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Friday, June 30, 2023
Not hardcore enough to be exploited?
I have been noticing a lot of stories in 2023 about how bad gaming has gotten, with the focus frequently being excessive monetization of live service games, with battle passes and loot boxes. And for once these stories didn't resonate with me, as they didn't match with my 2023 gaming experience. In 2023 I did buy several games on release, which is something I don't usually do. But for example Age of Wonders 4 I already played for 100 hours, and Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for 150 hours, so none of these purchases are things I regret. And none of the games I played this year are live service games, none have battle passes, and none have loot boxes (unless you count Zelda's amiibo chests, which I wouldn't).
Looking at the complaints some more, it appears that the genre most affected is multi-player shooters. And the people getting exploited with excessive monetization are mostly hardcore gamers. Either the game is selling some sort of game advantage, aka "Pay2Win", or it is selling "exclusive" cosmetic items, and a certain competitive and status-conscious type of gamer feels they "have to" buy all that stuff. The last game I played which even had a battle pass and both cosmetic and Pay2Win stuff was Diablo Immortal, and I only spent around 20 bucks on that. I am not a very competitive or status-conscious type, even less so in games than in real life, and what was on offer in Diablo Immortal simply didn't appeal all that much to me. I've seen the stories of people spending thousands, but I didn't even feel a pull to spend more.
I tend to prefer more cerebral games, strategy, tactics, and role-playing. And since MMORPGs went out of fashion, nearly all of the games I play are single-player games. For PC / console games, single-player games don't have microtransactions very often, which is curious, as for mobile games that monetization also happens in single-player games. Come to think of it, the main reason I see so few microtransactions these days is that I rarely play games on my iPad anymore. And it seems that I am not hardcore enough to be exploited by monetization on PC.
- posted by Tobold @ 6:30 AM Permanent Link
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Despite it not being in your preferred game category I think you might like Resident Evil: Village (if you get it on heavy discount and play on casual so you don't need to worry about actually dying). It's got a whole "modern" Barovia thing going for it and ... I dunno, might be a good change if you get tired from your usual stuff.
You don't need to be good at first person shooting to enjoy it, but you might need to be a little good at first person running away from things, especially at the start. Haha :D
You don't need to be good at first person shooting to enjoy it, but you might need to be a little good at first person running away from things, especially at the start. Haha :D
When F2P largely took over from subscriptions and even from buy-to-play in many cases, my expenditure on gaming fell through the floor. For my playstyle, almost everything I used to pay for is now free and all the things companies ask money for I don't want and never wanted.
It was always the really "hardcore" obsessives (Not hardcore players) who paid the big money, though, only it used to be outisde of the game - thousands of dollars on illegal trnsfers of characters, items, accounts and so on, traded through EBay and other third-party sites. I guess the companies decided they might as well have some of that revenue stream, since it was there.
It was always the really "hardcore" obsessives (Not hardcore players) who paid the big money, though, only it used to be outisde of the game - thousands of dollars on illegal trnsfers of characters, items, accounts and so on, traded through EBay and other third-party sites. I guess the companies decided they might as well have some of that revenue stream, since it was there.
I try and avoid games with micro transactions and I think that results in me having blinders on to those types of games and discussions about them. The last uproar I could remember was the Diablo mobile game. I wasn't interested in it and can't remember the details but I remember the outrage. The only game that I play with micro transactions is Genshin Impact (thanks Tolbold :)). In GI I pay on about $5 per month and for that I get much more than five hours of enjoyment per month so I'm fine with that even if I don't like the gacha monetization strategy.
I noticed that nowadays I lean towards single player open world games. Games like GTA V, Red Dead Redemption II, Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, etc. Luckily those are still buy to play. The games that I'm looking forward to also seem to be buy to play - CP2077 expansion, Starfield, GTA VI, the next Elder Scrolls game, and Squadron 42.
I'm glad that the buy to play business model is still around, I get the feeling that it may be extinct in another 20 years.
I noticed that nowadays I lean towards single player open world games. Games like GTA V, Red Dead Redemption II, Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, etc. Luckily those are still buy to play. The games that I'm looking forward to also seem to be buy to play - CP2077 expansion, Starfield, GTA VI, the next Elder Scrolls game, and Squadron 42.
I'm glad that the buy to play business model is still around, I get the feeling that it may be extinct in another 20 years.
So I've had microstransactions and terrible monetization drive me away from games I really enjoyed and because of that don't invest my time into games with similar models anymore.
I was a huge Destiny player. It effectively became my WoW replacement when I finally quit. Purchased every expansion for the first game. I was upset when the in game shop released but as I didn't engage in it I figured it was alright.
I pre-ordered and played the sequel game when it launched. I was hard-core into the game but still refused to buy from the in game shop. I slowly watched as the game I enjoyed was broken up bit by bit and resold to the players in various battlepasses, expansions, event passes, dungeon passes, etc. I gave up on the game when I realized to continue playing it how I had been for years I would have been forced into supporting those practices.
Bad monetization can definitely ruin can otherwise good game but like you all stated this is mostly contained to the multi-player space.
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I was a huge Destiny player. It effectively became my WoW replacement when I finally quit. Purchased every expansion for the first game. I was upset when the in game shop released but as I didn't engage in it I figured it was alright.
I pre-ordered and played the sequel game when it launched. I was hard-core into the game but still refused to buy from the in game shop. I slowly watched as the game I enjoyed was broken up bit by bit and resold to the players in various battlepasses, expansions, event passes, dungeon passes, etc. I gave up on the game when I realized to continue playing it how I had been for years I would have been forced into supporting those practices.
Bad monetization can definitely ruin can otherwise good game but like you all stated this is mostly contained to the multi-player space.
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