Micropayments and ad-games ruined video games. It‘s depressing.
It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
471–480 of 769 posts
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#472Micropayments and ad-games ruined video games. It‘s depressing.
How can micropayments have ruined anything? Nobody's found a way to implement micropayments in a way that works, to my knowledge.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#473mobile games: gambling + porn, but legal
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#474I am not a gamer, but I am fascinated by all manner of monetization. Is Diablo Immortal unique as a free-to-play game that has a microtransaction model to support continued development, or do other games do this? It seems the equivalent of the freemium model with web applications. Does buying the so-called Legendary Gems enhance "winning" or just game playing? And can "winning" result in a financial reward (like in L…
> Does buying the so-called Legendary Gems enhance "winning" or just game playing?
Yes. Look up “gacha games” [0] for the broader category. One very successful and very rich version of this genre is “genshin impact”
> And can "winning" result in a financial reward
In this case, no, not currently. People tend to structure competitive scenes around games without these mechanics but it could be done by the company developing the game. People are playing for the satisfaction of winning rare items or beating other people on a leaderboard.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#475I am not a gamer, but I am fascinated by all manner of monetization. Is Diablo Immortal unique as a free-to-play game that has a microtransaction model to support continued development, or do other games do this? It seems the equivalent of the freemium model with web applications. Does buying the so-called Legendary Gems enhance "winning" or just game playing? And can "winning" result in a financial reward (like in L…
The model is extremely standard in mobile games, especially in Asia, where it has been the norm for almost a decade in gacha games, and where people are used to paying and gambling. They all have the same mechanics, or variations of them, Diablo doesn't really do anything innovative here, but it certainly is on the aggressive side.
A lot of the outrage comes from the fact that 1. Diablo is originally a PC-based IP with a PC gamer fanbase, and PC gamers are used to different monetization schemes and generally don't play mobile games. Even without the gambling mechanics, there already was a huge backlash about Blizzard making a mobile Diablo game 2. Diablo is a "western" IP where such monetization schemes are less common and the penetration of PC players is higher compared to other parts of the world where mobile game penetration is higher.
> And can "winning" result in a financial reward
Generally speaking, no. There are no competitions for these kind of games. The only way you could cash out would be to sell your account, which is against the ToS, but commonly done nonetheless.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was thought that people would use less restaurants and bars if smoking was forbidden. It's more likely that when incentives change, the whole customer base changes. The current system of preying whales to pay for games has negative externalities for gamer's who don't have addiction. Playing is cheaper, but people play less games because addictive spending mechanics is affecting where the game development money goe…
Regulation would create an incentive to region lock out the areas that regulate it. Now you have people from the regulating country use VPNs to play the game in another region instead.
Yeah sure, but say the EU as a whole or the US regulated it. You aren't region locking them out.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#477I am not a gamer, but I am fascinated by all manner of monetization. Is Diablo Immortal unique as a free-to-play game that has a microtransaction model to support continued development, or do other games do this? It seems the equivalent of the freemium model with web applications. Does buying the so-called Legendary Gems enhance "winning" or just game playing? And can "winning" result in a financial reward (like in L…
The model is extremely standard in mobile games, especially in Asia, where it has been the norm for almost a decade in gacha games, and where people are used to paying and gambling. They all have the same mechanics, or variations of them, Diablo doesn't really do anything innovative here, but it certainly is on the aggressive side. A lot of the outrage comes from the fact that 1. Diablo is originally a PC-based IP wi…
> The only way you could cash out would be to sell your account, which is against the ToS, but commonly done nonetheless.
Interesting. Why would the publisher have such a ToS? Just so they monopolize the revenue from in-game sales? Or is it more altruistic, like preventing new players having an unfair advantage? I would have thought encouraging a secondary market in their game would actually attract players.
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#478Eh, whatever. It's not like it's an esport. Let the whales subsidize everyone else if they want
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#479It's even more frustrating, because the game is good . I really enjoyed playing the first 30 levels or so. Good story, good controls, very satisfying gameplay. If I could pay $60 and just have a "classic" Diablo on my phone, I might. But I won't spend a cent on consumable in-app purchases. It is so sad that "make good game, sell it" model no longer works. It's all a wonky curve of "free - couple of dollars - hundreds…
Lots of folks disappointed at Diablo Immortal are comparing it to a PC game which it isn’t. It’s a great game that lets you play and experience Diablo on the go, during your lunch breaks, and on the porcelain throne.
Once you adjust your expectations and understand that this is a filler game before D4 you’ll see that it’s a great game that can be enjoyed for the content without paying a cent
Re: It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal
#480Regulation proposal: Set maximum spending limit/time tied to the purchase price. The limit is tied to account and player character. example: 1. free-to-play: $100/year. 2. other: 10×purchase price/year. For a $50 game the maximum spending is $500 per year. This would not set hard limit. It would only mandate up-front investment related to the amount of in-game spending. A Whale who spends $10k a year would have to pa…
This just woundn't work unfortuantly. It's a known fact that the large majorirty of the player base will not spend any money. This has the knock-on effect that the whales have to be squeezed in order for the game to turn a profit. People underestmate the UA costs on these games. It can cost >$10 to get a single player into the game through advertising. So right off the bat you need to make $10 back per player to make…
If it doesn't work then this model would simply disappear. Not a bad thing either for gaming.
In the Netherlands there's already laws around this kind of business model, requiring the company to specify win chances and other things. The publisher has decided not to release Diablo immortal there for this reason.
If more countries follow suit they'll have no option but to just go back to regular business models.