• Randelung@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Acquaintance of mine just dgaf. He’ll get banned on a game for cheating and just spend another 60.- to get another copy. DLCs, micro transactions, pay to win, doesn’t matter. He’s a cancer on the whole industry.

    • Quazatron@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I vote with my wallet by buying indie games or old discounted single player AAA games. This also means I can game on a crappy machine. Being a retrogamer also helps. I literally have more games to play than time to live.

  • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The problem with this mount (beside the cost in the first place) is it provides exclusive functionality otherwise not available.

    It provides portable access to the in game auction house and mailbox.

      • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Nope. If they did, the engineering vendor bots all have long cool downs.

        I did a bit of looking online, to see if there was an AH bot.

        Apparently there used to be a similar mount with the AH, but no mailbox and for 5mil gold. It was removed from the vendor years ago. Anyone who got it then, supposedly still does.

        This $90 new mount is defiantly unique to game. To top it off, some of the sentiment around the original was “I didn’t use it as much as I thought I would.”

  • Makeitstop@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Are the whales the ones complaining? Because the whole concept of a whale is that they are the exception. The vast majority of players pay only the minimum amount or slightly more, but the whales dump so much money in that they are still worth more to the devs than the other 99% of players combined.

    • chaonaut@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You know who look like whales? Problem spenders who spend far beyond their means, and are preyed upon by predatory business practices that use psychological manipulation to encourage people to spend as much as as they can. Like, I’ve literally watched video game developer conference talks where a dev explains in great detail and depth on how to hijack human psychology to milk every last dollar they can. Whales stopped being “those who can afford to spend” a long time ago.

    • ladicius@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You’re right. The definition of a whale includes that he has enough money to not complain about any price at all.

      Except complaining is his kink… Then he gets double the satisfaction from his payments.

      • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Whales aren’t people who can afford whatever, so they spend whatever. Whales are people invested enough that the perceived value added is more than the money it costs. Most whales, therefore, are regular people who are addicted to the game rather than moneybags who could easily afford it. So yeah, it does smell of victim blaming. We should be calling out the bad business practice, rather than calling out those being victimized by the bad business practice.

      • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        A whale doesn’t need enough money not to complain. The tactics used to attract whales are meant to build or take advantage of addictions. When I was drinking I would regularly complain about the cost of alcohol yet still spend much more than I could afford on it

    • Applesauce@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It’s the same as how most airlines operate. The first and business class sections make up the majority of the profit, even though they are just a small fraction of the passengers.

    • flames5123@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      In FFXIV, most multi people mounts are paid for, but they did have an event where they have one that can hold 4 people. There is a paid mount that holds 8 people, and it’s a whale. It’s the most expensive mount at just $42. There is no reason you should want to carry 8 people because everyone should have a mount.

      • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        Some people mentioned there are some additional features locked behind the specific mount this comic is lambasting. Something about AH and mailbox. I haven’t played WoW so not sure how much of an advantage that is, but the closest FFXIV analogue imo is the extra retainers.

        You only have 2 by default and pay an additional $2 a month for any extra. They allow you to basically bot farm some items every 30m to an hour(depends on how below your retainers level the target is) as well as more storage and selling capacity. Nothing is explicitly gated by it, but those who spend the money have a higher capability to earn in game money and/or have greater convenience if they use it properly.

        For those of us who have had extra retainers for years, it’s cost us way more than $90, but it’s not a single huge purchase so can definitely seem like less in your head if you don’t take that one small step of reasoning.

    • VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The whales wouldn’t complain about this one anyways. When this mount was available in-game on the auction house it was probably around 5x the price in USD assuming you bought wow tokens.

    • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I started boycotting all paid digital subscription services when World of Warcraft came out.

      So to me; you’re the problem. Anyone who isn’t boycotting all paid digital subscription services is the problem.

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Subscription fees for frequently updated MMOs aren’t unreasonable. I refuse to pay them, but I don’t begrudge their existence. MTX on top of that are another matter - that shit should only exist in F2P MMOs.

      • Ech@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        Wtf are you talking about? The user you’re responding to is just clarifying the term “whale”.

        • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          If you ignore what else they say:

          The vast majority of players pay only the minimum amount or slightly more,

          Of course they’re making this claim because that’s what they do. Listen: BOYCOTT BOYCOTT BOYCOTT - stop funding things you don’t want to see in this world. Stop funding things you don’t want to reward.

          If you do reward these actions (such as new subscription model services), or you’re justifying them in online commentary (as the comment I replied to was, as you are) then you have no right to complain about them - because they were funded by you.

          It’s like paying the minimum on a Kickstarter for killing kittens, then commenting “Yes, but it’s really the whales funding it”.

          Not if you’re all funding it too. That still counts as funding it! STOP LYING TO YOURSELF!

          • Ech@lemm.ee
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            1 month ago

            You’re raging against a discussion on nomenclature and blaming anyone that responds to you for your off-topic crusade. Maybe take a moment think about that.

  • chautalees@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Okay, as funny as it is, I don’t think the people who are complaining are the ones who are actually purchasing. I am pretty sure that the people who are the majority spenders are not even aware of the hatred on the internet for microtransactions, or even if they are aware, they do not see it as worthwhile concern.

    It is easy to get lost in the noise, as many things on internet, everything becomes an echo chamber. But in reality there are a lot of people who thinks it is justified. That somebody is asking for money to deliver a product or a service and they don’t care how the equation of "what is worth what " is derived.

    For them, its just inflation or expense to cover the cost (basically they take publishers counterpoint at face value, can’t blame them honestly), and since it has become the norm, they have given up on taking a moral stance om this and following through

  • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This can only read as hypocrisy when you portray “everyone who plays video games” as a single character

    • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      It has stayed funny this whole time. WoW provides a lot of fresh material, even if you’re not playing.

  • Nihilistra@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I’m so happy I don’t give a fuck about looking cool or having nice effects in a game.

    The only one I ever spend more bucks than I had to is Path of Exile. And the supporter packs give you your whole worth of money spend as premium currency plus you get the usual skins, emotes and tracking tools.

    I totally feel that I’m okay with buying functional stuff like inventory space if the system itself feels fair.

    In 10 years and around 5000h (only game I play except tarkov for a while) in I spend 122€ so a mount for 90 bucks seems crazy.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I’m glad I’ve always looked down on people who spend money to buy shit in games. If something is only available by paying for it, anyone that I notice showing one off in game gets a “tool” label rather than “cool”.

      Which is kind funny because if the game was a bit less abusive and had a way to get that item without paying, that negative reaction wouldn’t be so strong because it would be ambiguous. Did this person play the game and get rewarded with that item or did they just throw money at it and get handed it? Can’t be sure, so anyone that has it isn’t automatically a tool.

      And progression MTX are even dumber. It’s like paying money so you don’t have to play the game.

      Though the overall quality of the game can play a role, plus whether the items are purely cosmetic vs give in game benefits (aka P2W). If the game is amazing, having some microtransactions doesn’t bother me. Like when I pirated games, I had a threshold where if a game was better than that threshold, I’d buy a copy of the game because I wanted the devs to have money. Some MTX are like that, basically a tip jar for a great game.

      But if the game isn’t great, it’s more like seeing an expectation to tip when you don’t think a tip is warranted.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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      1 month ago

      The only time I have ever paid for any kind of MTX was for Tribes: Ascend. I bought the cheapest amount of paid for currency (which was $5) just for the permanent VIP status it conferred, which doubled your XP gain to unlock weapons and shit (back before they completely restructured the game and that wasn’t necessary anymore).

      I think I ended up using the currency it gave me to buy one of the original Tribes 2 voice sets because it had the most annoying, ear-splitting version of the “Shazbot!” line and I would spam the shit outta it.

      Never again. Even if I like the game, like I did with Ascend. I especially won’t do it with anything Hi-Rez makes.

  • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    I used to be an avid Plants Vs. Zombies player and I won the Jade League No. 1 spot and earned almost every plant that could be earned and I did it without paying a single dime in real life money. I eventually quit because after you finish the main game and win the Jade League (even once) there really isn’t much else for you to do, and when you grind up your plants’ exp to the level I got them the games become a sinch.