3 ms·

> obscene monetization strategy they employ Asking money for cosmetic-only things is obscene?

by thegeekpirate 9y ago

morsch 9y ago
Well, yes. Better than pay to win, but still pretty obscene.
- andybak 9y ago
  Obscene? You will run out of superlatives pretty quickly if you use them so casually. As VR has brought me closer to a world I previously had little contact with I've find the gaming community's quickness to anger and it's (lack of a) sense of perspective fairly exhausting. It's impossible to even begin a discussion about monetisation strategies without getting shouted down. You'd think we were discussing gun reform in the midwest. ;-)
  - morsch 9y ago
    I grew up on games that had no monetization strategy beyond an initial investment. Many popular and hugely influential online games -- TF/TFC, the original Counterstrike -- were mods made by hobbyists and released for free, with the blessing of the original game's developers[1]. Gamers self-organized to create an infrastructure of public servers. Pay to win games just moved the Overton window so far that these days, paying for cosmetic items doesn't seem like a big deal. I'm not angry about any of this; with ever decreasing time left for playing games I don't really care. Obscene may be a bit harsh -- I recycled it from the grandparent; but it does also imply that the judgment is relative and based on taste more than anything. I'd also use it when saying that I use an obscene amount of salt or that a sweater is an obscene color without intending to downplay affairs of state. [1] This seems super rare these days, right?
- matt_s 9y ago
  It helps keep the game running. Have you read through some of their technical write-ups on the outages they've had? Talk about scaling issues. Do you normally think all businesses that make a profit are obscene? I think obscene is charging people $60 for a game and then driving everyone towards in game purchases for cosmetic items.

> obscene monetization strategy they employ Asking money for cosmetic-only things is obscene?

morsch 9y ago

Well, yes. Better than pay to win, but still pretty obscene.

andybak 9y ago
Obscene? You will run out of superlatives pretty quickly if you use them so casually. As VR has brought me closer to a world I previously had little contact with I've find the gaming community's quickness to anger and it's (lack of a) sense of perspective fairly exhausting. It's impossible to even begin a discussion about monetisation strategies without getting shouted down. You'd think we were discussing gun reform in the midwest. ;-)
- morsch 9y ago
  I grew up on games that had no monetization strategy beyond an initial investment. Many popular and hugely influential online games -- TF/TFC, the original Counterstrike -- were mods made by hobbyists and released for free, with the blessing of the original game's developers[1]. Gamers self-organized to create an infrastructure of public servers. Pay to win games just moved the Overton window so far that these days, paying for cosmetic items doesn't seem like a big deal. I'm not angry about any of this; with ever decreasing time left for playing games I don't really care. Obscene may be a bit harsh -- I recycled it from the grandparent; but it does also imply that the judgment is relative and based on taste more than anything. I'd also use it when saying that I use an obscene amount of salt or that a sweater is an obscene color without intending to downplay affairs of state. [1] This seems super rare these days, right?
matt_s 9y ago
It helps keep the game running. Have you read through some of their technical write-ups on the outages they've had? Talk about scaling issues. Do you normally think all businesses that make a profit are obscene? I think obscene is charging people $60 for a game and then driving everyone towards in game purchases for cosmetic items.