General / Off-Topic When micro-transactions goes bad: An EA tale..of greed!

[KickahasTier]

But can anyone think of way that Frontier could make "fair" money from MT that would not make the game OP and does not include simple cosmetic stuff?

Fair money? A public company is beholden to it's share holders and 'fair' is the maximum that your user base will bear. Micro-transactions will ruin the game, they will not be a carefully calculated to cover server, admin and future development + a fair percentage of profit. They will be tuned to extract the maximum money from players as possible because that is what public companies beholden to share holders do.

A subscription model should be used, it's the only way to guarantee shareholder profit and not impact game play. Then also sell credits for convenience, for those not prepared to spend a month trading / mining to purchase a new ship.

 

[KickahasTier]

Anyone remember shovelling 10p's into Gauntlet? That was the ultimate micro-transaction model... the robbing barstewards!

I remember never ever playing gauntlet because it was a greedy arcade machine.

 

[metatheurgist]

EA, F2P, mobile game appealing to children, mummy's credit card....

Profit!

And that is why it needs to stop.

Heretic. Profit is All! You dirty commie socialist liberals will not stand in the way of progress.

 

[Enjou]

Yes, the micro transactions for this game are utterly ridiculous and it only makes it worse that EA took one of my favorite game series in this direction.

On a related note, for those who did love Dungeon Keeper and have been actually hoping for a game that actually intends to follow the winning formula for the original two games you should check out War for the Overworld - it's a true spiritual successor to the DK series being made by people who actually understand what made DK so damn good. They've even got Richard Ridings, the mentor from the DK games, as the mentor for theirs. Currently the beta is on Steam, and the devs give an informative update every Wednesday.

https://wftogame.com/

 

[KickahasTier]

However, how about this. We already have clamouring guildies desperate for guild content. Why not make guildie tags MT's?

In the same vein, how about MT's for faction reputation changes. The Red Star Bandana faction in an area hate you because you worked a mission against them, but you can purchase rep back with a MT. Or you can avoid that area in space, or complete missions to earn rep back with them, or bring loads of weapons and shoot your way through their turf.

When you have good rep you get offered contracts, or trusted locations are shared. So you may want to get rep with a faction so that you can earn their contract rewards. But again there are various paths and the MT is only one.

Not a super grindy alternatives, just game play options. Make it so any MT is not forced, its a convenience option that can enhance the game.

 

[SnowGhost]

The truly sad thing is that people who are new to gaming and only played casual 'free to play' games on the iPad may look at "up front" games and say "Why on earth would you pay for a game" thinking "Why on earth would you pay for a game and then pay all those time costs as well, because every game has them".

Not every game has them. While I'm sure that there are up front games that have time costs as well, I've not met any.

But one of these days someone will start a lawsuit against "free to play" games that aren't free, because you can't actually play the game unless you pay. The OP is a good example.

 

[Shidar]

My only hope that we will have an in game equivalent for each shop item maybe for some hard deeds or price

 

[Asp Explorer]

But one of these days someone will start a lawsuit against "free to play" games that aren't free, because you can't actually play the game unless you pay. The OP is a good example.

I agree. However, the problem is that these "games" are indeed free to "play".

They are not free to progress, compete, advance in, or complete though.

 

[Shigawire]

Oh my Higgs-Boson.. this is quite the heresy. This is like the Mongol Horde just came by and started gang Mr Molyneux. Dungeon Keeper is one of the few games I still care to own the original game box for.

EA is the worst, Activision is a close second. But I see a lot of problems in general with big moneyed publishers taking the magic out of gaming, in order to cater to the findings of a power point presentation made by a bunch of marketing-imps.

Of the big ones, Ubisoft have "held it together" longest, and allowed the most growth and autonomy from its developers. Taking for example Silent Hunter series, developed by Ubisoft Romania.

 

[Squicker]

A good micro-transaction model is an oxymoron.

 

[natte hond]

ok this just hit me tell me what you think.

Elite Dangerous totally free to play. no purchase necessary.
options are.
1: buy the game and expansion for RRP, no in game micro transactions.

Or

2: download the game for free. get 100 credits and a starter ship. with 3 free ship changes.
Ammo can be bought through in game currency but if you are getting through your ammo a little to quickly you can purchase x amount of missiles and bullets for £x.99.

want a new ship then that's another £3,99.
want that fancy cosmetic then that another.99p

this would cater for the casual gamer and keep the hardcore happy.

Pay to win wouldn't work.

I like your concept.
only totally free of charge has one problem.
as nasty players would have different ships on different email accounts.
unless the imac is recorded off cause.
still a starter amount would keep player from crashing into you just because they don,t care.

 

[Frank]

But one of these days someone will start a lawsuit against "free to play" games that aren't free, because you can't actually play the game unless you pay. The OP is a good example.

I agree. However, the problem is that these "games" are indeed free to "play".

They are not free to progress, compete, advance in, or complete though.

It kinda reminds me about when BT was found spying on their customers' internet. It was a few years ago and so I can't quite remember their wording so I'll have to paraphrase, "Yes we know what we were doing was completely evil and highly suspect, but we had a crack team of lawyers working around the clock to come up with a way to do it that was just about legal."

