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.’”
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.
That’s why it’s so critical that the bosses never know how much they get tipped.
That’s a very good point, I never thought about that.
“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.
Yeah I agree with the idea of once I beat a really good game I want to support the creator more. Baldurs Gate 3 was so good, and there was nothing to buy, so I bought another copy for a friend. Who later bought his wife a copy.
The gift of another sale and sharing the game by word of mouth is the highest praise.
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.
You may remember Mike Ybarra from such hits as
Tipping is like paying for DLC / microtransactionw but not getting anything out of it.
Yeah… NAH!
Not gonna do that. Twat is gonna take his employees hostage like restaurants doing it in the states.
Get fucked ❤️
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.
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?
It’s the regular price basically. You get it so often it might just as well be on 75% discount all the time. If you play warframe, you know it’s funny.
I tended to get them when I was logging in regularly. I figure 2k hours for me and around another 2k hours for my friend is worth the amount I’ve paid in. It’s pennies per hour of entertainment and it’s a better game with a nicer community than a lot of the AAA titles out there. Also, to my knowledge, DE seems to treat their employees fairly well and I would rather give my money to that kind of studio as opposed to the more abusive ones out there.
Yea and pirating is a great option too.
Last time I actually wanted to give money to creators was The Witcher series after finishing 3. It was so mind blowing. And I still had two DLC to play (still not played B&W). And I did not pay full price, because by the time I had finished 2, the third was regularly on sale.
But then I remembered they already are choke full of money and my extra money isn’t gonna go to the devs doing crunch time, it’ll just be more money in their money pool. So I thought, this time, I’ll pre-purchased CP2077 because I absolutely loved the rpg as a teen and they can’t fick that up. But then of course I remembered not to be an idiot. So I waited for a day one full price purchase but well, they fucked that up, didn’t they. And they still made money hand over fist!What I’m saying is, he can go eat a full bag of dicks. I’ll keep voting with my wallet. And that means good games get my money, good devs also get my money, and that means he’s never gonna get a dime from me, ever again.
What a muppet.
You know who I would actually like to tip? JAV actresses I have wanked to for donkey years without ever purchasing one of their DVDs. I reckon most of those ladies work harder that this twat and deserve more love. And money. But like Gaben said, verily, it’s all a question of access.
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.
Most of the games id be willing to pay $60 for are indie games that are <$20.
Hollow knight comes to mind. Diablo does not.
“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.’”
Telling that he doesn’t think that paying higher wages is an option.
In my opinion, everybody who is over 13 and hasn’t grasped that AAA-gaming is not about good games anymore, is a fool.
Just play indie games.
Dinosaurs must die.
Has he even suggested that the tips were to go directly to the game devs? I had assumed he meant tipping the company. Call me cynical or something idk.
Let’s make it mandatory that 15-20% of gross sales be given directly to developers, once sales start. That would fix this. Customers can choose within that range. But let’s make it default to 20%.
Asking for tips IS nickel and diming.
You know this guy tips his wife after sex.
I tip his wife as well afterwards, want her to have gas money to leave.
Stop giving Ybarra attention, news outlets. He’s fucking terrible.
