(most) Microtransactions are OK and people need to stop bitching about them

[otto-san]

so why did games do just fine with a $60 price tag and no DLC?

the games market is always changing. as people look for bigger and better games, studios are gonna need more and more money. AAA studios need to profit enough on their releases to make their next game, and then the game after that. the way we obtain content and the way we interact with it is also changing all the time. you can't honestly compare the games market ten or even five years ago to the market today because this is an industry that evolves and changes fast. the real-world economy is also a tough thing to keep up with, and games are already expensive as is. devs know that people won't respond well to a price hike

i don't see anything inherently wrong with selling DLC and other content for a marginal cost. if a dev makes their game worse because they fail to properly implement these ideas, then that's their fault, not the fault of the idea of these marginal costs

[Ad Bot]

[hillkill]

the games market is always changing. as people look for bigger and better games, studios are gonna need more and more money. AAA studios need to profit enough on their releases to make their next game, and then the game after that. the way we obtain content and the way we interact with it is also changing all the time. you can't honestly compare the games market ten or even five years ago to the market today because this is an industry that evolves and changes fast. the real-world economy is also a tough thing to keep up with, and games are already expensive as is. devs know that people won't respond well to a price hike

i don't see anything inherently wrong with selling DLC and other content for a marginal cost. if a dev makes their game worse because they fail to properly implement these ideas, then that's their fault, not the fault of the idea of these marginal costs

the market has not really changed imo. i guess more people would be buying video games because of the "video games are for nerds" thing existed, but that's about it. i can't really see what has evolved.

in the 90's, developers would buy/license advanced programs for animating, programming, or whatever. in 2017, developers are still licensing and buying advanced programs for animating, programming, or whatever. i can't honestly see what's changed here other than inflation.

[McJob]

Always good to see the uninitiated try to explain how microtransactions are "evil penny stealing". Keep trying Hillkill, and maybe one day you might hit an argument that even scratches the truth.

I'll post my view later, when I'm not flooded with work. You know, as a game developer. On mobile apps. With microtransactions. :)

[otto-san]

the market has not really changed imo. i guess more people would be buying video games because of the "video games are for nerds" thing existed, but that's about it. i can't really see what has evolved.

in the 90's, developers would buy/license advanced programs for animating, programming, or whatever. in 2017, developers are still licensing and buying advanced programs for animating, programming, or whatever. i can't honestly see what's changed here other than inflation.

the costs of making a AAA game have increased (or studios are more willing to spend more money), the costs of marketing and what devs are willing to spend on marketing has risen, and i imagine AAA studios are typically working on multiple titles at the same time to keep up with the market. lots of games are also now being developed with long-term plans of continuous development, which was less common in the past

digital distribution is a relatively new development in the grand scheme of things as well and that has enabled devs to have a lot more freedom in these types of things. if it were as easy to deploy smaller bits of content back in the 90s i expect we'd see things very similar to what we see now.

[torin²]

Always good to see the uninitiated try to explain how microtransactions are "evil penny stealing". Keep trying Hillkill, and maybe one day you might hit an argument that even scratches the truth.

I'll post my view later, when I'm not flooded with work. You know, as a game developer. On mobile apps. With microtransactions. :)

using mobile apps and game developer in the same sentence LOl

[d]

Reminder that McJob literally works for Ubisoft

[hillkill]

Reminder that McJob literally works for Ubisoft

can't tell if joke or not

[The Subject]

can't tell if joke or not

not

[HellHound]

Reminder that McJob literally works for Ubisoft

really takes your noggin' for a joggin'

[Filipe]

This is kind of a problem if you think about it, the grinding system could have been improved drasticly simply by providing more variety of missions to do and other fun ways to gain money, other than grinding the same one over and over again which makes it boring.

Let's take GTA Online for example, if you want to buy that 4 million dollar plane from the new DLC, you have to grind the pacific heist mission again and again, each grants you 100k, it takes more than 11 hours to get that plane, unless you buy a shark card which is expensive.

[IdeTheBird]

If a game's micro transactions helps you win then it's loving dog stuff garbage doo stain. If there's cosmetics, than it's fine.

[Vigil]

Reminder that McJob literally works for Ubisoft

Worked*

Ur behind the times

[Flatflyer]

Microtransactions are excusable as long as they dont give any gameplay impacting content imo.

spending a dollar on a cosmetic costume is something I'd be perfectly fine with doing.


HOWEVER
locking this kind of stuff behind lootboxes that you can buy with real money to roll for your chances of getting something is absolute garbage and needs to get out of here.

I know people are going to say "Oh but overwatch has a good system since its all cosmetics and you get a free box every level up". No, its still just as bad because they're enticing people with gambling addictions to spend money for that feeling of excitement, the free boxes are to put you in the mentality of "oh man I could totally get something cool out of this, its only 2 dollars anyways" and this continues.

tl;dr cosmetic microtransactions that give you directly what you pay for good, lootboxes terrible.

[Vigil]

Dont blame the system for people who have issues with gambling. They need to fix their own stuff. Its like saying that food is enticing to people with eating disorders.

[Conan]

so why did games do just fine with a $60 price tag and no DLC?

$60 then is about $100 now due to inflation, yet no game has dared to go above the $60 mark since gamers are too used to the $60 tag that anything above makes them feel like they're being cheated. in addition the size of dev teams has grown a lot since pre-2008.

http://askagamedev.tumblr.com/post/133869883495/we-see-you-trying-hard-to-get-people-to-understand
in the article (s)he goes into the numbers behind the $$ made.