“That’s all I can stands and I can’t stands no more!”
I’m calling for the general boycott of Rockstar Games and it’s parent company, Take 2, and all of their products until they do something to apologize and make up for neglecting the Red Dead Online, RDO, community and the game itself!
Rockstar Turns Off the RDO Tap
If you haven’t heard, Rockstar Games publicly announced that it was not going to producing any new content for Red Dead Online, to the great disappointment of many of its fans who had been hanging on, literally for years, in hopes that Red Dead Online would be getting the same respect and treatment that a beautiful, well made, record breaking video game would and should get.
Over the past few years, we have been steadily moving more development resources towards the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series — understanding more than ever the need to exceed players’ expectations and for this next entry to be the best it can possibly be — and as a result, we are in the process of making some changes to how we support Red Dead Online.
Is RDO Rockstar’s Forgotten Step Child?
Why has RDO been left on the side of the road like a lame horse? I have a pretty solid theory.
Rockstar games are the makers of Grand theft auto V And Grand theft auto online, the “other” best selling video game of all time. Rockstar Games is notorious for its silence when it comes to the future plans for its games, however, going silent for over two years and then dropping a bombshell like their announcement to focus on an older property after stringing players along is a little more than I could stomach as a gamer and a fan. Especially knowing the background of the gaming industry, the mechanics that go into developing a video game for online play, creating and testing assets, and getting those elements into a live game. There’s no excuse for this mistreatment of fans, especially after a movement like #SaveRDO which went viral and even had some celebrities calling for Rockstar Games to give the players some RDO love.
Rockstar has already tested out all the behind the scenes gameplay mechanics that goes into developing a major MMORPG, with Grand theft online over the last 10 years. A decade of learning and changing the industry. There shouldn’t be many surprises for them as developers, if there are, they should be familiar with the bug fixes by now. It often felt like Rockstar was learning how to code with every new update. It was horrible! There were instances in RDO where the game was not patched after a major update for 6 to 9 months, with critical game errors for over half of its players. Being that I was familiar with online multiplayer games and workarounds for bugs until fixes are available, I personally didn’t suffer as badly as some other player’s when it came to leveling and grinding. I feel so foolish, I got so used to using workarounds that I had pretty much forgotten that they were work arounds to begin with and just became a part of trying to play RDO in a productive way.
Campsites would go missing for days, which are critical to running Cripps missions. PVP would constantly crash and freeze on black screens. Playing with A posse was very frustrating when one out of every three players was having some sort of connection issue, or moonshine missions would stay stuck on a black screen leaving the player no other option but to quit and restart the game.
How to Build Trust in an MMO Community
When I think of the games that I like to play, I tend to pick games that have longevity. I don’t like when games have 45-100 hours of game play and that’s the end. Red Dead Redemption 2 had about 70 hours of gameplay and that was ok for me, it was a beautiful and wonderful gaming experience. I was also forgiving because players were going to be getting an online multiplayer experience of the Wild West all of our own. It never happened, it came close, but then ran for the border.
Games like Skyrim and No Man’s Sky have been two games that, despite their age, still continue to publish new content updates and patches to keep its player base happy and engaged. They don’t string players along in an attempt to have a better “earnings call”. I don’t even think I could give Hello Games more money for No Man’s Sky…if I could, I would! I most definitely don’t mind supporting games I love. I recently just purchased the latest Predator: Hunting Grounds DLC because that game developer, IllFonic, cares about its fans and published a “Prey” update within a month of the movie being released, which was very well received by the viewing audience.
When I first heard that Rockstar was starting production on Red Dead Redemption II my hopes, As well As the hopes of millions of other gamers, were raised because we assumed we would be getting the same game experience that rockstar has given it’s a Grand Theft Online fanbase. Players assumed we would be able to do a lot of what we were able to do in single player online, just with friends. I had expected that RDO fans were going to get the same type of experience without the hiccups, bugs, and downtime from learning that the early GTO players experienced. Rockstar should have learned many lessons in regards to release windows and updates in order to keep fans happy.
When Grand Theft Online first came out I had a lot of friends that were into the game. To me, it never appealed to my interests. I’m not that into hip-hop or urban culture. I never picked up the game, I had no interest in the game despite the constant encouragement of friends and family to play. I do recall that the friends that were playing the game complained about the lack of content that Grand theft Online had. It wasn’t until about three years into GTO’s release that the updates and downloadable content began to bring back and impress its player base…so much so that the game began to shatter sales records again. It continues to be the biggest earner of any live MMORPG.
Red Dead Redemption II had already been delayed from its original release date by about six months, and that should’ve been the first indicator that there was trouble on the horizon. When Red Dead Redemption II finally was released, it broke records world wide for units sold and players online, once online was launched.
The Wasted Years of Build-Up to RDO
When RDO finally released to much anticipation and excitement, I know that I was among the fans that were waiting online for the server to update. I was also among the many fans that was disappointed with the limited amount of gameplay options that were brought over from the single player version. There was no poker, no five finger knife game, no bank robberies, horse catching, mercy killing, or stage coach robberies.
We finally got Mercy Killing as a unlockable skill, almost 2 years after it’s release. Until then, we just had to listen to the “silence of the lambs”.
Some Gamers Are Simply Done with Rockstar
There is absolutely no reason for a masterpiece like Red Dead Redemption II to have gone without a DLC or update for this long. This is where my anger and theory about Rockstar comes into play: Rockstar inadvertently created a formula for success with GTO. Rockstar was able to string along the player base for GTO for almost 3 years. When GTO started to lose money and players, Rockstar began to release constant updates turning GTO into the game that the fans have always wanted.
It comes as a real slap in the face to die hard loyal gamers when I compare how one company treats its fan base versus the other. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been playing no man’s sky since 2016 and hello games has constantly updated the game and released new content free of charge for its community. I was commenting to one of my buddies who I play no man’s sky with online, still, that Everything that NMS gives away is for free or is earned by completing missions and expeditions. Grand theft online and Red Dead Online, as of the last take 2 shareholder call was that both games (RDO/GTO) were in the “black” and still breaking records around the world.
What burns me about Rockstar is that the content for RDO is there. Rockstar could’ve updated the game with train robberies and properties two years ago and continue to develop and invest new gameplay aspects or DLC. But, no.
At this point, I predict that Rockstar will continue to drip feed small content updates until GTO starts to die off and lose money. At this rate we are looking at another year or two. I’m not waiting for that. I’m calling bullshit and I think that if there are insiders in Rockstar that know of what they are holding back to the consumers they should let it be known to the community.
Rockstar’s only concern is money, not player happiness, so the players and consumers only choice is to start boycotting, not only RDO and GTO but all of Take 2 interactive products. If we players don’t stick it to Rockstar where they care, they might inspire other greedy companies to follow in Rockstar’s footsteps for their future DLC release model.
Keeping players unhappy and thirsty for content has worked well for Rockstar. the fans are partially to blame for being so appeasing in their demands and happy to get a Rockstar Cracker when they are supposed to be dining on Rockstar Lobster. Stop feeding this one sided and toxic relationship. Rockstar wants our money, stop giving it to them!
Boycott Rockstar and Take 2!
