So I haven’t touched Mortal Kombat 11 in a solid month, and I think I know why.
Well, besides me constantly seeking power and/or revenge in online matches of Smash Ultimate. One day I’ll get someone into Elite Smash.
Maybe this madlad?
As I’ve said before, I used to hate Mortal Kombat in general. It never really registered as a “real” fighting game; just a mass of gimmicks packaged, if not forcibly crammed, into the genre. Ever since Injustice 1 came out, though, I’ve been feeling better and better about NetherRealm Studios’ output. Are the games my cup of tea? Not entirely, given that I’ve fallen off with each successive game despite nodding in approval at them. But just because you’re not a diehard fan doesn’t mean that you can’t show respect for good work.
And yeah, I respect Mortal Kombat 11. Mostly. I can get past it not being like Street Fighter or any number of eastern-based fighting games (even if it does feel awkward and obtuse at times because of it), but I’m still not a fan of the sound design. The music is just too forgettable, the voice acting is kind of uneven -- particularly during fights -- and the power of the effects is generally only there when you get those Krushing Blows or land your Fatal move. And the aesthetics really don’t do it for me.
That said? I still appreciate it as a fighting game. One edge that western fighters have over the others is that there’s often an extra layer of creativity with its cast. Skullgirls, Killer Instinct, and this; character-specific mechanics are always a delight to have around on top of the fundamentals. You have options for offense and defense, as always, but what really threw me for a loop was the fact that there are Third Strike-style parries (give or take). Let it be known, for all posterity, that you can put together some dazzling combos if you practice to learn them…oh, and have meter mid-battle.
In theory, I should be learning Jax and Cetrion instead of wanting to cave in my own skull after fighting yet another Pichu, Yoshi, Ness, Ganondorf, or Jigglypuff. In theory, I should be unlocking more and more goodies by exploring the Krypt. In theory, I should have cleared the story mode a long time ago, and thus spent time going over that instead of bothering with a post like this. But I haven’t. I just haven’t been in the mood to go through all of it. Or any of it. And to its credit (and my defense), there have been times when I’ve thought “I should play MK11 and git gud!” Then five seconds later I’d go “Urrrrrrrrrrmngh…” and…not do that.
Here’s the problem for me. MK11 is broken beyond repair, and I have a hard time seeing myself willingly going back to it. The worst part? It’s not even the game’s fault.
Well, not entirely.
This was to be expected of a game published by Warner Bros., but MK11 has been at the center of several controversies. Microtransactions and sneaky monetization schemes hit me the hardest; I remember going through some of the single-player content, only to A) look at the myriad, unexplained types of currency, going “Oh, what the hell is this?” and getting too discouraged to ever give it a second look, and B) realize that I had a massive grind ahead of me if I wanted to unlock anything worth my time. It’s like Overwatch on a cocktail of steroids and Bane’s Venom, only without any waifus to mask the grind.
I mean, Cassie Cage has the cutest Fatality ever, but that doesn’t count.
What’s important is that NRS has been called out multiple times over the microtransaction racket. And rightly so; in a number of cases, those “mini-buys” are in there because the game’s been tweaked -- to its detriment -- to necessitate purchases and thus bypass the grind. Ed Boon himself came out and said that players won’t have to spend so much (more than 6000 buckaroos, according to some fans’ math) to unlock content. Fair enough, but the follow-up question I have is “Okay, so how much would they need to spend, then?” The fact that the answer is greater than zero is a problem.
It’s bad enough that the players have to grind so much, but even worse for the people behind it to grind and have their lives depend on it. NRS is one of several high-profile developers caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and forcing their workers to face extreme working conditions to put out the next big game or update. The “crunch culture” is making headlines, but according to anonymous sources this has been going on for a while -- as far back as MK9 within NRS’ walls, meaning there’s been a solid eight years of what might as well be physical and emotional abuse. I mean, come on. It literally only takes a five-second Google search to learn that excessive overtime is harmful. Why are you like this, game industry?
And with NRS/MK11, it might be even worse. Now there have been reports of the developers -- the men and women actively making these games -- coming down with PTSD symptoms over this. And as a reminder? “This” means lavishly rendering some of the bloodiest, goriest action yet seen in a video game. Also, “this” translates to violence that -- outside of some persistent, round-to-round battle damage -- ends up meaning nothing no matter how lethal the blow. Also also, “this” is content that players only have to experience for 10-30 seconds at a time. The people who made this had to spend months going over every single detail -- details that might as well put them on the front lines of a war.
