I made this video because I truly believe this stuff is harmful in many ways, and I think we're going to see more of it. Please consider liking the video or sharing it to spread awareness, be sceptical of things that look too good to be true, and don't pre-order or wishlist anything out of curiosity!
At least Quinfall has 2 betas that are "supposed" to be free. Just imagine the great content when you can tell everyone "I told you so", but until then, it's just wait for the free beta
What would you say to this possibly being money laundering? Since the devs “act” like devs for the time being right, then they dip. Howd they do it? Fiverr, and some easy to use AI… guaranteed some dude that made a million or so with drugs needed to clean his money, good with a laptop and games. Boom, everything for the taking! I’m personally impressed af. I don’t feel bad for any adult that got got. Children yes, that’s not cool. But shouldn’t be playing 18+ games fuckers! We all did and will do underage I just had to find a middle ground to blame something.
The debate about gaming has become a faction based system. One side says gamers are unrealistic is what they want. This group claims gamers will blame everything on the game developer and nothing on themselves. Another group believes that players just need to get good if the difficulty is detracting from enjoyment of a game. There are less players who are true veterans of gaming who genuinely care about gaming like myself. Far more young gamers who lack personal identity and can therefore have their opinions made for them.
That's what happens when we all fake mobile game devs enter the AAA industry, I mean we should supposed to report them and their fake games back then before they lead into this, but we're already too late so it is what it is 🤷
Normally, I will be saying the same thing right along with you. But we This gamers are going through a tough time where nearly every company is lying and manipulating you at some point. We're desperate for an experience that often major developers just don't want to do anymore. Or at least when they finally do them, they are terribly done. So we're desperate for a good experience, and when someone comes alone finally promising to do that, it's hard not to get hyped for that game among the trash that is being put out by these major developers.
I have pre-ordered 2 games in my life, Destiny(which I didn't really play) and Stalker2 because its not a western studio developing it, their gameplay footage looked good and their past games are beloved and modded to unrecognizable heights.
It's kinda sad for all those who made assets to sell on the market. People will start to initially distrust any game made with assets from a store, and so it will discourage devs to buy them.
your final product should not have 100% unedited assets from a store, they should be something original or at the very least modified to fit into whatever world you are creating. I dont feel sad for them, they are simply providing an initial stepping stone that so many people are abusing to make cheap worlds to scam players out of money. there are far more people using asset flips to make a quick buck than there are who use them for legitimate products. a few decent games are the exception, not the rule. if I see an clean store bought asset in your final product, I question the validity of any other asset you may be using, along with your ability to provide any lengthy after product services like content patches and expansions.
@@ShiirowThere is no reason to modify assets that already fit the aesthetic so you're basically saying any game that does not modify bought assets is "suspicious"?
@@lemon64k49 there ARE many reasons to modify assets you bought, aside from the look theres also the problem from the most basic thing like the model and stuffs, and its not because you dont trust the skill of the asset owner but because you need the assets to be fit with your game engine
It can take a whole day to make a good building shell, not including the inside. Then doing the collision and setting it up in unreal. Its very very long process and imagine doing that for a city in an open world. It would take so long to make a game as a solo developer. Buying ready made assets that fit the game you are making is why marketplaces exist, to help developers like myself get their game off the ground.@@Shiirow
As a dev who uses storebought assets, I can live without the business from people who seriously think that way. They're not my intended audience. The decision here isn't "buy those assets or make them yourself", it's usually "buy those assets or put the entire project on hold until you can afford to pay an artist".
That's what happens when we all led fake mobile gamedevs enter the AAA industry, I mean we should supposed to report them and their fake games back then before they lead into this, but it is what it is 🤷
It's sadly all industry these days. There's an amazing Steve Jobs interview out there where he talks about this exact thing, I believe in regards to IBM. Nobody is creating wealth here anymore. They're either moving it laterally or tricking others into thinking it's worth more than it is through marketing or manipulation of supply and demand
The interesting thing about The Day Before is that it was a scam against publishers, not the audience. Consumers all got their money back. Steam allows you to get a refund even if you played it for more than 2 hours. It's the publishers who have to watch out.
You're not very smart; Maybe learn how publishers operate before commenting? Mongo. Steam (not sure the exact timeframe for the rest) with-holds funds for *3 months* before the dev ever sees a dime of it. The only thing interesting is why you're attempting this piss poor defense of a PoS scammer. Bot?
I don't really have a issue with preordering in itself if you know the product your getting, take persona 3 reload for example or like a dragon infinite wealth. its when a new ip or a untrustworthy company does it or starts using fomo with preorder bonuses, i never watch game trailers to avoid unneeded hype from fake footage.
@@MifuneShio While I would not recommend any game, from any company at all. I can understand why people trust specific game series they love and know a certain established company (say next Zelda game). Or physical games like Pokemon which get sold out day one. What you gonna do? But on a case like this, yeah, its a nogo.
@@thingsiplay Pre-ordering is one thing, but the trend now is to donate money for the development of games that don't even exist yet. At least pre-ordering a game usually means it's already in the beta testing phase already and is considered a purchase that you can probably get refunded. So many people are getting conned into "investing" in the concept art of pretend game devs based on nothing more than empty promises. Those investments turn into donations when people start catching on to what's happening and the devs laugh all the way to the bank. "Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen" is one that's getting that reputation now, charging people $1000 for the promise that they can alpha test is one day when it's ready. It's been 10 years now but they're still telling people it's right around the corner... It's incredible how many people will buy into stuff like this.
or just stop defending a company, you can buy a fake game, just don't act surprised when you get a fake game. No company requires a defense from its gamers. If the game is good, people will buy it, people will play it Its that stupid sense of requirement that you had to be the first person to do it that is driving this trend. Luckily Streamers are slowly taking that need away, due to them always getting a few days early access, no one is getting that I am first in this game feeling anymore. That in itself is a blessing in disguise. Hopefully people will wake up to the idea that , maybe as a consumer that buys a product, the company that made the product actually had to be good at making the product
Another couple points to add to this; typically a game is made with gameplay in mind first. Many such games use grey-boxing (or prototyping) for art placeholders, focusing primarily on the gameplay loop. "Games" like The Day Before often take the opposite approach and work from the art first, gameplay being secondary (or virtually non-existent). This allows them to market early and create a façade of what a real game should be without putting in the effort to actually create said game. Typically these sorts of games end up being scams or short-term profit for the developers (usually at the expense of their reputation and future prospects). There are of course games that do the "vertical slice" approach to game development, creating a playable and isolated chunk of the game that accurately portrays what the end product would look and feel like, but this process is not easy and typically requires several talented people in various departments to come together and use their full talents. Indie developers hardly have the resources for this (though this depends on the scope of the game itself. Some indie games could technically do this though at that point the game likely quite simple and the return on investment for creating a vertical slice for such a game is not great, unless they plan on securing publisher funding).
Thank you, fck nobody realize it or talk about it. Also in-game engine ( that's not real gameplay). Engine footage ( that's not gameplay) And that's why you have fake gameplay..... Even pretending playing ( the division trailer is a funny one). It's just made for showcasing what gameplay will look like and REASSURING investors with the hype that you made with your trailer. Good example : Watchdog / Rainbow six / For honor / Battlefield 2042 /
I don't mind small studio games. I've bought several, some with very crude graphics and maybe as little only one programmer. But the purchases I have been happy with have never pretended to be something bigger then what they were. A few turned into big hits and eventually managed to get a decent budget and development team, despite their humble origins. Like KENSHI and 7 Days To Die. Many others remained obscure and small budget but had some solid fun ideas and content to keep you busy and a price tag to match. And provided me with more then enough fun to justify their purchase. Examples of small PoS games, possibly made by just one person, that are fun and lasts long enough to be worth a price of around $10 (may have to wait for a sale) I've bought are: Evolution of Ages: Settlements Judgement: Apocalypse Survival Simulation Saelig This whole pretending to to be something bigger, better and more polished then they are SCAMS have got to be cracked down on. They should not be allowed to market their BS on Steam as freely as they have been. But at the same time they have to be careful not to catch small low budget projects in a blind sweep.
Kenshi wasn't an asset flip. That was a one many army for many years. I still remember buying it on Desura back in the late aughts. He was in the middle of the building system when a team noticed his work and became part of the project because of passion.
the mud/snowrunners are a good example. its not massive, several small well made maps with an awesome physics engine and you drive like 1-2mph most of the time. these people thought they were going to bake that system fulling into their zombie open world MMO meets day z? and it was their first game? yeah no.
