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

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

#431

Post by humbleMouse » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:38 PM UTC

tyrfing wrote: post #128

taurath wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Investors love the monetization model and they get to decide what is just right and moral in our system of economics. The “fiduciary duty” to investors means sociopathy is the only way that businesses are allowed to conduct themselves. If you can make money, you MUST make it. Someday I hope we find some way as a society to give value to other things. Its not really working out.

> The “fiduciary duty” to investors means sociopathy is the only way that businesses are allowed to conduct themselves. Larry Fink disagrees, and companies like Exxon have learned that not only is it not the only option, it's not an option at all. In fact, it's to the point that politicians like Mike Pence are talking about the big bad shareholders terrorizing companies. > If you can make money, you MUST make it. Thi…

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

#432

Post by RGamma » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:43 PM UTC

elif wrote: post #212

It's like, gaming used to have some gambling flavor elements to it, but since ~2020 they gave up moderating it and everyone decided to go all-in on gamba. CSGO skin cases were meme-ably game-able, and I'm sure some people lost their livelihood, but it certainly wasn't conditioning EVERY CHILD that played to casually walk that line deeper and deeper... What we have now is sickening. The stance of NL and belgium of jus…

I remember when we used to decry the "miniaturisation of addon content" with the DLC craze (instead of proper expansions) and then the preorder boni and season passes and what not (oh, the simple days).

Turbo capitalistic exploitation of games is festering; and now it's more important than ever to support the good-spirited studios.

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

#433

Post by jack_pp » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:43 PM UTC

doix wrote: post #356

jack_pp wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting, so if you can be no1 while free to play is every streamer lying? Edit: Or right now since it's early you can out-skill other people while they're figuring it out and soon the people who spend more will have both skill and raw power and will dominate

I don't understand the comment, sorry. I don't think other streamers are lying, you can pay to get stronger, easily verified by opening the shop and looking at what is available. But it looks like if you play the game as your job, you can still be competitive. Does it suck that you can pay to get stronger and make the game unfair? Yep, but I'm not convinced it matters if you're playing casually. None of the pay to wi…

I understand your point but Asmongold and Shroud are saying it isn't worth playing the game unless you plan to spend a couple thousand dollars on it so that's where I'm coming from.

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

#434

Post by devoutsalsa » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:44 PM UTC

friendlypeg wrote: post #367

I have been playing and enjoying the game for the past few days. The P2W gem system can be ignore entirely by most players unless you want to become the best in leaderboard. Overall the monetization is on par with other mobile games. The only reason this gets so much attention is because Blizzard is a easy target to generate outrages and clicks these days.

Does it get ridiculously hard or monotonous without purchasing add ons?

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

#435

Post by GavinMcG » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:46 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #421

sokoloff wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s true of pit and slots games, but there are people who make a living playing poker in casinos. (It’s a player-vs-player hosted game with the casino taking a rake or seat charge rather than a player-vs-house game.)

Some difference in the mechanics, but the overall concept is the same. An individual player might be able to win money in poker (with some combination of luck and skill), but a group of players will always lose to the house.

Poker isn't played as a group. The "overall concept" is whether an individual player can profit over the long run, and in poker but not (say) roulette, the answer is yes.

Your approach reminded me of a joke:

Three statisticians go deer hunting with bows and arrows. They spot a big buck and take aim. One shoots and his arrow flies off three meters to the right. The second shoots and his arrow flies off three meters to the left. The third statistician jumps up and down, yelling "We got him! We got him!"

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

#436

Post by throwaway17_17 » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:50 PM UTC

Aerroon wrote: post #405

DandyDev wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Going to end in disaster" -> that's hyperbole The fact that the Belgian and Dutch governments label these predatory microtransaction schemes as gambling, shows that they understand the subject matter perfectly fine. Yes, you and I can sensibly choose not to play those games or spend money on them. But lots of people can't. That's why laws regulating gambling exist. Nobody is saying that you can't play these games. T…

> Nobody is saying that you can't play these games. The Dutch and Belgian government quite literally are saying that you can't though. Of course, in practice it just means Dutch and Belgian players will pretend they're from another European country via VPN. > Those gaming companies just have to accept that their products are a form of gambling and will be regulated and taxed as such. I'm not sure if you're saying thi…

I truly do not mean this as a flippant response to your comment, but there is a very simple solution to the problem you are envisioning coming from these regulations. Developers could just make a game with no micro transactions. The only way your ‘issues’ exist, is if these games are only made to make money via the gambling mechanics that are being regulated. Want your game available everywhere … just make a game that people can pay for and play.

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

#437

Post by seattle_spring » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:51 PM UTC

richardfey wrote: post #5

Are other articles there paid advertorials? Like this one: - https://gamerant.com/diablo-immortal-new-players/ "Why Diablo Immortal Is The Best Franchise Jumping On Point"

No? Longtime Diablo franchise fan here. Immortal has been a blast without spending any money at all.

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

#438

Post by sbarre » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:51 PM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #232

geysersam wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like an arms race that's both wasteful and difficult to win. Why should we not use the tools democracy provides to shape society? These corporations are not out to get us. They maximize profit constrained by the regulatory environment. We have to guide them, and channel their capacity for good.

> That sounds like an arms race that's both wasteful and difficult to win. It is. > Why should we not use the tools democracy provides to shape society? We should, if we can. I'm just not holding my breath. I think copyright should be abolished but the trillion dollar companies that depend on it will never allow that to happen. So we're better off de facto abolishing it by making copyright unenforceable and eliminati…

>I think advertising should be illegal but companies like Google will never let that happen. So I use software like uBlock Origin to block ads whenever I can.

Honest question (and I am not fan of advertising here and not trying to be an apologist)..

What business model replaces it, in your mind?

In the world that exists today, how do companies who provide free services online (including the creation of information) pay their staff and their operational costs, if not through being paid to display ads or sponsorships?

Do all websites become subscriptions?

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

#439

Post by jayd16 » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:51 PM UTC

j_4 wrote: post #47

jiggawatts wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

To me this "ultra-wealthy" thing has always sounded like a convenient lie whale-game devs tell themselves to sleep soundly at night. These dark pattern black holes are made purely to form an addiction and turn it into profit, they don't care about who's on the receiving end. There's an increasing number of players who expect that either a) a game will take unlimited money and feed them dopamines in return, or b) they…

A lot of the whales and leviathans have some kind of online presence so it's really not hard for a game dev to know them by name, or even invite them to the studio.

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

#440

Post by zeroonetwothree » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:55 PM UTC

seventytwo wrote: post #277

elif wrote: post #212

It's like, gaming used to have some gambling flavor elements to it, but since ~2020 they gave up moderating it and everyone decided to go all-in on gamba. CSGO skin cases were meme-ably game-able, and I'm sure some people lost their livelihood, but it certainly wasn't conditioning EVERY CHILD that played to casually walk that line deeper and deeper... What we have now is sickening. The stance of NL and belgium of jus…

> There will be no self-regulation. The idea of self-regulation is a lie told by corporations who don’t want regulation. Corporations will do literally anything to maximize their profits.

Maximising profits is literally the entire goal of corporations. Why would that be surprising?