Wow.  100 friggin' episodes.  Never thought I'd get this far.  There sure is a lotta sh*t that annoys me! 

Well, this momentous occasion deserves something special, so here's something that really, really, REALLY grinds my gears: constantly changing modern games.

This is probably going to be a polarizing, controversial issue.  Pffft.    Oh well.  This is just my opinion and perspective.  I f*cking hate how all games today are constantly updated and changed.  I miss the days of finished, completed games--the days of physical media, the days of cartridges.  Now, I don't actually miss the physical media--I much prefer downloading games on Steam or GOG, but what I miss are the days when games were released in a finished state, and then stayed that way.  I despise how games are perpetually changing now.

Every game is in an unfinished, ever-evolving state.  Everything is in constant flux.  Nothing is permanent.  Nothing is safe.  You can't count on anything.  No matter what game it is, everything could change tomorrow.  That feature you love so much?  Could be gone tomorrow.  Your favorite weapon?  Could be nerfed into the ground tomorrow.  Your favorite map, stage, or tileset?  Could be gone tomorrow.  NOTHING IS SAFE.  It's like you can't even buy a game anymore--it's more like you're buying... idk... like a season pass to a theme park where any ride could be torn down or changed at any time, because it's their park, not yours.  That's games today.  It's not your game, even though you bought it.  It's a season pass to their park.

My friends and I love Sanctum 2.  It's one of our favorite multiplayer games.  It's a FPS/tower defense game.  We used to have such a slick combo.  (You don't have to actually know what this means to get the point.)  We used the mind control tower and orbital laser to devastating effect.  We had an almost unbeatable strategy.  It wasn't overpowered (imo) because it was a finely honed and practiced strategy that we had invented and perfected over a long period of time.  It was awesome, fun, and hilarious.  Then, after years of the game being out, the devs nerfed the mind control tower into oblivion and made it virtually useless.  Our strategy was dead.  The game was never as much fun since.

We also love Risk of Rain.  Both of 'em.  ROR2 is amazing, and another of our favorites.  A recent update to it (possibly the one you see in the banner picture) supposedly nerfed and killed one of our favorite aspects of the game.  As of time of writing, we haven't tried it yet, so we don't know the damage.  I'm afraid to see.  I f*cking HATE this world of gaming fear--living in constant terror that the next time you log in, your favorite game will have been wrecked.  While you were asleep, the devs came in and took a hammer to everything you loved about it.  It's not f*cking fair.  IT'S BULLSH*T.

Alright, let's hear the counter arguments--but, but, but, but, game breaking this and OP that!  BALANCE!  Yeah, fine, whatever.  I get it.  I don't really object to minor balance tweaks, particularly in pvp games.  But there's a huge difference between tweaking some numbers to be more fair and outright gutting, removing, or destroying your favorite weapons, abilities, builds, etc.

That debate aside, I just feel that there's something highly unethical about buying a game, ostensibly owning it, then having it ripped apart and changed, sometimes years, sometimes a decade later.  I tolerate it with something like Warframe (one of my favorites) because it's a free-to-play model.  It's a double-edged sword and there are aspects that annoy me for sure, but there's also some really cool aspects to the constantly-evolving multiplayer model, too.  I tolerate the aspects I don't like, and it's fair for the devs to change it because I don't own it.  It's free.  And if you choose to make some in game purchases, you do it with informed consent that things may change.  But when you buy and own a game, that's different.  It's not right for them to rip apart and change sh*t years later in a game you own.

You know what that's like?  That'd be like if you bought a painting, hung it on your wall, then one day, unannounced, the artist breaks into your house and completely changes the painting because they decided they like it better this way.  Could you imagine that?  Would that be acceptable in any way shape or form?  Of course not!  Well, that's the world of modern games, and I f*cking hate it.

I know, I know--the solution is to just buy GOG.  They can't update it if you just play offline with everything local and DRM free.  Yup, yup.  That's true, and that's why I do that with many games, but that's a lot harder to do with multiplayer games.  It's really inconvenient to get an online group together that way.  Steam is is just so much easier for multiplayer, especially with the Friends integration and all that.  Not to mention than not everything is available DRM free on GOG.  Skyrim on PC, for example, is a Steam exclusive for some bullsh*t reason, despite Oblivion and Morrowind being on GOG.  It just sucks being beholden to whatever the devs (or Valve for that matter) want to do.  The devs and Valve giveth, and they can taketh away.

Every single feature of every single game now has to treated as "enjoy it now while you can," and inevitably everything changes, and then it's "whelp, it was fun while it lasted."

I desperately miss buying a finished game and being able to count on it staying the same.  Every time I log into Steam and see that everything I loved and was accustomed to changed, I just wanna:

And that, dear ponies, is what grinds my gears.  See you next time.