Loot boxes and Micro-transactions

Delighted, hope this continues to put the pressure on the likes of EA & Activision for their scummy practices

Oh no

citytillidie

Game companies are just greedy but why will they stop when they have suckers willing to pay to advance.

They could set up "VIP" servers for those who pay and let them battle it out for who has the more money and then have servers for people who bought the base game and worked hard to upgrade and unlock features through learning the game.

But until people stop buying into micro transactions they will not stop

Potential-Monke

There's no excuse for MTs in a single player game. None. Shame, as I was thinking of getting this as I've never played a DMC before. Guess that trend will continue for now...

K.O.Kiki

Potential-Monke wrote: »

There's no excuse for MTs in a single player game. None. Shame, as I was thinking of getting this as I've never played a DMC before. Guess that trend will continue for now...

Devil May Cry 4 SE had microtransactions.

It also LOWERED the difficulty in obtaining red shards through gameplay.
Git gud.

Potential-Monke

Nothing to do with gitting gud, but there is no reason for paid MTs in a SP game outside of cosmetic items. Can you imagine the uproar if Dark Souls IV had the ability to buy souls? So 500000 souls for $10 (or whatever, i don't know the loot system), or the ability to buy attributes in the latest God of War, or being able to spend actual money to unlock skills in Spiderman...

Or, worst case scenario, EA buy out CDPR and introduce MTs to The Witcher 4 where you can spend real money to increase your signs or buy actual money to craft better gear, and Skellige is locked behind a paywall!

K.O.Kiki

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Nothing to do with gitting gud, but there is no reason for paid MTs in a SP game outside of cosmetic items. Can you imagine the uproar if Dark Souls IV had the ability to buy souls? So 500000 souls for $10 (or whatever, i don't know the loot system), or the ability to buy attributes in the latest God of War, or being able to spend actual money to unlock skills in Spiderman...

Or, worst case scenario, EA buy out CDPR and introduce MTs to The Witcher 4 where you can spend real money to increase your signs or buy actual money to craft better gear, and Skellige is locked behind a paywall!

Git gud = play the game because you can easily earn enough red souls to progress like the game expects you to (i.e. learning 1-2 skills per stage).

Billy86

Kiith wrote: »

They also reduced the amount of XP gained for release copies, so reviewers would think the grind wasn't that bad.

Not surprising, as 2k Games are absolutely awful for this kind of thing.

That's pretty atrocious. In Madden you can actually just use sliders, for as little or as much XP depending on position as you like, and you can edit any character at any time as well, from their number to their name to other aesthetics to indeed their stats and their own ability to earn XP (normal/quick/star/superstar). I haven't bothered with the story mode yet and I'm sure MTs impact a good bit on multiplayer, but jesus at least I have my franchise mode intact (if quite neglected from them focusing on said story and multiplayer modes).

Potential-Monke

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Git gud = play the game because you can easily earn enough red souls to progress like the game expects you to (i.e. learning 1-2 skills per stage).

Nah, Souls games are not for me. I don't like grind, and the Souls games are pure grindy for me.

K.O.Kiki

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Nah, Souls games are not for me. I don't like grind, and the Souls games are pure grindy for me.

... I'm talking about Devil May Cry.

And the "grind" is simply the process where you get better at the game's mechanics & learn how to play well.

Have you forgotten how 2D platformers were "grindy" because you had limited lives & no save points?

nix

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Nothing to do with gitting gud, but there is no reason for paid MTs in a SP game outside of cosmetic items. Can you imagine the uproar if Dark Souls IV had the ability to buy souls? So 500000 souls for $10 (or whatever, i don't know the loot system), or the ability to buy attributes in the latest God of War, or being able to spend actual money to unlock skills in Spiderman...

Or, worst case scenario, EA buy out CDPR and introduce MTs to The Witcher 4 where you can spend real money to increase your signs or buy actual money to craft better gear, and Skellige is locked behind a paywall!

500k souls wouldnt do much for you in soulsbourne, a tough boss/mob will still wreck you, not matter your stats. Learning the fight mechanics and adapting good reflexes will get you far, and thankfully you cant buy them :pac:

But eh, yeah this pay to win **** is terrible, i hadn't played DMC since the first one and was considering giving this a go, but now with this revelation... I'll pass :rolleyes:

Potential-Monke

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

... I'm talking about Devil May Cry.

