It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal • Hacker News Board

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#161

Post by nanaboo » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:24 AM UTC

Let NFTs take care of it.

In-game skins are going nowhere, let a government force the company into creating a package with however many skins they want (maybe based on prior sales or realistic expectations) per season (whatever their season looks like) and walk away from it. You know they won't be able to add more.

Because what's stopping them now to change the decimal point however they see fit.

I suppose the same could be done with progression (where the real money is). Either make it tradeable somehow and lock it down, or outright ban it and allow for more expensive but regulated skins be the only funding capital.

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#162

Post by donatj » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:24 AM UTC

EB-Barrington wrote: post #36

seydor wrote: post #29

Why 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.

People put tens of thousands of hours into these sorts of games though to get equipment. Put that same time into a minimum wage job and we’re approaching the same amount of money. Seems relatively fair.

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#163

Post by tuvan » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:25 AM UTC

supernes wrote: post #16

Fans have dubbed it "Diablo Immoral" and say that it goes far beyond what other mobile titles infamous for their monetization have done.

It really doesnt. Fans are just upset the Diablo name was stained with this practice. You are looking at this level of spend required for pretty much any mobile gacha game

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#164

Post by still_grokking » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:25 AM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #97

What? Do you guys not have $110,000?

In today's world it's hard to tell whether the parent comment is sarcasm or meant seriously. I'm kind of worried about that.

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#165

Post by TheRealDunkirk » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:28 AM UTC

Hermel wrote: post #74

Grollicus wrote: post #60

The worst thing (for me) about this is that whenever I go to the Apple App store I get bombarded will all these "games" that just try to make my life actively worse. I don't understand why they pollute their brand like that.

That's the key! The Play Store and the App Store do not even have a search filter for games without in-app purchases. I'm sure that is on purpose.

Good point. I get upset with Hulu because they won’t distinguish ad-supported titles in their apps.

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#166

Post by ImaCake » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:29 AM UTC

jack_pp wrote: post #2

I'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…

The state of Western Australia has banned poker machines. We have a single casino in the capital which is the only sanctioned gambling establishment. So our pubs and clubs are a bit poorer and there are less of them. But they are not ruined by the horrible rooms full of sad people playing poker machines that you see in other states. I grew up on the east coast and whenever I walk into a pub in Perth I am always surprised by how authentic and nice the place feels compared to those that have poker machines.

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#167

Post by damowangcy » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:29 AM UTC

If I can find more progress than in my real life, 110k is a fair trade. (joke)

The flip side is, no matter how the general public criticize or hate it, it works and at times, more profitable than most startups nowadays.

The game was delayed for more than one whole year as they try to fix things up, 110k is probably an optimized figure.

That say, the game is enjoyable better than most mobile rpg but brings nothing new to the table. I would prefer it to be a pay once and for expansion though.

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#168

Post by safety1st » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:29 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #135

ramshanker wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for me. 2015 or so. FarmVille addiction. Once I clicked 1200 times straight to farm/plaugh/seed, my fingers heart. So searched for a solution and found click recorders . Not exactly cheat but once I started using the auto click, I was out of addiction within a month and left game in Two month.

Awesome. In these cases, bots are not really cheating, they're legitimate self-defense against shitty repetitive addictive games. They are addiction prophylaxis and treatment.

This is really insightful. Things in 2022 are so bad that the manufacturer of this addictive product is not only unregulated, but has actually banned the therapy in its ToS.

(If you think about that a bit it follows that the smartest course of action is to break the ToS early and often!)

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#169

Post by matheusmoreira » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:29 AM UTC

usrusr wrote: post #119

Termitiono wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because a normal hobby is not designed to be addictive. A hobby like wood working doesn't push you to do woodworking every day and there are not people behind this non existing mechanism who design it like it. Also normally a hobby costs money due to physical parts of that hobby. A software engineer as a hobby only needs some computer, would worker needs a metal saw.

Fitness hobbies also punish you for taking some time off. But they still just happen to be that way, instead of being deliberately designed, and that's a distinction that should very much be allowed to make a difference. It's not unusual at all for intent to carry legal significance.

The risk/benefit calculation of fitness activities is overwhelmingly positive. Their health benefits of exercise might as well be infinite. Even such a benign activity can be pathological though: accidents and lesions during training, anabolic steroid abuse, body image issues...

The risk/benefit calculation of predatory gambling video games is overwhelmingly negative. It's really no big loss if they were to be outlawed straight up. We have much better games available for our enjoyment.

Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal

#170

Post by makeitdouble » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 10:31 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #68

AdvicePlz wrote: post #3

I 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.

> they're just people with an addiction Yes. These games are straight up designed to be habit forming and should be regarded as equivalent to gambling and addictive drugs. I've been down that rabbit hole myself. Daily tasks and rewards offer positive reinforcement. Timers create a schedule for players, place a cap on their progression and establish negative reinforcement by punishing days of inactivity. Player groups…

This picture is too black and white. I have no interest in EA games so I don’t know if it appliesto them, but most “social” games make the bulk of their revenue from players paying small amounts every now and then, or ideally on a regular (a bit every events) shedule. The main target is not the whales, it’s the sustainable long tail (though paying players stay a small minority, even 4~5% of hundreds of thousands of users is a big pool).

This is basically the “recurring revenue” model, it’s the monthly packages sold in Yostar or Mihoyo games.

Sure, people who get easily caught in competitive schemes will have a hard time to stop, and will get caught in nightmarish situations. The same as people who can’t stop drinking and become alchoholic over time. This is a nefarious effect that we should pay attention to, but a super small minority becoming alcoholics doesn’t mean alcohol industry itself is a conspiracy to produce them. Moderate people exist. We should find ways to to protect the vulnerables, but it also means coming to terms with the nuances of the situation.