Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread)
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Well, really, if you think about it, making a video game without microtransactions is a lot like making a movie. It's a moneymaking project designed with a release that includes a lot of the following:
- salaries of developers, qa testers, project managers, human resources, etc
- cost of servers, cloud costs, databases, software that controls these servers. Cabling. Data Center fees.
- cost of software and licenses (NOT CHEAP) that includes all kinds of stuff you wouldn't think about, like computer OS licenses, laptops, MICE, printers, office supplies, THE OFFICE ITSELF, desk chairs, air conditioning
- blah blah expenses blah blah
...all up to the release of one product that they hope, at $60-$100 per customer, will recoup these costs up amd over the profit line. It's kind of like how a movie has to pay millions to make a movie (Hey, Jennifer Lawrence puts butts in the seats, but her asking price is...), but if the movie doesn't go over into a certain profit margin, it is considered a failure.
So do I get why microtransactions are a thing? Of course. Especially with new IPs, a video game really is a "let's throw this against the wall, see if it sticks, and hopefully walk away with millions" affair.
It's a cheap, profitable, and tried and tested means of mitigating the risk of failure, but it's still tricksy and bullshit.
Last I read, microtransactions account for 25% of all profits in the gaming industry.
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Micro-transactions are addictive. I have to avoid games with them, because of my personality type. I don't trust myself.
Watch the South Park episode about them. It's... actually really good and describes them perfectly.
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@ghost said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
Last I read, microtransactions account for 25% of all profits in the gaming industry.
Micro-transactions support the theory I have that most new gamers are fucking stupid.
Whatever. I hate you, I hate them.
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@ganymede I suppose gambling addicts are fucking stupid, too. And alcoholics. And drug addicts.
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@admiral
If you want to believe so. I just said "new gamers."
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I'm lazy and didn't read through all the post so this may be a repeat, but:
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@ganymede said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
@ghost said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
Last I read, microtransactions account for 25% of all profits in the gaming industry.
Micro-transactions support the theory I have that most new gamers are fucking stupid.
Whatever. I hate you, I hate them.
Do you ever have those moments (about video games) that make you feel like an old person screaming at people to get off your lawn?
I have them a lot.
Sample dialogue:
When I was a kid, you bought an NES cartridge for $30 and you got the WHOLE GAME. Not HALF of Ninja Gaiden or Super Dodge Ball, but ALL of it. God damn it, I remember the GOOD days when you got ALL of it. You didn't pay for games in INSTALLMENTS.
Or.
I remember when DLC was done right. You'd buy a game, get the WHOLE game, and then the developers would get to work after the game was released and say HEY, WE LOVE THAT YOU APPRECIATE THE GAME, SO WE WORKED HARD TO ADD 40 HOURS OF GAME PLAY AND NEW ADVENTURES BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU. But noOoOoO now it's like: Thanks for buying the $60 disc. For an additional $20 at launch you can buy an 8 byte update that will unlock stuff that was already on the disc you just bought. Because capitalism.
Oh, and...
@Admiral not the Hog Pit. Take that attitude elsewhere, please. -
@alzie said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
Holy shit. That's so evil I have to step back and appreciate it. Buy this instagib cannon and we will guarantee you multiplayer matches against people that you will one hit kill. That's beautiful.
That is some The Most Dangerous Game shit right there. Jesus christ.
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@ghost No? I wasn't being negative. The one calling new gamers 'fucking stupid' rather than addressing the actual issue of microtransactions was offensive.
Maybe you should take your attitude elsewhere instead of using typical 4chan style lelkekgifstorms.
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@ghost said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
Oh, and...
@Admiral not the Hog Pit. Take that attitude elsewhere, please.Excuse me, but that was my attitude, thank you.
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I do not have a problem with Microtransactions so long as the game is either free or relatively cheap and it is clear at the outset that the means of money making for that particular game is the Microtransactions.
But if someone tries telling me that selling a $60 game requires Microtransactions to make it profitable, then that tells me that their game is probably not very good.
But then I remember EA considered the outstanding sales on games like Dead Space 1 and 2 to be failures because they did not make the amount of sales they felt they should have generated, which reveals what they think of their role in the gaming industry.
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@ganymede said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
@ghost said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
Oh, and...
@Admiral not the Hog Pit. Take that attitude elsewhere, please.Excuse me, but that was my attitude, thank you.
Sure, sure, but I'm hoping we can keep from calling something stupid without those so I guess you're calling me stupid too throwdowns.
Those start fights.
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@Arkandel WoW is free to play up to level 20 or maybe even 60 now, I don't recall.
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@lithium 20, unless they've changed things recently.