4 ms·

"I'd much rather live in a world where people were just more happy to pay for things they consume" As an "old" and grumpy gamer, I agree, but I think we are pa

"I'd much rather live in a world where people were just more happy to pay for things they consume" As an "old" and grumpy gamer, I agree, but I think we are past that point. Nowadays I think new gamers are losing track of the fact that they are supposed to play to have fun, and see getting rewards as the only end-goal. Recently Hearthstone (collectible card game) announced a free roguelike single-player mode, and the only thing many people in the community can think of is that the only reward for completing it is a minor cosmetic item, and that is not sufficient, that they should be better compensated for the time "invested" in it. Mind, it is an attitude that is a consequence of the culture of microtransations and lootboxes that also Blizzard helped to establish, so it's hard to take the company's side.

beaconstudios 9y ago
yeah I think both sides of the equation feed into each other to create some kind of Skinner box with mutually-dependent researcher and subject. It's not a pleasant formula and it's started to leak into paid AAA games too (for example, Battlefront II's loot-box controversy and Deus Ex's single player microtransactions).
colmvp 9y ago
> Recently Hearthstone (collectible card game) announced a free roguelike single-player mode, and the only thing many people in the community can think of is that the only reward for completing it is a minor cosmetic item, and that is not sufficient, that they should be better compensated for the time "invested" in it. To be fair to Hearthstone players, the reason why they have this mentality is because the game is expensive and the amount of in-game currency one earns by playing every day is pretty small. So spending a few hours of entertainment time on Dungeon Run's is essentially giving up potentially earning gold for a pack. I don't think this would be as much of an issue had they not removed Adventures, which had a traditional purchase model (pay $20 to get complete content).

beaconstudios 9y ago

yeah I think both sides of the equation feed into each other to create some kind of Skinner box with mutually-dependent researcher and subject. It's not a pleasant formula and it's started to leak into paid AAA games too (for example, Battlefront II's loot-box controversy and Deus Ex's single player microtransactions).

colmvp 9y ago

> Recently Hearthstone (collectible card game) announced a free roguelike single-player mode, and the only thing many people in the community can think of is that the only reward for completing it is a minor cosmetic item, and that is not sufficient, that they should be better compensated for the time "invested" in it. To be fair to Hearthstone players, the reason why they have this mentality is because the game is expensive and the amount of in-game currency one earns by playing every day is pretty small. So spending a few hours of entertainment time on Dungeon Run's is essentially giving up potentially earning gold for a pack. I don't think this would be as much of an issue had they not removed Adventures, which had a traditional purchase model (pay $20 to get complete content).