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

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

#621

Post by Hemospectrum » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 7:45 PM UTC

interroboink wrote: post #597

Hemospectrum wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "no longer works" comment clearly refers to the business model, ie. ignoring the quality or popularity of the product itself and just looking at the balance sheet. The gambling (microtransaction) model is enormously more profitable than the classical "just sell a game" model. Elden Ring was spectacularly well received and has sold millions of units, but it's "only" a game. There's no casino in the back, and there…

Maybe I misunderstand you, but if the "no longer works" comment refers to the business model as you say, then the person you replied to is saying "no, it can still work as a business model — here's an example." It may not work as well or as easily , but I don't think that's the point being made.

The customer might want to buy a product, and the studio might want to make it, but isn’t there someone they forgot to ask?

Business models that are lower-risk and higher-return are systematically preferred by investors. Games are expensive to make. FromSoft has been successful enough to stay in business for now. They’ll always be in competition with studios that sacrifice product quality for profitability. Many studios literally cannot afford to do things their way.

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

#622

Post by stjohnswarts » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 7:50 PM UTC

I don't really see the problem if someone is dumb enough to pay or stupid-rich enough for this to be pocket change.

Interesting to see how ridiculous an amount it is though.

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

#623

Post by mmmmmbop » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 7:51 PM UTC

ayngg wrote: post #604

mmmmmbop wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's true that their last decent game was almost 10 years ago. Overwatch is a really great game and it came out 6 years ago.

Compared to the kind of games that made Blizzard iconic like SCBW, TFT, D2, and early WoW which were basically pillars in the gaming world, the game, while polished, was a fairly mediocre Team Fortress variant in comparison. It also had lofty ambitions of sustaining a large e-sports scene to the point where investors were paying tens of millions to have the right of owning a team. That never materialized and the game…

All you said is true, but now you're shifting goal posts. You previously said Blizzard's last 'decent' game was 10 years ago, not the last game that was 'basically a pillar in the gaming wold'.

While Overwatch may not have achieved it's lofty ambitions, it's still extremely well-regarded [0], had 50 million players (which is quite impressive given that it's not free-to-play) and has grossed over $1 billion. It arguably brought the modern hero shooter genre to mainstream popularity and caused a flood of similar games to follow it. You're right, nowadays there are more popular games in that genre, but at the time it was quite a novel concept.

Since you said 10 years since the last 'decent' game from Blizzard, I assume you referred to Diablo 3. I wonder, by what metric is Diablo 3 a decent game and Overwatch isn't?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_considered...

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

#624

Post by fernandotakai » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 7:58 PM UTC

matwood wrote: post #346

gryn wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if doing the same exact rift over and over for weeks in order to unfreeze your game progress is something you find enjoyable then yes. but realistically I don't think there exist that much people who would enjoy this. oh and every 15 min or so you're spammed with a notification telling you take this one is lifetime opportunity to help if only for give them your credit card! if you don't hurry you'll miss out on this…

> if doing the same exact rift over and over for weeks in order to unfreeze your game progress is something you find enjoyable then yes. but realistically I don't think there exist that much people who would enjoy this. It's been awhile since I played D3, but hasn't this been the model for years?

i mean, that's d2 gameplay in a nutshell. i mean, cow farming, baal farming, diablo farming... if you played any diablo, you had to do the same content non stop to get better gear. and sometimes that means weeks of farming for a small upgrade.

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

#625

Post by dylan604 » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 8:03 PM UTC

Archelaos wrote: post #449

dylan604 wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My take on cryptocurrency has become: it’s also all gambling I have the same feeling towards the stock market. Sure, it can be well researched information on the stock in question, but it's all a bet your interpretation of that stock is right.

The difference is that the expectation value is positive.

Which one are saying then that the expectation is not positive?

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

#626

Post by sicp-enjoyer » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 8:06 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.

Video games are generally upheld as an example of good self regulation. In the US the ESRB review system was created entirely by the industry. It has universal adoption and is enforced by almost every retailer (despite being a diverse group). Futhermore the ESRB has much clearer standards than the equivalent for films.

Is it impossible to imagine the industry creating a similar system around online transactions or gambling?

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

#627

Post by glouwbug » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 8:07 PM UTC

Hemospectrum wrote: post #566

peanut_worm wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elden Ring was exactly "make good game, sell it" and it sold very well.

The "no longer works" comment clearly refers to the business model, ie. ignoring the quality or popularity of the product itself and just looking at the balance sheet. The gambling (microtransaction) model is enormously more profitable than the classical "just sell a game" model. Elden Ring was spectacularly well received and has sold millions of units, but it's "only" a game. There's no casino in the back, and there…

But the reputation of Elden Ring far outshines the reputation of Diablo. Activision Blizzard is dying for reason

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

#628

Post by Andrex » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 8:11 PM UTC

lekevicius wrote: post #199

It'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…

> 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 and thousands of dollars".

It does work, but not at the profit multiples that venture capitalists and private equity currently demand. Speaking of gaming overall, not iOS specifically.

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

#629

Post by ratonofx » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 8:19 PM UTC

I see no problem about 110k "end game"...

1) If the journey have enough content to sustain a huge grinding time, it's ok. 2) If you can make it expensive without making mandatory (to buy), it's ok. 3) If you build a legit character buying or farming and it can be evaluated at 100k USD, it's pretty awesome! (Check MIR 4 Top Characters Price)

But if you play a blizzard game, with no NFT (or Open marketplace) and being treated as criminal if you sell the product of your farming/grinding time, it's pretty fucked up.

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

#630

Post by havblue » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 8:21 PM UTC

JonathanFly wrote: post #403

havblue wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave up on plants versus zombies 2 quickly when it became obvious the game was just prompting me to spend money at every turn. Granted, some people say this was mitigated eventually. I think games where you have an option to pay for dlc at the start screen are fine. It's being constantly pressured that I consider to be a breach of trust.

>I gave up on plants versus zombies 2 quickly when it became obvious the game was just prompting me to spend money at every turn. Granted, some people say this was mitigated eventually. The funny thing is the unmitigated , most pay2win version of Plants Versus Zombies 2 - the game at launch - was accidentally one of the most amazing and intense gaming experiences for people who never spent anything. For people who ju…

I think that's a testament to how micro transactions can ruin the balance of a game as you never know who the difficulty is designed for. With SMTV, Atlus added a dlc to make it easier to level your characters. So did they deliberately pad the leveling in order to make you buy this dlc? Or are you paying for an easy mode? Who knows.