6 ms·

From my experience, free to play games are basically always guaranteed to be deceptive in order to recoup the cost of development. There are a few examples tha

by gitgud 7y ago

From my experience, free to play games are basically always guaranteed to be deceptive in order to recoup the cost of development. There are a few examples that don't fit, like; TF2 and Fortnite I suppose. But I'd always rather pay a fixed fee for a game and be confident there's no incentive to sell me something...

Robadob 7y ago
Fortnite has been criticised for it's store. Item's are only available for a limited time (24h?), with no guarantee of when they will become available again. This creates the 'Fear of Missing Out' incentive for people to spend. I've not played it first hand though. On the otherhand, this article is discussing someone addicted to the gambling element of TF2's crates (aka loot boxes).
- LifeLiverTransp 7y ago
  Its not just addicted to gambling. Its addicted to social interaction, as in lonely and trying to fit into a community at all costs.
- mtsr 7y ago
  I don’t get why sibling LifeLiverTransp is getting downvoted. One of the main ways games like fortnite sell their stuff is by social pressure. One can not customize one’s avatar at all without buying stuff. So you’ll be stuck as a default clone to the derision of friends and enemies alike. And the game is very much aimed at being played by school friends.
  - mmmrk 7y ago
    Not sure why you're getting down voted. What you say is true. Jim Sterling makes videos about this regularly over at YouTube.
anon4242 7y ago
It's ironic that you mention TF2 as a good example as it is the very first example of the opposite in the linked article. Fortnite, besides having their own issues, also have the issue of "secondary whale-chasers" which is all those youtube videos proclaiming that they found a hack to enable a bunch of skins or similar for free. This means installing (what I assume to be) bitcoin-miners on each twelve year old's machine. You'd think that wouldn't be possible on a machine used by a twelve year old but Epic is extra helpful in that it basically requires its game launcher to be run as admin (because of its frequent updates to Fortnite that requires admin rights). So I assume most parents make their kid's account admin out of convenience.
- swiley 7y ago
  Does windows not have something like the setuid bit on Unix? I guess even if it did expecting parents to know about that is probably asking a bit much.
- djaychela 7y ago
  That has become a major source of problems in my household. I don't live with my girlfriend and her 4 kids (my stepkids, I'm not disowning them, just explaining quickly the situation). Youngest son has a PC, and due to experience gained with the older son (now 18), his account is locked down and I'm the admin on the system. I often have to use TeamViewer to access the PC to allow Fortnite to upgrade, and they don't understand why I still insist on this - my warning about just about all the possible negatives have been completely ignored, but I'm sticking to my guns. I know I'm fighting a losing battle and eventually will have to give up on this, but at the moment, it's working. I'm sure most people have given up, made the kid and admin and the computer is awash with issues as a result. Obviously if I'm not available (which is often the case as I'm self employed in a number of roles, most of which mean I can't be available instantly), then it has to wait, and you'd think the world was ending!
  - ido 7y ago
    Would a possible solution be to buy them a more locked down system like a nintendo switch or an ipad and tell them if they want to play a game they either use that or the non-admit user on the PC?
chrisan 7y ago
Eh.. TF2 you could get things that change how you play Fortnite (and other cosmetic only games) do not alter the game play
lostmyoldone 7y ago
I don't know enough about Fortnite to tell if it's deceptive, but whatever they are doing its efficient enough that kids get bullied in school as 'defaults' if they only have the default skins, those you don't have to buy. Which I find quite problematic. Moreso as the spending is unlimited. It's so sad that we allow the socioeconomic structures to be replicated in games targeted at pre teens.
- everdrive 7y ago
  If you have any ideas to keep people from forming socioeconomic hierarchies, we're all ears. It's quite unfortunate, but this is what people do.
taesko 7y ago
I think that most free to play games where the priced items are only cosmetics don't try to addict you to buying. Competitive games can never put any pay to win aspect in their pricing model - League of legends, CS GO, Dota, Overwatch. Weirdly though competitive games in the end do make you buy somehow. Those games are ridiculously addictive to the gameplay itself and somehow they have huge player bases that stick for a long time. From my entire high school 2 years ago - 50% of the boys were addicted to playing some of the top free to play titles. When you put down thousands of hours in a game spending cash on it becomes very normal.

by gitgud 7y ago

Robadob 7y ago

Fortnite has been criticised for it's store. Item's are only available for a limited time (24h?), with no guarantee of when they will become available again. This creates the 'Fear of Missing Out' incentive for people to spend. I've not played it first hand though. On the otherhand, this article is discussing someone addicted to the gambling element of TF2's crates (aka loot boxes).