And the "grind" is simply the process where you get better at the game's mechanics & learn how to play well.

Have you forgotten how 2D platformers were "grindy" because you had limited lives & no save points?

Apologies, thought we were talking about Souls. Never played a DMC, so can't talk about them! And I know a bit of grind is needed, and maybe there's just the right amount in DMC, but not in Souls (is it obvious I don't like the Souls yet?).

And the games of yore were grindy because they had to be. Modern games don't need grind to progress, they should be able to make the games interesting enough to not need to grind, case in point, The Witcher 3. Never had to grind, always progressing and fun. Granted, different games, but the point stands. Grinding is a waste of my valuable time for gaming these days. I much prefer to play a game that progresses properly.

K.O.Kiki

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Apologies, thought we were talking about Souls. Never played a DMC, so can't talk about them! And I know a bit of grind is needed, and maybe there's just the right amount in DMC, but not in Souls (is it obvious I don't like the Souls yet?).

And the games of yore were grindy because they had to be. Modern games don't need grind to progress, they should be able to make the games interesting enough to not need to grind, case in point, The Witcher 3. Never had to grind, always progressing and fun. Granted, different games, but the point stands. Grinding is a waste of my valuable time for gaming these days. I much prefer to play a game that progresses properly.

Devil May Cry (and similar action-arena beat'em'ups) do have a design philosophy similar to fighting games, though.
The more hours/work you put in, the more you are rewarded with deep, interesting gameplay.
It's probably why I couldn't get into the Batman games; the combat is as shallow as a puddle.

And regarding DMC; here's a video of a guy getting S-ranks without upgrades in DMC3 - just pure fundamentals.

K.O.Kiki

Now FIFA 19 discloses pack odds, the true horror of FUT is laid bare

Grumpypants

Rare item is actually rare. Stop the presses ffs.

Rare item that's only available by participating in a lottery that costs money that has no restrictions on age. Stop the presses.

raze_them_all_

Grumpypants wrote: »

Rare item is actually rare. Stop the presses ffs.

It's not a rare drop though. Wow has rare drops. Loads of games have rare drops. It's a game where you pay to possible land a less than 1/100 chance of a rare drop

Who is in anyway surprised with the crap EA are pulling for FIFA
Incredible carry on for a full priced 'slot machine / game'

gizmo

As a matter of interest, with only 23 One To Watch Player cards available per season and approximately 16,000 player cards to potentially get in your pack, what would folk consider fair odds for landing such a card?

Grumpypants

gizmo wrote: »

As a matter of interest, with only 23 One To Watch Player cards available per season and approximately 16,000 player cards to potentially get in your pack, what would folk consider fair odds for landing such a card?

We live in the age of "Youtube consumer advocates" so every player should be unlocked from the get-go and games should cost a fiver. :pac:

I always laugh at any of these Youtubers. It's the same thing, "hey guys sub to my channel so I get paid, buy youtube Red so I get paid, check out my sponsored unboxing video so I get paid, watch this ad so I get paid, sign up to this website with this code so I get paid, don't forget I stream on Twitch prime follow me there so I get paid, did I mention Patreon??..... Now let's talk about these evil games publishers who spend hundreds of millions making games that people love to play and have the cheek to try and make money from it".

Here is the thing about Ultimate team, players like it. They play more FIFA and for longer. If they chose to spend a bit of money so a game goes from 2-3 months of enjoyment to 12 then let them at it. The studio puts a huge investment into creating new content for Ultimate team to keep players engaged for the full year. The players are ok with paying for that extra work so they get extra enjoyment.

EoinHef

Grumpypants wrote: »

We live in the age of "Youtube consumer advocates" so every player should be unlocked from the get-go and games should cost a fiver. :pac:

I always laugh at any of these Youtubers. It's the same thing, "hey guys sub to my channel so I get paid, buy youtube Red so I get paid, check out my sponsored unboxing video so I get paid, watch this ad so I get paid, sign up to this website with this code so I get paid, don't forget I stream on Twitch prime follow me there so I get paid, did I mention Patreon??..... Now let's talk about these evil games publishers who spend hundreds of millions making games that people love to play and have the cheek to try and make money from it".

