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These "techniques" are incredibly frustrating to discover for all the gamers who are not likely to fall into these traps. Granted, those are the ones being acti

by Udo 13y ago

These "techniques" are incredibly frustrating to discover for all the gamers who are not likely to fall into these traps. Granted, those are the ones being actively filtered out of the user base for the most part, be it through choice of subject matter or game mechanics - but since these things have become so widespread I became wary of trying out new games in the App Store in general. The last time I made an in-app purchase was for Elder Sign: Omens, a very simple game of chance that I like primarily because it reminds me so much of the fun I had playing the Arkham Asylum board game. Anyway, they offer a straight deal: a fixed sum (no intermediate currency) for additional content. That's it and I feel comfortable and justified buying that even though it's not a challenging or elaborate game. I would never buy stuff if a game uses any of the shady tricks described in the article, but what's really poisoning the pool for all game developers is my increasing unwillingness to invest time into games that I don't already know in order to avoid that sort of disappointment. So what they're really doing is ruining it for everyone in the long run. Maybe straight-up, no-tricks games should have a seal or something ;)

andyhmltn 13y ago
That sounds more like DLC than pay to win. I'm totally okay with it in games. There's a number of games (the most notable is GTA IV in my eyes) that have DLC content that adds a LOT of extra time and fun to the game. But it can be done wrong to. That's the reason I won't buy BF4. They are intent on releasing DLC before the game. That's just shady and it doesn't add anything to the game.
- Justsignedup 13y ago
  This is done trickingly in recent games via DLC. The DLC will give some "boosts" like an item that is a bit more powerful than anything you can get early on. It won't tip the end-game but it will tip the early game. Just better enough to make you spend an extra 5 bucks on your 60 dollar purchase.
kristopher 13y ago
They do, it's called the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" [0] [0] https://www.google.com/search?q=nintendo+seal+of+quality&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ https://www.google.com/search?q=nintendo+seal+of+quality&tbm...
Negitivefrags 13y ago
It used to be that we could say "No pay to win" to indicate that the game didn't use this kind of bullshit. Unfortunately that term was stolen and repurposed in to an effective lie. "It's not pay to win. The players choose if they want to pay with time or with money." Complete garbage. More recently we use the term "Ethical microtransactions" because it implies strongly that we are free of the scummy tactics. I firmly believe that if you don't separate the game design and the business model in to two distinct systems then your game design will be corrupted by it.
DanBC 13y ago
> Maybe straight-up, no-tricks games should have a seal or something ;) A website that curates lists of such games would probably be very popular. Especially if it cross references with other games that make extensive use of the unpleasant monetization techniques. A benevolent dictator would be more useful than a community run site, unless there were standards and moderation. The Usenet group alt.comp.freeware spawned the website Pricelessware.org. Being Usenet there were frequent bitter angry flamewars about what counted as "freeware". (This was entirely about the monetary cost of the software, and not about open source or other rights.)

by Udo 13y ago

andyhmltn 13y ago

That sounds more like DLC than pay to win. I'm totally okay with it in games. There's a number of games (the most notable is GTA IV in my eyes) that have DLC content that adds a LOT of extra time and fun to the game. But it can be done wrong to. That's the reason I won't buy BF4. They are intent on releasing DLC before the game. That's just shady and it doesn't add anything to the game.

Justsignedup 13y ago
This is done trickingly in recent games via DLC. The DLC will give some "boosts" like an item that is a bit more powerful than anything you can get early on. It won't tip the end-game but it will tip the early game. Just better enough to make you spend an extra 5 bucks on your 60 dollar purchase.

kristopher 13y ago

They do, it's called the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" [0] [0] https://www.google.com/search?q=nintendo+seal+of+quality&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ https://www.google.com/search?q=nintendo+seal+of+quality&tbm...

Negitivefrags 13y ago

It used to be that we could say "No pay to win" to indicate that the game didn't use this kind of bullshit. Unfortunately that term was stolen and repurposed in to an effective lie. "It's not pay to win. The players choose if they want to pay with time or with money." Complete garbage. More recently we use the term "Ethical microtransactions" because it implies strongly that we are free of the scummy tactics. I firmly believe that if you don't separate the game design and the business model in to two distinct systems then your game design will be corrupted by it.

DanBC 13y ago

> Maybe straight-up, no-tricks games should have a seal or something ;) A website that curates lists of such games would probably be very popular. Especially if it cross references with other games that make extensive use of the unpleasant monetization techniques. A benevolent dictator would be more useful than a community run site, unless there were standards and moderation. The Usenet group alt.comp.freeware spawned the website Pricelessware.org. Being Usenet there were frequent bitter angry flamewars about what counted as "freeware". (This was entirely about the monetary cost of the software, and not about open source or other rights.)