Verhalthur wrote...
If you consider the game as the sum of it's features, how is this extra feature a bad thing?
It helps you out if you want to use it, and if you don't you can still get the content.
No content is being excluded here, but it is being made available for those who want to get it faster. In a PvP game, this would put some people at a disadvantage, but this is not a PvP game.
If other players buy these packs then they are spending their own money to be more able to help you.
All of that behavioral psychology is not really important when considering the actual benefits and negatives of this system, and there are no negatives.
bchesson wrote...
Like it or not the "pay system" is here to stay in online gaming. MMO's are thriving off it and now it's trickling down to regular gaming. If someone spends a few bucks on packs more power to them. If you dislike it keep earning your creds and more power to you as well. It's not like we're playing a pvp game where it's giving someone a huge advantage. I don't think it's any more absurd than buying an app for your phone or tablet. If you're happy with your purchase knock yourself out....you're not hurting me by buying that spectre pack.
I'll adress both of you at the same time, I hope you'll forgive me my lazyness.
The problem is that you take a very shortsighted perspective, the perspective of a consumer and player.
You live in the here and now, and do not look for what develops beyond the mountains. And when the problems eventually arrive for you too, you're displeased and say: "Why do they do this? That's unfair. I never saw *this* coming." But development of games is not stagnent and - at least as far as the publisher is concerned - financial success is more important than quality, fairness or morals.
How is this important in this case (and many similar ones)?
Well, if you support the system, you create a precendent and something the publishers can rely on. While we're speaking here, there are graphs and charts in their offices that record purchases, show how much people on average spend, on what they spend it, etc. And with this data, they will attempt to increase profit.
Making profit nowadays is not about what's "right", but what can you get away with?
An example:
Let's assume you and me, we want to open up a cola stand.
So we get ourselves the table and things we need, and then we start to produce our very own coca cola and sell it in glasses filled to the top, with one cube of ice and a slice of lemon.
We make a bit of profit, but not really much, because all the ingrediants are expensive.
So one day we get this brilliant idea: What if we don't make Cola ourselves, but buy cheap Cola from the supermarket and use that instead?
So we do that, and suddenly we find we make more money, because we get away with Cola that tastes less then supreme.
Then we realize that instead of buying finished Cola, we can buy cola concentrate that combined with water, will result in something that tastes like Coca Cola. And suddenly our sales skyrocket, because we reduce our costs so much.
Then we might reduce the amount of concentrate in the Cola, and reduce the lemon slices to half a lemon slice - and suddenly our lemon expenses are cut in half, and we need 10% less concentrate then before. Wow! And people still buy it. So we reduce the lemon slices to a quarter of a slice, and again, profit! And then we add more and more ice cubes, because it's just water, and make the glass look more full than it actually is. (McDonalds and Burger King already do that, no matter if its hot or cold. Let the ice melt and see what the cola tastes like)
Then we realize that people are more thirsty on hot days, and we can raise our prices. And we can take different glasses, that look similar, but hold less cola. Again, profit!
Being a successful businessman is all about optimizing profit, and trying what you can get away with. And the thing is, people adapt, even to things they shouldn't, and then will consider it normal. Half a decade ago, DLCs would have been (and were) heavily critized, and an insult to players. Now they're accepted and everyone does them.
The issue itself never changed, but players got used to it and said: well, that's how it is.
And then people start to rationalize it, justify it, because there is hardly anything they can do on their own.
As a result, companies will again and again test the waters with models such as these.
Go to facebook, Dragon Age Legends, and check the shop. You pay for good items (which are just a data code and a picture) 600 crowns. If you want to buy them, you pay 19,90 euro for 900 crowns. The "best value" package offers 6000 crowns (10 items) for 99,90 euro, and this is nothing but a browser game! Why? Because some people buy it, and they make money almost out of thin air. The prices weren't reduced, or changed, because people throw money into these money sinks.
And the more people are willing to do that, the more inherently free game functions will receive extra costs and will be claimed to be "an extra". You may think: yeah, but what's that to do with ME3 and buying packages for money that can also be gotten via ingame credits?
The answer is that there is nothing wrong with it - but it shows your *willingsness* to pay additional money. And if there are enough people who do that, well, they might make new weapons and offer them as extra pay content. And eventually they'll realize that you can only integrate so many weapons into the game, so it may be clever to reduce the amount of weapons and then sell them later as "new" extra content, while in truth, they were withheld on purpose to optimize profit.
Did you notice that not every single player weapon has found it's way into the multiplayer? Well, that's an opportunity.
The problem is that the trend of acceptance of such functions *will* step by step change the gaming system, until games consist of main retail transactions and countless money-sink-micro-transactions, where games will primarily be designed to offer as much potential as possible to addict and swallow money, instead of providing a valuable gaming experience. And that is the problem. One day all the things you took for granted as part of buying the game, will be reduced to "optional" pay content that players who wish "more diversity" can get by paying a small price. And that will eventually entirely corrupt the gaming experience and ensure that one day, people have no idea that there used to be games you play from start to finish for only the retail price. One day people will have forgotten that something you buy is something you own, and games bought are just a "license to use them for a unspecified time". That is what's disturbing, and the ignorance of all the people who play their part to make this come true step by step, but ignore it entirely. They say "No way, this is just a small step. No way it leads there! That's bull****". But those steps belong to a staircase, and I doubt it leads up...
Modifié par Kuraiken, 02 avril 2012 - 04:09 .
Retour en haut
