this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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... it's a subscription service! They already get a shitload of money, every single month. Don't bemoan their server costs. That's what you're already paying for!
I didnt say server costs, I said server burden. Long queue times on launch day, server crashes, very unevenly distributed server load when everyone is in the same area at the start. I remember FF14's latest expansion was so bad, they completely halted sales of it. Forget too expensive, there was no price, you could not buy it if you were late.
You dont have to pay $90, because you dont have to buy this early access. you dont have to buy the regular access. You are not entitled to this game as a human right, the developers didnt have to make this game, and they dont have to let you play it for whatever price you want. They get to decide the price.
Hair-splitting. They have your money already. Services breaking down is not a problem solved by charging more - as you point out, for FF14. Charging more than the price of an entire new game, for three fucking days of opt-in beta testing, is completely absurd.
Any form of taking your money for bullshit is reducing how much you can spend on things that matter. This ultracapitalist zeal for equating price and value only makes a lick of sense if it's rational people making informed decisions - and there's a thousand other ways we identify and forbid irrational uses of money.
Outright confidence scams have seen victims come back with more money, thinking it'll work out this time. Revenue alone absolves nothing.
Yeah, charging more is a very common way to alleviate service congestion, like amusement parks. They have the same sort of early access for more money deals. or very popular dine in restaurants, concerts, anything where capacity is a concern really.
They are not taking anything, they do not have access to your wallet or your bank account. You can choose to give them your money. No one is making you, you have all of your money to spend on things that matter. If this doesnt matter to you? Dont have to spend a cent on it. Make your own MMO and charge less for it.
First paragraph: 'it happens a bunch' never makes direct monetary exploitation better.
Second paragraph: strawman based on stupid word game. Less than hair-splitting. A lie about what I fucking obviously mean, by comparing this abuse to a scam, not theft.
this is no strawman, I quoted you, you're claiming they're taking your money. Because otherwise what point do you even have? Nothing is happening because they dont have your money if you're not giving it to them of your own free will for a service you very much do not need or have any innate entitlement to. It's only a problem for you because you want that service, you think you are entitled to it for a cheaper price.
Please, take up game programming. 3D modeling, rigging, animating, shading, level designing, server coding, writing, music composing, voice acting, localizing, play testing, bug fixing. On the scale of World of Warcraft. You can sell it for whatever price you want after you've paid the hundreds of people you had to get help because you didnt know how to. You have no appreciation for what you think you're entitled to.
A vending machine takes money. Taking doesn't just mean stealing. That's why I didn't say stealing your money. You are fixated on one word to ignore the actual god-damn argument.
Or do you get the impression I choose words for softer impact?
I don't play WoW. I have never played WoW. I am never going to play WoW. I happen to care about people who aren't me. And all the devs you namedrop as if I'm wildly ignorant of underlying complexity would be massively better-off, if the industry that already abused the shit out of them wasn't careening toward bottomless greed. If they could just make a thing, and sell it, without being laden with expectations by coked-out executives who expect everything to be an eternal subscription and an overpriced retail sale and a microtransaction Skinner box.
How things make money... matters. Some ways are a scam. And when scams are allowed to proliferate, they starve everything more sensible, by making a shitload more money. But being, y'know, inherently dishonest, morally intolerable, widely detested, et very cetera, the revenue is completely detached from value, and largely detached from quality. Video games as a medium are becoming a mere base for these parasitic business schemes. That happens to be really fucking bad for everyone involved - but most immediately, for anyone who wants to purchase and enjoy a major entertainment product, without being subjected to psychological manipulation to give give give unbounded quantities of their actual real-world money, before they've even played the game.
they can, there is nothing stopping anyone from doing that. But here's what happens. They've got freedom too. This 3D modeler has spent a tremendous amount of time and focus to be as good as he is. And he gets the final say on what he is worth, and what he will accept to work for. A game studio is looking to hire a new 3D modeler. And they have a long history of successful games, games that they have sold for an up front cost and continuing subscription cost. They have more money to offer him than other studios, and he accepts their offer. They are paying industry leading amounts to secure industry leading talent. And they get the final say what they're willing to sell their game for. And you get final say on what you spend your money on. Everyone involved has their freedom, no one is being forced to do anything against their will. The modeler didnt have to accept the job, the studio didnt have to offer that pay, you dont have to buy their game. A chain of events of freedom of choice has lead to the price that they are charging
Parroting 'nobody was forced' will never be a meaningful response to 'this is a scam.'
Every con involved choice. That's what makes them a con, instead of a mugging.
These scams are killing off every other business model.
I have no idea how you think this is a scam. What's the deception? Is it not actually $90? Do you not get 3 days early access? There's...not a whole lot of elements to get through here, one of those two would have to not be true.
Taking money for value invented out of thin air is a scam. All of this arbitrary exclusivity for absurd sums of money is that same process. This is the shallow end - but it is the same sty.
No theyre taking money for 3 days of early access. You dont think its worth that, but that is what people are paying for, Blizzard is being honest about what they are getting, and how much it costs. Scams are by definition deceptive, and there is nothing of the sort happening here.
It costs them nothing extra and makes them a shitload of money. It further normalizes some people paying entirely too much for a video game, and getting special treatment commensurate with the money they throw at it.
And it's still a subscription fucking MMO, with real-money "microtransactions" for arbitrary in-game bullshit, charging ninety god-damn dollars on top of all that.
Do you know what determines if something costs too much? People not buying it. Thats it. If people buy it? Then its worth that much.
I think youve got a misconception about me telling you you dont have to buy it. Im not prescribing it as a method to stop video game prices from going up if we all work together to not buy it. Im telling you, personally, dont have to buy it, you get to keep your money, and no harm has been done to you. And everyone that does buy it has the same option not to. But Blizzard has been up front, what they get for the money they are spending, and they have the freedom to choose to pay that money, the price is not too much for them.
Scams ruin everything.
This is harming the entire video game industry... by making maximum profit come from addiction and frustration. We are all worse-off, because this makes more money. "Caveat emptor" doesn't fucking work. That's part of what makes this a scam. Outright boycotts don't even work, because these greedy bastards can hook a bunch of severe addicts and siphon thousands from each of them. For hats. Or for a game that is, giant air quotes, "free."
There's a fucking battle pass... in a Silent Hill game. How blatant does this problem have to get, before you stop pretending it's just me, as an individual, having a snit? If we allow this to continue, there will be nothing else.
Untrue. Servers don't run on pixie dust and dreams. Employees don't pay rent with good vibes and well-wishes. Every second of operation costs money.
And the seconds on Tuesday cost more than the ones on Friday?
This is a stupid word game, to you. I am not playing anymore. Stop talking to me.