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Mario Kart Tour Triggers You into Gambling Your Money

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Re: Mario Kart Tour Triggers You into Gambling Your Money

#131

Post by alanbernstein »

inkcapmushroom wrote: post #45
nathanwh wrote: post #14

Something about how this article was animated out hurt my brain to look at. It had a lot on page telling me about how much there was too much information on the screen of the phone which was nested inside the page. And then every arrow press would move around the dialog boxes (some of which jiggled to fight for my attention extra hard) and update the little avatar. The content was interesting but it felt kind of iron…

I liked that they took all the time to decry all these dark practices, and then hit you at the end with "Do you want a summary of the presentation? Click this button!" which I'm sure requires you to sign up for their email newsletter and start on their customer pipeline.

To be fair, it's at the end of the presentation, not pushed via a popup modal 12 seconds after page load.

Re: Mario Kart Tour Triggers You into Gambling Your Money

#132

Post by mod50ack »

hbn wrote: post #126
currymj wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they didn't initially. their first mobile game, Super Mario Run, cost $10 and had none of the usual manipulative mobile game elements. People did not buy it so they switched to the same F2P nonsense as everyone else for future games.

Super Mario Run was also always-online for no reason, you couldn't play without an internet connection. And it wasn't a particularly impressive game. There's no shortage of endless runners on mobile, and Nintendo didn't do much to differentiate themselves, so it's no surprise nobody bought it.

I think the always-online thing is a DRM thing. I could be wrong, though.

As for the game itself: I've played it, and it's a pretty decent runner with the physics of New Super Mario Bros. Wii/U, but it's just not the same as the more full-fledged games. It's fun to pick up and play, but not groundbreaking or particularly special.

Re: Mario Kart Tour Triggers You into Gambling Your Money

#133

Post by jfim »

guelo wrote: post #120
Naga wrote: post #5

Nintendo has such a great, family friendly brand. If I was in charge, I wouldn't want my brand to be anywhere close to being associated to this type of thing.

I've never been into Nintendo but after having kids I kept hearing this about how great they are for families so I bought a Switch. That's when I learned what a greedy exploitative platform it is: overcharging for games, nickle and dimeing for everything, and abusing their fan's nostalgia. I definitely don't want to get my kids invested in their platform so I got rid of the Switch. Steam has more than we need anyway.…

Do you mind elaborating on the "overcharging for games" part? Console games in the 80s were about $45, so games today are actually cheaper if inflation is taken into account.

Re: Mario Kart Tour Triggers You into Gambling Your Money

#134

Post by sharkweek »

guelo wrote: post #120
Naga wrote: post #5

Nintendo has such a great, family friendly brand. If I was in charge, I wouldn't want my brand to be anywhere close to being associated to this type of thing.

I've never been into Nintendo but after having kids I kept hearing this about how great they are for families so I bought a Switch. That's when I learned what a greedy exploitative platform it is: overcharging for games, nickle and dimeing for everything, and abusing their fan's nostalgia. I definitely don't want to get my kids invested in their platform so I got rid of the Switch. Steam has more than we need anyway.…

Random question for the HN crowd piggybacking off your comment:

What age did you introduce video games to your kids?

My oldest is 5 and I let him tinker on the PS5 when I’m around playing things like Sonic or he really likes Astro’s Playworld.

We limit it to maybe 15-20 min a day but I swear it’s like I tell people I let him watch R-rated movies or something when I mention that I let him play video games at his age.

Curious what people here view as age appropriate.

Re: Mario Kart Tour Triggers You into Gambling Your Money

#135

Post by [deleted] »

causi wrote: post #34
preinheimer wrote: post #10

First, that was an amazing breakdown of what's happening. If you enjoyed reading that you might like Folding Ideas breakdown of Fortnite - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHPNgIihR0 Second, I've personally become very wary of any mobile app that introduces multiple currency types. There's gold, and rubies, and power balls, and stardust! At some point pretty early on I decide it's not worth it to figure out how much…

Mobile games in general are garbage. Considering the number of games, you could just emulate console games for the rest of your life and in doing so only play games that were built as games, not exploitation machines.

[deleted]

Re: Mario Kart Tour Triggers You into Gambling Your Money

#138

Post by mod50ack »

bentley wrote: post #60
mrguyorama wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people had to buy a second console and the other game if they wanted to fill out the pokedex.

I’m sure Nintendo wouldn’t have complained if people did that, but trades with friends were how the game was marketed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Oh4YiMNNw I was as big a Pokémon freak as anyone, lived in an extremely rural area, and still managed to complete the Pokédex without duplicate/paired games by trading with friends. (And nobody had to complete the Pokédex anyway! The games had a complete storyline wi…

That was something that played on Pokémon as a social phenomenon. And, more than that, you didn't absolutely need to do that to play and enjoy the game. It was a multiplayer element. If you were a diehard, yeah, you could buy a second Game Boy and a second game, but that would require playing the full game twice to get all the exclusives in both. That was beyond what the developers expected the player to do. All of that would make the game harder!

On the other hand, players of FTP games are encouraged to make micropayments, which make those games "easier."

Re: Mario Kart Tour Triggers You into Gambling Your Money

#140

Post by elijaht »

sharkweek wrote: post #134
guelo wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been into Nintendo but after having kids I kept hearing this about how great they are for families so I bought a Switch. That's when I learned what a greedy exploitative platform it is: overcharging for games, nickle and dimeing for everything, and abusing their fan's nostalgia. I definitely don't want to get my kids invested in their platform so I got rid of the Switch. Steam has more than we need anyway.…

Random question for the HN crowd piggybacking off your comment: What age did you introduce video games to your kids? My oldest is 5 and I let him tinker on the PS5 when I’m around playing things like Sonic or he really likes Astro’s Playworld. We limit it to maybe 15-20 min a day but I swear it’s like I tell people I let him watch R-rated movies or something when I mention that I let him play video games at his age.…

Don't have kids yet, but I started playing at age 5, didn't notice any issues (although that may be in the eye of the beholder, ha)

I actually think video games did me a decent amount of good with reading and math skills. Lot of RPGs, minecraft, etc. I would definitely set time limits and try to push towards more "brainy" games

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