Running video games (and consoles) thread

Fair enough. Just thought it was worth mentioning since the horror stories of kids racking up silly amounts of microtransactions are legion. Their presence puts me off any game, no matter how good. If I'm going to buy a game, I'd rather pay it all up front than get nickel-and-dimed every time I play (of course, I say that as someone who owns several Paradox titles). Same thing that put me off Hearthstone.

I don't envy parents with kids whose gaming experience has always included microtransactions. One approach I've heard people use is requiring their kid to convince them that the purchase will actually improve gameplay instead of just being for cosmetic reasons. That probably requires having some familiarity with what they're playing, but it beats just waving through every request.

 

I hear what you are saying. Luckily, my kid does not seem like the type who will drop $1,000 in a month in Fortnite skins.

I will never forget, though, watching an interview with Supercell on 60 Minutes when Clash Royale was hot and their company was valued at over a billion bucks that they make all their money on the impatience of people who don’t want to wait to play the next game.

I have to admire the brilliance.

 

I'm goin' in! Thanks, bud,

 

Madden and especially 2K have become "pay to win."

EA is just fucking brutal with the microtransactions across all titles.

 

I don't play 2K online or use the create a team shit. I just play with the Bulls, either present or Jordan-era.

 

I've played for many years - I had so many hours in Everquest back in the day that when I looked at my hours played, divided it by forty hours into work weeks, I blanched and quit playing. That's circa 2000, 2002. At around that point I guy I knew quit his job doing CAD work for an architect and started to play it for a living. At that time you could sell rare and desirable items from the game on Ebay, which he and the woman he later married did. He doubled his income for a year and a half or so, when EQ pressured Ebay to outlaw it. Almost any game with an in game currency has Chinese and Korean sweat shops who pay kids peanuts to farm gold that they sell online to WoW gamers or whoever for cash.

The microtransactions are basically equivalent to concert promoters seeing tickets they were selling for $30 going for over a hundred on the secondary market. The promoters started jacking up prices so they got that cream, added high dollar seats in choice locations, all that. The corps are squeezing that cash out into their own pockets. For me the line is "Is a game truly pay to win?". Does stuff available for cash actually make your game better, or is it just cosmetic? I don't object to things like selling "premium time", where you buy a day/week/month's time where your experience and gold gained is 50% higher. Essentially, you would be paying to save some time. You don't get anything someone without premium time can get, you just get it quicker. If items available only for cash have a substantial effect on game play I want no part of it.

 

I don't do microtransactions unless it is a solid actual DLC, which I suppose they aren't the same thing. My kid who plays Fortnight a lot has partaken in them but with his own money or asked like things like V-Bucks for gifts, so I suppose that's deal. At least he's smarter about it. He only gets what he can afford if he wants something. I've tried to tell him it's a waste of money and that that's how these games really get you, but I suppose if he enjoys that little bit he can get. If it gets worse than that we may need to have more of an intervention.

 

Right now I'm playing The Show, and I love that I don't have to deal with any of that grabass to very gradually plow through a pandemic-era 2004 replay.

 

With a kid it gets down to how much they're spending and where that money comes from. If it comes from mom and dad, that's a place to set limits. OTOH, if it's ten bucks that he didn't spend to go to the movie and spent on new skins for his game, what's the difference? It's the same entertainment dollar. If it's his own money, well, he worked and got it and wants to spend some of it. As long as it isn't insane its ok.

 

This is great - alternative facts/reality has now infiltrated Wall Street. I have no problem with this - nobody has a problem when stocks rise after an announcement of layoffs. A bunch of short-sellers got crushed.

Jim Cramer Warns: GameStop Boom Shows Dow is 'Breaking Down'

 

Ps5 gets here today!