Preorders serve their purpose. The term preorder has been turned into a scary thing for clicks in the modern day. Preorders were once for those who genuinely wanted to play a game day one. Those who have friends or other people they know are excited about the game who do not want to wait. This never changed.
@@lanceknightmare You can't wait an fokken hour because "friends and other people" are hyped by the marketing? You just defined FOMO/hypetrain-sheeple mentality that is the reason this shit happens. "pre-ordering" was relevant when you had to get a physical copy from game store, not anymore.
@@lanceknightmare pre orders only made sense when physical media was a thing. You truly could not the get the game you wanted back then... 15 years ago. Preorders for digital games make no sense and serve no purpose. In fact pre-orders actually are being the exact opposite in recent years, With online games not handling all the players and games being unfinished messes.
As someone starting studies in Game Design, this scares me deeply. Im pursuing my passion for world creation because gaming provides opportunities like non other, yet there will always be scammers and bad apples. I wish Steam had better QA...but that would hurt their bottom line so thats likely to never happen..
Steam acts on what needs acted upon, they cant possibly watch the door with all releases, be thankful they atleast remove and even ban companies. Sadly its usually too late and they got away with a hefty sum for little to no work.
Yeah I was thinking Steam could fix a bunch of this. I thought of some extreme fixes eg just limit prepurchase and even purchase in the first month... A smaller step could be a longer than usual return period during release. Also it does not look to hard to identify red flags since by their nature these games have to be loud and attention grabbing. It would only take a tiny tiny fraction of steams budget to hit the worst offenders. It could be worth something to steam to avoid this problem since no doubt many casual players feel they are buying the game from Steam itself, and lose faith in Steam when they are burnt.
How would someone sell a idea to a gaming studio. Like a story line, character development ect... i do not know how to make a game but understand some of the aspects.
Everyone knows that the Killzone 2 trailer was meant for internal use, right? I don't need to explain that Guerilla Games never intended for that to be seen by the public, right?
Crazy part is how much publicity these fake games get, even though gamers have been scammed many times. They keep believing crazy promises by unknown studios :')
That's what happens when we all led fake mobile gamedevs enter the AAA industry, I mean we should supposed to report them and their fake games back then before they lead into this, but it is what it is 🤷
It's almost as if the death of physical media aids these types of scams. Old guy yelling at clouds here, this just reinforces my belief in buying discs over downloads. But I definitely agree with your points about wishlisting or preordering games. Really waiting for the CRPG scam titled "I Used To Be An Adventurer", where you play a member of the city guard...
I'd wishlist that game. Go to the town bar and navigate endless ai-generated conversation trees while i eat donuts with the other retired guards and remember old times on the walls, taking arrows to the knees...halcyon days.
@Shikaar Precisely why I'm purchasing physical media. The concept of "not owning" what you purchase is the thought process of someone whose wages are determined by stock price. There's no reality where this is a consumer advantage; even if someone (like Steam) offers a refund, will that benefit someone who is outside the refund time period get their money back when the game is delisted (like Ubisoft has done recently)? Nope, because... profit. I bought Sons of Anarchy on blu-ray because I want the ability to watch it on my demand, not an arbitrary streaming service. I'm doing the same with CDs on Discogs. To me, it's about access and not denying it at-will.
Very interesting. Watching this makes me think it's not a binary split between "Good Honest Games" and "Bad Deceitful Games". It's a spectrum and there are many shades along it. You mentioned a couple of AAA game designers infamous for over promising and hype. And not delivering it, of course. And then, the psycho-social issues take over and many of those who have bought the hype double down on it and go into denial on any flaws. It would make an excellent psychological study, I believe marketers know from studies of other products that a lot of the value of a product exists in the consumers imagination. While nobody will admit they are the one being fooled, en masse, we know advertising works, for example. "Somebody" (that other person, not us of course!) has bought into the hype and is now in coping mode and will defend the product however poor quality it is.
I use my wishlist more actively, like sometimes I’ll add questionable stuff there just to keep my eye on it until it earns a buy or an “ignore.” Really wish more platforms had an “ignore” option, haha. Can’t tell you how obnoxious it is to sift through the same games I’ve already decided against when I’m searching for something new or overlooked. Anyway, 100% YES to all the other stuff here :3 Great insight, some good lessons for us all to learn here ❤️
If a game is too good to be true, then it usually is. Understanding the track record of the developers and publishers and not just accepting the "gameplay" at face value helps avoid the mistake. I don't know if people actually expected The Day Before to be good, but I knew that it was suspicious since it's first "gameplay" trailer. I'm confused on how people still manage to get tricked by fake games when all it takes is a minimal amount of foresight to avoid falling for them. The good thing about all this is we get to point and laugh at bad games at least.
It's grim when recently, Hello Soft announce a new "massive game" that will be everything you ever wished for. And people are like hypnotised by it and raising their expectations already. TBF, I think consumers are as much, if not more to blame , than many of the developers. In many cases, it's the consumers who have built up the hype and then get angry when a game doesn't contain features that the developers never said it would have. Group think and the foilly of crowds takes over.
If you fall for Hello *GAMES* hype after NMS you're a bozo.@@OrangeNash Releasing a broken, unplayable, pile of junk and then fixing it later isn't the success story every claims it to be; The fact that they EVER released NMS in that state is proof they deserve to never be trusted again.
Probably the only one of thse good looking games that are legit is "Road to Vostok" because the creator is a coder or programer whatever, and he stated very clearly from day one that he was going to use the asisstance of hired freelancers and bought assets to get models and a few other things that he just wouldnt be able to make on his own. And we see the progress of the game. Its reasonable and the scope isnt massive. Its still a rather small game even if it looks great and its what people actually want. If Road to Vostok gets big, the creator will either release a bigger second piece or maybe expand his first one. And at the end of the day, thats what we want. A proof of concept to fund and turn into something big. Not some fake big awesome shiny game that turns into nothing. People will still fund good games even if theyre a little shit, short or small at the begining. Good bones is better than good make up.
Too fair, I sometime don’t petty this people getting scam, the reason why we are getting companies like this, is because of people pre ordering games without thinking. People just throw money just because they have money the spend, as a result companies and scammer took this opportunity to rekt in cash from this people. This problem will keep occurring, until people learn to stop pretending pre ordering.
I blame the low standards of all these digital storefronts. You can't sell shovelware at best buy. Because places like steam, epic and others have no real standards, we will keep getting this trash.
@@ysf-psfx Amazon is annoying with mountains of randomly named item flips. You can't find something reputable because there's so many "ZBBQQ" clones or if you do find it, it's actually sold by some random seller and not a known store.
@@louiepooh1510 In an extreme example, people sell fake flash drives on Amazon that are actually capacitors designed for one purpose: discharge a lot of electricity into your USB port and fry your PC. The people who are victim to things like this have no recourse with Amazon even though someone is destroying their property. You are mischaracterizing the situation. Yes, we do need regulation over digital storefronts.
Games like these are the reason I don't get hyped over games anymore. I've almost fully lost faith in the AAA industry. I believe smaller studios are the way to go.
I mean, why lose faith in others when its clearly you at fault? If theres something you need to lose faith in, its your judgement skills. These fake games are incredibly rare and generally come with dozens of red flags. If you are constantly baited into buying them, you must have a problem
@@artyomarty391I haven't actually fallen for any of these scams, I've been sceptical about preorders since the start. It's seeing companies fall this low that makes me lose faith.
@@artyomarty391Arguably the logic is that as time passes, we may see larger studios doing more of this "hype selling" rather than actually giving finished products. Hell, we are already on that way in a sense.
@@lorenzomeulli750 good point. However, a counterpoint could be that if larger studios start doing this, then players will adapt and grow some skin resistant to this kind of hype/baiting. Perhaps, what we will see in the future, is the opposite: that many games will be falsely labeled as fake, when in reality they're legit Also, personally I think this issue with fake games is exaggerated. I mean, I got like 50 games in my steam library. I rarely read reviews before buying a game, yet none of those 50 games are fake (I just didnt like majority of them). It is my understanding that these fake big title games can be counted on one hand. I havent heard about anything other than this "the day b4 tomorrow" or whatever its called. In a world with dozens of big title games coming out every month, a couple bad apples every few years, among thousands of real ones, could hardly constitute an actual issue... Especially if steam refunds everyone regardless time spent on the game I mean, it just sounds silly to me that someone is actually so afraid of running into fake games that they had to "almost fully lose faith in the AAA industry". its like bro, how many fake games do you run into? Whats your secret?
