A term used to describe members of the games industry that use patches for their games to reduce the value of those games in order to sell a solution to the problem they create.
This can be
done by introducing new or additional loot boxes and/or microtransactions to games that already have an up-
front price tag, or by downgrading a product by stripping features out of it after the initial sale so that they can be reintroduced at a
later date for either a monetary value or a
PR boost some time after the initial backlash has died down.
Sam: "My 17-year-
old game now requires an inferior launcher to
run and I can't
play any of my favorite game modes offline, all because the company that made it is trying to
force everyone to buy Warcraft 3 Reforged! Even some of the graphics options, like character shadows, aren't available to me any more!"
James: "Activision/Blizzard's surprise mechanics at work."
Sam: "I used to really enjoy Trials Rising, but now that loot boxes are a
thing, the rest of the game just doesn't seem fun any more. I'm constantly feeling like I need to spend
money just so my character looks half as good as the others and there's no guarantee that I'll get the
thing I actually want in order to do that."
James: "Looks like Ubisoft's surprise mechanics really hurt this game, huh?"
Sam: "Is that your word for loot boxes?"
James: "No. It's the staff at Ubisoft that introduced them."
Sam: "I'm so sick of
EA and 2K sticking loot boxes into their yearly releases of FIFA and NBA! The rest of the game isn't even that good any more, like it's about as meaningful as the brand on the top of a slot machine at Las Vegas!"
James: "You'
re not
wrong. There are probably more surprise mechanics working on these games than actual game developers now."