 

[Maxeren]

This is all about profit. If EA is making a profit by utilizing these tactics, you can bet other companies and even Frontier will take a look. As passionate fans and gamers, we sometimes forget that everything here and everything about Elite and our very own presence, ultimately is leading towards one true goal: Profit for FDEV.

We can only hope for a balanced perspective between profit and art.

One thing is making a profit.. another is forcing someone in a game to buy something in order to continue... or at least making it so stupidly annoying that someone finally pays in order to continue.. that just doesn't sit right in my book. Games are about enjoyment, not emptying your wallet...

 

[Skyblade]

I just finished watching a YouTube video regarding a "Free to Play" mobile game called Dungeon Keeper. Sounds good right? But no, this isn't a port of the original game that many of us loved playing all those years ago. No, this is a re-imagining by those people at EA. I would like to describe them otherwise but I don't want to upset the mods! Below is a link to the video:

WARNING: This video contains some very strong language. NSFW etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpdoBwezFVA

I know some of you may not like this bloke but bear with him because he has a very important message for players here, and I hope that Frontier also take this message to heart and see this as an example of how MT should not be done.

There have been many heated discussions over how they should or should not be done with the general consensus being that as long as the MT are cosmetic there are no objections: ship decals and the like.

Here however we have proof positive of what many of us have said before and which others have denied and this is that MT can and will fundamentally affect the design of the game in such a way as to almost force players into buying MT to play the game at an acceptable pace. In this video it is explained that to break one single block it will take 24h real-time to do so!! As he points out, this isn't slowing down gameplay, it is outright stopping it.

I am trying to see how Frontier could possibly design things in such a way, having a mechanism that could slow down progression enough to warrant something like this and fortunately I can't think of one and I hope they never do either.

Give me decals, not a handbrake!

EDIT: Added a disclaimer for swearing in the video, just in case.

Ahahaha couldn't stop laughing... first because I did see it is EA SWITZERLAND who made the game, so NO DOUBT it's SO expensive... living here myself I can tell you, no way they would do anything low price anyway

It was really funny, I even went to check the other vids... I found the advices and everything pretty good...

That's why it was a VERY GOOD choice of yours to speak about those micro-transaction games!

You could also check out what is happenning to MechWarrior Online... It's just getting worst for them, proposing SKINS for 500$
First they went out of beta with no warning... When the game was totaly still unbalanced nor finished...
While their community (me included) is slowly leaving them because they just did not made ANY improvments to the game nor fixed ANY bugs in a WHOLE YEAR... They only added 300 objects your can buy with a micro-transaction...

MWO will then be dead as another Sci-Fi MMO game I was in love with... Tabula Rasa (rip)

 

[Slawkenbergius]

Oh my Higgs-Boson.. this is quite the heresy. This is like the Mongol Horde just came by and started gang Mr Molyneux. Dungeon Keeper is one of the few games I still care to own the original game box for.

This game isn't far from what Mr Molyneux was trying to do with Godus. Last time I played the beta, there were buildings that took 6hrs to construct, and shrines that took about that long to activiate.

 

[Shigawire]

This game isn't far from what Mr Molyneux was trying to do with Godus. Last time I played the beta, there were buildings that took 6hrs to construct, and shrines that took about that long to activiate.

I haven't played Godus, or anything else by Molyneux recently. Mr. Molyneux has lost his marbles since the beginning of the 21st century, when he started making B&W, Fable.. And among other things, he also claimed that Prince of Persia Sands of Time was the best game of the year for him (2004 I think).

But in the 90s he was a brilliant pioneer.

 

[Asp Explorer]

B&W, Fable..

Both Black & White and Fable were great games!

The only problem with them was they were hyped beyond belief - stoked up expectations and then failed to deliver on them.

If they had just kept the hype to a minimum and not exaggerated to such a ridiculous degree, then I think the reception to these games would have been more kind.

I still fire up Fable now and then, keeps the old xbox alive

 

[Squicker]

I haven't played Godus, or anything else by Molyneux recently. Mr. Molyneux has lost his marbles since the beginning of the 21st century, when he started making B&W, Fable.. And among other things, he also claimed that Prince of Persia Sands of Time was the best game of the year for him (2004 I think).

But in the 90s he was a brilliant pioneer.

B&W, Fable 1 and 2 were superb.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

I enjoyed B&W. It's one of those games that's really stuck in my memory, especially the sailor song.

 

[Oss133]

I am not sure I see what the problem is. Or, if I do, it is because the problem has ever been thus.

Companies need to make money and are always on the lookout for new ways to do so. Sensible people have always tried to be aware of the ever changing tactics employed to relieve them of their cash.

Micro Transaction are just the latest BOGOF scheme to be dangled in front of us.

I didn't put coins in arcade slots 30 years ago because I thought it was a waste of my money. I don't play subscription based games now for the same reason.

It is your money to spend how you wish, not how someone else asks you to. But don't expect them not to ask. That is their job.