Why do corporate perceive gamers as idiots?

[Brigand Boy]

Gamers aren't a single block of people. The group includes stupid people, smart people, republicans, democrats, anarchists, physicists, doctors, garbage collectors, men, women, non-binary robots (Zenyatta, imo), and so on.

The one unifying condition of being a gamer is that you enjoy and play games (beyond just Candy Crush and Farmville). Beyond that, the full human spectrum can be involved.

So what does that mean to corporations? Because they DO seem to act like we are stupid as a group.

I think it's simple; the people they interact with the most and the people who give them the most money are whales. People who spend thousands (if not tens or hundreds of thousands) of dollars a year on lootboxes and microtransations. Imagine being in that industry and knowing that people will buy a "Red Dot" for $1. I doubt that it would be possible to maintain respect for that group of people, and as a person working behind the scenes, it may be hard (or impossible) to separate those gamers from the rest.

I mean, they encounter two major groups. One are the whales, and the other are the group of loudmouths who complain about the stuff the whales love spending money on. In a way, it's no wonder that many people in the industry are constantly making the mistake of saying that "gamers are entitled." It's a pretty stupid mistake on their part, and they are losing money because of it.

TL;DR: Yes, they think we are stupid because they think we are all the same, and that's not very smart of them.

[isturbo1984]

Old people and old stereotypes. You basically have the older generation that are the CEOs of these companies that don't play games themselves and think we are all children. It's very, very hard to treat people you perceive as an absolute fucking retards as an hard-working adults who can think for themselves. We all do it. It's just weird that this is how the older generation thinks of us.

[Ryan]

because...a lot of gamers are useful idiots. Especially when you expand "gamer" to define anyone person that plays games, even if it's a grandmother or 5 year old playing P2W mobile farming games. Consumer ignorance has always been a powerful ally to business. Mobile games has redefined or blurred the dichotomy and have become successful experiments on how far people are willing to split with their wallet. I guess you can blame mobile gamers that do the P2W model for being the worse of all useful idiots.

[k4far]

How do you do fellow "useful idiots". We do not need any rights since we are the products.

[FeroxInimicus]

This way of corporate mentality will bring a bubble to the market causing AAA of Devs, Publisher to close down or be acquired by bigger conglomerates. The era of indie, private companies will be more the norm as soon as the tech and software keeps evolving. We can see this now with Activision and Bungie going their separate ways.

[GermanCrayon664]

Most gamers aren't as active online like in forums so they don't look at whats going wrong as much as we do so they are why games that don't deserve sales keep getting top sellers. Most gamers aren't stupid, most of us don't have the time to learn and realize whats wrong and why

[Saskia]

Seriously, if you don't like these games or the companies who make them, then stop giving them your money! Nobody's got a gun to your head, forcing you to buy them. There are literally 1000s of other games out there to play, from more respectable developers who actually care about making good games.

So who are the real idiots, really? The AAA companies who make these games, or the people who continue to throw money at them while bitching about how greedy they are?

[Damian Cunliffe]

Probably because the main mass of gamers are "idiots". Idiot is the wrong word though, I think "casuals" is the more correct word. There are two types of gamer:

There's the relentless consumer that plays only the most popular games and spends like hell on their microtransactions (Fortnite, PUBG, CoD, etc)

Then there's the "real" gamer. The real gamer may play all of those above popular games as well, but the real gamer doesn't just play games, they enjoy gaming as more than just a passtime. These are the types of gamers that care when developers and publishers start pushing their luck and attempt some fightback against it.

There are tens of millions of casual gamers, not so many "real" gamers.

[Kawoom]

the pc gaming market is at the moment so diverse like never before. from greedy aaa publishers releasing part 6 of a series full of microtransaction to high quality games of revived genres like turn based strategy or crpg's to unique genre mixes and new ideas in the indi segment. so fuck greedy corporate companies on the stock market and just buy real games from real dedicated devs. why they percieve gamers as idiots? well the majority are, look at the sales of games and you will see that the most uncreative consumer unfriendly rubbish is sold most. gamers get what they deserve, simple as that

[fenrif]

Seriously, if you don't like these games or the companies who make them, then stop giving them your money! Nobody's got a gun to your head, forcing you to buy them. There are literally 1000s of other games out there to play, from more respectable developers who actually care about making good games.

So who are the real idiots, really? The AAA companies who make these games, or the people who continue to throw money at them while bitching about how greedy they are?

I could just as easily ask why you personally complain about this while spending thousands of dollars on mobile pay to win microtransactions.

The people in this thread are not the ones who give people money for being treated like an idiot. Not everyone who buys video games is in this thread. The people who call out AAA devs and publishers for being greedy are not the ones who buy their games.

Obvioulsy no one is forcing anyone to buy these games. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be highlighted as being crappy, exploitative and greedy.

[Saskia]

The people who call out AAA devs and publishers for being greedy are not the ones who buy their games.

So you're saying not a single person here buys AAA games? And you know this for a fact do you?

[fenrif]

So you're saying not a single person here buys AAA games? And you know this for a fact do you?

So you're saying everyone here buys all AAA games at full price? And you know this for a fact do you?

Neither of us know either of these things for a fact. Why are you pretending otherwise when it comes to you casting snide aspersions at everyone?

[Erebus]

Why do corporate perceive gamers as idiots?

Because of fanboys buying anything associated with a brand and defending anything their fav company does.

[morh]

Why? Because TidePod Generation happened and Idiocracy went from comedy to documentary.

The sad truth nobody wants to loudly admit is: put glitter on shit and someone *will* buy it. There's always gonna be some iDiot willing to pay for the "newest" sports game.

[HunterEste]

Honestly, it's like any industry, their customers are just pay pigs in their eyes. They may claim to put on a "customers first!" mentality, but behind closed doors we are all just numbers and metrics to them. Their only concern with us is understanding how to get us to spend more money on their products.