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Video Game Thread - $70 Zelda Expansion!

So, Odyssey....loved it at first, then felt meh and then finished the main line and am getting into it a little more. Running around grabbing 12 moons in the first 5 minutes of each stage started to get a little old but the more difficult tasks are pretty fun. Also, it seems like the Sand Level is so huge but the later worlds are tiny.
 
RedSoxFaithful said:
Then you have Microsoft, Sony, Capcom, and Bandai Namco, all of whom seem to have their hands clean so far? At least, I'm not aware of much in the way of microtransactions from them.
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Microsoft was doing this stuff a few years ago. I was an avid Halo 5 player and there were lootboxes in that game...they honestly aren't all that different from how it is in Battlefront 2 where you get all the maps DLC for free but you were capable of unlocking things for multiplayer through lootboxes that could be earned in game or bought.

I understand why people don't like lootboxes because it is similar to gambling in a way but my personal take is that I'd rather have this situation where I'm not forced pay money to play all the extra content that comes out for the game rather than having to pay $45 for a season pass like most games have.
 
RedSoxFaithful said:
So I pulled that from a Metacritic list of publishers from 2016... I don't think y'all had any major releases last year, aside from Dishonored 2 which might explain it

But yeah, CREATION CLUB RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE
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And DOOM. But fair enough, other than the Action Game of the year and Shooter of the year, we didn't do much. :)
 
DCDeacon said:
And DOOM. But fair enough, other than the Action Game of the year and Shooter of the year, we didn't do much. :)
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I'm looking forward to playing Doom now that it is on the Switch. I don't know if you are noticing a pattern with my comments...you guys should just release absolutely everything on the Switch...
 
DeaconWalker said:
Do you play that game? Dokkan Battle? (not that I play it or anything.....)
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Nah. I only have room ($$$) for one gacha game. I've been playing Final Fantasy Brave Exvius for a year and a half.
 
DeaconWalker said:
Microsoft was doing this stuff a few years ago. I was an avid Halo 5 player and there were lootboxes in that game...they honestly aren't all that different from how it is in Battlefront 2 where you get all the maps DLC for free but you were capable of unlocking things for multiplayer through lootboxes that could be earned in game or bought.
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Word. Stopped playing Halo at Reach, and I don't remember any issues with recent releases (GoW, ReCore, Quantum Break)
 
I find this current focus on lootboxes kind of funny because EA has been doing this shit for years. First time I remember them doing this was for the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 and then they took that exact same lootbox system and put it into Dragon Age: Inquisition. It is worth pointing out though that all the multiplayer expansions in those games were also free just like they are in Battlefront 2 but you had to play a lot to unlock stuff.
 
What happens first, Wake's bball team makes the final four or TES 6?
 
DeaconWalker said:
I find this current focus on lootboxes kind of funny because EA has been doing this shit for years.
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So? We've reached a moment of exigence. That's why people are focusing on it. Social issues build.
 
I'd take RSF more seriously as a debater if half his critical posts didn't include the word "nuance."
 
I get that in a video game industry structured on the market economy, products are naturally going to be exploitative. It's cool. You take my money and give me a product your dev/marketing/distribution team worked hard on. That team's time was taken from them, and it's a matter of being willingly exploited for capital.

I guess microtransactions irritate me because somewhere along the line someone figured out they could fool people into parting with their money over time, and what was a one-time payment for a AAA video game became a subscription service. The exploitation grew to a level where the sticker price of the game no longer mirrored or even resembled the actual price of the game. At first (and I'll admit the nuance that it's still the case with some devs) it was just small DLC campaigns. The mobile gaming industry shifted the price paradigm, though. This exploitation grew. Now we're at a point where unlocking everything in Battlefront II requires 4528 hours or $2100. You get to choose. It's one of the few choices you have left with major titles.

Instead of paying a single price for a flight somewhere -- like you used to -- you're taking a cruise vacation when you purchase a major title. You want the base cruise experience? Sure, you can do that. The metaphorical problem here is that extremely few people take a cruise but don't pay for excursions, drinks, souvenirs, etc. Buying a AAA video game these days gets you a ticket on the ship, but nothing else.
 
An additional nuance to consider is that as games rely more and more on server-side connections to keep the online portions of these game rolling, the additional issue of having your time/financial investment to unlock characters/costumes/levels [the game] disappear when the company terminates the server in three/four years after the game's release grows.

Now, the game you pay to own is ostensibly a rental. When 2k15 servers shut down in 2017, I lost hours and hours of hard work that I invested to unlock historical basketball players. Without a connection to the server, I couldn't even open the MyTeam tab - the game literally closed me off to that portion of the game - an element that mixed single player and multiplayer was removed when online capability was lost. It feels like disposable gaming.

I'd argue that these video game structures are a direct result of the growing influence of microtransactions.

Praising good developers is fine, but we need to levy criticism when it's due.
 
I don't think anyone here is arguing that microtransactions aren't troubling, or a problematic trend. I think we're all in agreement there.

Your starting point is a little strange, though. I don't think exploitation is a necessity or inevitability. People paying for a game (or even DLC!) isn't by nature exploitation. I'm more than happy to pay $20 for Far Harbor + Nuka World. That's not exploitation-- those were large, well-made areas that functioned logically separately from the base game. I'm less happy to pay $40 for those same DLCs, plus some cosmetic items, where that content isn't described ahead of time.

Part of the problem here is preorders, which are bad and terrible. Part of it is loot crates that, even when cosmetic, are mathematically designed to exploit folks who struggle with addiction. Part of it is in games that lock an absolutely absurd amount of content up in DLCs that are available within a month of a game's launch (hi, Destiny 2!). I don't think it's as simple as saying "loot crates lol bad" or "virtual currency is the problem!" The game industry currently has a few economic drivers that contribute to this conversation, and correcting for any one of them isn't going to solve things entirely.

And it's nice that the conversation has gotten louder. Publishers that avoid these sorts of practices need to be rewarded, and publishers that don't need to be punished. I think that's where the line needs to be drawn, and like you mentioned, we aren't there yet. Battlefront 2, at the end of the day, is still going to print money, just like Battlefront 1 did. People still play gacha games. Dota 2 can still fund $20 million tournament prize pools through loot crates (through which they're pocketing an additional $60MM!). The market is still fucking dumb.
 
Damn guys, y'all are having a better back and forth discussion on opposite viewpoints on this thread than I think I've ever seen on the Tunnels.
 
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