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Not Operator posted:So I just tried to watch a stream on twitch.tv and the ad that played was for FIFA18. Ostensibly. lol that is gross as fuuuuck
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Dec 7, 2017 13:01
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| # ? Jun 1, 2024 01:51 |
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Play FIF18! *looping audio clip of slot machine jackpots plays continuously*
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Dec 7, 2017 13:25
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wizard on a water slide posted:if you're an organized crime dude looking to go legit, this is your big break
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Dec 7, 2017 13:36
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goferchan posted:Oh man. There are much more rare & expensive lands than snow-covered lands now & there's a higher rarity than rare Yeah. Even at the time there were the rare dual lands, which were just better than normal lands for most practical purposes. You could certainly have a whole thread on shenanigans in Magic: the Gathering or even just the businesses around it, but you wouldn't basically because it's model is taken for granted now. But it's always been pay-to-win. To be fair, compared to something like mobile gaming, there's a practical upper limit to what you can spend and there's potential resale value. But I feel like M:tG was the earliest progenitor of the model we're seeing now. As far as I can tell it was the first to introduce rarity - AFAIK baseball card sets might have cards that might be more rare due to the printing process (and Magic had those too), but I'm trying to find anything else that had tiered rarity of drops like Magic did before it and coming up short. What's more, baseball cards were just collectibles and there was no real game to them, outside of some extremely rare historical curiosities that aren't particularly relevant. Of course, gashapon machines have also been popular in Japan since at least the '60s, though it's hard to find much history on them on this side of the pond. I'd love to hear more about that industry grew and developed over time, since it's another big influence on these models of gaming.
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Dec 7, 2017 14:47
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thechosenone posted:I mean, I think people here are just not making the connections between this and other addictive behaviors such as slot machines and drug abuse. I don't think the drug comparison holds up very well. When you drink alcohol or take other addictive drugs, you more or less know what you're going to feel (and that's why you do it). With loot boxes/packs, there's a very high chance you'll feel "bad" and a very small chance you'll feel "good". Now, if you want to make the argument that people who make and watch FIFA pack opening videos actually, on some level, enjoy the "bad" packs they get, that's something you could do, but it's still different I think. Watching that kid's FIFA videos he says "gently caress you EA" and "just kill me" a lot, which means he at least doesn't think he's happy in that moment.
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Dec 7, 2017 16:33
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Avalerion posted:What's weird to me in hindsight is that back in school we didn't even actually play the pokemon tcg, everyone collected the cards though anyway. Same, the card art is great and people want a card of thier favorite pokemon I think they caught onto this, since theres box packs that are just a popular pokemon’s card, and a giant novelty version of the card just for collecting, along with 4 booster packs.
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Dec 7, 2017 16:40
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The Pokemon TCG was made by WOTC, of course the cards had awesome art.
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Dec 7, 2017 16:48
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precision posted:I don't think the drug comparison holds up very well. When you drink alcohol or take other addictive drugs, you more or less know what you're going to feel (and that's why you do it). With loot boxes/packs, there's a very high chance you'll feel "bad" and a very small chance you'll feel "good". You should look into gambling, addiction, and the brain. The way the brain works doesn't make a meaningful distinction between gambling and drugs if you're addicted, both are a way to stop pain. We might see gambling and focus on the quick highs and lows that distinguish it from how heroin feels, but to people who are addicted, it's a way to numb the pain, which is why addicts usually are the people playing nickle slots even if popular depictions suggest otherwise.
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Dec 7, 2017 17:39
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precision posted:The Pokemon TCG was made by WOTC, of course the cards had awesome art. Depends on if they hired Wayne Reynolds for it.
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Dec 7, 2017 19:24
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Double Bill posted:Angry Joe liked Justice League. he got perturbed (angry if you will) that critics shat all over suicide squad.
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Dec 7, 2017 19:47
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precision posted:The Pokemon TCG was made by WOTC, of course the cards had awesome art. I thought it was only being localized by WoTC, or something weird like that - a lot of the art was done by Japanese artists (some that even worked on pokemon, IIRC), sets were released first in japan, they had a different card back. I recall there being some other differences between what we got and what they got. At some point Nintendo decided not to renew the contract with WotC and took over. I remember being super into the pokemon TCG as a kid and how exciting it was to see the sets before they came over.
