Paid content in videogames (DLC, loot boxes, passes, currencies, "surprise mechanics" and - new! - pay more or wait!)

Anything to do with games at all.
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Dowbocop
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Dowbocop » Fri Oct 13, 2017 8:39 am

Trelliz wrote:
IAmTheSaladMan wrote:Where would physical loot boxes like Loot Crate etc. fall in this debate? The principle is similar in that you pay a set amount of money to receive a bunch of items with no idea what you're getting until you open it often meaning it could be a bunch of stuff you have no interest in, surely that's just as much of a gamble as digital loot boxes.


Those are physical items which you can give away or sell and have some inherent real value - they are a non-issue as you haven't bought anything else first beforehand.

Aren't all physical loot boxes the same for each customer each month? If so, you're not really gambling as nobody wins or loses, you just flirt with buyer's remorse every month and hope you don't end up with a load of Forbidden Planet's remaindered stock.

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Winckle
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Winckle » Fri Oct 13, 2017 8:43 am

smurphy wrote:It's become an unstoppable force so my reaction is to just ignore it and everything to do with it. I'll sink deeper into the tide of amazing indie and lower budget games that come out so often that I literally can't keep up with it, only popping my head out for the odd AAA gem like Dishonored 2 and Prey.

That's exactly what I'm doing. Indie, Good Dev AAA, and Nintendo Switch.

We should migrate GRcade to Flarum. :toot:
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Trelliz
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Trelliz » Fri Oct 13, 2017 9:36 am

Winckle wrote:
smurphy wrote:It's become an unstoppable force so my reaction is to just ignore it and everything to do with it. I'll sink deeper into the tide of amazing indie and lower budget games that come out so often that I literally can't keep up with it, only popping my head out for the odd AAA gem like Dishonored 2 and Prey.

That's exactly what I'm doing. Indie, Good Dev AAA, and Nintendo Switch.


I'm going back to the 360/ps3 era to get into a load of stuff i missed the first time round as well as the above (except the switch)

jawa2 wrote:Tl;dr Trelliz isn't a miserable git; he's right.
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Winckle
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Winckle » Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:04 am

When Mario gets loot boxes then I'm done with Nintendo.

We should migrate GRcade to Flarum. :toot:
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Trelliz
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Trelliz » Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:56 am

Winckle wrote:When Mario gets loot boxes then I'm done with Nintendo.


Imagine how flashy and nostalgia-baity they'd be; just the thing for when they make Mario Battlegrounds or NintenDOTA.

jawa2 wrote:Tl;dr Trelliz isn't a miserable git; he's right.
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Errkal
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Errkal » Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:58 am

Winckle wrote:When Mario gets loot boxes then I'm done with Nintendo.


Aren't Amiibos sort of along those lines?

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Zartan
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Zartan » Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:10 am

The thing is with all of these games, there is never going to be a game that tops the amount I spent on WoW, which I would not be surprised if it was around a grand, (I may actually try and work that out) so I wonder if I have just been conditioned to accept it all, I mean I look at my most played games of the past 5-6 years and they all contained loot boxes

I spent ages with TF2 trying to game the system and get one up, I probably ended slightly up at the end of the day, but certainly not when you factor in the time I invested in learning and trading. Then I moved on to CS:GO I was far more sensible and knew enough not to get involved and when the steam market place was added I just sold everything I got. So loot boxes to me were fun as they meant a few more quid for playing my favourite games.

Then Overwatch came along and it was slightly different, a bit annoying you could not sell everything on compared to the valve games, but there was no map packs or character purchases so I was again fine with it, to my shame I did buy a few crates during the 1st summer games, buyers remorse was real that day, however I never spent any money on them again, so I learned my lesson. In between those there was Battlefield 4, which I think a lot of people forget had loot boxes, but I never even considered purchasing them, I think because that game just threw them at you like nobodies business.

So I had always been fine with them, Shadow of War is the first game I have come across where I have looked at it and decided not to buy it because of loot boxes. I am now getting the impression it may not be as bad as feared, but now I am happy to wait for the price to drop. Battlefront on the other hand the Beta convinced me it was a bad game, so the loot boxes are moot.

Oh I am very pro loot boxes in PUBG, so far I have made back what I paid at least twice over, and I am still sitting on crates to sell, my regret is opening the Twitch prime crate, I had no idea they were going to let you sell it.

