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

[oktalist]

The tragedy is when the bubble bursts, the executives and marketing people who pushed for putting microtransactions in everything will get pay rises and bonuses, and the good people in these companies, who tried to convince them it was a bad idea, will be the ones who suffer. And the companies will just start inflating the next bubble.

 

[2xDouble]

...but Jim, that's exactly the problem: THEY KNOW IT'S A BUBBLE. They KNOW the market is going to fall out from under them eventually. That's why they're making as much money from it as they can, as fast as they can, so they can "mysteriously disappear" with all of our cash when the bubble finally bursts, leaving everyone involved, except themselves, broke and broken. It happened with the financiers behind the housing and gasoline bubbles' burst. It happened when Burnie Madhoff made off with investors' portfolios and retirement funds (still a terrible pun, but apropos). It happened, causing the big "credit crunch" in the EU in recent past. It happened with Enron (remember that whole thing?) and countless other technology and internet companies. It happened to THQ; it happened to Atari. It's happening now, and it's going to happen again.

The worst part is... there's not a damn thing we can do about it. This is a sickeningly common business practice; one that stems from the very core of capitalism, and we'll not be rid of it any time soon... not so long as there is ridiculous amounts of wealth to be stolen "mined" at/from other people's expense.

 

[altdoom]

You also got a haircut, looks nice.

Love,
Alt+Doom

 

[Silvver]

The thought that worries me is that eventually new generations of players will think these things/transactions are standard and not know any different, meaning not enough fight it. Only thing to do is make the best choice for yourself that doesn't make you feel too sick in the stomach.

Its all a game to them. Short term profits is what its all about. And then when this money grabbing idea goes down the pan they will come up with something else to rip consumers off with. And the cycle repeats. The people at the top who authorise it will get bonuses and move one elsewhere.

 

[geizr]

And, yet, gamers will continue to buy it all by the truck loads, because we've devolved to nothing but electronic-crack junkies. We just have to have our fix.

Seriously, until we finally learn to stop buying it, it will only continue. I no longer feel it's proper to blame the publishers for this sad mess; they're just engaging in a standard "buyer beware" business practice that has existed since antiquity, take advantage of the sucker who never learns. Instead, I have to blame us, the gamers, because we just keep buying it. We've become a bunch of suckers who just never learn. We are simply getting exactly what we keep paying for.

Just stop buying it. Let's not even talk about it anymore. Move on to the games that don't pull all this bullshit that we hate, and let the companies that crank out this garbage just die a miserable, horrible death. Stop feeding them money and attention, for crying out loud.

ADDENDUM: Btw, Jim, those pain-killers clearly have you floating 9 feet above the ground. I know the feeling, though, from when I used to have severe back-spasms.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Ok, ok, ok - hold the phone!

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

This is where Jim gets it wrong every time he talks about free-to-play as if it were a plague on our hardcore gaming nirvana. You don't have to get all the shite on offer to have a good time, you can do just fine with the Vanilla
-flinging birds at a tower- simulator

Jim isn't just railing against F2P games, though. He's trying to point out the fact that microtransactions and DLC have had a noticeably negative effect on the entire video games industry.

Publishers in this business aren't hives of ingenuity and creativity -- they see some other company doing something successful, and they want to emulate that success for themselves in the most economic way possible. AAA pubs have adopted the microtransaction aspect of F2P as yet another avenue to get even more cash out of their customers because it's already been proven a reliable money maker.

"Don't like it? Don't buy it" is poor advice. As long as there are enough suckers to make microtransactions in paid games profitable, the pubs will continue to milk the process.

 

[Vylox]

I was going to say something..... but its pretty much covered..

Charge me for the game, don't make me buy additional content to the game. Extra crap is OK, but as long as it is truly EXTRA CRAP. I will gladly drop 5 bucks a year for Pokemon bank, but there's no way in hell I'm spending 5 bucks on a "better" gun.

Also, I urge everyone to look at these companies charitable sections, Nintendo does a ton of community service stuff given into the communities around them. Most of the other companies do donations to causes, and not community support/activism.

So in essence, Nintendo supports its customer base, while the majority of the others do not.

 

[AznaktaX]

No, don't tell me, I'm gonna take a wild guess....

It has something to do with that Angry Birds racing video game and its 100$ micro-transactions.

 

[Nurb]

Anyone who bought the new consoles is contributing to this by giving them money.

Welcome to "the future"

 

[Snacuum]

And you need all the plush toys, merchandizing and all of the levels to just be even able to enjoy yourself right? This is where Jim gets it wrong every time he talks about free-to-play as if it were a plague on our hardcore gaming nirvana. You don't have to get all the shite on offer to have a good time, you can do just fine with the Vanilla
-flinging birds at a tower- simulator

No he doesn't get it wrong. If you don't need all those extras to have an enjoyable game or complete experience then why would anybody ever buy them? For free-to-play and microtransactions, the game needs to designed in a way to promote buying these extras, and that's usually done by creating inconveniences or gaps in the experience that you can pay to get around.

So while an individuals enjoyment may vary, they are on average made to be only so enjoyable so that the real potential has to be bought.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I don't have the same faith in the market you do, but if all these bubbles do burst and these fat bloated companies do suffer for it it'll be a very good day indeed.

Faith has little to do with it, friend.

Either consumers will choose to cease paying for these extra fees out of a feeling of disgust with the business practice, or they will cease paying because they will no longer be capable of paying them as this renders each individual game more and more expensive to play.

Expecting someone to pay between fifty and a hundred dollars for a racer in the Angry Birds game is appalling - expecting someone to do that for *EVERY* game is utterly impossible.

The end will come. The only question is when, how, and just how much of the industry it will take with it.

Yes, but far far to many people seem to be willing to soak up this bullshit now instead of letting these companies choke on it. If things do pan out as you say and Jim say then I'll be there with the Champagne, but until then I won't be holding my breath.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Jim, I too have just endured a dental appointment earlier today, one that involved scraping every nook-and-cranny in between my teeth and poking my gums to see where they bleed. This is just the video to help me feel better, with your hatred spewing forth from my screen! Bravo!

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Anyone who bought the new consoles is contributing to this by giving them money.

Welcome to "the future"

I miss the far flung days of 1999. Does any one else miss the far flung days of 1999? 'Cause I sure as hell do. Or even the far flung days of 2005.

 

[The Great JT]

Monetizing DLC is okay if it's bonus content. When you're doing it to make a quick buck in order to make the game work something like it was supposed to, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG.

Say what you will about Team Fortress 2 monetizing itself, at least you can get the items in that game through alternate means. I still say they do microtransactions at least something akin to right.