But this is just the intangible economy at work..
It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
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Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#32I knew someone who worked for EA as a UX researcher. He said that games like these are primarily targeting whales who will drop $10k on a game. They are the real money earners. The really sad part was the he said the most whales aren't super rich, they're just people with an addiction.
I used to play a MUD thats been around for 30 years and has active playerbase of maybe 1-4k people and there were some players who would pay 20-40k for special wizard made items.
It was run by a non-profit, so all that money went to keep the game running, but yeah, some people put a lot of money on these games.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#33I knew someone who worked for EA as a UX researcher. He said that games like these are primarily targeting whales who will drop $10k on a game. They are the real money earners. The really sad part was the he said the most whales aren't super rich, they're just people with an addiction.
10k over a long period is very small compared to what one can lose in a casino night, and casinos do exist. What kind of game was your friend working on? Whales do exist but they are not the bulk of the revenue
> 10k over a long period is very small compared to what one can lose in a casino night
that's a very low bar to set...
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#34I've watched a lot of discussions about this from twitch streamers and I'm not sure where I stand.. On the one hand I'm amazed at how good this game looks on mobile and if you're just the type to casually play a game not really caring about being the best at it you could have fun playing it for free or for very cheap. On the other hand this game is clearly exploitative and while other games like Hearthstone or Clash…
Casinos are banned in many places and also banned for kids in most places. Clash royale is sad, becouse it is a extremely good game if it were not for the pay to win leveling mechanics. I used to play it alot but it became too frustrating meeting bad players with low ELO but high level cards that you essentially couldn't win over unless they messed up bad. Edit: To level up all cards in Clash Royale you also have to…
I just started playing it after a long break. I remember you used to need to upgrade your cards to challenge level in order to be competitive in challenges but now they give you all cards in challenge mode at the standard level, even cards you haven't found yet
It costs 10 gems to play a challenge and you can buy 500 gems for 5$ so that's 50 challenges, say you get at least 7 games per challenge so 350 games for 5$ where only skill matters. I'd say that's not exploitative.
Of course if you care about your rank and having a Big Number in a silly mobile game then yes you either have to play a lot or pay a lot of money.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#35I knew someone who worked for EA as a UX researcher. He said that games like these are primarily targeting whales who will drop $10k on a game. They are the real money earners. The really sad part was the he said the most whales aren't super rich, they're just people with an addiction.
I've seen similar comments by several game devs, but at least some of them said that they make most of their money from the kids of the ultra-wealthy. Think of some oil Sheik's son bored to death at home because it's too hot to go outside. But yeah, the "loot boxes" that are mostly gambling have been banned in many countries because they're targeted at young children.
> I've seen similar comments by several game devs, but at least some of them said that they make most of their money from the kids of the ultra-wealthy.
This seems like naïve speculation to me. Think about the number/scaling of this. It would give them a few months worth of income at best?
The sadder truth is that they're exploiting escapism and maladaptive coping (addiction, gambling) in people who also use escapism to cope/relax. Often times, those same people in desperate need of escapism are there because they struggle in real life, often financially too.
So, the little reprieve they get from gaming negative impacts their physical lives.
Diablo Immortal is a caricature of the depravity most games have become. A few games like Overwatch are not P2W, but even they have lootbox mechanics for cosmetic skins (you get boxes for leveling up and challenges, as you play, though). Blizzard literally can't help themselves.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#36Why is that considered a lot? People pay more for e.g sports memorabilia
I'll go out on a limb and say that spending 110k on a video game is considered "a lot" by 100% of all humans, rounded to the closest percent.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#37I knew someone who worked for EA as a UX researcher. He said that games like these are primarily targeting whales who will drop $10k on a game. They are the real money earners. The really sad part was the he said the most whales aren't super rich, they're just people with an addiction.
Right, most "super rich" people don't get "super rich" by doing super stupid things.
Most super rich get super rich by having super rich parents. It doesn't say anything about how they act.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#38While I definitely don't like pay-to-win monetization style, what I find even more ridiculous is the laws at Belgium and Netherlands around loot boxes. I mean, no one is forcing anyone to play a game or purchase a lootbox. Why ban a game mechanics for this? It hurts the (potential) players, let people decide for themselves FFS.
Because the monetization mechanics in this games rely on predatory practices employed by casinos which we already regulate?
Predatory?
Casinos shouldn't be regulated too. If nobody is forcing anyone to attend into something (like going to a casino or playing a pay-to-win game) nobody should have the right to change or regulate the inner dynamics.
As long as the game doesn't clearly lie (e.g. telling a lootbox does something that it doesn't) everybody knows what a lootbox is. Playing the game is a voluntary action taken by an individual, just like going to a casino. They are responsible for their own actions, and blocking a certain demographics' (e.g. people in Netherlands) to access to a game/mechanics (e.g. Diablo Immortal + lootboxes) is fundamentally against people's freedom of choosing to play a game or not.
It's their money, they can spend $1m if they want to, on lootboxes.
Would I? Definitely not. But blocking someone who does want to from doing it, whereas it doesn't have negative effects to society (e.g. Doesn't affect anyone but the person themselves) is ridiculous.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#39As someone used to work for Chinese mobile game companies. $110k sounds average for a pay-to-win game. But the game is new. Designers would create other slots to make money.
>average for a pay-to-win game What games are above this average?
They're incredibly popular in east asia in general. It's practically taken over the game markets over there.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#40I've watched a lot of discussions about this from twitch streamers and I'm not sure where I stand.. On the one hand I'm amazed at how good this game looks on mobile and if you're just the type to casually play a game not really caring about being the best at it you could have fun playing it for free or for very cheap. On the other hand this game is clearly exploitative and while other games like Hearthstone or Clash…
Casinos asks for your ID card, and are regulated to protect people banned from gambling (at least it is the case in France)