Indie developers have been leading the way for some time now when it comes to actually good games. They're less inclined to stick to a safe formula they know has worked in the past like most AAA studios these days. The other side of that coin is that when AAA studios try something genuinely new and unique, they often don't give it enough resources for it to be developed into something good so it does badly, then use that as an excuse not to bother with new things any more. A lot of people also just don't trust the big publishers to make anything new and unique and good either, so that goes against it even if it is actually good. Many people boycot some publishers because of how they've fucked people over in the past like Ubisoft and their protecting sex offenders and workplace bullying.
It's a self solving problem. If someone buys enough fake games and gets burned, they will eventually learn to wait for reviews and/or develop the ability to think critically about what they are seeing and spot the scams
By the same token, if enough are fooled by this the developer/publisher makes a shit load of money and sees it clearly works so they continue to do the same thing and the cycle repeats.
I still blame Kickstarter for conditioning people to FOMO. Don’t know why you were recommended but love your work. Could have been ‘social psychology’. Subscribed!
This feels like the new age of kickstarter games. Promise the world then make a totally unplayable mess and run with the money..... or just run with the money.
as someone making a game, I make my assets.. its crazy I'm spending so much time to only have this " news " make me feel like its going to give a hard time because not every game is a scam.
I don't understand why people, specially people with money, are so damn brainless and impulsive. Investors drop millions onto a project where any amount of research into said projects proves its false! But everyone wants to drepthroat lies nowadays. It's in the internet, it MUST be true!
It's not that hard to spot something you should be suspicious of. If it's a brand new company that have zero past games there's your first clue to be on guard. Some of these companies will list their dev teams and their personal experience, thats a good sign but if thats not there, even more reason to be on edge. This isn't such a big deal if its a small indy project that looks possible and its only going to sell for $20 or less but when things start looking like TDB then you have cause for concern.
my general rule is that I just, don't pre-order games in general. I'll keep an eye on it, wait for what people are saying about it once the game's actually out (should that ever come), and then make up my mind.
Due to EU regulations, and possibly elsewhere, Valve offers a refund period worldwide for 14 days, and they even extend that (which wouldn't be needed by EU regulations) to after the game was downloaded and played for up to two hours. But many people will buy games and not play them for months or years, it at all. So Valve stepping in actively and giving a refund for everyone is also to protect those people who'd never play the game but bought it anyway. This also shows why it is a good idea of Valve to keep all funds for at least 30 days before giving the agreed part to the publisher after a sale.
The company can't get paid for a specific time period I believe which made it easy for Valve to do the refunds. I'm actually surprised they had this in place as a safeguard. I didn't know about this until the day before disaster.
so basically it's the AAA production level equivalent of those annoying mobile game ads that don't show the actual game...but also go further and not even have a game at all
Sooner or later, the term "AAA Game" will turn into a meme and later if we hear anyone mentioning "AAA Game" it'll be like this: - Unfinished products - Overpromised but underdelivered content - No innovations..
Don't forget: - Costs 500+ for all "DLCs". - Abandoned in less than 18 months (or just 6 months). - Becomes useless after 3 years due to the "always online" schtick.
It already is a meme and has been for a while now. There's a reason Steph (formerly Jim) Stirling says "triple aaaaaaaaaaaaaay" in a stupid voice whenever they say it.
Good thing my mentality works - I only buy a game after it gets to the 75%+ discount, after I know everything needed about it, and after I know it's the right game for me. I have no reason to waste my money on cats in a basket.
This is a symptom of how we've sadly slipped into an advertisement based economy. Very few people make a quality product or provide a quality service anymore. You don't have to. All you need is good enough advertisement to get people on that first sale. Repeat business is unnecessary as we're just trying to fund the next project anyway. It's a lot cheaper and easier to sell people on the thought that they MIGHT be purchasing quality than it is to actually sell them quality PS: There is a fantastic Steve Jobs interview from back in the day where he speaks on this exact phenomenon. I believe in regards to IBM
A quick correction: At 15:40 you say that The Day Before was the "historical first time ever that Steam has refunded everybody who purchased the game". This isn't true. The same happened for No Man's Sky in 2016 following the outcry after its release.
IGN has been nothing but a corporate shill for decades. With all of the independent reviewers available just here on TH-cam now, IGN is the very last place I would ever go for a trustworthy review. The thing with Day Before is that those scammers were paying attention to exactly what features gamers really want in that kind of a game. Real developers should make a note of what was promised. Just sad that it's the frauds who are paying the best attention to the community! But, then, I guess that's a lot easier when a studio isn't distracted by actual development. My competitive advantage is that I am too poor to buy games at all except once or twice a year, so I only buy stuff that has been out long enough to be on sale, which also means plenty of reviews of the actual gameplay. People fall for these scams because they are too impatient to play whatever the newest, shiniest thing is. if a game is really that good, it will be worth waiting for. If a game is a scam or just really bad, then the wait is doubly worthwhile!
Heart pounding (followup to the Lies of P video) My Algorithm has blessed me, once again, with a my favorite type of content, been binge eating your content as of the last 2 days, really heads up to you Mugthief! I won't be surprised at these point if AAA studios start gaslighting people to start gambling, in a promotive way mind you..
i think one good side of scam game is to mak the customer more aware of fomo and the tatics of AAA publishers have been using lately to sell pre-orders
This is a very informative video! I've heard last year about people being scammed by "The Day Before" game. But when you went into detail that this is a brand new thing that's happening more than once is very unfortunate. The fact that these "companies" are scamming people in a sneaky yet convincing way, that is scary. We should definitely spread the word and warn people about this.
My wishlist is for me to keep track of things I am interested in. If someone else buys something because others listed it, that is their opportunity to become less stupid. I will continue to organize my interests. Just think for yourselves.
It makes me sad. Whenever i see a new game on kickstarter i dont even get my hopes up cuz i know 9 out of 10 times its fake or nothing will come of it. I feel bad for the people actually trying to make good videogames.
My advice would be to wait a few weeks after a game has been released as this is the only way to prevent yourself from being scammed! I have never pre-ordered a single game in my 40+ years of gaming.
To be honest, at this point even those pay to win Chinese MMO are more trustworthy than this, while they are pay to win, in your face, at least they are being upfront and honest about it. While you and I will not play it, it at least exist to cater a group of very odd kind of gamers, who are aged gangsters or middle age salaryman who have money to burn.
Honestly, don't mean to point fingers but Blight: survival has always looked suspicious to me ever since I first saw the trailer. Ig one of the hallmarks of these fake game trailers is the overly clean animations.
Any game that seems too good to be true will be garbage. When a trailer from a little studio looks like something even a AAA dev team couldnt put out, its def fake
Wrong, you give AAA games too much credit, most of those are overpriced garbage anyways. The best way is to wait, read reviews, and watch game play, then decide.
You gotta love the irony seeing society regress back to the good old days the more the tech advances. Crowd funding finally opens the floor to indie devs, but scambags exploit that and ruin things for everyone. Until it's finished and thoroughly reviewed, we're not committing money to it. And with digital age also killed any and all pre-order incentives since everything is just widely and infinitely available after release.
To me, it's simple: if the game promises tons of stuff instead of offering an interesting focused concept, it's probably gonna be rubbish. Also lack of style is a good indication. Oh also not preordering from people you don't trust is a good habit. It amazes me that there might still be people who believe in trailers. Or maybe it's easier to believe in them nowadays because they're made with the same graphics as the game? Back in late 2000s it was easy to just look at a trailer and instantly notice it looks just too good for the technology of the time and that it was probably pre-recorded just to offer a cool flashy introduction to the new title.
I will agree that Steam needs to curate their store better. I also don't want to discourage indie devs because steam does an amazing job at getting eyes on their games who don't have millions of dollars to advertise.
Its been going on for so long, so blatantly that I'm at the point of "you deserve it". So willing to switch your brain off huff the hopium despite this lesson having been taught for like 15 years. I struggle to sympathise with the people that have propped up the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard etc on a large scale and the chimps that pre-order "The Day Before". If you bought "The Day Before" then I know a Nigerian Prince who needs your help 🤡
good stuff, mug. it goes deeper than what you think though, and has been for older than you know. but hey, no one wants to do a 4hs video on the dangers of modern gaming trends :D
I know it goes deeper, just with The Quinfall it seems that it's aiming to be a microstransaction game to generate traffic to an online "Currency" seller for example. It's all very complex, but I don't really want to be "that" channel that covers this stuff, but I want to do my part in spreading awareness, especially for the average consumer.
