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."