Ubisoft Pestering Far Cry 6 Players For Not Playing Enough

Ubisoft Pestering Far Cry 6 Players For Not Playing Enough

Players of Far Cry 6, a singleplayer action game, are being told "surely you can do better than this"

kotaku.com

Ubisoft Harasses Far Cry 6 Players For Not Playing Enough

archived 27 Oct 2021 15:16:16 UTC

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Players of Far Cry 6, a singleplayer action game, are being told "surely you can do better than this"​

By
Luke Plunkett

Image: Ubisoft / Kotaku
One of the bleakest things about modern video gaming is the way major publishers are obsessed with not just gaining your attention but keeping it, holding it trapped and exposed to their monetary ecosystems for as long as humanly possible while they do everything they can to bleed you dry.
It’s an accepted part of life while playing live service and other heavily online-focused games, from League of Legends to FIFA to Destiny, but at least in those spaces players are being met in the middle, since people are playing those games all the time anyway.
It’s not the kind of tactic you want or expect to see while playing a (mostly) singleplayer adventure, but here comes Ubisoft anyway. Earlier today the publisher began sending out emails to players goading them with some in-universe taunting from the game’s antagonist, before rounding up their statistics—like hours played and enemies killed—and being told in all caps “SURELY YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS”.



Here’s an example of the email, sent to us by a reader:

Image: Ubisoft / Kotaku

While some players have been getting the email having only played a handful of hours in the game, this reader had spent 33 hours in Far Cry 6! That’s more than most reviewers will have spent, and Ubisoft is still coming for them!
As you can probably guess, the point of the email wasn’t to give players a little taste of the fourth wall in their inbox, or to egg them on out of a sense of concern that they hadn’t seen all the narrative twists and environments lovingly crafted by Far Cry 6's artists and developers.
No, the point was, as it is with all of Ubisoft’s singleplayer games lately, to keep you playing the game for as long as possible so that you’re as exposed to the game’s attempts to sell you things for as long as possible. Assassin’s Creed players will be all too familiar with the hustle, as they’ve been increasingly bombarded with ads to buy new weapons, armour and skins every time they log on to the full-priced singleplayer adventure they just want to play in peace.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Jesus Christ, journalists can't let go of Far Cry can they?

Maybe if this upsets you faggots so much just unsubscribe from Ubisoft news emails?

 

[Penis Drager]

Bruh, it's a cookie-cutter automated email that was probably sent to literally everyone on the mailing list regardless of what their stats were. Even more: time played was just one of four metrics included in the stats. This article could just as easily be titled "Farcry 6 scolds players for not killing enough" and that would probably be more faithful to the intention of the email than this garbage.

 

[Dysnomia]

Reminds me of some of those 90s game mag ads. Always taunting you about your skills.

But if you already played tens of hours, getting an email telling you to waste more time when you might already be done is obnoxious. I think if the email had been paired with a free item it would have been kind of funny. It just doesn't come off the way they probably wanted it too.

 

[SiccDicc]

this reader had spent 33 hours in Far Cry 6! That’s more than most all reviewers will have spent

Fixed that for ya. Also, that's pretty easy when the most you play is five hours.

 

[Mike Stoklasa]

Sorry I can't hear you because I have to go to the Millennial Fair again.

 

[Product Placement]

This would make me not want to play the game, yeah it's easy to unsubscribe but it's not something anyone should need to do in the first place.

 

[Looney Troons]

Ubisoft sends emails in a similar vein for every one of their games. The reason this one strikes such a nerve is because muh communism and journos can’t get over the fact that the game is selling well despite their poor marks.

I also received this email, alongside similar for Assassin’s Creed, etc. and I, personally, find them quite annoying - but that’s it. A minor inconvenience. I just delete them and move on. The fact of the matter is that a lot of gamers will receive this email, be dazzled by the numbers or the fact that the game is talking to them, and return to it. It’s a clever way to encourage engagement with pertinent metrics, but it can be a bit much.

 

[X Pac Heat]

I've never seen so many self important people get upset at a mediocre game as I have with "gamers" and Far Cry 6.

 

[The Last Stand]

I love being chastised by a game for not playing enough. Delete.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

chad stanley parable telling me to go outside tho and getting an achievement for not playing the game for 5 years

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

Huh.

So the email gives you your stats, has the antagonist mock you a little, give you a link to some Help FAQ's in case you're having trouble, then remind you about what looks like an easy mission and tells you that you get a 100XP bonus for completing it?

Holy shit, it's not that bad of an ad.

Game Journoscum is just ass-mad at being reminded they suck at games and literally can't understand humor, marketing, or advertising unless they can shove it up their ass.