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Dec 7, 2017 21:08
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Oxyclean posted:I thought it was only being localized by WoTC, or something weird like that - a lot of the art was done by Japanese artists (some that even worked on pokemon, IIRC), sets were released first in japan, they had a different card back. I recall there being some other differences between what we got and what they got. At some point Nintendo decided not to renew the contract with WotC and took over. Yeah, it was just localized. It's published nowadays directly by The Pokémon Company, which is a joint venture between all the companies involved with the rights to Pokémon (Nintendo and the two other developers involved with it).
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Dec 7, 2017 23:32
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It’s funny listening to Jeff from Giant Bomb talk about how they don’t want the government involved then move on to talking about how tempted he is to buy a pay-to-win gun in Call of Duty.
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Dec 7, 2017 23:44
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sounds like jeff is a dumb rear end in a top hat
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Dec 8, 2017 00:26
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If I was a gambling addict I wouldn't want the government getting involved in my online casino endorphin fix either.
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Dec 8, 2017 07:11
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Bob NewSCART posted:If making off like bandits and never facing any actual punishment is stupid then ea are the dumbest fuckers out there It's loving dumb when you start risking legislation that'll knock down the whole pyramid. I have to imagine that if Battlefront leads to anti-lootbox laws then a whole lot of companies that were rolling in lootbox bucks won't be lining up to work with EA anymore.
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Dec 8, 2017 07:28
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Social casino game Star Trek Online has a thread on its forums where people confess how much money they've sunk into the game.quote:I am sitting at $1910 since August of this year. All gambling and not a one T6 ship or special item from promotions except a single Epic token after buying dilithium for 2700 Phoenix boxes in 3 days.  quote:Since last year, a little over $1500 quote:a total of 3,640 over the past 7 years, not counting birthday cash, Christmas cash, of buying the lifetime sub quote:$5300 plus change since day one. quote:I would have to guess around $2000. quote:I think I'm at something like 5k over the life of my playtime, across two platforms. quote:Enough to buy a new car, I kid you not. quote:I think I'm at around $5,000. quote:I don't want to think about it.
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Dec 8, 2017 07:33
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hakimashou posted:Social casino game Star Trek Online has a thread on its forums where people confess how much money they've sunk into the game. Thanks for posting all of that. This is an excellent example of someone not making planned expenditure decisions - all those small "its only $10" transactions add up really fast.
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Dec 8, 2017 07:50
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hakimashou posted:Social casino game Star Trek Online has a thread on its forums where people confess how much money they've sunk into the game. The Steam thread very recently had a very similar posting streak when people discovered an app that shows how much you've spent on your account 
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Dec 8, 2017 07:57
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I put around $400 into Team Fortress 2 over about seven years. Every so often I'd just put $20-30 into keys and then use them to open boxes as I got them, as well as tickets for the horde mode and a few "all-in-one" packs. I thought by giving money into the game, I'd help extend its lifespan and help the development team continue producing cool new addons for the game. Unfortunately, while it certainly had extended the lifespan of TF2, it seemingly injected a creeping laziness into the game's updates, and the devs' efforts became so sloppy and low-effort from my perspective that I stopped playing. Thankfully, I've been able to get about $225 back, mainly on account of being able to sell a hat for $200. $200. I hope they're happy with that hat. It still blows my mind that somebody was willing to pay $200 for a store flag that tells TF2 servers that they can wear a trilby that glows like the sun on their spies. (Yes, there's added irony there.) When Overwatch came out, it felt like a modernized TF2, and the beta hooked me. There were the lootboxes, sure, but there'd be no word I could find of them being monetized. I suspected they might be, and got to be disappointed on launch day when I saw the price tag stuck on them. Still, it was easy enough to ignore - until the Summer event, in which you couldn't use credits to get items, only buying or grinding. Since then, they've adjusted things and the whole system is more agreeable - but still clearly manipulative. It's not that I don't want to give them any money, but something's fundamentally changed for me after going through my TF2 inventory to sell things off, and even digging my old CCG games out to sell at conventions - a fundamental sense of buyer's regret, at how much junk I ended up with. Even so, If you told me I could buy Mei's Ecopoint costume specifically, yeah, I might buy that. But... .... I haven't put a cent into any Overwatch lootboxes, or Destiny 2's bright engrams, or Fate / Grand Order's sacred quartz, because I've now learned my lesson: never buy anything if you don't know what you're buying. To me, it doesn't matter if they're the most brilliant developers standing in the longest bread line; there are honest ways of making money, and this isn't one of them. The Overwatch devs have mentioned that characters might be going away or rotated out; I just spent 3000 credits on a Torbjorn skin, do I get those credits back if he gets booted from the game? What if the meta changes so that Torbjorn is (more?) dead weight on a team? What if I had actually spent money for that crate? Would I get my money back? Pretty sure I wouldn't. Definitely wouldn't get $200, in any case.