LifeLiverTransp 7y ago
Its not just addicted to gambling. Its addicted to social interaction, as in lonely and trying to fit into a community at all costs.
mtsr 7y ago
I don’t get why sibling LifeLiverTransp is getting downvoted. One of the main ways games like fortnite sell their stuff is by social pressure. One can not customize one’s avatar at all without buying stuff. So you’ll be stuck as a default clone to the derision of friends and enemies alike. And the game is very much aimed at being played by school friends.
- mmmrk 7y ago
  Not sure why you're getting down voted. What you say is true. Jim Sterling makes videos about this regularly over at YouTube.

anon4242 7y ago

It's ironic that you mention TF2 as a good example as it is the very first example of the opposite in the linked article. Fortnite, besides having their own issues, also have the issue of "secondary whale-chasers" which is all those youtube videos proclaiming that they found a hack to enable a bunch of skins or similar for free. This means installing (what I assume to be) bitcoin-miners on each twelve year old's machine. You'd think that wouldn't be possible on a machine used by a twelve year old but Epic is extra helpful in that it basically requires its game launcher to be run as admin (because of its frequent updates to Fortnite that requires admin rights). So I assume most parents make their kid's account admin out of convenience.

swiley 7y ago
Does windows not have something like the setuid bit on Unix? I guess even if it did expecting parents to know about that is probably asking a bit much.
djaychela 7y ago
That has become a major source of problems in my household. I don't live with my girlfriend and her 4 kids (my stepkids, I'm not disowning them, just explaining quickly the situation). Youngest son has a PC, and due to experience gained with the older son (now 18), his account is locked down and I'm the admin on the system. I often have to use TeamViewer to access the PC to allow Fortnite to upgrade, and they don't understand why I still insist on this - my warning about just about all the possible negatives have been completely ignored, but I'm sticking to my guns. I know I'm fighting a losing battle and eventually will have to give up on this, but at the moment, it's working. I'm sure most people have given up, made the kid and admin and the computer is awash with issues as a result. Obviously if I'm not available (which is often the case as I'm self employed in a number of roles, most of which mean I can't be available instantly), then it has to wait, and you'd think the world was ending!
- ido 7y ago
  Would a possible solution be to buy them a more locked down system like a nintendo switch or an ipad and tell them if they want to play a game they either use that or the non-admit user on the PC?

chrisan 7y ago

Eh.. TF2 you could get things that change how you play Fortnite (and other cosmetic only games) do not alter the game play

lostmyoldone 7y ago

I don't know enough about Fortnite to tell if it's deceptive, but whatever they are doing its efficient enough that kids get bullied in school as 'defaults' if they only have the default skins, those you don't have to buy. Which I find quite problematic. Moreso as the spending is unlimited. It's so sad that we allow the socioeconomic structures to be replicated in games targeted at pre teens.

everdrive 7y ago
If you have any ideas to keep people from forming socioeconomic hierarchies, we're all ears. It's quite unfortunate, but this is what people do.

taesko 7y ago

I think that most free to play games where the priced items are only cosmetics don't try to addict you to buying. Competitive games can never put any pay to win aspect in their pricing model - League of legends, CS GO, Dota, Overwatch. Weirdly though competitive games in the end do make you buy somehow. Those games are ridiculously addictive to the gameplay itself and somehow they have huge player bases that stick for a long time. From my entire high school 2 years ago - 50% of the boys were addicted to playing some of the top free to play titles. When you put down thousands of hours in a game spending cash on it becomes very normal.