Jimquisition: Fee-to-Pay and the Death of Dignity

[Vivi22]

Or League and Dota which provide years of challenging MP fun without needing to spend a dime.

League is a pretty poor example to be honest considering most of the actual game is locked behind an exorbitantly expensive pay wall or a grind so unbelievably lengthy no sane person will ever actually accomplish it. Dota2 is a better example since actual things that are important to gameplay are all available immediately.

I agree in general that some free to play games do it right. Most don't though. And quite a few games you purchase are adding in the worst elements lately.

 

[kailus13]

Tell that to Angry Birds which just shows some very short stupid ads before it starts and is otherwise freely enjoyable.

He did mention Angry Birds and its ridiculous amount of shit to buy.

I think he means the original Angry Birds, not the racing game spin-off. He seems to have frogtten the eagle thing you can buy for it.

If this is what the launch titles are like, how bad is it gonna get?

 

[Vault Citizen]

@ Jim - I may have been watching too much of your show because when you revealed the tongue thingy (because I really don't want to say tongue action) of your new alien toy I fully expected you to start making out with it. What have you done to my brain?!

 

[tangoprime]

Content? A+ as usual.

What I really wanted to comment on though was the fact that I love the drug-fueled, unstable performance. Jim, though I do wish you all the best in your health, I'd just like to put it out there that if you happen to have minor outpatient procedures just prior to creating content as a semi-regular thing... it would be worth it for the lolz you've brought with this episode.

Also on that note, you're looking healthier and more vibrant than normal lately, whatever you're doing, keep it up

 

[Colt47]

Going even more into Jim's point. I am personally waiting to see how this console generation develops before (and even if) I buy a console. Forking over 500 bux, for a system, 50-60 bux for a game and then turn it on and being asked for 5 bux for a sword or costume or whatever is frankly insulting. It's like buying a car and the dealer trying to haggle on the branded floor mats. makes you lose confidence in the overall product. I drifted out of consoles maybe 2 years ago to full PC. (I used to buy my more action-y games on console) This development is not at all convincing me to go back. And I doubt I am alone...

A lot of the problems are arising from issues inherent with the publisher model thanks to the rising costs involved with game development. The publishers want to keep their profit margins high, but at the same time they also realize they can't just choke out their studios since the studios actually make the products, so instead of rebalancing the formula, they are electing to try to find ways to increase the profitability all around via DLC and season passes. A lot of game developers get 10% or less of any profit made from a title, so it's really no mystery why Kickstarter and indies are taking off now.

Edit: I also jumped ship from Xbox 360 about two years back and haven't looked back.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Did you really have to keep the Nathan Drake picture up for so long? I get enough awkward glances as it is Jim. I don't need your help.

 

[Goliath100]

Speaking of, I remember playing through Mario 3D World and joking to myself all of the ways they could have worked in microtransactions.

They probably sell maps individually and/or in bundles. What they did for Fire Emblem: Awakening (btw, keep that game away from Jimmy).

 

[Erttheking]

Wait a minute. Ryse has microtransactions? I...what for? How does that work?

Gah. This is why I hope the PS4 does well. I don't want the Xbone to crash and burn (Just kinda struggle) and I don't hate people who buy it, but I DO want the PS4 to outsell it. Because I haven't heard anything about DLC from their games and the one game that does have DLC is going to have FREE DLC, thank you Killzone Shadowfall for taking a step in the right direction.

 

[GAunderrated]

Thank God for Jim. You pretty much summed up why I have stopped buying AAA games. Not because the content is getting a bit stale (which it is) but because I am tired of paying money to be advertised too constantly.

The game's industry new method of making money is ironically saving me money because I have 0 interest in the current gen business models.

 

[loa]

It's really disappointing that they shat microtransactions all over crimson dragon making the gameplay suffer.
I wanna see more panzer dragoon games again but not like this.

 

[Mr_Terrific]

Next up he should tackle why reviewers completely ignored the fact that Forza 5 has half the content of Forza 4 yet still gave that shit top honors.

I get why they trashed Killzone. No mechs, less classes, less dynamic maps. It deserves those 6's and 7's. But Stripping the usually good Forza of mainstays like Nurburgring as well as a shit load of cars only to sell you it later should automatically half Forza's scores.....

Or maybe not. Either way, I find the subject a bit more interesting than the dead horse beating done in todays video. I don't agree with Jim often but when I do, it's usually when he rants about industry bullshit.

 

[Jimothy Sterling]

Next up he should tackle why reviewers completely ignored the fact that Forza 5 has half the content of Forza 4 yet still gave that shit top honors.

I get why they trashed Killzone. No mechs, less classes, less dynamic maps. It deserves those 6's and 7's. But Stripping the usually good Forza of mainstays like Nurburgring as well as a shit load of cars only to sell you it later should automatically half Forza's scores.....

Or maybe not. Either way, I find the subject a bit more interesting than the dead horse beating done in todays video. I don't agree with Jim often but when I do, it's usually when he rants about industry bullshit.

I forgot to bring it up (forgive me, I was high on meds) but I did want to mention that I plan to make sure all future Escapist reviews mention when stuff like this is part of the experience. It's important, to me, that reviewers make it plain when DLC is woven so integrally into the game.