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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Victor Mildew » Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:20 am

People paying for loot boxes are strawberry floating idiots full stop.

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Cheeky Devlin
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Cheeky Devlin » Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:30 pm

Posted this in the Shadow of War thread as well.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-13-shadow-of-war-players-are-using-tricks-and-exploits-to-combat-loot-boxes

Nice. Just decline the T&Cs when you start and no loot boxes.

I wouldn't usually condone this but, as it's a mostly single-player game, I love that the PC players are cheating the gooseberry fool out of the sytem and getting as many boxes as they want as well.

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Winckle
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Winckle » Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:59 pm

But we did speak to a Monolith developer about loot boxes ahead of Shadow of War's release. Design director Bob Roberts said the Market was added to the game to give players a choice.

"It's there, from my perspective, for people who are protective of their spare time and scared when a massive game comes along that they're not getting to see the full experience."



From the above article.

You know what would do the same thing? Cheat codes. In the 90s and early 2000s, if a game is too hard, or you just want to skip a bit, you turn on a cheat code. Now cheat codes are randomly distributed and sold in booster packs.

We should migrate GRcade to Flarum. :toot:
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shadow202
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by shadow202 » Sat Oct 14, 2017 8:45 am

2k are getting involved with loot crates in WWE 2k18, I mean loot crates in a wrestling game, strawberry float that noise.

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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by 7256930752 » Sat Oct 14, 2017 10:16 am

smurphy wrote:It's become an unstoppable force so my reaction is to just ignore it and everything to do with it. I'll sink deeper into the tide of amazing indie and lower budget games that come out so often that I literally can't keep up with it, only popping my head out for the odd AAA gem like Dishonored 2 and Prey.

I also ignore it but mainly because I'm yet to play a game that loot boxes were necessary and not just some in-game cosmetic trinkets.

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Moggy
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Moggy » Sat Oct 14, 2017 10:51 am

Winckle wrote:
But we did speak to a Monolith developer about loot boxes ahead of Shadow of War's release. Design director Bob Roberts said the Market was added to the game to give players a choice.

"It's there, from my perspective, for people who are protective of their spare time and scared when a massive game comes along that they're not getting to see the full experience."



From the above article.

You know what would do the same thing? Cheat codes. In the 90s and early 2000s, if a game is too hard, or you just want to skip a bit, you turn on a cheat code. Now cheat codes are randomly distributed and sold in booster packs.


Exactly.

They are not selling them as a nice favour to gamers who are short on time. If they were worried about people with a lack of spare time then they could just have an option in the menu that gives people extra abilities/power in the game. Or if they think people like loot boxes then they could just make them free.

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Squinty
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Squinty » Sat Oct 14, 2017 11:56 am

I just try to ignore all this shite, or actively avoid games that have these elements.

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Saint of Killers
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Saint of Killers » Wed Oct 18, 2017 7:57 am

Activision Researched Using Matchmaking Tricks to Sell In-Game Items

In-game purchases are a multi-billion dollar business for Activision.

UPDATE: Activision was granted a patent this month for a system it uses to convince people in multiplayer games to purchase items for a game through microtransactions.

But Activision tells Glixel that the technology is not currently in any games.

"This was an exploratory patent filed in 2015 by an R&D team working independently from our game studios," an Activision spokesperson tells Glixel. "It has not been implemented in-game."

Bungie also confirmed to Glixel that the technology isn't being used in Destiny 2.


ORIGINAL ARTICLE: The "System and method for driving microtransactions in multiplayer video games" was filed in 2015, but granted on October 17th, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The patent details how multiplayer matches are configured, specifically how players are selected to play with one another. That process used by Activision involves a computer looking at a wide variety of factors including skill level, Internet latency, availability of friends and other things. It then goes through a system to first soft-reserve a slot in a game for a player and then assign the players to the same match.

This patent, though, specifically discusses how that system for pairing up players can also be used to entice a player to purchase in-game items.

"For example, in one implementation, the system may include a microtransaction engine that arranges matches to influence game-related purchases," according to the patent. "For instance, the microtransaction engine may match a more expert/marquee player with a junior player to encourage the junior player to make game-related purchases of items possessed/used by the marquee player. A junior player may wish to emulate the marquee player by obtaining weapons or other items used by the marquee player."

