By now, everyone in the world knows that American tipping culture is getting out of hand. That doesn’t mean you can’t introduce another way of “supporting” creators. Mike Ybarra, the former president of Blizzard, shared his desire to tip developers of especially enjoyable games.
“When I beat a game, there are some that just leave me in awe of how amazing the experience was. At the end of the game, I’ve often thought ‘I wish I could give these folks another $10 or $20 because it was worth more than my initial $70 and they didn’t try to nickel and dime me every second.’”
Yea and pirating is a great option too.
Tipping is like paying for DLC / microtransactionw but not getting anything out of it.
Yeah… NAH!
Tipping the individual creatives who made something? Sure. Contributing to the CEO’S bonus cheque? Go fuck yourself.
It’s probably worse, it’s likely largely going to the publishers, not even the CEO of the developer studio.
It was worth more than my initial 70$
What an absolute donkey. Maybe he doesn’t realize, but 70$ can be the difference between a healthy meal every day or not.
There’s games I would pay 60€ for (I can count them on one hand), and I can assure you that the rest is usually worth way less. Ain’t no way I’m leaving an additional tip. What the fuck.
If he likes tipping so much, maybe he can tip the game devs this money directly, considering he likes their game so much. He should start with his own.
Not gonna do that. Twat is gonna take his employees hostage like restaurants doing it in the states.
Get fucked ❤️
That’s essentially what buying the game’s soundtrack is lol
At least make it the gdd or concept art
“Because they sold me the full package and didn’t try to rip me off, I should give them more money, thus ripping myself off voluntarily”
Full price is often already a rip-off.
To be fair I’ve had a similar thought after finishing a couple of games. Both were indie games though and I thought they were underpriced relative to the value that I got out of them. I mostly felt that way because I really really want to encourage good behavior from studios rather than see it all go to microtransactions and subscriptions.
If it actually went to the people working on the game, sure. I’ve done that with multiple small developers. Triple A though, that’s going to go right into management’s pockets.
None of the game he mentions deserve that. I like HZD, but this is the product of a studio owned by a massive company. People who made the game what it is got their work’s worth, and if not, Sony would be to blame.
“Tipping” video game creators already exists. Ask the Dwarf Fortress creators, who have been offering their game for free for decades, and are funded by donations and only since a year ago, the completely optional paid version.
You may remember Mike Ybarra from such hits as
I’ve felt that way that too, but I’ll cut my fingers off before I say I “tipped” Digital Extremes or Tactical Adventures or Eric Barone when I intentionally paid more than I needed to for their games to show support
I’ve paid DE a fair amount of money over the years, but I only ever buy plat when I get the 75% off coupons (which has happened bizarrely often to me) and when I was working. I have over 2k hours in Warframe, and I feel like I was also covering my friend that I play with for when they were unemployed and couldn’t buy anything. Most of my plat goes to gifts for my friends and the occasional shiny thing for myself.
I also really appreciate the fact that it is perfectly possible to get the premium currency without spending a penny yourself through the trading system. Not to mention the fact that there isn’t any content behind a paywall. You can skip some RNG grind or get cosmetics, but the premium currency won’t buy you anything you can’t get otherwise.
(I am probably going to pay for the Tennocon access pass though because the exhibitions and Baro at the relay are actually super awesome)
Yeah the 75% off coupon is a scam. You can be away for 2 weeks on holiday, and the game recognizes you are “back after a long time” and serves you one immediately. Each time I go back to Warframe, I have a 75% coupon waiting for me (I take breaks for like a year or two for them to drop more content).
Which part of that is a scam?
Cool, give me some options like:
- art team
- programming team
- testing team
- game design team
Don’t let the publishers or upper management touch it, only the people who actually worked on the game itself. Pay it out in addition to any bonus/paycheck they’d normally get, as in the amount paid to these people wouldn’t be seen at all by the people in charge of payroll.
But no, that’s not what Mike Ybarra is talking about.
And the potential added problem is that once tipping becomes a large part of their salary they will just decrease their salary and say just to get tipped more. I don’t believe any outcome in this is a win for gamers or devs.
