- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
I want to shed light on a tactic that involves collecting data as you play, feeding this data into complex algorithms and models that then alter the rules of your game under the hood to optimize spending opportunities.
If you want to say that certain types of business models, like paying for RNG where you don’t know what you’re buying, are predatory, I would be with you on that.
But your extreme hardline stance of “nothing should cost money ever” is not a reasonable place to draw the line. At least some of what you’re railing against should be perfectly fine.
Nothing inside a video game. That part is not optional. I’ve dealt with too many cranks who see me arguing - JUST SELL GAMES - and then go ‘you want it for free!’ No, folks, you want it for free. You want to play endlessly-updated games, ‘subsidized by teenage hormones.’ You imagine that you would never be taken for ungodly sums of money.
Even if you’re right, you’re counting on other people being taken for all the money you’re not paying, and more. That’s what it means, when this abuse makes more money.
Predatory abuse is inseparable from this business model. Maximum revenue comes from addiction and frustration. You can be made to want whatever bullshit they’re allowed to push. That’s how games work. They mechanically convince you to value arbitrary nonsense.
edit: oh shit, I thought I hit submit on this five hours ago.
I do want updated games, yes. My favorite games wouldn’t be my favorite games if 1.0 was all we ever got.
Some games have predatory models, and I do oppose that. But only when it actually is predatory. I take issue with how you’re trying to say nothing should ever be sold, even when what’s being sold is perfectly fair.
I take issue with how you’re still lying about what I said. ‘Things being sold’ is my entire drive. Did you miss it, in all caps? The problem is this farce of charging real money for permission to use what’s already in a game you already paid for.
Games were updated before this nonsense was possible. This business model is only like fifteen years old. Unreal Tournament '99 had updates and new content for years, because people kept buying the game.
I’m not missing, I’m saying that your hardline stance against things being sold isn’t reasonable.
You’re repeatedly misrepresenting my stance after several clear and specific corrections.
You said “Nothing inside a video game should cost real money”. Those are your words. If you want to claim that your stance is actually something else, why did you say those words?
And you keep pretending I said “nothing should ever be sold.” Or “nothing should cost money ever.”
Do you need a diagram?
If nothing costs money, nothing is sold. Are you trying to play dumb here?