 

[saxman234]

Whilst I generally agree on the points made in this video, there is one case I would like to point out one case where microtransactions in a fully priced game served (at least in my opinion) to improve the experience:

In Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, players acquired new characters, weapons and power-ups by purchasing booster packs containing random items of varying rarity. These boosters could either be bought by spending in-game credits (which were gained by successfully completing MP missions) or by directly spending Bioware points (purchased through real-life moolah).

Whilst this did exemplify the traits which Jim described in his previous video on the subject (i.e. testing the players' patience in order to tempt them to take the "quick way" towards getting the goods), it did have a positive consequence: the multiplayer had several DLC expansions which added a great quantity of new content and kept the game alive; all 5 of these expansions were released free of charge.

In conclusion, whilst I do not doubt that the vast majority of non free games with microtransaction elements are plain money grabs, I think that, at least in some cases, the practice can be justified.

Oh I disagree completely with the Mass Effect 3 analogy. I thought Mass Effect 3 multiplayer was awful because you had to grind for random packs that usually contain crap that you don't want. It seemed like the prices for the different packs were so high that it wasn't worth grinding up to the more pricy packs. That is the first game I noticed had horrible microtransactions for the multiplayer. If I could actually spend my in game money on what I wanted it wouldn't be so bad, but the fact that every pack was random and most of the time you just get 1 use items was terrible. I didn't even stick around long enough for any of the dlc.

I have been playing Order & Chaos Duels, which is a card game on tablets and phone and it has a similar structure where you spend in game cash (or real cash) to get random card packs, but at least the game was free. I spend $40-$50 dollars on ME3 and still had to grind in multiplayer just to get more then like 3 races and 3 classes.

 

[saxman234]

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Sorry I pressed quote instead of edit. Trying to figure out how to delete this now. Hmm, I don't see a place to delete posts? Sorry mods for this double post.

 

[Elyxard]

It's really crazy that these companies are getting away with selling literally nothing with these micro-transactions (remember folks, DLC is content, micro-transactions are time skips at most). I will not buy an Xbox One if this is how they're designing their first party games.

If you're ever glad to have micro-transactions to skip passed boring content, remember that it was the developer who deliberately put that content in there to force you to pay up. Videogames designed around micro-transactions are fundamentally compromised on all levels to accomidate the business model, and that's absolutely unacceptable (outside of games that start out as free, though 99% of those are terrible anyhow).

 

[Karadalis]

Dragon's Dogma had in game ads? They couldn't have been very effective, because I seem to have mentally blocked them out.

Loading screens and Dark arisen when you talked to the main goto NPC on bitterblack isle had a DLC option that allowed you to directly purchase DLC from inside the game.

However Dragon Dogmas DLC was nothing gameplay wise... mostly customisation items and additional quests... but who the hell pays 5 bucks for a bunch of fetchquests?

 

[Sidmen]

It's really crazy that these companies are getting away with selling literally nothing with these micro-transactions (remember folks, DLC is content, micro-transactions are time skips at most). I will not buy an Xbox One if this is how they're designing their first party games.

If you're ever glad to have micro-transactions to skip passed boring content, remember that it was the developer who deliberately put that content in there to force you to pay up. Videogames designed around micro-transactions are fundamentally compromised on all levels to accomidate the business model, and that's absolutely unacceptable (outside of games that start out as free, though 99% of those are terrible anyhow).

You know, this post made me wonder why every JRPG I've ever played didn't include microtransactions. I would've played a heck of a lot more of them through to the end if I didn't have to grind for hours on end to level up enough to tackle their bosses.

 

[Cybylt]

Dragon's Dogma had in game ads? They couldn't have been very effective, because I seem to have mentally blocked them out.

Before the game starts up, you get a popup that states that DLC is out. I guess it's something but it's nothing that stands out compared to games that have that in the game itself or constantly remind you of content you're missing, Bioware comes to mind about being really bad about the in-game dlc vendor for example.

In comparison, Dragon's Dogma has an innocuous, out of the way quest board in some basement that doesn't even direct you to a store unlike many examples of in-game dlc hooks and a popup on start-up that includes patch notes.

Loading screens and Dark arisen when you talked to the main goto NPC on bitterblack isle had a DLC option that allowed you to directly purchase DLC from inside the game.

However Dragon Dogmas DLC was nothing gameplay wise... mostly customisation items and additional quests... but who the hell pays 5 bucks for a bunch of fetchquests?

Oh yeah, forgot about that. I don't recall any loading screen mentioning DLC but the person you level up with on Bitterblack can direct you to a rift crystal sales page not that anyone would ever need it.

But Jim's not mentioned Dark Arisen in it, only the core game.

 

[proghead]

Is it just me or are mostly the in-house devs complaining about rising costs? Who are only used to stepping up their game every new console cycle and thus are kind of overwhelmed by how much more time and effort it takes to build a game that can compete on the market.

Well, maybe they shouldn't have bet all their money on just one horse, ey? The cross-platform people (especially if they develop for PC, too) are doing just fine, 'cause they're used to an ever increasing fidelity.