Some people seem to think that you have to reinvent the wheel for every game. Hell no, never use assets..! Everyone has a team of modellers, animators, mappers and sound designers behind them! Right?
Maybe Steam can have a team dedicated to playing games before release, that no game on their store doesn't go through. I don't see why the world's largest game distributor can't have a team for inspecting every game to make sure that it exists before it's sold, especially now that the precedent's been set, and a game that didn't exist did sell.
Meh... Scam fake video games existed long before TDB and TQF - they aren now just easier to make and easier to market for smoother and more efficient scaming.
Last year I decided to become a games developer and make my own game. 6 months on and I am making progress. Is buying assets really that bad, I have learnt to use Blender and plan to make some of my own assets. As a solo developer and building a whole city, it would take years to make everything for my game. I wont reveal the name of the game yet because I am far from close to even having a test version. My concern is every video feels like it criticises people who buy a lot of assets and that scares me.
It's hardly a new phenomenon, remember scams like Chronicles of Elyria or that RAW MMO, it's just easier now than ever before. These "Do everything" kind of games are always a huge red flag, there's a reason why don't exist. Even AAA studios with massive publishers behind them would have a hard time pulling of something like the Day Before, but people are gullible and fall for fancy trailers that are all fluff, no substance.
This is why iv really never been that excited about a lot of advancement in tech and development..it just makes it easier for people that don't care to try and fool people with stuff that looks good but underneath is rubbish..this doesn't just apply to games
@@Mugthief still, these are buying incomplete game or a kind of preorder. In a way. And yes, Larian is reputable, but so was CDProjekt. And then there was cyberpunk (which I loved on release in PC, had less bugs and much better performance than BG3, but it seems that a lot of people had a different experience). CDPR was a very reputable studio, I preordered the game and played it on the first day on release.
Im a game dev this is a genuine question. I can program and I can create environments, but I can not make 3D Character models. Is me buying 3D character models a bad idea if the models are being used it a way that fits the games theme? And environment assets as well so long as they arent just thrown together in some mess if they are being used in a consistent style and being bought legally are they an issue to use?
Of course not. As stated in the video, it only becomes suspicious when things are ripped wholesale all over, from menus, to UI, and especially Game play.
@@Mugthief Great im glad to hear that and I do agree. Ripping everything without tweaking and changing the asset will just create a souless Frankenstein game with no creative intention.
Tbf, The Day Before wasn't a scam, it was just insanely incompetent development, thanks to the two studio heads who clearly had zero idea how game development worked.
I recently bought bg3 after knowing that it was goty and it still blew away my expectations. I’m glad that there are few outliers that still pour their souls into their games
"A" people who makes the 3D models "A" people who makes the animations "A" people who edits the videos, no programmer here and there you have it, a team that can make an "AAA" 3D pre-rendered video
What i find hilarious is that both the examples of the day before and qwinfall. I hadn't even heard about them until the fact they were actually fake came out
Unfortunately we live in an age where you have to be careful and skeptical and smart about everything all the time, and unfortunately Americans, at least, have never been stupider.
If it walks like a duck, and it talks like a duck, then brother - you're either playing a videogame or you've lost your last marbles... Ducks don't talk, haha :D
22:46 I don't know. I'm not into MMOs or multi-player games of any type. The only exception is couch co-op. I've never found any appeal in multi-player games. It was a "make your own fun" vibe. I like it when the game, the art itself challenges me in ways I don't expect. I tried number games like Diablo 3 and Borderlands. They just don't satisfy say like Sniper Elite or Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 & 2.
Just don't preorder. Blind faith costs. Even refunds require transactions, and there is a loss if there's something like currency exchange fees are involved. You wont get back those fees. Don't buy a product that doesn't exist yet in it's complete form. Early access may be an indicator of what the game be about, but there is no guarantee what is there is going to be there in the final release. Games can even get a full rework which may not be what was initially desired. Don't buy immediately after release. Wait a month or so. Besides games being released in a poor state (lack of optimization, bugs, etc) the games may even get addition things that changes what the product was initially. A month is a fairly good waiting period to look at many reviews. Getting informed is a very helpful thing to avoid losing money. Wait for a sale. At that point any additional content that is put into the game will be there. Any sneaky aspects thrown in will be known. Just want to remind people of companies sneaking in lootboxes, monetization, and/or drm methods after the initial wave of reviews have been released. No game is really needed to be obtained ASAP. This is what I've been living by for a long while.
We can kill this trend dead in its tracks if we simply don't buy before the reviews from trusted sources. Personally, I don't buy within the first 3 months of release. That gives them time to add the egregious post review play to win micro-transactions in too.
The one thing common in these ideas is that they're all boring. They promise people to make the most boring, most uninteresting game ever, but it will be big. So big in fact that it makes programming mpossible or inconvenient, so noone in their right mind would try making it.
Did everyone used their brain and waited for release then watch a review problem solved. And as for crowd funding here’s how I go at that. NEVER EVER DONATE. See, games were made before we had crowd funding and so they can still but scammers know people are naturally trusting and kinda dumb so it’s easy to scam people. This IS a huge problem but it’s a problem that’s so easy to fix if everyone could come together cause if people stop giving them scammers will stop this method. Great video my first of yours earned my like and sub
I made this video because I truly believe this stuff is harmful in many ways, and I think we're going to see more of it. Please consider liking the video or sharing it to spread awareness, be sceptical of things that look too good to be true, and don't pre-order or wishlist anything out of curiosity!
At least Quinfall has 2 betas that are "supposed" to be free. Just imagine the great content when you can tell everyone "I told you so", but until then, it's just wait for the free beta
What would you say to this possibly being money laundering? Since the devs “act” like devs for the time being right, then they dip. Howd they do it? Fiverr, and some easy to use AI… guaranteed some dude that made a million or so with drugs needed to clean his money, good with a laptop and games. Boom, everything for the taking! I’m personally impressed af. I don’t feel bad for any adult that got got. Children yes, that’s not cool. But shouldn’t be playing 18+ games fuckers! We all did and will do underage I just had to find a middle ground to blame something.
The debate about gaming has become a faction based system. One side says gamers are unrealistic is what they want. This group claims gamers will blame everything on the game developer and nothing on themselves. Another group believes that players just need to get good if the difficulty is detracting from enjoyment of a game. There are less players who are true veterans of gaming who genuinely care about gaming like myself. Far more young gamers who lack personal identity and can therefore have their opinions made for them.
That's what happens when we all fake mobile game devs enter the AAA industry, I mean we should supposed to report them and their fake games back then before they lead into this, but we're already too late so it is what it is 🤷
Normally, I will be saying the same thing right along with you. But we This gamers are going through a tough time where nearly every company is lying and manipulating you at some point. We're desperate for an experience that often major developers just don't want to do anymore. Or at least when they finally do them, they are terribly done. So we're desperate for a good experience, and when someone comes alone finally promising to do that, it's hard not to get hyped for that game among the trash that is being put out by these major developers.
it's like pre-ordering games was always a scam after the 2010's, and people still haven't learned.
A new sucker is born every minute.
Because it is always the next one that surely can't be a scam
I have pre-ordered 2 games in my life, Destiny(which I didn't really play) and Stalker2 because its not a western studio developing it, their gameplay footage looked good and their past games are beloved and modded to unrecognizable heights.
I am also 100% implying western game devs are hopeless and cannot make a pre-order worthy game.
Baldur's gate 3 came out recently and is a "western game" let's get you off that high horse little weeabo.
It's kinda sad for all those who made assets to sell on the market. People will start to initially distrust any game made with assets from a store, and so it will discourage devs to buy them.
your final product should not have 100% unedited assets from a store, they should be something original or at the very least modified to fit into whatever world you are creating. I dont feel sad for them, they are simply providing an initial stepping stone that so many people are abusing to make cheap worlds to scam players out of money. there are far more people using asset flips to make a quick buck than there are who use them for legitimate products. a few decent games are the exception, not the rule. if I see an clean store bought asset in your final product, I question the validity of any other asset you may be using, along with your ability to provide any lengthy after product services like content patches and expansions.
@@ShiirowThere is no reason to modify assets that already fit the aesthetic so you're basically saying any game that does not modify bought assets is "suspicious"?
