We tried this already - getting ethics in game journalism.
It didn’t work so well.
Can’t tell if you’re joking or not, but gamergate was absolutely not about “ethics in game journalism.”
Not joking. It absolutely was about ethics, at first. The initial kickoff was the boyfriend accusing the girl (Zoë Quinn?) of sleeping with someone else for a better review. That’s ethics in a nutshell. I don’t think that anyone really cared about the game, or who was involved, but rather that the state of the industry was such that you could accuse a well known game reviewer of being unethical, and it was more believable than not.
The fact is, reviewers had already sold their souls and a AAA game get anything less than a 90%. Had reviewers had better ethics, probably no one would have believed the boyfriend, and the entire story would have been a nothing-burger.
Of course it went off the rails after that, the fact that the boyfriend was lying didn’t help, but for a brief moment it looked like there might actually be game news/review industry reform. It was a glorious 24 or so hours.
“[…]these micotransactions grant more frequent access to features many gamers deem essential for any action RPG. This includes fast travel and character customisation.”
Wait, what? Seriously devs?
the key phrase there being ‘more frequent’. the fast travel and character customization are all in the game and have a more in-universe integration. the game systems are supposed to be more immersive than just click the map and fast travel. you typically either take a cart from town to town or warp using a stone that gets used up.
I like it the way it is, makes leaving town to quest and adventure have another layer of strategy. If someone wants to bypass that strategy layer with money then so be it. I certainly would prefer that it be a mod rather than a MTX, and will definitely not be buying any regardless.
