South Park Takes On Free-to-Play Games in Freemium Isn't Free

Dizchu

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Sep 23, 2014
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COMaestro said:
I'm going to have to watch this one. Sounds hilarious!

Bets on if South Park ever touches the GamerGate issue? Maybe in a year or two?
Nah. Too risky. Gamergate is widely seen as a hate group so doing something like that could be career suicide. Emphasis on "could be", chances are it may be received well but it's really in their best interests to stay away from it.

Which kinda sucks because their recent episode about transgenderism and Tumblr social justice warriors was absolutely perfect. I think in the near future people that are on the left politically will realise that they have their crazies just like those on the right. Middle-class privileged teenagers complaining that they're being oppressed is exactly like when conservative Christians claim they're being oppressed. At least in the USA.

Sorry that was a bit of a tangent haha.
 

Mr.Mattress

Level 2 Lumberjack
Jul 17, 2009
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Finally watching the Episode, it is indeed hilarious. I like Satan's earnest speech about Addiction, but speaking as a Diabetic, Satan know's jack about Diabetes (It's not the Liver like Satan claims, it's the Pancreas that emits Chemicals necessary for Cells to Absorb Sugars). I also like Randy's obvious alcoholism that he's oblivious to while trying to claim that he's not an addict.

I'd give this episode a 8/10.
 

Malbourne

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Sep 4, 2013
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Any satire in the video game industry is welcome, especially from South Park. I'm gonna have to watch this episode within the second.
 

Imp_Emissary

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COMaestro said:
I'm going to have to watch this one. Sounds hilarious!

Bets on if South Park ever touches the GamerGate issue? Maybe in a year or two?
Well friend. As a christian, I believe in times of doubt that the best course of action is to ask,


<-<.....Well, Jesus isn't the one who makes the show, so they could....Maybe.....
 

Nazulu

They will not take our Fluids
Jun 5, 2008
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The execution in this show is still horrid, but I welcome any comedy to stab at this basterdised business strategy. I've hated the idea from day one.
 

Saulkar

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MarsAtlas said:
Saulkar said:
Topical, maybe they could have created a parody pf Mechwarrior: Online as that game is just horrid when it comes to this practice.
While it is expensive, and the grind is fairly bad, its a whole different ballpark than games that are designed to be addictive, such as Zynga games. They don't pretend that "its just a tiny bit" that you can purchase anytime during gameplay or anything like that. They're quite upfront about how much everything they sell costs. Again, while I think its more expensive than it should be, both for the player and the business (I suspect they'd earn more if they price everything lower for more sales), and it even have the whale mentality, its not quite predatory in the same way that Farmville is.
Yeah, I hear everything you are saying. Having put so much personal effort into helping them improve the game then be outright blown-off along with many of the alpha and beta testers tends to leave one spiteful.
 

Stg

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Jul 19, 2011
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It's sad but it's true. Three of my coworkers have easily spent over $500 on that ridiculous Clash of Clans since the game came out and countless others have spent more than $100 in microtransactions. I really wish I was exaggeration about those amounts, but I'm not. One of them is nearing $1,000 in transactions and they still justify it as "the game is fun and I'm only spending a few bucks here and there, so what's the harm?". It's their money, but I don't actually believe they comprehend the fact they have spent half of a normal paycheck on a supposedly free game...
 

GabeZhul

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Caramel Frappe said:
I know you're not supposed to take South Park very seriously, if not at all... but when they make episodes that hit issues head on while being absolutely truthful about the matter... it's something you can't simply ignore.

Their scene about the Free-to-Play was so accurate and true, I don't know if they even made the scene to be humorous or educate people about how much money is blown on a devious scheme such as this.
Sometimes the real world is so weird and unbelievable that just presenting it matter-of-factly and without any sugar-coating can be hilarious (or at least can make people laugh as a coping mechanism). Compare to the scientology episode where they had to add disclaimers to the scenes depicting scientology's "secret" teachings, and some people didn't believe them even then.
 

Schadrach

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Hero in a half shell said:
Does it count as satire if it's actually 100% accurate... because that was a completely accurate summation of exactly what 'freemium' is.
Terrance and Phillip come back later in the episode and complain about how people seem to be getting addicted and the guy doing the explanation in the clip suggests a campaign to "play responsibly" (followed by a fantastic beer commercial parody), then come back again and "see through the charade" again, and the guy explaining freemium games in the clip reveals himself to be the Canadian devil, Beelzeboot and explains how the purpose is to exploit people with addictive tendencies. Then there's a battle between Beelzeboot and Satan (possessing Stan).
 

Jonsbax

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May 4, 2010
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To me this video underlines perfectly how South Park has turned for the worse, now they just have the characters do presentations about what the show is making fun of instead of actual jokes and narrative. Putting on a silly face and voice and going "Herpdy derp, I'm *insert name or organization* and I'm stupid!" isn't a joke.
 

Grahav

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Episode got me some things to think about addiction. Damn you internet.
 

Jandau

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Dec 19, 2008
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The key part is (and I paraphrase slightly):

"Can't the game hidden inside the charade at least be fun?"
"No, no! It has to be just barely fun! If the game was too fun then there'd be no reason to micropay in order to make it more fun!"

That right there is the heart of the problem with this particular business model and the reason such games will almost invariably suck.