itch.io

(Again: Just what I’ve experienced myself.) I know barely enough about music to claim that there are people who happen to listen to music, like music, or are into music. I think of these three groups only the last one is likely to leave more of a comment than “I like your tunes.” or know about the finer point of how the music industry works internally (like how money from songs played on the radio gets distributed). To ad a quote from Hunter S. Thompson for color commentary:

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.

Similar things are true with video games. But there is more that can go wrong when playing a game since the interaction is more complex. The game might not run well on any given system. It might have bugs or balancing issues. A player might not have liked the ending. A player might have accessibility issues due to being color blind, not having the reflexes for it, etc.

But it takes them more than 3 to 5 minutes on average to discover that they have these issues and then the sunken cost fallacy kicks in - so they either want all of their money back (because they suspect they are entitled to) or have that game fixed ASAP. And they know that complaining will (sometimes) get stuff fixed, so they become rather vocal about it - I guess.

At least that’s my attempt at explaining what’s going on there.

…Still doesn’t explain why some gamers download house.ogg onto their mp3 player and expect country.mp3 to play… ;)

P.S.: I’m also very much aware that others would probably also describe me as nasty, for pointing out when they acted stupid or broke the rules. They are not entirely wrong, but I feel like giving them an emotional jog is better for everyone than just to leave them be.