Here is the thing about Ultimate team, players like it. They play more FIFA and for longer. If they chose to spend a bit of money so a game goes from 2-3 months of enjoyment to 12 then let them at it. The studio puts a huge investment into creating new content for Ultimate team to keep players engaged for the full year. The players are ok with paying for that extra work so they get extra enjoyment.

Your massiviely generalising. Not all streamers and youtubers do that. And why is it such a bad thing if content creators are consumer advocates? After all,you dont even have to do any of the things you mentioned to watch 90% of their content. No pay to see as such.

Also you dont speak for all fifa players,your post assumes everyone who plays the game is happy with loot boxes and its others that are trying to take that away from them. Thats plainly a generalisation

Also you give out content creators say everything should be unlocked from the start but then proceed to say that people with butt loads of cash buying everything from the start giving them an advantage is ok.

If your ok with that fine,but getting irate at people who are not is a bit ridiculous. You cant expect someone to respect your position when you cant respect theres.

Then again givin your user name.....:P

Varik

Ultimate team is it's own thing right?

Varik

Varik wrote: »

Ultimate team chance is it's own thing right?

FYP :P

Grumpypants

Varik wrote: »

Ultimate team is it's own thing right?

Yeah, it is an extra mode that was built that people can choose to play if they want. If you don't want to play it, you still have the normal FIFA modes, play against your buddies in the same room/online. play against strangers etc. They even built a story mode.

Grumpypants

EoinHef wrote: »

Your massiviely generalising. Not all streamers and youtubers do that. And why is it such a bad thing if content creators are consumer advocates? After all,you dont even have to do any of the things you mentioned to watch 90% of their content. No pay to see as such.

Also you dont speak for all fifa players,your post assumes everyone who plays the game is happy with loot boxes and its others that are trying to take that away from them. Thats plainly a generalisation

Also you give out content creators say everything should be unlocked from the start but then proceed to say that people with butt loads of cash buying everything from the start giving them an advantage is ok.

If your ok with that fine,but getting irate at people who are not is a bit ridiculous. You cant expect someone to respect your position when you cant respect theres.

Then again givin your user name.....:P

I'm not against them, I just think it is funny when they stop mid-video to sell you something and then go back to bashing the studios for being greedy for coming up with new ideas to fund the incredibly expensive work they do so the player doesn't have to pay more than €50 for a new game.

When they get called out on it they say I have to make a living !!!

They aren't consumer advocates, they are profiting from whipping up an impressionable angry 14-year-olds.

splashthecash

Gone are the days when FIFA was just a plain old simple football game, devoid of any of this ultimate team garbage

raze_them_all_

Grumpypants wrote: »

I'm not against them, I just think it is funny when they stop mid-video to sell you something and then go back to bashing the studios for being greedy for coming up with new ideas to fund the incredibly expensive work they do so the player doesn't have to pay more than €50 for a new game.

When they get called out on it they say I have to make a living !!!

They aren't consumer advocates, they are profiting from whipping up an impressionable angry 14-year-olds.

The difference is the the video game company has already sold you a game for 70quid. The YouTube doesn't earn money just for making a video

Grumpypants

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

The difference is the the video game company has already sold you a game for 70quid. The YouTube doesn't earn money just for making a video

They do get paid from their Patreon accounts and Sponsorship deals. Then they get paid for the ad that runs before the video starts. Then they get paid for the, mid-roll ads, end of video ads, side-bar ads.

As I mentioned I'm not against them making money and getting paid for creating content that people want to consume. It's just the whole glass house chucking rocks thing when they criticize a studio for getting paid for creating content people want to consume.

gizmo

splashthecash wrote: »

Gone are the days when FIFA was just a plain old simple football game, devoid of any of this ultimate team garbage

The problem being that this sentiment appears to be in the extreme minority and unless this was to change, there's very little incentive for EA to shift direction any time soon.

I mean, look at the FIFA forum here on Boards. The thread for the game itself currently has 86 posts whereas the one specifically for Ultimate Team already has 554. The game was released three days ago.

This is of course before you look at the number of people who purchase the game, engage with FUT and perhaps most damning, the sheer amount of money it generates annually.