Jimquisition: The Trap Of Gamer Gratitude

Baresark

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He is, of course, completely right. My buddy had a similar situation with the LAW! He forgot to renew his registration. We take a ride and we get pulled over. He gets a ticket that costs nearly $200, and then thanks the cop because he could have had his jeep towed and impounded, but was nice enough not to. I had to set my buddy strait. I told him, "if he was really trying to help you he would have sent you off with a warning saying he needs to drive right home and not drive it again till he gets his vehicle registered. This is an identical situation. Don't thank them for making it so you can buy your way passed the grind they built into the game on purpose. Don't thank someone for fixing something that broke your game, that never benefited you in the first place.

But, people can be pretty dumb about this stuff. I'm happy to say that most people are not that thankful, I believe. I think that most people are truly outraged in these situation. In the end, all they can do is move past it though. In the future it should affect how they perceive that company, but it may not.
 

loa

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Jan 28, 2012
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But if you're not grateful, you're "entitled" which is a bad thing for some reason.
Here, let me help you out by patronizingly explaining to you that companies need to make money!
 

RobfromtheGulag

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May 18, 2010
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I'm a pretty cynical gamer; I've refrained thus far from purchasing any of these full price + microtransaction games. I get the feeling watching videos like this however that I'm in the minority. PvZ is a poster child for selling out. I haven't followed what the original devs did, hopefully they made out alright (didn't the main guy get kicked off the dev team?) but there's no way I'm paying for the sequels. There've been nothing but reports of glitchiness and pay to play crap since their inception. It'd be like if Pokemon came out and they charged you for 100 of the 150 in game pokemon.

So yea, I'm content replaying Skyrim for the billionth time or spending a few bucks on Dota2 vanity-wear, but I fear the day that the majority of games are this model and I'm forced to drink the Kool-Aid or go without a franchise I really enjoyed (*coughMirror'sEdgecough*).
 

arsenalabu

Iron Maiden's backup Trombonist
May 26, 2011
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Spot1990 said:
arsenalabu said:
Was that an ...Irish accent? I know Aidan Gillen is Irish, but I never thought Petyr Baelish used an accent like... that.
He didn't always but Gillen was in an Irish movie recently, "Calvary". In it he has a really thick accent (Aiden Gillen being the only Irish man who can't comfortably pull off an Irish accent), which he carried over a bit. At least I think he has. Never noticed it before this season.
I didn't hear the accent in the new season, and I doubt Jim saw Calvary.
I always find Gillen's accents annoying, to the point of cringing when he speaks. Even in Calvary he had an annoying set of inflections that seemed a bit OTT whenever he was in the same room as Brendan Gleeson.
I guess in that way, Jim was spot on with the impression.
 

arsenalabu

Iron Maiden's backup Trombonist
May 26, 2011
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Spot1990 said:
arsenalabu said:
Spot1990 said:
arsenalabu said:
Was that an ...Irish accent? I know Aidan Gillen is Irish, but I never thought Petyr Baelish used an accent like... that.
He didn't always but Gillen was in an Irish movie recently, "Calvary". In it he has a really thick accent (Aiden Gillen being the only Irish man who can't comfortably pull off an Irish accent), which he carried over a bit. At least I think he has. Never noticed it before this season.
I didn't hear the accent in the new season, and I doubt Jim saw Calvary.
I always find Gillen's accents annoying, to the point of cringing when he speaks. Even in Calvary he had an annoying set of inflections that seemed a bit OTT whenever he was in the same room as Brendan Gleeson.
I guess in that way, Jim was spot on with the impression.
Maybe his accent was just so bad in Calvary I started to notice it when I hadn't before in GoT. But yeah, nevermind an Irish accent, his inflections just don't even sound like he fully comprehends spoken language. It's like if William Shatner and Lucky The Leprechaun had a child.
Shatner, I couldn't remember his name. Always thought there may have been some Nic Cage blood in there as well, especially after the karate moves in Calvary.
 

red255

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Guh, Can we just get over EA? I mean I don't consider them a game company anymore. I haven't bought a game from them that I enjoyed since Dragon Age Origins.

stop giving them money, and attention and they will go away.

Secondly Free to Play. Micro transactions. Now there are bad free to play games. games that are not fun.

But the Free to play model works, with some standing in certain situations.

