Instead charging $10 to download and play a relatively thin game, they hook people by making it free and then hope that enough players will end up spending gobs of money on microtransactions to put the game's revenue in the black. But that's the basis for the trick that these ostensibly free-to-play games want to pull. Of course Blizzard needs to make money off Diablo Immortal, and a game that cost millions of dollars to develop should cost something to play. Like most mobile games, Diablo Immortal encourages time-gating improvements to get people to either play every day for a long time, or spend money. In order to do the highest level raids and player-versus-player combat, players need to increase their character's gear to obscene levels, and these achievements can't be gained through casual engagement. Surely, that is an extreme example, but the problem with Diablo Immortal is that spending money isn't really optional if you want to experience all the game has to offer, particularly the end-game content that has kept Diablo 3 alive for over a decade after its own rocky, real money-plagued launch. That is not an exaggeration, and it gets at the problem at the heart of Diablo Immortal: Since the game's microtransaction system was announced, fans of the series began doing the math around its many systems, and the general consensus is that players who truly want to maximize their characters could end up spending tens of thousands of dollars. Using real money, players are allowed to buy immense amounts of player power, shooting up past those filthy casuals who simply want to play a game without forking over thousands of dollars in order to have fun. The game had been ridiculed from its announcement for being a mobile game, so much so that late on in the development process, Blizzard announced a port to computer, allowing people who simply do not want to play an action game on their phone to get in on the "fun." I put quotations around "fun" because it has become pretty clear, pretty quickly, that the game has launched with a horrifying commitment to microtransactions. On Thursday, Activision Blizzard-if EA is the most hated publisher, Activision Blizzard isn't far behind-released Diablo Immortal, a mobile version of its long-running and addictive action role-playing game (ARPG) series. ![]() Here we are, five years later, and another publisher has just released a new installment of a beloved series that has caused much outrage over the predatory method of monetization in play. ![]() It's also an option widely loathed by the video game community, and EA was forced to roll back their microtransaction program, teaching everyone a valuable lesson of what gamers will, or should be expected to put up with. Microtransactions encourage the worst behaviors in video games, to the point where "using Mommy's Visa" became a joke for how worse players would just outspend better ones until they gained and advantage. Specifically, fans of the Battlefront series were horrified at the microtransactions present in the newest game (for the uninitiated, microtransactions are an element of a game that allows players to pay real money in exchange for making further progress in the game). Electronic Arts, the standard bearer for awful video game publishers, has just released the highly anticipated Star Wars Battlefront II, and people were pissed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |