Jimquisition: Breaking the Bones of Business

MonkeyPunch

New member
Feb 20, 2008
589
0
0
Ha! Jim was raving about that Euro Truck simulator thingy game on Podtoid xD

Awesome show. I saw the worrying trend to monetisation of every little shit in gaming, coming ages ago and now it's starting to unfold - I still hate it.

Also maybe in theory Tribes' free-to-play model was alright but in practice I thought it wasn't very good at all, a fair bit imbalanced and a lot expensive. This might have changed by now but when the game was first released I didn't like it's model at all.

I'm playing PlanetSide 2 at the moment and that has one of the better free-to-play models I've come across.
You can quite easily put no money in to the game and still have hours of fun without feeling underpowered. If you do sink some money in to the game the items you gain are for the most part decently priced.
I feel PS2 often gets overlooked when people mention the F2P model.

On a side note: I wouldn't have thought but Jim and I have similar tastes in movies. Alien and Event Horizon. I adored Event Horizon and not that many people around me ever seemed to like it all that much.
 

WildFire15

New member
Jun 18, 2008
142
0
0
It is getting well out of hand now. There's been precious few examples of good micro transactions, but City of Heroes' Paragon Market stood as a good example to me. The heavy restrictions on chat for free players and the veteran rewards were a bit cack handed, but the fact they gave you store points every month (500 points, enough to buy a full costume set with change left over) if you were subscribed, not to mention free powers and costume sets with every major issue (of which there were plenty) and premium powers and costume sets that were worth the money (not to mention that you could buy individual parts of a costume set if you didn't want the whole thing, something Champions Online should learn) and were frequently designed based on requests and input from the players.

Sadly, the owners of Paragon Studios, NCSoft, sit at the table next to EA and got ideas about forcing players to pay, so all their attention went on Guild Wars 2 with CoH getting no advertising in years and eventually being shut down on some strange wimp despite CoH still paying for itself and making money. GW2 has been a reasonable success but it won't be long before NC will be nickel and dimming players if they want to stand a chance against a mutant vole that's actually 3 levels lower then them but as the player isn't wearing premium armour they're getting torn apart.

Slightly off topic maybe, but NC's actions to a reasonably successful niche title are indicative of the larger industry. Apparently making money isn't enough, it has to make Cruise Liner loads of cash right now and for as long as possible and so they'll twist and push the player as much as they can for as long as they can and I wouldn't be surprised if it brings a massive crash in AAA gaming.
 

JudgeGame

New member
Jan 2, 2013
437
0
0
I cannot lie, I'll be slightly happy the day one of these truly despicable publishers bites the dust. It's a shame THQ went under when it was one of the better examples.
 

kajinking

New member
Aug 12, 2009
896
0
0
Like I said in another post at the rate things are going the Elder Scrolls are going to offer a full set of Daetric armor and weapons right from the getgo next game (for the low price of $15), or how about GTA 5 offers all the weapons in the game in a "Weapons Stash" DLC ($10 of course).
 

Poisoned Al

New member
Feb 16, 2008
109
0
0
I'm going to wait until the PC version of Dead Space 3 gets hacked and EA has to give everyone all the DLC for free again, just so I can choose not to use the overpowered, game breaking bullshit.
 

jehk

New member
Mar 5, 2012
384
0
0
Not all DLC is just a missing part of the game. Admittedly a lot of DLC has turned into that.

The major problem with gaming and these perverted business models is that distribution services do not release any data about sales as a whole. This generates a huge amount of risk (specifically when introducing new IP) and basically forces the developers to take advantage of the people who love their games the most. Hopefully one of these services will do IT sometime (I'm looking at you Steam). It would be an awesome shot in the arm for the industry.
 

MortisLegio

New member
Nov 5, 2008
1,258
0
0
Wait... There are micro-transactions in Dead Space 3 for the weapon bench? Why is EA so stupid? It's one of the reasons I stopped playing Mass Effect's multiplayer.