The patent goes on to note that the same information could be used to identify which sorts of in-game purchasable items should be promoted.

The system can also be much more specific in its analysis of potential customers in a game:

"In a particular example, the junior player may wish to become an expert sniper in a game (e.g., as determined from the player profile)," according to the patent. "The microtransaction engine may match the junior player with a player that is a highly skilled sniper in the game. In this manner, the junior player may be encouraged to make game-related purchases such as a rifle or other item used by the marquee player. "


The system can also drop players into matches that will make use of an in-game-related purchase, according to the patent.

"Doing so may enhance a level of enjoyment by the player for the game-related purchase, which may encourage future purchases," according to the patent. "For example, if the player purchased a particular weapon, the microtransaction engine may match the player in a gameplay session in which the particular weapon is highly effective, giving the player an impression that the particular weapon was a good purchase. This may encourage the player to make future purchases to achieve similar gameplay results."

The patent also makes it clear that while the examples used in the patent are all for a first-person-shooter game, the system could be used across a wide variety of titles.

Activision recently courted a bit of controversy with in-game purchases and Destiny 2. The Bungie-developed, Activision-published game stirred some player anger after its release with the way the game's Shaders work. In the original game, a player could find or purchase for real money, a shader that could be used an unlimited amount of times on weapons and armor. In Destiny 2, the Shaders can still be purchased or found, but players feel they're too hard to find and now, once used on a single item they vanish.

In 2016, Activision Blizzard said it earned $3.6 billion from in-game sales, up from 2015's $1.6 billion.

Update: This story has been updated to reflect the comments provided to Glixel by Bungie and Activision after the story went live.

https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/new ... ms-w509288

Last edited by Saint of Killers on Wed Oct 18, 2017 8:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Trelliz
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Trelliz » Wed Oct 18, 2017 8:03 am

"If i ignore them then they don't affect my experience!"

:roll:

jawa2 wrote:Tl;dr Trelliz isn't a miserable git; he's right.
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Frank
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Frank » Wed Oct 18, 2017 8:07 am

Surely in that example if your first experience of a game is being obliterated by someone aren’t you just going to think it’s a badly balanced poorly programmed game and not bother spending any more time (let alone money) with it?

All this online-focused multiplayer nonsense is legitimately ruining the industry. People just need to stop playing.

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Gemini73

PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Gemini73 » Wed Oct 18, 2017 9:34 am

Trelliz wrote:
Winckle wrote:
smurphy wrote:It's become an unstoppable force so my reaction is to just ignore it and everything to do with it. I'll sink deeper into the tide of amazing indie and lower budget games that come out so often that I literally can't keep up with it, only popping my head out for the odd AAA gem like Dishonored 2 and Prey.

That's exactly what I'm doing. Indie, Good Dev AAA, and Nintendo Switch.


I'm going back to the 360/ps3 era to get into a load of stuff i missed the first time round as well as the above (except the switch)


I've been doing that a lot more recently myself, along with playing older PC games. More so because there are more, complete single player experiences. I'm not THAT bothered by MTs and loot boxes; they're not cool and they can be ignored to an extent. However, their existence has, in my opinion, dropped the quality of a lot of new releases/franchises in that the actual games themselves seem to be playing second fiddle to the myriad of ways publishers can fleece customers. Very few single player, even multi-player games these days are at all engaging. In fact I've found many to be quite vapid, soulless experiences. It's all about how publishers can push you on to that next in-game purchase.

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Moggy
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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Moggy » Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:17 am

I have no problems with some types of microtransaction. Horse armour was laughed at but didn’t bother me as it wasn’t something I was ever bothered about buying. The same with Team Fortress hats etc, if people want to pay to customise their characters then that’s up to them.

This new idea of paying to get an advantage in games is shitty though and hopefully dies out soon. The Facebook free to play tactics are awful in a free game, it is horrible in a paid for game.

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PostRe: Micro transactions in all games (EA)
by Gemini73 » Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:26 am

I've no problem with some MTs either and have indulged across various titles, but for the AAA industry they do seem to be the key focus when an idea for a new game reaches the development process, with everything else taking a back seat. It's not uncommon these days to get bombarded by publishers with plans for season passes, DLC and MTs before any in depth details (beyond the initial announcement) of a new game come to light.


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