Bigred's Video Game Thread

[Jack Sawyer]

DLCs used to be accepted. Then they started to cut out content to offer it as DLC. Started shipping games out incomplete, full price, and then offer the rest as DLC.

Microtransactions were accepted, then they started hampering progression in full priced games down to a crawl unless you pay up to progress faster. NBA 2K franchise is notorious for this. The game would cost $60, and yet you could buyt $100 in virtual currency to buy shit like green shoes and bandannas.

Then came the now ubiquitous lootboxes. In which now you have to spend real money for a chance in getting what you really want. This, of course, accompanied by all sorts of psychological manipulation and slot machine tactics and creations of Skinner's environments. You spend the money, but you don't actually get what you want right away; you have to keep spending money for more tries at getting what you want. In the meantime, what other players have keeps getting shoved in your face more and more prominently. All the while making it more difficult to earn said credits to being able to afford the lootboxes, which if you don't have you will keep having your ass handed to you over and over again, forcing you to pay up to compete. All of this happening in a full price game THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY BOUGHT (LOL at playing for $0).

The rhetoric ithat these AAA publishers will offer you is that it isn't gambling. My stance is that it fucking IS gambling. And if it IS gambling, then how the fuck can it be allowed to be advertised to children? To be in the hands of and marketed to fucking kids?

This is the saddest and most pathetic of all of your arguments dude. I don't believe for a fucking second that you're really moved at all by any concern regarding children. I think it's just a convenient argument that you're co-opting to help keep your games cheap.

facepalm.gif

[Jack Sawyer]

Life is gambling, just because you can say the word gambling and bring up negative connotations involved with that word doesn't mean it wouldn't be stupid to classify something like loot boxes as gambling because the legislation for those things was created without these things in mind.

Time to update the legislation. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck it's probably not a giraffe; it's a fucking duck.

If you don't like it don't buy the game & don't use microtransactions. Go even further & support developers who aren't using them.

I do, and also at least 680,000 people agree with me.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ListOfComments/wiki/downvoted

[Savy]

Time to update the legislation. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck it's probably not a giraffe; it's a fucking duck.




I do, and also at least 680,000 people agree with me.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ListOfComments/wiki/downvoted

That is essentially wimpy losers having a whinge about a game they will pretty much all buy & then spend loads of money on in game purchases. So not what I said at all.

You also didn't get my point about changes in legislation, it would be weakening it to include stuff like this because it isn't gambling in the traditional degen image ruining families, lives etc that it was formed from.

[BananaStand]

You spend the money, but you don't actually get what you want right away; you have to keep spending money for more tries at getting what you want.

Where is all this outrage when they do the same thing with...
...baseball cards
...happy meal toys
...carnival games
...gumball machines
...cereal box prizes
...skee ball
...anything collectible
...virtually every iphone and android video game ever created

In the meantime, what other players have keeps getting shoved in your face more and more prominently

This reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg line that kinda goes like this...."I saw an ad for a casino and they showed a guy winning money. That's false advertising cause that's what happens the least! It's like if I advertised a hamburger by showing a guy choking!"

It's a funny gripe but if you're truly miffed because a business uses a positive spin to advertise its products....then I might recommend some anger management.

Furthermore, if you're just jealous of what other people have, then again...therapy might be the answer.

[Jack Sawyer]

Where is all this outrage when they do the same thing with...
...baseball cards
...happy meal toys
...carnival games
...gumball machines
...cereal box prizes
...skee ball
...anything collectible

On top of this, loot systems are designed to maximise use through carefully crafted audio and visual design. In interviews with my colleague Cecilia D'Anastasio earlier this year, the designers from games like Overwatch and Duelyst explain how their crates are designed to be a pleasurable experience.


"When you start opening a loot box, we want to build anticipation," an Overwatch developer said. "We do this in a lot of ways -- animations, camera work, spinning plates, and sounds. We even build a little anticipation with the glow that emits from a loot box's cracks before you open it."


Moment for moment, loot boxes are engineered to capture attention with a mixture of spectacle and psychological trickery not unlike what you might find at a slot machine.

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/10/lo...to-exploit-us/


Explain to me how this resembles opening a happy meal, a baseball card or a cracker jack. Also, please do tell me if they kempt chargning you every time you openend the same happy meal, baseball card pack or cracker jack box. Because that's what they do nowadays. Play NBA Live 2018 and you will know what I'm talking about.


If you can't understand or don't want to understand that THESE ARE DIFFERENT THINGS, I can only tell you to enjoy your pure bliss.

...virtually every iphone and android video game ever created

DO you recall PAYING MONEY UPFRONT for any of these? Did you pay to download Pokemon Go?


Now, AAA publishers want to charge you upfront AND charge you the micro's AND charge you for lootboxes AND hamper your progression as well.

This reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg line that kinda goes like this...."I saw an ad for a casino and they showed a guy winning money. That's false advertising cause that's what happens the least! It's like if I advertised a hamburger by showing a guy choking!"