There goes a sale from me then and, like Jim, I actually liked the other two Dead Space games. I honestly don't understand why companies want to nickle and dime their customers. All it does is make the customer not like you and make it so they are less likely to buy the next game. If it's straight up greed, then wouldn't it make more sense to keep your customers as happy as possible and earn their loyalty? I just don't get it. Are companies so short sighted that they no longer care?
 

IKWerewolf

New member
Jan 13, 2011
201
0
0
This is a difficult media at the moment to be asupporter of... when the Origin chaos of computer scanning in the EULA happened, it stopped me playing games I wanted to play. Mass Effect 3 was a fight I wanted to finish (at first then I heard they cheated and thought twice) but due to this I took the moral ground and didn't buy it.

The problem is the big businesses are in a constant spiral of trying to create the big games that require that much money that the only way they see to get that money back is to squeeze every penny out of the end user just to please investors that have no idea what a game is (not all of them I'll admit). Unfortunately they can do because they take it on the chin... while they have the money and this is the problem, money is now a scarce resource and the games industry has become to big to sustain itself on the old, high ground, methods of yesteryear.

The games industry needs to collapse and major players disappear but the fallout due to the nature of the beast would be way too dangerous to the greater scheme of things... it would only be ok to collapse if there is a new more forward facing (marketing jargon, great the accountant in me's rearing its ugly head) market replacing it that created the jobs and entertainment to take over... unfortunately the indie market (although it has some gems that could drive the market forward) isn't strong enough and the social market is a different animal meaning there is none.

EA and others have it in their hands to solve the problem the right way or seriously apolagise to all those employees when they file for bankrupcy and those employees who make games have NO JOBS... which they won't because...

SHUTTING UP BEFORE I SAY SOMETHING DEFAMATORY ABOUT THE HEAD OF CERTAIN HEADS OF GAME COMPANIES
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
Wow Jim, for once I agree 100%. No aside, buts, criticisms, or anything else. Sounds like a lot of what I've been saying but articulated better, from a larger platform.

I myself am torn on Dead Space 3... I really want it, but at the same time I'm not sure if I can bring myself to support it. As I've said before, that's the bottom line, going without intentionally, passing on a game you want to send a message, as opposed to buying it anyway and QQing about the policies.
 

dragongit

New member
Feb 22, 2011
1,075
0
0
I agree Capcom has been of late a pile of shit. Numerous DLC that could have easily been on the disc at launch, instead people are turned away from even buying the game in fustration, instead of them getting the extra sales of the DLC character. I couldn't even look at DMC because not only did the game's story turn me off, but the "not in a million years" look of classic Dante, was put in a week later for 4 bucks. At this point the only games I may even concider getting from Capcom are future Dragon's Dogma games, or if they ever get back to Breath of Fire. Though the former is already littered with shitty DLC.
 

GAunderrated

New member
Jul 9, 2012
998
0
0
I LOVED this episode. I really hope that you talk about the mobile market and SE a bit more because FF:ATB was a bi-product of final fantasy teatrarythem where its a free game with 2 songs and to buy all the songs and characters that were in the 39.99 release of the DS would be someone around 120 bucks which is insanity.

Or as much as I like the game Final Fantasy Dimensions which did episodic gameplay that resulted in a 2D generic final fantasy from the SNES era to be charged for over 30 bucks.

The greed and audacity is quite frankly disgusting and I no longer feel guilt for enacting the P word on companies that do this. They are more morally bankrupt that I can ever be so screw them. lol.

Edit: I think the only DLC I bought in 2011-today is skyrim DLC. Besides that game I have become numb to even considering DLC. I just see it as unnecessary crap or cash grabs to the point where I know they are overpriced.

I remember around 7 years ago how excited I was that DLC would extend the life of the games I already love. Fast forward to today and you can see the horrible slow moving car crash that is DLC.
 

Mojo

New member
Jun 2, 2011
325
0
0
Jim, you forgot to add a link for us to buy JimBucks.

