Games You/Will Refuse to Buy Out of Protest

[Flailing Escapist]

This is petty, I know but I've bumped into several games over the last few years that based on their history I've flat out refused to buy. I'm deathly afraid that contributing to these games in the slightest could cause another atrocious sequal or series disfiguration in the future.

For instance:

I haven't bought Assassin's Creed: Revelations and I don't ever plan on it. Its sad watching a series that could go anywhere ANYWHERE with such a good start fall to the trap of yearly game making and overusing the same two protagonist. Assassin's Creed II is one of my favorite games of all time and if Ubisoft finally drops Altair and Ezio (off the face of the flat earth) I'll consider it. But as of now Assassin's Creed is dead to me. So maybe if I don't buy AC:R maybe some other people won't either and Ubisoft will get the hint and go back to making better, less thoughtless games.

Any Call of Duty after Modern Warfare 1. I've played a few of the more recent ones. But $15 map packs, really? Call of Duty Elite? Yearly unimprovements? And how many dlc packs did you say you were going to release for MW:3? Plus its not like they need my help with sales anyway.

I may rent the next Fable (not getting the kinect only one) but Lionhead really lost me after Fable 3. Trying to appeal to everyone, more specifically kids (which is odd because you're rated M) made me reconsider our relationship. You'd have to do a lot more next time to impress me, Molyneux.


And DM[sub][sub]motherfucking[/sub][/sub]C
Simply because it's not Dante. Seriously, he's an alternate reality clone or something! Not to mention the emo haircut, he smokes and he doesn't even sound or act like him. The gameplay does look pretty good and pretty but thats all they're getting out of me. Buy the HD remakes. You'll enjoy them much more than this poor excuse for a sequal reboot prequal alternate universe outsourcing of a mess.

These are just some of the more recent ones and I don't think I'll change anything by not participating but hell, I can try.
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TL;DR
Has anybody else been so traumatized by a game in the past that you've flat out refused to indulge the devs by buying any future games?
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Edit: I don't know why it has to be but I feel this is neccesary:

Protest
Noun
1. an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid

Edit: Also to everyone who thinks that saying the word protest once (or three fucking times) means that I'm boycotting and protesting (four fucking times) up and down the internet streets; to the people who can't goddamn read I leave you this:

Spoiler: but really, I love each and every one of you

 

[Hydra Fun]

Modern Warfare 3 for charging full price for something that used to be called an expansion pack. I'm keeping Dead Space 2 and Assassins Creed to rentals for asking us to make u play/ea accounts and give them extra money for features that really should just be free updates for how little they add or how necessary to the game they are (needing to activate multiplayer is bs).

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

Anything developed or published by Ubisoft. I can't stand their shitty customer service, draconian DRM and badmouthing of PC gamers.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

There isnt any game out there that I wont buy out of protest. I mean theres the Call of Duty games but I actually like those, the only reason I dont buy them is because they never go down in goddamn price, if they were the same price as everything else (100 - 120 in New Zealand, CoD games release for about 150) I would gladly buy them

 

[Hydra Fun]

There isnt any game out there that I wont buy out of protest. I mean theres the Call of Duty games but I actually like those, the only reason I dont buy them is because they never go down in goddamn price, if they were the same price as everything else (100 - 120 in New Zealand, CoD games release for about 150) I would gladly buy them

I suppose I'd buy another CoD game/expansion as long as it actually resembled the price of an expansion. As is those games stay at full price longer than any other games and the steam sales for them are usually like 33% off if you're lucky. Too bad Skyrim's kinda the same way, but I have more mercy for Bethesda, since I never had the misfortune of playing the PS3 version of the game.

 

[MoNKeyYy]

I'm not going to buy Mass Effect 3 and I will not buy any EA game simply on a matter of principle. I love Bioware. Let me repeat: I FUCKING LOVE BIOWARE. I've played more KOTOR and Mass Effect 1/2 than I think I have every single other game put together, maybe excluding Bethesda games. But I can't fucking do it anymore.

 

[Haz88]

How to put it? I don't boycot publishers or developers, but there are games that I out of principle buy used or heavily discounted when they are a year old or so. Ubisoft springs to mind with Assasin's Creed 2 and AC: Brotherhood, both of which was a bit more than 75% off when I picked them up and I got Prince of Persia from 2008 used. Come to think of it's actually only Ubisoft that I have a problem with.
As draconian EA is with their Origin, I don't really care about their games. The last EA game I bought full price was C&C Generals ages ago.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

I won't buy Shadow Complex since even a small fraction of money will go to Orson Scott Card. I can't even buy it used...

