Loot boxes and Micro-transactions

Grumpypants

Grumpypants wrote: »

Man, you know it's really weird to spend so much time obsessing over a company whose biggest crime is they made video games that millions of people enjoy playing.

Or destroying game franchises and studios one after the other.

"We're doing a free to play game, with essentially loot boxes, after we were bought by EA, and it's not Titanfall 3. It's the perfect recipe for a marketing plan to go awry, so why have that - let's just ship the game and let players play."

:pac:

Mickeroo

I don't see what's negative about that quote, it's quite a refreshing approach actually. Plus the game seems really good so far too.

johnny_ultimate

Mickeroo wrote: »

I don't see what's negative about that quote, it's quite a refreshing approach actually. Plus the game seems really good so far too.

Yep I have a lot of appreciation for them being as honest as that. Getting ahead of the tired old hyperbolic 'gamer / consumer rage' that has increasingly come to dominate the discussion, and letting the game speak for itself. General consensus is positive so far so hoping it works out for them.

Infini

In all honesty though EA has been known to be one of the worst publishers for their pure greed. They even won the golden turd award a few times. They've a notoriously bad rep in several gaming communities for their predatory pricing as well. They werent the first for it of course Black Desert, Blade and soul and some other asian games are also like this with loot boxes but their actions with trying to milk people with well known titles like this with that model has backfired to such a degree that it's gotten political attention now on both sides of the atlantic. With any luck this buisness model will be clamped down on by various regulators (also fair ball to the Belgians) and phased out theres nothing worse than companies gating high demand items behind a RNG paywall to boost their sales and milk players.

Billy86

On the plus side, they are so brazen about making the bulk of their money on MTs, loot boxes and general exploitation of kids in that sense, that they went and put their Origin Premium out for 100 Euro for the year. If you have no interest or temptation towards those types of things, it is in my opinion one of the best value packages you will ever find in gaming, full stop.

Though you are giving that 100 yoyos to EA, so...............

super_furry

Fred The Red wrote: »

"We're doing a free to play game, with essentially loot boxes, after we were bought by EA, and it's not Titanfall 3. It's the perfect recipe for a marketing plan to go awry, so why have that - let's just ship the game and let players play."

:pac:

.....and it's a great game for which I paid exactly zero € and have already played for dozens of hours. Huge win for everyone.

dreamers75

Infini wrote: »

In all honesty though EA has been known to be one of the worst publishers for their pure greed. They even won the golden turd award a few times. They've a notoriously bad rep in several gaming communities for their predatory pricing as well. They werent the first for it of course Black Desert, Blade and soul and some other asian games are also like this with loot boxes but their actions with trying to milk people with well known titles like this with that model has backfired to such a degree that it's gotten political attention now on both sides of the atlantic. With any luck this buisness model will be clamped down on by various regulators (also fair ball to the Belgians) and phased out theres nothing worse than companies gating high demand items behind a RNG paywall to boost their sales and milk players.

And yet Activision still have a department entirely focused on that and noone ever complains, they are literally the worst for it but they because they literally give no ****s about it, its accepted.

EA actually do something about it and are the worst publisher in the world for it.


I care not for either company but it seems one publishers players or haters drive their buisness model.

Another potential nail in the coffin for EA ect and its lootbox defenders

johnny_ultimate

Posted this in the NBA 2K thread, but this is such a vainglorious display of corporate cynicism it deserves some attention here too.

Slot machines, blind packs, spin wheels, drop games... finally together at last in a virtual casino!

Imagine 2K releasing this - voluntarily! - as an ad to promote their game. Amazing. Depressing and amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oyBnjNaS2E

gizmo

Nope.

EoinHef

Thats disgusting:(

People keep buying it they will keep selling it though

Zero-Cool

As part of the 2k gaming community, we complain about this **** every year. They have very little competition (the EA bball game looks like a saint compared to 2k but can't quite match the quality. Topped with 2k ceo getting millions in bonuses depending on how much mtx is sold, you can see how this stuff gets blatantly added.

Wouldn't be picking it up if i didn't manage to get it for a tenner in a GS deal. EA for nothing on 2k for disgusting mtx tactics.

nix

I've no idea whats going on in that video... basketball the gathering?

J. Marston

That's grim.

What's worse is I used to do the "Don't look, don't look..." thing when opening packs in Ultimate Team. Thank fúck I gave it up. Such a frustrating waste of time and money.

Edit: 72 likes. 1062 dislikes. At least there's that. But we know how this works. They will leave this stuff in the game for a month or two, gouge the whales and then put out an apologetic "We hear you" update removing it.

Penn

nix wrote: »

I've no idea whats going on in that video... basketball the gathering?