It's a funny gripe but if you're truly miffed because a business uses a positive spin to advertise its products....then I might recommend some anger management.


Furthermore, if you're just jealous of what other people have, then again...therapy might be the answer.

LOL, you are truly fucking trollin' or you are really the densest human being in the world




Hahahahahaha




Dude, Activision patented this. A fucking patent. On exactly this that you are calling me "jealous" and "needing therapy" for being "truly miffed because a business uses a positive spin to advertise its products". They went to the USPTO with their "positive spin".


https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/...h-matchmaking/


Now, when you die in EA's Battlefront 2, you get shown exactly which cards were used to kill you with.


It would be the LOL if Activision sued EA for the right to be the scumbaggiest company


Now that's a positive spin

[BananaStand]

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/10/lo...to-exploit-us/

You're presenting this as if it's outrageous. It's not. Attractive product placement has been a thing for a LOOOOOOONG time.

Remember the ninja turtles movie, when they had pizza delivered to their sewer lair? The delivery guy had on a ridiculous red and blue uniform plastered with Domino's pizza logos. When the turtles opened the pizza box, the lid moved right into the camera with the "Domino's" logo filling up 3/4 of the frame.

All of that imagery and camera work was done on purpose, paid for by Domino's, with the intent of making you want to buy their pizza.

Advertising is not a crime. Just because your video games now have commercials in them is not a good enough reason to demand oppressive nanny-government intervention.

Explain to me how this resembles opening a happy meal, a baseball card or a cracker jack.

ummm, explain to me how it doesn't? Explain to me how it's different than a kid walking through the grocery store, seeing a cereal box that says "one of four badass fuckin ninja figures inside!", and then saying "mom...buy me that box!" And if the mom buys the box, it's possible that they will be in the store the following week and the kid will say "Buy me that box...I wanna get a red badass fuckin ninja this time". And if the kid is disappointed when he gets another blue ninja....guess what happens the next trip to the grocery store?

Also, please do tell me if they kempt chargning you every time you openend the same happy meal, baseball card pack or cracker jack box. Because that's what they do nowadays. Play NBA Live 2018 and you will know what I'm talking about.

It was my understanding that the loot-box problem is different. You buy the box, hope you get what you want, but if you don't, you buy another box. Do you remember when happy meals had beanie babies in them for a while? People would go, buy a happy meal, look inside, and if they didn't get the beanie baby they wanted, the got back in line and bought another happy meal.

If you can't understand or don't want to understand that THESE ARE DIFFERENT THINGS, I can only tell you to enjoy your pure bliss

.
They aren't really that different. Furthermore you should know that this has been happening in the video game industry for-fucking-ever. There was a time when people played video games, but didn't have the internet. So how the hell did people learn that Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A, start would result in beginning the game with 30 lives instead of 3? If you wanted that enhanced experience, you needed to subscribe to Nintendo Fun Club News (which later became Nintendo Power Magazine).

Stuck at a difficult part in a game? You can call our Game-Master help line for some insane per-minute charge. No credit card needed, we'll bill your phone line. But you're on the honor system kids when it comes to getting mom and dad's permission [lol]

And it just kept going from there. Want a blue controller instead of the standard gray? Pay us another 29.99. Then they stopped including second controllers with consoles. Want to play with a friend....another $29.99. Before HDMI cables there were those Red/Blue/Green HD inputs. No console ever shipped with the correct wires for that though. You got standard A/V cables. Want HD gaming?....another $29.99!! Or even if you didn't, alot of TV's back then only had the simple RF input, which required a different adapter.....for $29.99.

Online subscription based games have been around since the 90's. Wanna play everquest...ok the game is $70 and it doesn't do shit...AT ALL...unless you sign up to pay another $13 bucks a month. Don't like that...well then you just pissed away seventy bucks for a plastic disc ass hole. Enjoy your coaster.

DO you recall PAYING MONEY UPFRONT for any of these? Did you pay to download Pokemon Go?

The point is regarding in-game purchases. The upfront money is kind of irrelevant. And some games do cost money upfront.

Now, AAA publishers want to charge you upfront AND charge you the micro's AND charge you for lootboxes AND hamper your progression as well.

Dude...it's THEIR product. They can structure and sell it however they want. The only exception is if their practices were really predatory and deceptive. And they aren't, at least not compared to anything else marketed to kids these days. So if you find that the game isn't worth the frustration....then don't fucking play it!!

Dude, Activision patented this. A fucking patent. On exactly this that you are calling me "jealous" and "needing therapy" for being "truly miffed because a business uses a positive spin to advertise its products". They went to the USPTO with their "positive spin".

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/...h-matchmaking/

You know google does the exact same thing when it shows you ads based on your browsing history. Advertising to a target market is not a crime.

Now, when you die in EA's Battlefront 2, you get shown exactly which cards were used to kill you with.

Great, if you like that feature, then voice your opinion with your wallet. Buy games with that feature, and don't buy games without it.