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Basically anything related to CoD. These do NOT deserve their praise in my opinion. I don't see what's so special bout them, people keep buying them and eating up these expansions (I refuse to consider them full games) and they somehow get full 9-10 scores. Why? They don't do a damn thing but change the plot and characters slightly, a few new guns, new perks, a small handful of new levels, maybe 1 new combat element, and done. Just... no.

 

[Zhukov]

I don't buy any game with always-online DRM. So no Diablo 3 or Assassin's Creed 2 (until the removed it). Fortunately this is yet to prevent me from getting something I really want. Touch wood.

I also refuse to buy Left 4 Dead 2 because of the Australian censorship thing, which is kind of silly since not buying it has absolutely no effect on the people who censored it.

 

[Saegrim]

The closest I've come to boycotting a game out of protest is resolving to only rent Call of Duty sequels until they make actual changes, though I decided to do it a bit late. So far this only applies to Modern Warfare 3, as I bought Black Ops and learned my lesson.

 

[Rednog]

I've thought about it a couple of times, and I rarely want to solid not buy a game even if I don't like something the company is doing, rather than a problem I have with the game itself.
In those situations I just buy used, my money isn't going to the guys I disagree with and I still get to enjoy the game.

 

[CrashTest]

I still haven't bought Arkham City (despite having loved Asylum) because of the whole Catwoman code thing. I'd tolerated the skins, and even Robin being DLC, even though I think it's appalling to lock out content that you've already made, but Catwoman was a huge part of the marketing and they announced the buy new element so late in the day.

It would have been one of my few first day purchases, but now I'm waiting for it to plummet in price so that they get as little of my money as possible, without me missing out on content.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

No more Fable for me. Peter Molyneux ruined a perfectly fine RPG and turned it into a action-adventure.

Fable 1 was a wonderful RPG with an interesting premise about living the life of a warrior, mage, and archer. The character development in terms of physical properties is something impressive, even to this day.

Fable 2 was a good action-adventure game with most of the RPG elements from Fable 1 but had very little character developement. It focused more around the idea of morality instead actual play styles of melee, magic, and archery.

Fable 3 was a linear action game with little to no RPG elements. It was short, anti-climactic, and easy to beat. Not a single health potion is neccessary throughout the entire journey. This entry had an even stronger grip of the morality sytem and forced you to make choices that would affect the game world drastically, and these changes are minimal at best. I've never been so dissapointed in a game in all my life.

And now he plans to make a kinect title all about magic and carriage races? No, I just give up.

Rant over.

 

[mikeybuthge]

I know that protesting and boycotting is something we gamers do, and I can see why if you live somewhere games cost over $100, but I only ever pay $70 unless I get a collectors edition or something, so the extra few bucks for DLC every few months is fine with me, budget and afford, budget and afford

 

[JCBFGD]

UbiSoft games because of their DRM. Infinity Ward games because they have published glorified total conversions of the same game for the past, what, five years? Blizzard games for their DRM and their unintentional but un-apologised-for endorsement of sweatshops. Treyarch games for their uncompleted status upon release.

All that according to a list of boycotted companies I have. I'm on the cusp of boycotting EA for their endorsement of SOPA.

 

[Varil]

In general, always-on DRM games get immediately dropped off my "to-do" list. I liked AC 1 and AC:Brotherhood, and the over all plot seems liked it'd be interesting...if it would ever go anywhere. Until it does, I think AC might also be off my Christmas list.

Disgaea, and Nippon Ichi games in general used to be on my "YES RIGHT NOW" list, but they seem less and less interesting with each iteration. I loved Disgaea, liked Disgaea 2, and only "sort-of-kinda" liked Disgaea 3. I don't regret to purchase, but they've fallen down to my "observe before purchase" list.

I try to avoid big name publishers in general until after I've seen gameplay and read reviews about their games, because they seem the most prone to falling into repetition and becoming stagnant.

I don't foresee myself buying any Nintendo products until they get off their gimmick kick.

Basically, I'm not actively boycotting anything, but there are tons of things I simply won't buy because of decisions I see as stupid or just plain boring.

 

[LookingGlass]

1. Anything with always-on DRM will have to be a once-in-a-generation piece of awesomeness for me to buy it.

2. Assassin's Creed 2.5, 2.75, etc. Give me 3 or give me nothing. 1 was a good start, 2 was a great next step, and its' been stagnant since then as far as I'm concerned.

3. Madden games. I'm not paying EA to update rosters and often make things worse each year. As much as I want a football game... I just can't do that.

 

[bakan]

Well, I don't buy any Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard Activision games (I generally avoid draconic DRM) and [insert generic sequel/prequel 'x' here] - that's about it.

Oh, and I'll probably avoid any future Bioware games if they keep making games like DA2 (and ME2 to some extend).