Pretty much. It's a card game with a basketball minigame.

Zero-Cool

What harm it's actually a brilliant mode underneath all that mtx rubbish. Loads of modes both offline and online, excellent court and Jersey creation, brilliant historic players, all time teams, etc. BBall enthusiasts dream. Also, I've never once felt the need to buy VC for My Team. I always unlocked good players easy enough with their free give away's tons of ways to work towards rare cards.

Their MTX becomes truly shocking in their 'single player' career mode that locks you into the online Street ball mode. Starts you at level 60 to grind to 99. You can buy your way to level 85 for 60 euro which gives you an instant advantage online and also creates a hierarchy system where people will refuse to play with you / kick you if your under 85. Also, no matchmaking so unless you buy your way to 85, you get locked out of a lot of great modes.

I bought 2k19 when it was heavily discounted earlier this year and when i finished up, i had reached rank 75. The Devs promise ranking well be quicker this year. On launch last year, the online park was full of 85's within 15 minutes of the midnight launch so 2k are happy to sit back and take in all the money. On reddit, there's plenty of completely normal chat about buying the standard edition with 60 quid worth of vc or just get the 100 euro edition just to get a 'normal' start for career/online.

AlmightyCushion

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Posted this in the NBA 2K thread, but this is such a vainglorious display of corporate cynicism it deserves some attention here too.

Slot machines, blind packs, spin wheels, drop games... finally together at last in a virtual casino!

Imagine 2K releasing this - voluntarily! - as an ad to promote their game. Amazing. Depressing and amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oyBnjNaS2E

A 2 minute video with about 15 seconds of actual basketball gameplay footage.

super_furry

Saw that last night. A game that's rated PEGI 3 that's all about gambling and loot boxes. It's hard to argue that you're not selling gambling mechanics to children when your game is literally a slot machine.

It's just so egregious that it could be another Battlefront 2 type tipping point.

Zero-Cool

Plenty of people online defending it as the spins are free so you can't actually spend money on them but for a game for 3 and up, this is crazy. Slots, neon colours, flashing lights, the thrill of winning. What happens when you don't win the card you want? Maybe I'll just buy VC and open packs until i get it. Such an irresponsible mechanic to put in a game, especially with that rating.

This is also the same team who put an unskippable ad in 2k19 back in may or June. Loading into a career game would start the ad for a new gritty tv show about drug dealing....in a game for 3 and up. It got pulled after a week but zero response from them.

2k literally don't give a ****.

Scary thinking children won't notice a thing. It'll be normal for them.

dohboy

I played Fruit Machine Simulator on the Amstrad for hours as a kid. Didn't turn me into a gambling addict tbh.

Kingp35

dohboy wrote: »

I played Fruit Machine Simulator on the Amstrad for hours as a kid. Didn't turn me into a gambling addict tbh.

I owned Caesars Palace on the Gameboy as a kid, literally a game based on the casino and gambling. I loved it and I never gamble now.

With that said though, I don't have an addictive personality and these are the people that are specifically being targeted.

Penn

Kingp35 wrote: »

I owned Caesars Palace on the Gameboy as a kid, literally a game based on the casino and gambling. I loved it and I never gamble now.

With that said though, I don't have an addictive personality and these are the people that are specifically being targeted.

But with those games mentioned, there was also no way to pay real money into the game, which also means the games weren't designed towards suggesting or making it hugely advantageous for people (children or otherwise) to put real money into the game.

Varik

GTA online added in their Casino to the game, dependant on the country particular laws you can or can't use the money you got from the shark cards to buy the chips in the casino.

Shiminay

I have a friend in Luxembourg and their gambling laws are such that he's not even allowed to spin a "free to play" wheel in the GTA Casino.

Varik

Shiminay wrote: »

I have a friend in Luxembourg and their gambling laws are such that he's not even allowed to spin a "free to play" wheel in the GTA Casino.

Which is funny cause most of these companies at least legally are based there, always see it on receipts & invoices.

Robert ninja

I think this is the face of the investors, not the players

gimli2112

dohboy wrote: »

I played Fruit Machine Simulator on the Amstrad for hours as a kid. Didn't turn me into a gambling addict tbh.

They're not a problem for people without a problem.


Always remember a guy from college watching me playing poker on a machine, saying he had never tried it before, I had to head off and when I came back from the weekend he told me he'd lost everything he had. Granted we were students with little to lose, I once lost a whole week's budget on Liverpool but it taught me a lesson about sure things and gambling.

Stone Deaf 4evr

Varik wrote: »

Which is funny cause most of these companies at least legally are based there, always see it on receipts & invoices.

I believe the practice is called 'you dont get high, on your own supply'