1.) multiplayer games that need a community. I mean who wants to play a league of legends of FPS shooter game by themselves? Free to play keeps the community ALIVE longer. because otherwise you don't get new players. and the old players are too ...good at the game to let the new players learn in a fun and enjoyable manner.

2.) the transactions, the pay content needs to be available with enough time, reasonable time for other players. the idea is you don't pay to win (scorn) you pay to get what the old time players got and you as a new player want to have to keep up with them.

3.) finally prices must be kept reasonable. although I suppose you can have items meant purely to support the game like an outfit or something that says you paid money for the game.

the EA thing seems to be a failure on the first two events. not sure the third but likely considering its EA who no longer even knows how to make games.

Don't buy EA, don't talk about EA, and don't give EA money.
 

Isengrim

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Aug 20, 2012
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Are these "grateful" people...

FUCKING STUPID?!

...

I am just...

Unleash the nukes, this world has no hope after all!

My bloody god...

That is basically a problem that I see more and more... I look at people that are actively defending the companies when they pull out bullshit like that, and I am in awe how much these idiots- and yes, I use the world idiots - these gullible idiots can take and still be happy about it.

The trick of "starting the fire and being the first trying to put if off" is as old as human society goes, and while I can see people falling for it when it's well executed... fucking seriously... that is not how you scheme! It's obvious to me! AND I AM WEARING GLASSES DAMMIT! ( end of irrelevant caps point no 1 )

Maybe it's just me, but if a game dev I like says something about their new game that concerns me, I will bash them with a bloody stick on their own forums, e-mailing them, etc. just to say "Please, rethink WTF are you doing", and if they make a bullshit mistake that pisses me off, I will bash them with everything I have, not only a bloody stick and eventually putting them on my dev/publisher blacklist ( the ones that I will not buy anything from... ever ).

I do not know how other people call it, but I call it "having some damn self-respect" as well as "having some parts of the brain actually fucking working", and also actually caring for sth.

Taking each and every thing and swallowing it while being happy about it... is hardly a healthy attitude now, is it?

In moments like these I seriously sometimes think that Nietzsche was bloody right... which is scary.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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Baresark said:
This is an identical situation.
Well, except the inherent risk at crying foul to the cop. There's an inherent benefit at least at the time to not being an obstacle and in fact to being polite. The same can't be said of EA.

red255 said:
Guh, Can we just get over EA?
Not while they're still a major company with a huge number of intellectual properties at their disposal. Besides, if we ignore EA, if we stop talking about EA, how do we convince others that EA's doing something?
 

mitchell271

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Sep 3, 2010
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I was having a debate on Youtube (I know, an honest to goodness to debate in the Youtube comments, holy shit!) and the other guy was defending on-disc DLC saying that it's good for the publisher AND the consumer with his main arguments being ease of compatibility and how you don't actually own the game, you own the rights to play it.

Gamer gratitude is a backwards and Stockholm Syndrome-esque mindset that not only puts more and more power to the publishers' "Give us all your money" business models.
 

Flunk

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Feb 17, 2008
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MarsAtlas said:
*googles Ichiban*

Oh, well, how nice, some hentai to go with my Jimquisition.
一番 = ichiban = number one / best

Nothing H about that.
 

grumpymooselion

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May 5, 2011
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EA and several other mentioned companies out there have terrible practices, but, this episode outlines something even more . . . disgusting. The people that buy into it, the people that thank these companies for screwing them over and ask to be screwed over some more.
 

JET1971

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Apr 7, 2011
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I refuse to buy DLC unless it is a full on expansion pack like Dawnguard for Skyrim was. 5 maps for a FPS that had a tiny amount of unique maps to begin with I won't touch the maps. And yes 10-15 unique maps in a FPS then by the end of the month there's 2 map packs available at $9.99 each is exactly the issue Jim is talking about and started years ago. At one time 20 unique maps was considered pathetic and 30 about right then came DLC and the amount of available maps was cut in half for new releases. Now it simply 5 maps that's used for all match types rather than different maps for each plus the 5 used by all. This makes the game boring when you play TDM, CTF, and DM all on the same maps one right after the other and makes getting the map pack seem like a good idea so you have some illusion of variety. Thanks for the map packs? No. Absolutely NO. [sarcasm alert]Thanks for not making more variety to begin with, Thanks for not giving us expansions that extend the life of the game by adding not just maps but new class and weapons.[/sarcasm alert]. Hell I remember when we used to get new map and gear with a routine patch because the gear and maps couldn't be completed by the deadline and someone finished them off after release and they were added to a patch rather than sold as DLC.