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Dec 8, 2017 08:18
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hakimashou posted:Social casino game Star Trek Online has a thread on its forums where people confess how much money they've sunk into the game. that kinda makes me ill
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Dec 8, 2017 08:49
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Goa Tse-tung posted:that kinda makes me ill Dabo!
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Dec 8, 2017 08:55
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Man I should probably check in with Trek Online
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Dec 8, 2017 09:03
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The same guy who posted the screenshot of his transactions copped to paying a RMT site 200$ for the space ship he was gambling for and didn't win, on top of everything he gave STO.
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Dec 8, 2017 09:43
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In case anyone is wondering, Star Trek Online is published by Perfect World Entertainment. In other words it's quite literally Chinese MMO levels of loot box monetization. The things EA & Activision are currently implementing are only the tip of the already existing iceberg.
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Dec 8, 2017 10:05
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Yeah, I mentioned some stuff with Champions Online earlier but apparently STO is another beast entirely (because STO is their money maker and CO is a vestigial thing kept alive only because they literally can't kill it).
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Dec 8, 2017 10:12
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I put around $400 into Team Fortress 2 over about seven years. Every so often I'd just put $20-30 into keys and then use them to open boxes as I got them, as well as tickets for the horde mode and a few "all-in-one" packs. I thought by giving money into the game, I'd help extend its lifespan and help the development team continue producing cool new addons for the game. Unfortunately, while it certainly had extended the lifespan of TF2, it seemingly injected a creeping laziness into the game's updates, and the devs' efforts became so sloppy and low-effort from my perspective that I stopped playing. Thankfully, I've been able to get about $225 back, mainly on account of being able to sell a hat for $200. Valve is the richest company is PC gaming and they could support TF2 until the heat death of the universe even if they had 0 money making mechanisms in TF2. Activision-Blizzard has the same thing. You purchasing keys/lootboxes does absolutely nothing to extend the life of already extremely successful games by extremely profitable companies.
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Dec 8, 2017 10:39
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Murderion posted:Video games are a truly international industry, yes, but I think that actually hurts major companies like EA rather than helps them. Their core franchises are licensed from companies that see games as a promotional tool rather than an end in and of themselves. Gambling sites and mobage gacha games might not care much about their reputation, but FIFA's going to perk up if they see their game touted as harmful to minors in the EU. Disney's certainly going to get pissy if one of their products gets banned in Australia, sold only to over 21s in three US states, and slapped with GambleAware warnings in the UK. It only takes regulators in a few countries getting legislation through to make a huge difference - "BATTLEFRONT 2 BANNED IN SWEDEN" is a PR clusterfuck even if it doesn't hurt the bottom line much. Yeah, I could see Disney bristling at Star Wars name being dragged through the mud, but loving LOL if you think this is the worst scandal to affect the name of FIFA in the last whatever period of time. They gave a world cup to loving Qatar, a place with no soccer team and during the summer it's over 100 degrees in the shade. Using literal slaves to build soccer stadiums and working them to death hasn't got people to stop watching the sport, minors gambling doesn't even register. FIFA was invented to make every single other sports regulation company look better by comparison
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Dec 8, 2017 10:57
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" argument won't work either; why the gently caress should an Aussie regulator care if Activision threatens to shutter one of their US offices?
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I put around $400 into Team Fortress 2 over about seven years. Every so often I'd just put $20-30 into keys and then use them to open boxes as I got them, as well as tickets for the horde mode and a few "all-in-one" packs. I thought by giving money into the game, I'd help extend its lifespan and help the development team continue producing cool new addons for the game. Unfortunately, while it certainly had extended the lifespan of TF2, it seemingly injected a creeping laziness into the game's updates, and the devs' efforts became so sloppy and low-effort from my perspective that I stopped playing. Get the beer and take it up to the UFO. also theres default weapon skins now i guess 
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Dec 8, 2017 11:45
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babypolis posted:jesus christ. and they can get away with basically anything because who is going to buy a basketball game where all the team names and players are fake This was at least a decade ago but Pro Evo used to not have all the official names for teams and players, but it still got really popular because it was a better football game than FIFA at the time.