@@lemon64k49 there ARE many reasons to modify assets you bought, aside from the look theres also the problem from the most basic thing like the model and stuffs, and its not because you dont trust the skill of the asset owner but because you need the assets to be fit with your game engine
It can take a whole day to make a good building shell, not including the inside. Then doing the collision and setting it up in unreal. Its very very long process and imagine doing that for a city in an open world. It would take so long to make a game as a solo developer. Buying ready made assets that fit the game you are making is why marketplaces exist, to help developers like myself get their game off the ground.@@Shiirow
As a dev who uses storebought assets, I can live without the business from people who seriously think that way. They're not my intended audience.
The decision here isn't "buy those assets or make them yourself", it's usually "buy those assets or put the entire project on hold until you can afford to pay an artist".
The gaming industry is a result of what happens when you allocate all your stat points to marketing.
That's what happens when we all led fake mobile gamedevs enter the AAA industry, I mean we should supposed to report them and their fake games back then before they lead into this, but it is what it is 🤷
It is simple. The better a Gametrailer looks, the later you should buy it.
It's sadly all industry these days. There's an amazing Steve Jobs interview out there where he talks about this exact thing, I believe in regards to IBM. Nobody is creating wealth here anymore. They're either moving it laterally or tricking others into thinking it's worth more than it is through marketing or manipulation of supply and demand
capitalism moment@@thelaborpeasant
many scams are easy to avoid, people just get more stupid by the day.
The interesting thing about The Day Before is that it was a scam against publishers, not the audience. Consumers all got their money back. Steam allows you to get a refund even if you played it for more than 2 hours. It's the publishers who have to watch out.
You're not very smart; Maybe learn how publishers operate before commenting? Mongo.
Steam (not sure the exact timeframe for the rest) with-holds funds for *3 months* before the dev ever sees a dime of it.
The only thing interesting is why you're attempting this piss poor defense of a PoS scammer.
Bot?
As I suspected, people don’t seem to care because they view these maladies as karma for past actions.
IGN will lose its reputation if it keeps letting those things pass, they should at least check things one would expect.
It would be less of a problem if people wait until game launches and gets reviews, instead to pre order them.
I don't really have a issue with preordering in itself if you know the product your getting, take persona 3 reload for example or like a dragon infinite wealth. its when a new ip or a untrustworthy company does it or starts using fomo with preorder bonuses, i never watch game trailers to avoid unneeded hype from fake footage.
@@MifuneShio While I would not recommend any game, from any company at all. I can understand why people trust specific game series they love and know a certain established company (say next Zelda game). Or physical games like Pokemon which get sold out day one. What you gonna do?
But on a case like this, yeah, its a nogo.
@@thingsiplay Pre-ordering is one thing, but the trend now is to donate money for the development of games that don't even exist yet. At least pre-ordering a game usually means it's already in the beta testing phase already and is considered a purchase that you can probably get refunded. So many people are getting conned into "investing" in the concept art of pretend game devs based on nothing more than empty promises. Those investments turn into donations when people start catching on to what's happening and the devs laugh all the way to the bank.
"Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen" is one that's getting that reputation now, charging people $1000 for the promise that they can alpha test is one day when it's ready. It's been 10 years now but they're still telling people it's right around the corner... It's incredible how many people will buy into stuff like this.
or just stop defending a company, you can buy a fake game, just don't act surprised when you get a fake game.
No company requires a defense from its gamers.
If the game is good, people will buy it, people will play it
Its that stupid sense of requirement that you had to be the first person to do it that is driving this trend.
Luckily Streamers are slowly taking that need away, due to them always getting a few days early access, no one is getting that I am first in this game feeling anymore.
That in itself is a blessing in disguise.
Hopefully people will wake up to the idea that , maybe as a consumer that buys a product, the company that made the product actually had to be good at making the product
Expecting reason of the general public is asking for too much I'm afraid.
Another couple points to add to this; typically a game is made with gameplay in mind first. Many such games use grey-boxing (or prototyping) for art placeholders, focusing primarily on the gameplay loop. "Games" like The Day Before often take the opposite approach and work from the art first, gameplay being secondary (or virtually non-existent). This allows them to market early and create a façade of what a real game should be without putting in the effort to actually create said game. Typically these sorts of games end up being scams or short-term profit for the developers (usually at the expense of their reputation and future prospects).
There are of course games that do the "vertical slice" approach to game development, creating a playable and isolated chunk of the game that accurately portrays what the end product would look and feel like, but this process is not easy and typically requires several talented people in various departments to come together and use their full talents. Indie developers hardly have the resources for this (though this depends on the scope of the game itself. Some indie games could technically do this though at that point the game likely quite simple and the return on investment for creating a vertical slice for such a game is not great, unless they plan on securing publisher funding).
Thank you, fck nobody realize it or talk about it.
Also in-game engine ( that's not real gameplay).
Engine footage ( that's not gameplay)
And that's why you have fake gameplay..... Even pretending playing ( the division trailer is a funny one).
It's just made for showcasing what gameplay will look like and REASSURING investors with the hype that you made with your trailer.
Good example : Watchdog / Rainbow six / For honor / Battlefield 2042 /
I don't mind small studio games. I've bought several, some with very crude graphics and maybe as little only one programmer. But the purchases I have been happy with have never pretended to be something bigger then what they were. A few turned into big hits and eventually managed to get a decent budget and development team, despite their humble origins.
Like KENSHI and 7 Days To Die.
Many others remained obscure and small budget but had some solid fun ideas and content to keep you busy and a price tag to match. And provided me with more then enough fun to justify their purchase. Examples of small PoS games, possibly made by just one person, that are fun and lasts long enough to be worth a price of around $10 (may have to wait for a sale) I've bought are:
Evolution of Ages: Settlements
Judgement: Apocalypse Survival Simulation
Saelig
This whole pretending to to be something bigger, better and more polished then they are SCAMS have got to be cracked down on. They should not be allowed to market their BS on Steam as freely as they have been. But at the same time they have to be careful not to catch small low budget projects in a blind sweep.
Kenshi wasn't an asset flip. That was a one many army for many years. I still remember buying it on Desura back in the late aughts. He was in the middle of the building system when a team noticed his work and became part of the project because of passion.
the mud/snowrunners are a good example. its not massive, several small well made maps with an awesome physics engine and you drive like 1-2mph most of the time. these people thought they were going to bake that system fulling into their zombie open world MMO meets day z? and it was their first game? yeah no.
7 Days To Die zombies yelling is like Regenerator yelling from Resident Evil 4 2005 when we shoot on them
Preorders are a scam even for "real" games. Just Don't do it people! Wait
Preorders serve their purpose. The term preorder has been turned into a scary thing for clicks in the modern day. Preorders were once for those who genuinely wanted to play a game day one. Those who have friends or other people they know are excited about the game who do not want to wait. This never changed.
@@lanceknightmare You can't wait an fokken hour because "friends and other people" are hyped by the marketing?
You just defined FOMO/hypetrain-sheeple mentality that is the reason this shit happens.
"pre-ordering" was relevant when you had to get a physical copy from game store, not anymore.
Yep. Why people preorders ? It's not like the game will lack of copies at release ...
@@Sombre____ and why people throw money on Scam Citizen?
@@lanceknightmare pre orders only made sense when physical media was a thing. You truly could not the get the game you wanted back then... 15 years ago.
Preorders for digital games make no sense and serve no purpose.
In fact pre-orders actually are being the exact opposite in recent years, With online games not handling all the players and games being unfinished messes.
As someone starting studies in Game Design, this scares me deeply.
Im pursuing my passion for world creation because gaming provides opportunities like non other, yet there will always be scammers and bad apples.
I wish Steam had better QA...but that would hurt their bottom line so thats likely to never happen..
Sounds like you chose the wrong field to get into. 🤔
Steam acts on what needs acted upon, they cant possibly watch the door with all releases, be thankful they atleast remove and even ban companies. Sadly its usually too late and they got away with a hefty sum for little to no work.
Yeah I was thinking Steam could fix a bunch of this. I thought of some extreme fixes eg just limit prepurchase and even purchase in the first month...
A smaller step could be a longer than usual return period during release. Also it does not look to hard to identify red flags since by their nature these games have to be loud and attention grabbing. It would only take a tiny tiny fraction of steams budget to hit the worst offenders. It could be worth something to steam to avoid this problem since no doubt many casual players feel they are buying the game from Steam itself, and lose faith in Steam when they are burnt.
How would someone sell a idea to a gaming studio. Like a story line, character development ect... i do not know how to make a game but understand some of the aspects.
The solution is to say fuck STEAM. GOG exists. EGS exists. Microsoft has their own launcher. Or prioritize consoles on advertizing.
Everyone knows that the Killzone 2 trailer was meant for internal use, right? I don't need to explain that Guerilla Games never intended for that to be seen by the public, right?
Crazy part is how much publicity these fake games get, even though gamers have been scammed many times. They keep believing crazy promises by unknown studios :')
That's what happens when we all led fake mobile gamedevs enter the AAA industry, I mean we should supposed to report them and their fake games back then before they lead into this, but it is what it is 🤷
Are they getting genuine publicity, cause the only thing I see of these scam games are youtubers making rant videos for content.
It's like the old salesman's saying, there's a sucker born every minute
@@palchristianandersen9086The Day Before had several IGN coverage, and even Nvidia to showcase their ray tracing tech, so that's a start
@@adlibbed2138people give a fuck about IGNs opinion why now? They just money chasers
It's almost as if the death of physical media aids these types of scams.
Old guy yelling at clouds here, this just reinforces my belief in buying discs over downloads. But I definitely agree with your points about wishlisting or preordering games.
Really waiting for the CRPG scam titled "I Used To Be An Adventurer", where you play a member of the city guard...
But it's only 1 level long where you reminisce about the time you took an arrow to the knee.
Also there's Ubisoft literally saying gamers should get comfortable with the thought that you don't own games.
I'd wishlist that game. Go to the town bar and navigate endless ai-generated conversation trees while i eat donuts with the other retired guards and remember old times on the walls, taking arrows to the knees...halcyon days.
@Shikaar Precisely why I'm purchasing physical media. The concept of "not owning" what you purchase is the thought process of someone whose wages are determined by stock price.
There's no reality where this is a consumer advantage; even if someone (like Steam) offers a refund, will that benefit someone who is outside the refund time period get their money back when the game is delisted (like Ubisoft has done recently)? Nope, because... profit.
I bought Sons of Anarchy on blu-ray because I want the ability to watch it on my demand, not an arbitrary streaming service. I'm doing the same with CDs on Discogs. To me, it's about access and not denying it at-will.
I hate scams like starfield as well.
Very interesting. Watching this makes me think it's not a binary split between "Good Honest Games" and "Bad Deceitful Games". It's a spectrum and there are many shades along it. You mentioned a couple of AAA game designers infamous for over promising and hype. And not delivering it, of course. And then, the psycho-social issues take over and many of those who have bought the hype double down on it and go into denial on any flaws. It would make an excellent psychological study, I believe marketers know from studies of other products that a lot of the value of a product exists in the consumers imagination. While nobody will admit they are the one being fooled, en masse, we know advertising works, for example. "Somebody" (that other person, not us of course!) has bought into the hype and is now in coping mode and will defend the product however poor quality it is.
Their goal was to make gaming mainstream as there will always be enough people that dont care enough that will throw money at shit
I use my wishlist more actively, like sometimes I’ll add questionable stuff there just to keep my eye on it until it earns a buy or an “ignore.” Really wish more platforms had an “ignore” option, haha. Can’t tell you how obnoxious it is to sift through the same games I’ve already decided against when I’m searching for something new or overlooked.
Anyway, 100% YES to all the other stuff here :3 Great insight, some good lessons for us all to learn here ❤️
If a game is too good to be true, then it usually is. Understanding the track record of the developers and publishers and not just accepting the "gameplay" at face value helps avoid the mistake. I don't know if people actually expected The Day Before to be good, but I knew that it was suspicious since it's first "gameplay" trailer. I'm confused on how people still manage to get tricked by fake games when all it takes is a minimal amount of foresight to avoid falling for them. The good thing about all this is we get to point and laugh at bad games at least.
It's grim when recently, Hello Soft announce a new "massive game" that will be everything you ever wished for. And people are like hypnotised by it and raising their expectations already. TBF, I think consumers are as much, if not more to blame , than many of the developers. In many cases, it's the consumers who have built up the hype and then get angry when a game doesn't contain features that the developers never said it would have. Group think and the foilly of crowds takes over.
If you fall for Hello *GAMES* hype after NMS you're a bozo.@@OrangeNash
Releasing a broken, unplayable, pile of junk and then fixing it later isn't the success story every claims it to be; The fact that they EVER released NMS in that state is proof they deserve to never be trusted again.
@@OrangeNash Yes I agree. Consumers are also to blame. The best way to send your message is by not buying the game
Probably the only one of thse good looking games that are legit is "Road to Vostok" because the creator is a coder or programer whatever, and he stated very clearly from day one that he was going to use the asisstance of hired freelancers and bought assets to get models and a few other things that he just wouldnt be able to make on his own. And we see the progress of the game. Its reasonable and the scope isnt massive. Its still a rather small game even if it looks great and its what people actually want. If Road to Vostok gets big, the creator will either release a bigger second piece or maybe expand his first one. And at the end of the day, thats what we want. A proof of concept to fund and turn into something big. Not some fake big awesome shiny game that turns into nothing. People will still fund good games even if theyre a little shit, short or small at the begining. Good bones is better than good make up.
90% of pre-order games over the past decade were some form of scam. I stopped pre-ordering games back in 2014
Too fair, I sometime don’t petty this people getting scam, the reason why we are getting companies like this, is because of people pre ordering games without thinking.
People just throw money just because they have money the spend, as a result companies and scammer took this opportunity to rekt in cash from this people.
This problem will keep occurring, until people learn to stop pretending pre ordering.
I blame the low standards of all these digital storefronts. You can't sell shovelware at best buy. Because places like steam, epic and others have no real standards, we will keep getting this trash.
It's exactly the same with Amazon. There need to be regulations to hold them responsible for what they sell.
@@ysf-psfx Amazon is annoying with mountains of randomly named item flips. You can't find something reputable because there's so many "ZBBQQ" clones or if you do find it, it's actually sold by some random seller and not a known store.
Steam atleast has user reviews
yeah you could they just don't make it on disc for counsels anymore. I can walk to the barging sections and find shovel ware for ps4 and Xbox one
@@louiepooh1510 In an extreme example, people sell fake flash drives on Amazon that are actually capacitors designed for one purpose: discharge a lot of electricity into your USB port and fry your PC. The people who are victim to things like this have no recourse with Amazon even though someone is destroying their property. You are mischaracterizing the situation. Yes, we do need regulation over digital storefronts.
Ok folks. Calm down. There is a simple solution to this problem. The Bethesda Rule. Never buy a game until ALL of the DLC has been released.
Remember kids: if it looks like a generic fantasy setting, generic zombie setting or generic space setting then it's gonna be ASS.
Games like these are the reason I don't get hyped over games anymore. I've almost fully lost faith in the AAA industry. I believe smaller studios are the way to go.
I mean, why lose faith in others when its clearly you at fault? If theres something you need to lose faith in, its your judgement skills.
These fake games are incredibly rare and generally come with dozens of red flags. If you are constantly baited into buying them, you must have a problem
@@artyomarty391I haven't actually fallen for any of these scams, I've been sceptical about preorders since the start. It's seeing companies fall this low that makes me lose faith.
@@artyomarty391Arguably the logic is that as time passes, we may see larger studios doing more of this "hype selling" rather than actually giving finished products. Hell, we are already on that way in a sense.
@@lorenzomeulli750 good point. However, a counterpoint could be that if larger studios start doing this, then players will adapt and grow some skin resistant to this kind of hype/baiting.
Perhaps, what we will see in the future, is the opposite: that many games will be falsely labeled as fake, when in reality they're legit
Also, personally I think this issue with fake games is exaggerated. I mean, I got like 50 games in my steam library. I rarely read reviews before buying a game, yet none of those 50 games are fake (I just didnt like majority of them).
It is my understanding that these fake big title games can be counted on one hand. I havent heard about anything other than this "the day b4 tomorrow" or whatever its called. In a world with dozens of big title games coming out every month, a couple bad apples every few years, among thousands of real ones, could hardly constitute an actual issue... Especially if steam refunds everyone regardless time spent on the game
I mean, it just sounds silly to me that someone is actually so afraid of running into fake games that they had to "almost fully lose faith in the AAA industry". its like bro, how many fake games do you run into? Whats your secret?
