You may have head of The 7 Deadly Sins in Christianity, but what about The 7 Deadly Sins of Game Design? Jason Capp is here to break it down.
Microtransactions have gotten ridiculously overpriced in recent years, with titles now offering cosmetic skins worth more than some games.
The elephant in the room tho is personal accountability. It’s easy (albeit basic) to blame the big, bad corpo, but microtransactions wouldn’t be where they are if gamers didn’t spend money on them. As it stands the MTs usually make more than the game. Publishers know raising game prices will cause backlash, so they do MTs to compensate. But the adult conversation is consumers determine the success of products with their wallets. So if MTs are a huge thing, it’s because we as consumers told them we like them by giving them a lot of money for them. So if you don’t want them to be a thing, convince your fellow gamers to stop buying them and expect that games will be decently more expensive. You all can disagree all you want, but reality is a bitch, and eventually you have to live in it.
Trying to convince people is the least realistic thing. If we are trying to be adults, actual action is what changes things not "convincing campaigns" on platforms owned by the people 'you' are going against. It's madness and idealistic.
Easier said than done. I've told gamers for years to not buy micro transactions, expensive dlc, etc. Gamers bought it anyway. Didn't fit on a DVD that would have fit on a Blu-ray disc.
I also told some gamers to not pay for online like Xbox Live because it would force the rest of the industry to only offer playing online if you pay for it. Told them not to support a broken console that Red Ringed. To not support Xbox One because Microsoft tried to take away game ownership and how you play your games. To not pay for a console by one manufacturer where a, now 3 trillion worth, didn't make enough games at the level of Nintendo or Sony who are worth less money.
How much of that did you support anyway with your money then go back and read your comment again.
yeah that was like telling people not to do drugs or alcohol, these game companies invested a lot of money in researching about how to make people buy MTs, from creating mechanics like loot boxes, purposely make the game grindy, all the way to menu designs and what color and sound effects played when gamers bought MTs.
It was specifically engineered to take advantage of vulnerable and prone to addiction people.
@z2g
People always struggle with issues like drinking, drugs, and gambling. But in games, especially those played by kids, microtransactions are another way companies take advantage of them. It's a problem that needs addressing.
I recommend everyone read this article.
My suggestion is to name these transactions, what they ARE: Hidden-fees.
There never was, the only time I paid for a microtransaction was on Blacklight Retribution (PS4) and it was because I enjoyed the game a lot so I felt the devs should get something for all that entertainment (€5 "membership")
The devs wouldn’t get that though, that shit goes straight to the higher ups who do f*** all let’s be honest.
Probably, but I wasn't as cynical back then and €5 wasn't a big ask to get the guns with grinding instead of renting them, and the game was good (still is on the PS5/4)
I couldn’t believe what Blizzard charged for horse armor and cosmetics in Diablo 4…
I remember back in the day when a season pass was $15 and you got everything included in it. Now, I see them at $60 and you still don’t get everything.
That's just Blizzard. Unlike Bethesda's $0.99 horse armour, Blizzard's first microtransaction, Sparkle Pony, cost $15.
Bethesda out did themselves a few years back with 76. They released a Xmas bundle for half price on day of release! So, was meant to sell for only $12 from day 1, but tried to convince everyone it was half price, by marking it at $24!
As soon as gaming wasn't deemed nerdy anymore, and reached the casuals this happened. We're smart, but casuals play mobile games and other stuff, and don't really have anything to compare. They think gaming is supposed to be like this and pay for in game purchases.
The GTA 5 Agent Trevor DLC episode could have been a real treat for fans on PlayStation and Xbox, before it was scrubbed sometime before 2017.
With the amount of money they generated, I just don’t understand the scrubbing of this. It would’ve been fantastic for fans.
I really want to know who drove the decision to focus on multiplayer was it Rockstar or take two.
Because when online started taking off many of the studio leads began having falling outs and leading including a founder
One of the reason I believe once gta 6 release, most of us thoroughly play it, enjoy the world they crafted then after that no offline support, no dlc at all
Samus Aran from the Metroid series almost made an appearance in Fortnite, but Nintendo and Epic couldn’t agree on how she’d be implemented.
Having to do a thing three times would make my list as #1
For me, it's collect-a-thons. They weren't fun in Donkey Kong or Banjo and Kazooie and they still aren't fun now. Why create these wonderfully oversized, detailed worlds if you are going to just supplement gameplay with ambiguous item fetch-quests.
There are exceptions, of course, But by and large, it just shows laziness on the part of the developer.
Good article, by the way!
how about not allowing cutscene skipping
that's flat out inexcusable in any game in the last 10 years
this comments are demanding a "The 4 Horsemen of The Apocalypse of Game Design Flaws" sequel