After a labyrinth of menus as intuitive as dadaist poetry, players are rewarded with knockoffs of decades-old games too maliciously bad to have been designed by AI

I assumed I would boot up the app and there would be a big red button saying GAMES … but no. I have to sign up to PREMIUM. Then find the YOUR PREMIUM BENEFITS section. Then find EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES and select TRY EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES. Then find the TRY GAMES ON YOUTUBE part therein and tap on TRY IT OUT.

  • elgordio@kbin.social
    35·
    11 months ago

    I wish premium would stop trying to add more stuff. I only want ad free videos, just do that, rather than adding loads of crap no one wants and then charging more because of the ‘increased value’.

    • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      Just use an ad blocker then, I haven’t seen an ad on YouTube in years. If they charged a reasonable amount for their ad-free experience (say, about what they earn from ads, so like $1-2/month), I’d pay. But $14/month is way too much, and I’d rather just not use YouTube than pay that.

      • GroundedGator@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        11 months ago

        I pay for premium so I can turn off my phone screen or do other things on my phone while listening to videos or music. Not having ads is a bonus. They would probably bug me if I had them. I’ve become indifferent to ads on most other things.

        • bbuez@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          11 months ago

          I just use YouTube on Firefox on mobile, it does pause when you change apps but you can press play from the notification or lock screen, ublock origin also works here

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.caEnglish
      11·
      11 months ago

      ‘but it’s cheaper to get the home phone included’ ^for the first 3months^

  • William@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24·
    11 months ago

    I was already a premium subscriber to get rid of ads, and one day it asked me if I wanted to try this feature. I did, and I played (IIRC) an online version of Angry Birds 2 days in a row, and then promptly forgot about it and never looked back.

    The games are pretty bad at the moment, and given Google’s history with gaming (Stadia, I’m looking at your grave) I don’t expect them to ever improve. And if they start to, I expect it to be shut down the week after, screwing over every dev that dared to hope they could monetize with that system.

    • Hazzard@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      Yeah, similar experience. The only game I tried was basically a web version of state.io, which was already a free app anyway, but instead I got to play a worse version in YT that made my phone burning hot. Cool.

      I actually did enjoy it, so I just… downloaded the real app and never booted a game via YT again.

  • canEnglish
    17·
    11 months ago

    First Netflix, now YouTube? Do people really want games in their video streaming apps? Can you even play while you watch a video?

    • Mac@mander.xyzEnglish
      11·
      11 months ago

      Tbh paying for YT was pretty good but the company kept making decisions that were worse and worse for creators, repeatedly failed to protect creators, and they raised the price so i cancelled it.

      My current stance is that i will quit YouTube before i watch ads.
      I’m open to being a paid member again but for the older, lower price and YT will need to be more on the side of creators. This will not happen, so 🤷‍♂️

      • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
        4·
        11 months ago

        Yup, ad free YouTube should be like $1-2/month, since that’s what they earn from ads. Maybe $5/month at the top end. They should make a lower end tier where you get X views/month ad free and make keep the top one for heavy users.

        But $14/month is ridiculous and just isn’t happening. I don’t watch YouTube nearly enough to warrant that, so I just use an ad blocker. If they shut me out, I’ll just stop watching, it’s not a big deal.

      • CrypticCoffee@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        Google has been dreadful for a long time and do not care. They only need creators so they can milk the content and take the lion share of the revenue.

        YouTube are pushing more and more adverts so people are more likely to pay them. Straight up manipulation.

    • funkless_eckEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      Dom Diamond use to present the Gamesmaster TV show in the UK. He’s been a games journalist since pre-8 bit days I think.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    72·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    This reminds me of Lunchables where tiny versions of food fight a losing battle against mountains of separating plastic so kids can make pizzas out of crackers and processed lumps of regret.

    Anyway, I start with 8 Ball Billiards because it’s first on the list and I wonder what YouTube can possibly do to improve a game that has had a billion versions on every machine since the abacus.

    Crazy Caves was like an old Nintendo Game & Watch affair where a goldminer fires pickaxes skyward to smash plummeting rocks.

    Maybe they would appeal to a gamer so casual they don’t bother to get dressed or have a shower, and just lie there in pyjamas covered in beans from last night’s dinner.

    YouTube appears to have ordered barely functioning developers to make supermarket own brand versions of games we got bored playing a decade or more ago.

    They’re like knockoff toys from foreign market stalls, a Robert Downeyesque plastic face in a suit, branded Iron Guy.

    The original article contains 945 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!