Indie developers have been leading the way for some time now when it comes to actually good games. They're less inclined to stick to a safe formula they know has worked in the past like most AAA studios these days. The other side of that coin is that when AAA studios try something genuinely new and unique, they often don't give it enough resources for it to be developed into something good so it does badly, then use that as an excuse not to bother with new things any more. A lot of people also just don't trust the big publishers to make anything new and unique and good either, so that goes against it even if it is actually good. Many people boycot some publishers because of how they've fucked people over in the past like Ubisoft and their protecting sex offenders and workplace bullying.
It's a self solving problem. If someone buys enough fake games and gets burned, they will eventually learn to wait for reviews and/or develop the ability to think critically about what they are seeing and spot the scams
no they won't they will eat a turd just so they can tell you how it tastes with stankbreaf. They will never change.
By the same token, if enough are fooled by this the developer/publisher makes a shit load of money and sees it clearly works so they continue to do the same thing and the cycle repeats.
I still blame Kickstarter for conditioning people to FOMO. Don’t know why you were recommended but love your work. Could have been ‘social psychology’. Subscribed!
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing gamers that preordering was necessary
This feels like the new age of kickstarter games. Promise the world then make a totally unplayable mess and run with the money..... or just run with the money.
as someone making a game, I make my assets.. its crazy I'm spending so much time to only have this " news " make me feel like its going to give a hard time because not every game is a scam.
Steam should place safeguards so their customers don't get scammed and Valve doesn't have to refund all these money.
The refund option is exactly that 😅
Why anyone would continue to preorder is beyond me.
I don't understand why people, specially people with money, are so damn brainless and impulsive.
Investors drop millions onto a project where any amount of research into said projects proves its false!
But everyone wants to drepthroat lies nowadays. It's in the internet, it MUST be true!
It's not that hard to spot something you should be suspicious of. If it's a brand new company that have zero past games there's your first clue to be on guard. Some of these companies will list their dev teams and their personal experience, thats a good sign but if thats not there, even more reason to be on edge. This isn't such a big deal if its a small indy project that looks possible and its only going to sell for $20 or less but when things start looking like TDB then you have cause for concern.
I learned my lesson since Bioware's Magic "Anthem".
my general rule is that I just, don't pre-order games in general. I'll keep an eye on it, wait for what people are saying about it once the game's actually out (should that ever come), and then make up my mind.
Honestly, it's sad to know that there are people who will defend those scams (people that are not paid actors).
Due to EU regulations, and possibly elsewhere, Valve offers a refund period worldwide for 14 days, and they even extend that (which wouldn't be needed by EU regulations) to after the game was downloaded and played for up to two hours.
But many people will buy games and not play them for months or years, it at all. So Valve stepping in actively and giving a refund for everyone is also to protect those people who'd never play the game but bought it anyway. This also shows why it is a good idea of Valve to keep all funds for at least 30 days before giving the agreed part to the publisher after a sale.
The company can't get paid for a specific time period I believe which made it easy for Valve to do the refunds. I'm actually surprised they had this in place as a safeguard. I didn't know about this until the day before disaster.
@@cynthiahembree3957 Yes, as I said, it takes 30 days for Valve to pay the publisher. This protects Valve from refunds, credit card fraud, etc.
DON'T.PREORDER.ANYTHING.
and don't even THINK about stuff like crowdfund and shit.
As simple as that
so basically it's the AAA production level equivalent of those annoying mobile game ads that don't show the actual game...but also go further and not even have a game at all
Sooner or later, the term "AAA Game" will turn into a meme and later if we hear anyone mentioning "AAA Game" it'll be like this:
- Unfinished products
- Overpromised but underdelivered content
- No innovations..
Don't forget:
- Costs 500+ for all "DLCs".
- Abandoned in less than 18 months (or just 6 months).
- Becomes useless after 3 years due to the "always online" schtick.
@@thientuongnguyen2564 Not even useless after 3 years.. even games as a service is a very bad concept..
It already is a meme and has been for a while now. There's a reason Steph (formerly Jim) Stirling says "triple aaaaaaaaaaaaaay" in a stupid voice whenever they say it.
Good thing my mentality works - I only buy a game after it gets to the 75%+ discount, after I know everything needed about it, and after I know it's the right game for me.
I have no reason to waste my money on cats in a basket.
This is a symptom of how we've sadly slipped into an advertisement based economy. Very few people make a quality product or provide a quality service anymore. You don't have to. All you need is good enough advertisement to get people on that first sale. Repeat business is unnecessary as we're just trying to fund the next project anyway. It's a lot cheaper and easier to sell people on the thought that they MIGHT be purchasing quality than it is to actually sell them quality
PS: There is a fantastic Steve Jobs interview from back in the day where he speaks on this exact phenomenon. I believe in regards to IBM
A quick correction: At 15:40 you say that The Day Before was the "historical first time ever that Steam has refunded everybody who purchased the game". This isn't true. The same happened for No Man's Sky in 2016 following the outcry after its release.
IGN has been nothing but a corporate shill for decades. With all of the independent reviewers available just here on TH-cam now, IGN is the very last place I would ever go for a trustworthy review. The thing with Day Before is that those scammers were paying attention to exactly what features gamers really want in that kind of a game. Real developers should make a note of what was promised. Just sad that it's the frauds who are paying the best attention to the community! But, then, I guess that's a lot easier when a studio isn't distracted by actual development.
My competitive advantage is that I am too poor to buy games at all except once or twice a year, so I only buy stuff that has been out long enough to be on sale, which also means plenty of reviews of the actual gameplay. People fall for these scams because they are too impatient to play whatever the newest, shiniest thing is. if a game is really that good, it will be worth waiting for. If a game is a scam or just really bad, then the wait is doubly worthwhile!
Assist flips I immediately through Yendere Simulator. People have given him money for a decade for a game he has no intention of finishing.
Mate, U create a well produced, well narrated and logical video that are very Informative. Keep it up
They are not fake AAA games. They ARE AAA games.
Heart pounding (followup to the Lies of P video)
My Algorithm has blessed me, once again, with a my favorite type of content, been binge eating your content as of the last 2 days, really heads up to you Mugthief!
I won't be surprised at these point if AAA studios start gaslighting people to start gambling, in a promotive way mind you..
i think one good side of scam game is to mak the customer more aware of fomo and the tatics of AAA publishers have been using lately to sell pre-orders
I'm an old timer(39), so around 2005, I stopped pre-ordering, and I no longer play games without seeing a released game's footage.
Sometimes it's good when you have no money to buy the games
All games are free bro
Just gotta sail the seven seas
@@scorpiomelancholia1559 eyyyoooo
This is a very informative video! I've heard last year about people being scammed by "The Day Before" game. But when you went into detail that this is a brand new thing that's happening more than once is very unfortunate. The fact that these "companies" are scamming people in a sneaky yet convincing way, that is scary. We should definitely spread the word and warn people about this.
My wishlist is for me to keep track of things I am interested in. If someone else buys something because others listed it, that is their opportunity to become less stupid. I will continue to organize my interests. Just think for yourselves.
I personally only preorder if it’s a game in a series that I already play. Or if the game has a demo that I enjoyed playing
It makes me sad. Whenever i see a new game on kickstarter i dont even get my hopes up cuz i know 9 out of 10 times its fake or nothing will come of it. I feel bad for the people actually trying to make good videogames.
mugthief is quickly becoming one of my favorite youtubers. consistent and straight forward
My advice would be to wait a few weeks after a game has been released as this is the only way to prevent yourself from being scammed! I have never pre-ordered a single game in my 40+ years of gaming.
Video: "These two games are a new trend".
People who have followed Star Citizen/Squadron 42 for at least one year over the last decade: "First time?"
To be honest, at this point even those pay to win Chinese MMO are more trustworthy than this, while they are pay to win, in your face, at least they are being upfront and honest about it. While you and I will not play it, it at least exist to cater a group of very odd kind of gamers, who are aged gangsters or middle age salaryman who have money to burn.
Star Citizen is definitely the biggest scam game ever. It might get to a billion dollars.
Honestly, don't mean to point fingers but Blight: survival has always looked suspicious to me ever since I first saw the trailer.
Ig one of the hallmarks of these fake game trailers is the overly clean animations.
Fair enough! Exactly why we all should not pre-order or buy day one game..
@@TheGameianDark people will still do that know matter what you tell them i see why these game companies don't give a sht.
@joshuajefferson3504 That's true, but that's why we need to keep spreading the word! Following it or not is upto the individual
0:28 me talking to my co-workers at lunch break. (they think i'm crazy now)
Any game that seems too good to be true will be garbage. When a trailer from a little studio looks like something even a AAA dev team couldnt put out, its def fake
Wrong, you give AAA games too much credit, most of those are overpriced garbage anyways. The best way is to wait, read reviews, and watch game play, then decide.
i never pre order a game, i usually wait for a game to be discounted before buying...
