The holiday season is the busiest time of the year in Gaming, starting with Broke-tober until we slide into 2018. We’re in the home stretch, but there are still plenty of stellar AAA titles in the pipeline, which means there’s going to be no shortage of people finding things to complain about.

Look, there is plenty of valid criticism to toss into the gaming world, but there are also things we’ve been calling out for years with our voices, yet continuing to support with our wallets, and don’t think for a second that this sends a mixed signal to the companies committing these gaming sins. When you’re spending Money, they hear you loud and clear.

5. The Developers

The developers are the people putting their heart and souls into the games. If you’re a gamer, there was probably one point or another where you thought to yourself, “Man, it would be sooooo cool to be able to make games.”

These are the people who actually followed through on that thought and put in the work to learn how to do it and to get gigs at big studios that release games you want to play.

They never WANT to put out sub-par titles, they never WANT their work to be overshadowed by pay-to-win or annoying microtransactions, they never WANT to release a buggy game that gets trolled on Twitter for a week then swiftly forgotten about. They work long days, are generally underpaid and on super tight budgets, with shareholders and publishers breathing down their necks demanding everything be done perfectly, quickly, AND cheaply – an impossible combination. Believe me, they’re much more frustrated than you are when a game doesn’t come out flawlessly.

4. Which Platform Someone Else is Gaming On

The console vs PC debate has been going on for decades. There are pros and cons to each and every platform, and valid arguments and counter-points have been established time and time again.

In 2018, how about we just accept that not everybody wants to play in the same way? Some people love the superior graphics, framerates, and crazy game deals you get with a computer and other people love the exclusive titles and online communities you get with consoles. Even if there was an option that was objectively better, who cares?

3. Yearly Sequels

If you’re annoyed that certain huge franchises are pumping out a new title each year, here’s an incredible pro tip that will change your life: You don’t have to buy them. Your game from the previous year won’t suddenly stop working when the next installment comes out. If your counter-point is that everyone else is going to be playing the new one, guess what? It’s because they want to – and lucky for them, and despite you, that option exists.

2. Paying to Beta Test

We’ve seen more and more games coming out in alpha mode that aren’t ready for a full release yet, and countless people tossing money at them. There are certainly advantages to this from a developer’s point of view, and as a player you get to take an earlier look at upcoming titles, but sometimes it goes wrong. Sometimes, the developers are never really motivated to complete the game, since they’ve already cashed in and sales have started to lull, so they move on to the next project, leaving all of the early adopters and supporters feeling cheated.

That’s the price of admission with these types of deals, and it’s okay to be disappointed and to feel like it wasn’t handled very well, but that’s kind of where it ends. Did you pay money for early access to a game knowing it might or might not ever see a full release, and were you able to play it in the meantime while it was being polished and worked on? If the answer is yes, then the system is working as intended, even when it’s kind of annoying.

1. Splitscreen Multiplayer

Have you ever found yourself reflecting on the days of old, where you could have some buddies over, crowd around the TV, and have some of the best multiplayer experiences of your life? Then you start to think, wait a second…

The biggest issues to couch multiplayer sessions were the controller cables being too short or just getting tangled and tripped over, and the TV being so small. Both of those issues are gone now that the average TV is a lot larger, and everyone has wireless controllers – so why isn’t this a “thing” anymore?

It is. You’re just not playing on a Nintendo console. If you want those days of classic innocent Nintendo fun, with your buddies over, drinking sodee-pop and talking about which girls have the most cooties, buy the system that was designed for that and has been offering that all along.

Final thoughts

When you’ve paid your hard earned money for a game, you have ever right to criticize it, but at the end of the day – you have to wonder if certain people enjoy complaining about games more than they actually enjoy playing them?

We’re not here to endorse or support any shady practices from publishers, developers, or anyone else – we’re just here to play kickass games and demoralize newbies who jump into multiplayer too soon. Is that so much to ask? Rehashing the same complaints year after year is unproductive, especially if you’re still actively supporting them with money.