Todays we make the game shit then sell you a fix later is just bullshit and customers should show them it is bullshit by refusing to buy the fix that should have been free and in the patch notes. On disk DLC should be ignored except for the big "Fuck you for being sleazy" in forums. Customers need to not buy the bullshit, immediately stop playing the game, and tell the publisher to fuck off when they pull this crap. That's the only way they will listen and quit abusing customers.
 

Ukomba

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otakon17 said:
Ukomba said:
Mass Effect 3 was on the edge of this. The game avoided the single player micro transactions that infested dead space 3, and the one's in single player were mostly harmless. They are what paid for the free multiplier dlc and events even. People complained then, but in retrospect, I think me3 shows one of the best version's of micro transactions along with tf2.
I wish that they would have implemented direct buying over a random "booster" pack if I'm shelling out REAL money for a virtual item. It's gambling, pure and simple and even with spare points I never bought anything in the MP store because I didn't want to gamble.
Ok, yes, I'll grant you that. Especially unlocking character customizations when you wanted the new class. But there is a reason people are still playing the me3 multiplayer even after that ending.
 

nondescript

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Oct 2, 2009
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Reinforcing negative behavior doesn't help, but that applies as much to gamers praising lackluster QA as condemning some peon's hard work as "not good enough."
 

maximara

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Jul 13, 2008
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canadamus_prime said:
No Jim, you're wrong. These people ARE fucking stupid. And this is why I don't have any faith in consumers.
"No one in this world, so far as I know ? and I have searched the record for years, and employed agents to help me ? has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." - H. L. Mencken (1926)

The painful truth is the gaming companies would not do this nonsense if it didn't work.
 

squid5580

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Feb 20, 2008
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Pseudonym said:
I haven't paid any attention to PvZ:GW but the way Jim describes it, it sounds like a rather obvious ploy. Now I don't think gratitude is out of order all the time. (just most of the time) Recently Subset Games released an expansion for FTL for free. FTL was already fully functional and now it has more content than I bought it for, for free. That sounds like I'm being given something good that I have no claim to and so something that merits gratitude. That said, I can see why some cynisism is appropriate. Nobody, certainly, should be thankful when things they bought were broken through a fault of the people making or selling the things and were subsequently fixed. I understand why so many people are. We more or less expect to get screwed over from time to time by some big company we unfortunately have to deal with and when one of these companies decides not to then spit in our faces for complaining we feel grateful. But, broadening the scope, that is an outrageous state of affairs to begin with. And even if the people at these companies take their responsibilities once in a while, at least in some cases this needs to be justified to the other stakeholders through some notion of 'building goodwill' or 'consumer loyalty' rather than just doing the decent thing because it is the decent thing to do.
Since you haven't been paying attention to PVZ:GW I'll give you the update. They have added tons of new silly hats, a new ability for each class, a new variant for each class. Along with a new mode, a new map, new achievements and increased the amount of coins earned for playing. So now it will take a person on average about 2 maybe 3 matches to earn enough for the decent pack (20K). Oh and all future DLC will be free as well. This whole PVZ thing is just a donate button getting blown way out of proportion by people who haven't played it because they used the word "MICROTRANSACTION". Because if you really need to use it and can't earn the coins they generously give you ingame then you really shouldn't be playing it
 

weirdee

Swamp Weather Balloon Gas
Apr 11, 2011
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Bad Jim said:
Even worse is the idea that we should want to decrease the amount of time we spend playing a game we paid for. Shouldn't we instead buy missions, map packs etc that increase our playing time? More money = more hours of fun?
well, first off, they've already turned "buying a game = getting a game" into "buying a game = getting part of the game while the rest of the game is being held ransom for more money but it's being marketed as an additional feature", so that's been ruined

secondly, if the price doesn't scale to the content, then they're still lying for more money, because we all agreed to the big lie, "it's okay to rip somebody off if they consent to be treated poorly, regardless of the circumstances"