Bigred's Video Game Thread

[BananaStand]

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/10/lo...to-exploit-us/

You're presenting this as if it's outrageous. It's not. Attractive product placement has been a thing for a LOOOOOOONG time.

Remember the ninja turtles movie, when they had pizza delivered to their sewer lair? The delivery guy had on a ridiculous red and blue uniform plastered with Domino's pizza logos. When the turtles opened the pizza box, the lid moved right into the camera with the "Domino's" logo filling up 3/4 of the frame.

All of that imagery and camera work was done on purpose, paid for by Domino's, with the intent of making you want to buy their pizza.

Advertising is not a crime. Just because your video games now have commercials in them is not a good enough reason to demand oppressive nanny-government intervention.

Explain to me how this resembles opening a happy meal, a baseball card or a cracker jack.

ummm, explain to me how it doesn't? Explain to me how it's different than a kid walking through the grocery store, seeing a cereal box that says "one of four badass fuckin ninja figures inside!", and then saying "mom...buy me that box!" And if the mom buys the box, it's possible that they will be in the store the following week and the kid will say "Buy me that box...I wanna get a red badass fuckin ninja this time". And if the kid is disappointed when he gets another blue ninja....guess what happens the next trip to the grocery store?

Also, please do tell me if they kempt chargning you every time you openend the same happy meal, baseball card pack or cracker jack box. Because that's what they do nowadays. Play NBA Live 2018 and you will know what I'm talking about.

It was my understanding that the loot-box problem is different. You buy the box, hope you get what you want, but if you don't, you buy another box. Do you remember when happy meals had beanie babies in them for a while? People would go, buy a happy meal, look inside, and if they didn't get the beanie baby they wanted, the got back in line and bought another happy meal.

If you can't understand or don't want to understand that THESE ARE DIFFERENT THINGS, I can only tell you to enjoy your pure bliss

.
They aren't really that different. Furthermore you should know that this has been happening in the video game industry for-fucking-ever. There was a time when people played video games, but didn't have the internet. So how the hell did people learn that Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A, start would result in beginning the game with 30 lives instead of 3? If you wanted that enhanced experience, you needed to subscribe to Nintendo Fun Club News (which later became Nintendo Power Magazine).

Stuck at a difficult part in a game? You can call our Game-Master help line for some insane per-minute charge. No credit card needed, we'll bill your phone line. But you're on the honor system kids when it comes to getting mom and dad's permission [lol]

And it just kept going from there. Want a blue controller instead of the standard gray? Pay us another 29.99. Then they stopped including second controllers with consoles. Want to play with a friend....another $29.99. Before HDMI cables there were those Red/Blue/Green HD inputs. No console ever shipped with the correct wires for that though. You got standard A/V cables. Want HD gaming?....another $29.99!! Or even if you didn't, alot of TV's back then only had the simple RF input, which required a different adapter.....for $29.99.

Online subscription based games have been around since the 90's. Wanna play everquest...ok the game is $70 and it doesn't do shit...AT ALL...unless you sign up to pay another $13 bucks a month. Don't like that...well then you just pissed away seventy bucks for a plastic disc ass hole. Enjoy your coaster.

DO you recall PAYING MONEY UPFRONT for any of these? Did you pay to download Pokemon Go?

The point is regarding in-game purchases. The upfront money is kind of irrelevant. And some games do cost money upfront.

Now, AAA publishers want to charge you upfront AND charge you the micro's AND charge you for lootboxes AND hamper your progression as well.

Dude...it's THEIR product. They can structure and sell it however they want. The only exception is if their practices were really predatory and deceptive. And they aren't, at least not compared to anything else marketed to kids these days. So if you find that the game isn't worth the frustration....then don't fucking play it!!

Dude, Activision patented this. A fucking patent. On exactly this that you are calling me "jealous" and "needing therapy" for being "truly miffed because a business uses a positive spin to advertise its products". They went to the USPTO with their "positive spin".

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/...h-matchmaking/

You know google does the exact same thing when it shows you ads based on your browsing history. Advertising to a target market is not a crime.

Now, when you die in EA's Battlefront 2, you get shown exactly which cards were used to kill you with.

Great, if you like that feature, then voice your opinion with your wallet. Buy games with that feature, and don't buy games without it.