Ex-President Of Nickel-And-Diming Blizzard Floats The Idea Of Tipping Game Devs Above A $70 Box Price

Look, tipping culture in the States is already a divisive topic sometimes. Sure you tip the waiter at the restaurant, but am I actually supposed to tip the "Sandwich Artist" at Subway? What about the really odd places I've seen tip jars? Gas stations (self-serve!), CVS, hell, even at the checkout of corner stores. It seems I'm being hit up for a tip when the only "service" I received was actually be rung out for the products I wanted to buy.

Set aside your thoughts on the topic as a whole for a moment, and take a look at this wonderful nugget of thought brought to you by the former President of Blizzard, Mike Ybarra, via X (Twitter):

I've thought about this idea for a while, as a player, since I've been diving into single player games lately.

When I beat a game, there are some that just leave me in awe of how amazing the experience was. At the end of the game, I've often thought "I wish I could give these…

— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) April 11, 2024

Look, on the surface, sure. A nice way to throw a little extra to people who make the products you love. Wonderful. Many even agreed with Ybarra in the replies. Totally fine.

However, isn't this just more shifting of the "onus" of taking care of employees to consumers? Yeah, if I send a tip to a one-person team making an indie game I loved, I'm sure it is them that gets the tip. Cool.

Sending a tip to devs via companies like Activision, EA, and others? Come on, that tip is never making it to a dev. Even if it did, how on earth do you divide tips among teams of sometimes dozens, if not hundreds? Not to mention this is just another revenue stream that shareholders will enjoy seeing on a P&L.

Most of us already view the purchase of a season pass, a cosmetic, or a DLC package as the "additional" support of the products we love.

You also have to love the irony of Ybarra applauding a game not "nickel and diming" him, while Ybarra himself was the leader of one of the best nickel and diming game companies around. This is on top of him espousing the fact that gamers and "subscription fatigue" is a thing.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that the BETTER way to support devs is to have companies pay them a livable wage, or, I don't know, maybe share with them the record profits the company makes when one of their products does do very well. Maybe companies would even be incentivized to make better products so they AND the devs make more cash. Weird and crazy idea, I know.

Ok, I think I am done rolling my eyes for now. What do you think?