13:04
That creature is in a very old game called Vortex: The Gateway
You gotta love the irony seeing society regress back to the good old days the more the tech advances. Crowd funding finally opens the floor to indie devs, but scambags exploit that and ruin things for everyone. Until it's finished and thoroughly reviewed, we're not committing money to it. And with digital age also killed any and all pre-order incentives since everything is just widely and infinitely available after release.
To me, it's simple: if the game promises tons of stuff instead of offering an interesting focused concept, it's probably gonna be rubbish. Also lack of style is a good indication.
Oh also not preordering from people you don't trust is a good habit.
It amazes me that there might still be people who believe in trailers. Or maybe it's easier to believe in them nowadays because they're made with the same graphics as the game? Back in late 2000s it was easy to just look at a trailer and instantly notice it looks just too good for the technology of the time and that it was probably pre-recorded just to offer a cool flashy introduction to the new title.
I will agree that Steam needs to curate their store better. I also don't want to discourage indie devs because steam does an amazing job at getting eyes on their games who don't have millions of dollars to advertise.
Starfield and Avatar FOP are two of these games.
Its been going on for so long, so blatantly that I'm at the point of "you deserve it".
So willing to switch your brain off huff the hopium despite this lesson having been taught for like 15 years. I struggle to sympathise with the people that have propped up the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard etc on a large scale and the chimps that pre-order "The Day Before".
If you bought "The Day Before" then I know a Nigerian Prince who needs your help 🤡
good stuff, mug. it goes deeper than what you think though, and has been for older than you know. but hey, no one wants to do a 4hs video on the dangers of modern gaming trends :D
I know it goes deeper, just with The Quinfall it seems that it's aiming to be a microstransaction game to generate traffic to an online "Currency" seller for example. It's all very complex, but I don't really want to be "that" channel that covers this stuff, but I want to do my part in spreading awareness, especially for the average consumer.
This is why I don't preorder anymore unless it's from a trusted source.
And that list is shrinking by the day...
Some people seem to think that you have to reinvent the wheel for every game.
Hell no, never use assets..! Everyone has a team of modellers, animators, mappers and sound designers behind them!
Right?
1:45 and 1:55 what game is that?
This is bad news considering companies like ubisoft don't want you to own your games. You want be able to get physical copies soon.
Maybe Steam can have a team dedicated to playing games before release, that no game on their store doesn't go through. I don't see why the world's largest game distributor can't have a team for inspecting every game to make sure that it exists before it's sold, especially now that the precedent's been set, and a game that didn't exist did sell.
Meh... Scam fake video games existed long before TDB and TQF - they aren now just easier to make and easier to market for smoother and more efficient scaming.
Star citizen is king of this, still no game yet lol.
I've always hated pre-order culture, but now there's a whole new reason to hate it.
Last year I decided to become a games developer and make my own game. 6 months on and I am making progress. Is buying assets really that bad, I have learnt to use Blender and plan to make some of my own assets. As a solo developer and building a whole city, it would take years to make everything for my game. I wont reveal the name of the game yet because I am far from close to even having a test version. My concern is every video feels like it criticises people who buy a lot of assets and that scares me.
"[…] a whole new racket.[…]"
More like an asset-flip of an old racket.
Let's make a game with a 2 hour unskippable opening cut scene
It's hardly a new phenomenon, remember scams like Chronicles of Elyria or that RAW MMO, it's just easier now than ever before. These "Do everything" kind of games are always a huge red flag, there's a reason why don't exist. Even AAA studios with massive publishers behind them would have a hard time pulling of something like the Day Before, but people are gullible and fall for fancy trailers that are all fluff, no substance.
This is why iv really never been that excited about a lot of advancement in tech and development..it just makes it easier for people that don't care to try and fool people with stuff that looks good but underneath is rubbish..this doesn't just apply to games
Not to mention the amount of effort put into making the presentation as convincing as possible could have went into making legit games.
Easy fix, don't pre-order, ever...
I'm not sure if we'd get BG3 if we didn't buy an incomplete game. Or DOS2 without Kickstarter
Larian is a reputable studio, the Divinity franchise didn’t start with DOS2, and these games do not use crowdfunding.
@@Mugthief still, these are buying incomplete game or a kind of preorder. In a way.
And yes, Larian is reputable, but so was CDProjekt. And then there was cyberpunk (which I loved on release in PC, had less bugs and much better performance than BG3, but it seems that a lot of people had a different experience). CDPR was a very reputable studio, I preordered the game and played it on the first day on release.
Im a game dev this is a genuine question. I can program and I can create environments, but I can not make 3D Character models. Is me buying 3D character models a bad idea if the models are being used it a way that fits the games theme? And environment assets as well so long as they arent just thrown together in some mess if they are being used in a consistent style and being bought legally are they an issue to use?
Of course not. As stated in the video, it only becomes suspicious when things are ripped wholesale all over, from menus, to UI, and especially Game play.
@@Mugthief Great im glad to hear that and I do agree. Ripping everything without tweaking and changing the asset will just create a souless Frankenstein game with no creative intention.
"new trend!"
bioshock infinite: yeah... new trend...
FF7 remake: indeed...
duke nukem forever: hope no AAA company decides to do that....
Tbf, The Day Before wasn't a scam, it was just insanely incompetent development, thanks to the two studio heads who clearly had zero idea how game development worked.
The worst part is that I am still seeing people defending these obvious scams.
yeah braindead people lol
I recently bought bg3 after knowing that it was goty and it still blew away my expectations. I’m glad that there are few outliers that still pour their souls into their games
"A" people who makes the 3D models
"A" people who makes the animations
"A" people who edits the videos, no programmer here
and there you have it, a team that can make an "AAA" 3D pre-rendered video
I got an ad for a fake mobile game for this video.
What i find hilarious is that both the examples of the day before and qwinfall.
I hadn't even heard about them until the fact they were actually fake came out
Unfortunately we live in an age where you have to be careful and skeptical and smart about everything all the time, and unfortunately Americans, at least, have never been stupider.
Unfortunately, this isn't limited to a continent.
If it walks like a duck, and it talks like a duck, then brother - you're either playing a videogame or you've lost your last marbles... Ducks don't talk, haha :D
22:46 I don't know. I'm not into MMOs or multi-player games of any type. The only exception is couch co-op. I've never found any appeal in multi-player games. It was a "make your own fun" vibe. I like it when the game, the art itself challenges me in ways I don't expect. I tried number games like Diablo 3 and Borderlands. They just don't satisfy say like Sniper Elite or Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 & 2.
Just don't preorder. Blind faith costs. Even refunds require transactions, and there is a loss if there's something like currency exchange fees are involved. You wont get back those fees.
Don't buy a product that doesn't exist yet in it's complete form. Early access may be an indicator of what the game be about, but there is no guarantee what is there is going to be there in the final release. Games can even get a full rework which may not be what was initially desired.
Don't buy immediately after release. Wait a month or so. Besides games being released in a poor state (lack of optimization, bugs, etc) the games may even get addition things that changes what the product was initially. A month is a fairly good waiting period to look at many reviews. Getting informed is a very helpful thing to avoid losing money.
Wait for a sale. At that point any additional content that is put into the game will be there. Any sneaky aspects thrown in will be known. Just want to remind people of companies sneaking in lootboxes, monetization, and/or drm methods after the initial wave of reviews have been released. No game is really needed to be obtained ASAP.
This is what I've been living by for a long while.
We can kill this trend dead in its tracks if we simply don't buy before the reviews from trusted sources. Personally, I don't buy within the first 3 months of release. That gives them time to add the egregious post review play to win micro-transactions in too.
The one thing common in these ideas is that they're all boring. They promise people to make the most boring, most uninteresting game ever, but it will be big. So big in fact that it makes programming mpossible or inconvenient, so noone in their right mind would try making it.
Did everyone used their brain and waited for release then watch a review problem solved. And as for crowd funding here’s how I go at that. NEVER EVER DONATE. See, games were made before we had crowd funding and so they can still but scammers know people are naturally trusting and kinda dumb so it’s easy to scam people. This IS a huge problem but it’s a problem that’s so easy to fix if everyone could come together cause if people stop giving them scammers will stop this method. Great video my first of yours earned my like and sub