Besides all the things already said in the comments I also find this shit to be really confusing too. How am I supposed to know what Ill get from the start, what I need to buy additionally , what I can buy with ingame money, what is cosmetical, what was part of preorders and from what shop, what was promotional and so on....
 
Jan 27, 2011
3,740
0
0
THEY DID WHAT TO DEAD SPACE 3'S CRAFTING SYSTEM?!?!

0_0 ........WHAT?!

...It is now official. I'm not touching that game. That's just plain disgusting.

If they keep pushing like this, the industry is gonna come crashing down. ...You know, looks like Razorfist was right. The industry has already hit the iceberg and is taking on water, but they're not getting on the lifeboats.
 

Beryl77

New member
Mar 26, 2010
1,599
0
0
I see sometimes people defending EA's decisions by saying that "they're just a company doing business". Fuck that, what a load of bullshit. There are tons of companies who do very well without behaving like they're related to the Antichrist. It's still their own, conscious decision to do those things, nothing else. Them being a company doesn't excuse that in the slightest.

Also, nice ending. Very well done.
 

IamLEAM1983

Neloth's got swag.
Aug 22, 2011
2,581
0
0
So... Capitalism, ho?

There's an underlying issue, too. Piracy.

The more the Big Three will keep stuffing their games with in-app purchases and twist free-to-play into pay-twice-or-more, the more pirate groups are going to respond by releasing full editions of certain titles, complete with everything you should've paid for - free of charge.

It's a never-ending cycle, really. Publishers have to nickel-and-dime their shit because games development in the AAA circuit has turned into a multibillion industry. As Jim said in another video, game devs are turning into tech developers and industry leaders - moreso than NASA. Why are games continuously being hacked up like that? Because we've been trained to expect more.

More of everything. More shaders, more polygons, more terrain deformation effects, bigger game worlds, more expansive stories. More, more, more, more. It's the only basis onto which games are sold, honestly. I'm sure publishers would cover all this by asking for a hundred dollars per game if they could, if not two hundred, but no sane customer would support that. So, they go at it the sly way, by pushing microtransactions up our asses.

So what do people do? They pirate. Which cuts profits. Which endangers projects. Which motivates more nickel-and-diming. It's hard to point out the chicken and the egg, honestly, or to figure out which goes where.

I'm honestly looking forward to another crash. The Big Three are going to collapse under their own weight and hopefully - just hopefully - the surviving companies are going to learn from EA, Activision and Ubisoft's mistakes.
 
Apr 5, 2012
100
0
0
Paradox is the last company I still by DLC for. Yes they make a lot of it, but it really helps to fund the constant patches they put out. Plus it helps that they don't charge "full price" ($60) for their games.
 

GAunderrated

New member
Jul 9, 2012
998
0
0
canadamus_prime said:
At this point I want to see the industry crash again. Maybe then publishers will get it through their thick skulls that the way they do business only hurts the industry.
Right now they are dying from death of a thousand papercuts. Thousands of crappy decisions that are not netting more profit as companies like THQ and many developers are gone and many of them are circling the drain in the next 3 years unless they get their shit together.
 

Gizmo1990

Insert funny title here
Oct 19, 2010
1,900
0
0
When I saw the title I knew that Jim would bring up Final Fantasy. I have a friend who is the biggest FF fanboy in the universe and even he was pissed with it. Once again Jim was right.

Ever think of moving back home and running for Prime Minister Jim? The way things are going for Camaron you would win in a landslide.
 

GAunderrated

New member
Jul 9, 2012
998
0
0
aegix drakan said:
THEY DID WHAT TO DEAD SPACE 3'S CRAFTING SYSTEM?!?!

0_0 ........WHAT?!

...It is now official. I'm not touching that game. That's just plain disgusting.

If they keep pushing like this, the industry is gonna come crashing down. ...You know, looks like Razorfist was right. The industry has already hit the iceberg and is taking on water, but they're not getting on the lifeboats.
If the game interests you at all do what I do and buy used for practices you hate and new for ones you support. That way you don't give the greedy publishers who don't deserve the money yet you get to play games with no worries. :)