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Dec 8, 2017 12:29
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Improbable Lobster posted:Valve is the richest company is PC gaming and they could support TF2 until the heat death of the universe even if they had 0 money making mechanisms in TF2. I'm not saying it was smart or right. It's just what I used to self-justify it, I thought if I threw money at it it would keep being a priority for them. $60 a year is ultimately small beans as far as lootbox habits go, tho. Dunno if they're richest company, though, given they're privately traded. They're definitely somewhere in the multibillion dollar range. Hollenhammer posted:Get the beer and take it up to the UFO. also theres default weapon skins now i guess Yeah, Invasion was the last update I played. Seeing an officially published fan reskin of 2fort was pretty emblematic of the whole state of the game, as far as I was concerned. The fact they get the community to do so much of the work for them is an amazing coup for their bottom line, I suppose, but not so much for the game itself.
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Dec 8, 2017 18:13
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Dunno if they're richest company, though, given they're privately traded. They're definitely somewhere in the multibillion dollar range. I'd be curious as to what gaming company would have more money than Valve.
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Dec 8, 2017 19:47
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i've made 400ish bucks off dota. loving LMAO at spending over 5 grand on any video let alone one of the shittier games in an absolute poo poo genre.
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Dec 8, 2017 19:53
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s.i.r.e. posted:I'd be curious as to what gaming company would have more money than Valve. Probably actiblizz, they've been making a billion a year just off of wow subs for the last 10+ years, and that thing costs them like 50m per year, expansion dev and customer support costs included. Then there's all those call of duty, starcraft, overwatch and that card game sales... yeah, it's probably a close call.
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Dec 8, 2017 19:55
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s.i.r.e. posted:I'd be curious as to what gaming company would have more money than Valve. Valve was estimated at $1.5-3B in 2011. EA and Activision / Blizzard are each possibly worth more ($4B and $9B as of 2017, respectively), so it depends on how much Valve's equity has grown in the last six years. Whether or not they count as "PC gaming" is a matter of debate, no doubt, but it's hard to say precisely as Valve is still a private company and doesn't release financial data.
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Dec 8, 2017 20:03
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I am not surprised by the madness that goes on in sports games. I mean lootboxes prey on a weakness. I'd argue the more rational you are, the more likely are you to realize you are susceptible to this stuff. People who basically worship a bunch overpaid millionaires chasing a round leather ball across a field and built a large part of their identity around ~ their team~ are not the most rational or sane crowd. I live in Munich, you wouldn't believe some of the poo poo I have seen "grown" men do in the name of FC Bayern.
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Dec 8, 2017 20:30
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Truga posted:Probably actiblizz, they've been making a billion a year just off of wow subs for the last 10+ years, and that thing costs them like 50m per year, expansion dev and customer support costs included. Alien Rope Burn posted:Valve was estimated at $1.5-3B in 2011. EA and Activision / Blizzard are each possibly worth more ($4B and $9B as of 2017, respectively), so it depends on how much Valve's equity has grown in the last six years. Whether or not they count as "PC gaming" is a matter of debate, no doubt, but it's hard to say precisely as Valve is still a private company and doesn't release financial data. I had no idea; I didn't think WoW was bringing in that much still. I thought it's been dying for a long while.
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Dec 8, 2017 21:10
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It goes up and down as MMOs do, but any time it goes down people start bugging out that the game's dying. (It's never gone below a good few millions of players)
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Dec 8, 2017 22:12
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s.i.r.e. posted:I had no idea; I didn't think WoW was bringing in that much still. I thought it's been dying for a long while. Well, WoW / Overwatch / Destiny / Call of Duty / Candy Crush are all under their banner. They have a lot of really big moneymakers.
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Dec 8, 2017 22:43
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| # ? Jun 1, 2024 01:51 |
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/12/08/npd-shows-dismal-battlefront-2-sales-at-20-of-call-of-duty-wwii-sales/#473d89c42b38 "NPD is reporting (via WSJ) that Star Wars Battlefront 2 sales (in the US), were only 882,000 in its debut month. This is in sharp contrast to chief Activision rival Call of Duty: WWII, which instead sold 4.4 million copies during the month using the same metric. That means that to date, Battlefront 2 has likely only sold about 20% the copies of COD: WWII, if digital sales estimates are accurate, though COD does have a two week head start on it. Still, the figure is disappointing and EA has clearly been hit hard by the well-publicized pushback to the game’s loot boxes, which caused microtransactions to be stripped out of the game hours before launch. So in addition to lost sales, what the NPD figures are not showing is potential lost revenue from having zero post-launch monetization, while Call of Duty has been able to start selling its loot boxes with little controversy, as they don’t have nearly the same impact on gameplay."
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Dec 9, 2017 14:20
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