There’s the controversy over the level of violence in the game. Then there’s the controversy over the ladies wearing more clothes than earlier games. Then there’s the controversy over Jax’s Arcade ending, what with some calling it racist and/or promoting white genocide. It’s one issue, one argument, one problem after another -- all for a game whose relevance has a very strict shelf life by virtue of WB and NRS putting out the next big fighter in a couple of years. It’s like, does the game even matter anymore? Does it really?
I guess if we’re talking about sales figures, then yeah. But more sales means more people have more exposure to more problems. Maybe they’ll miss the outrage and debates over the other controversies, but I’ll bet that more than a few gamers have gotten riled up over the single-player content. Patches will come and fix things -- as they already have -- but A) I’d like to think that the players won’t forget what the devs/publisher thought was OK to ship, and B) it’s another way to strain the unspoken contract between the customer and producer. We’re talking about tainted goods as much as we are a game.
Granted, I may be projecting a bit here. Or a lot, really. Not everybody feels the way I do. But since I can only speak for myself, I’ll be honest: knowing full well a lot of the issues orbiting the game, on a subconscious level MK11 has become toxic to me. Why bother with a fighting game I’m not going to stick with, especially if it means going through single-player content that won’t net me real rewards and may actively become impossible without extreme grinding?
But the bigger question is simple: is it right to play this game? I mean, I didn’t buy it myself; my brother the fighting game junkie did, and I’m an owner by proxy. So does that mean I’m part of the problem, reveling in the intense strain the workers had to endure for my entertainment? Or is it an insult to not play the game and honor their hard work? Should I refuse to play WB/NRS products until they change their ways, and use spaces like this to advocate a boycott for the sake of better conditions? Or should I play into the hands of the purse-holders and buy even more -- be it the actual game, or a swath of microtransactions -- as tribute to the men and women who risked death for one more Scorpion combo?
All I know for sure is that the game industry is a mess. And it’s probably only going to get worse from here.
I’m pretty sure I’ve said somewhere on this very blog that the prospect of future game development scared me shitless. At the time, I was talking about the then-upcoming eighth generation, with the likes of the PS4 and Xbone. Now Sony’s trying to get people hyped about the PS5, and I’m just sitting here screaming “NoooooooooooOOOOOOOOOO!” Game development -- particularly in the AAA space -- is a sneeze away from being in complete and utter shambles. Why not wait until everyone can handle themselves without tripping over themselves before dragging the needle forward with new hardware?
Games have (generally) gotten better now, but remember the transitional phase from the PS3 to the PS4? How it seemed like countless developers forgot how to make games and/or stories? We’re about to go through that all over again, I bet. And to what end? I thought that at this point, we’ve reached a limit on how much games can be improved with raw hardware power. I would assume that going forward, devs are going to either use their collective wisdom to work smarter, not harder, or focus more on developing unique styles to get the most out of machines without carpet-bombing every bank in the continental United States.
But then I remember that Anthem happened, and realize that nobody’s learned anything.
What’s the endgame here? Just look at the playing field. Countless studios have been shuttered, with more on the chopping block. Whole genres have evaporated, save for indie endeavors. Game after game after game struggles to make ridiculous amounts of money, and devs have to resort to horrifically distorting their game with microtransactions to appease shareholders that don’t understand how any of this works. And worst of all, actual humans and actual human lives are getting broken just for easily-ignored details like realistic intestines or horse junk. Yep. That happened.
I guess what I’m getting at here is that a huge swath of this industry is fucked, and the ones who are poisoning the well in the first place are actively dumping more toxic goo in there. MK11 is proof enough of that. It won’t be the last. Before the year’s out, we’ll have even more botches to read up on in the industry. More technical blunders, more virtual con jobs, more controversies mucking up America’s new favorite pastime. And even if, somehow, we manage to have smooth sailing for the next six months, there’s no doubt that the PS5, the Xbox Whatever, and any other competitors (Google Stadia, I guess?) will do their damnedest to make us take zero steps forward and two steps back. Onto a pile of broken glass, hot coals, and Lego bricks.
Normally this would be the part where I’d offer a call to action, or end on some random joke, but right now it’s hard to suggest anything to anyone reading this. So instead, I’ll cram a message in a bottle and hope that those feelings can reach someone, somewhere, who can actually make a difference immediately.
Game industry? You need a day one patch, urgently. Fix it or die.
Kthxbai.
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