank account statement, no need to use your own.
And when you'll need to enter a fingerprint id to unlock your multiplayer account - just ask your friend to help out.
It's a modern day privacy, apparently. Someone think of those poor companies barely getting by just by selling you the game, the least you could do is share your personal data for them to sell too, better yet get locked into their ecosystem for a long term milking.
Every "jazz fan" I've encountered has gone "This is great you should listen to this" and they put a gigantic headset with a 1/4" jack on my head and play me a ride cymbal, a muted trumpet, a piano and an upright bass all having simultaneous yet unrelated seizures. And when informed that - through my ears that have been around power tools and airplanes for approaching 4 decades - it sounds like TV static to me, they react like a Christian fundie watching you tear a bible in half. I've been cut out of people's lives for this.
Guys, I'm American. I've been exposed to Jazz music before. A lot of the slower more mellow stuff is very nice as calm, pleasant background music for a dinner party or cocktail lounge but you climb up above 200 bpm and you just lose me.
To jazz fans reading this: When trying to introduce it to new listeners, please remember it's an acquired taste. Coffee lovers don't serve double shots of extra bitter espresso to newbies, Capcaisin addicts don't serve reaper poppers to beginners. Start someone off with something a little more melodic, something that has verses and refrains and a melody they can hum later, let them get a taste for that before giving them a taste of freestyle.
To jazz fans reading this: When trying to introduce it to new listeners, please remember it’s an acquired taste. Coffee lovers don’t serve double shots of extra bitter espresso to newbies, Capcaisin addicts don’t serve reaper poppers to beginners. Start someone off with something a little more melodic, something that has verses and refrains and a melody they can hum later, let them get a taste for that before giving them a taste of freestyle.
I agree with this, but it also frustrates me, because it could be seen as backstopping the real snobs (like that one guy who showed up in this thread, already), who will look at the awesome music in the games people are mentioning in this thread and say "ahhh, yes. The fact that you jazz neophytes are able to listen to this jazz-ish music and enjoy it? That only proves that it's low-level trash. One day, you'll be ready for the training wheels to come off, and we can get you onto some REAL music. Then you can go back and listen to the soundtrack from Bully again, and realize it's disgusting bubblegum nonsense."
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