RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS - 'NON-FAKE-NEWS EDITION'

[Malcador]

Funny how we'll end up going back to terminals and mainframes eventually.

[Katphood]

Oh yes! Let me see them bad reviews roll in: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-11-13-star-wars-battlefront-2-review

 

Thank you, Eurogamer!

[injurai]

I'd be very pleased if Disney slaps EA around a bit for their transgressions.

 

But given Disney's treatment of theatre's I'm not surprised if they put EA up to all of this in the first place.

[Blarghagh]

Looks like EA is walking it back

 

All it took was nearly half a million more downvotes than up and a bunch of gaming sites reporting on it

And a bunch of death threats to devs, apparently.

[Gorgon]

I was thinking, we should come up with a scoring system for loot boxes and micro transactions. How about 'MBFL Score in percent' Microtransactions and Loot boxes ****ery Level, so people could avoid those titles. 

[Gorgon]

 

Looks like EA is walking it back

 

All it took was nearly half a million more downvotes than up and a bunch of gaming sites reporting on it

And a bunch of death threats to devs, apparently.

 

There is always going to be death threats when a thread has 40.000 replies or dislikes. Nature of the internet. 

[Gfted1]

This is why I can see people being mad. It’s the idea of components of free to play games slipping into $60 Games. Either you pay $60 for the game or yeah, spend 40 hours to unlock that character like you would in a free to play game. I think that’s the problem.

But in this game you can grind for it, right?

[Gorgon]

Yeah, but the whole experience is designed around getting people to spend. You want people to cave in and do just that, not sludge through the grind. That's going to hurt the game experience and still be worth it for a behemoth title like Battlefront. Same deal with Shadow of Mordor. 

 

Games are designed that way from the ground up including being able to buy a competitive advantage in multiplayer. 

[Gfted1]

So there is absolutely nothing in the game that additional money must be spent on to acquire, AND they offer an option to skip the grind if you want to pay to get the best characters/equipment, but they are rat bastards for offering this? Sounds reasonable to me.

 

To cut to the chase, is the general opinion that upon clicking the game's Start button, all characters and upgrades should be immediately unlocked and available? ~40H causes bowel evacuations, what is a reasonable amount of grinding to acquire one of the best characters, in you guys opinion?

[Gorgon]

I guess the point is that rewards should't be determined by the whatever the maximum number of times they can get paid along the way is.

[Gfted1]

But you can get the every single reward for free via grinding, right? So the contention is that its not instant?

 

I'm not having a go at anyone. I honestly feel that this position is so indefensible that I must be misunderstanding the point. Almost every game Ive ever played required me to to make my toons stronger or better equipped so I guess I just have to accept that I don't get it.

[Gorgon]

Well my problem isn't specific, I don't even play the game and have no intention of it and I'm still mad. I don't like getting screwed, and this general development is all about teaching players to accept getting screwed, softly at first to cause minimum outcry and then with ever rising intensity. 

[IndiraLightfoot]

A new Torment game from Beamdog may be in the works, Torment: Unraveled:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-11-14-beamdog-new-planescape-torment-unravel

[Melusina]

Who else hopes this Torment and BG1.5 games are fake as chinese webshops?

[SonicMage117]

Lego Marvel Super 2 Heroes released today and yes,vit is awesome! :D

Edited November 14, 2017 by SonicMage117

[Blodhemn]

Forty hours isn't even a grind in that type game, unless Battlefront(haven't played) is that much different to Battlefield. Unlocking better equipment in Battlefield was part of the fun. The loot box thing is getting beyond defensible at this point though. Makes me feel kind of lame for buying any semi recent DICE/EA product. BF4 was the last, and there won't be a next.

[injurai]

Who else hopes this Torment and BG1.5 games are fake as chinese webshops?

 

I'm less thrilled about all this expanded BG stuff. Torment is a spiritual successor. I have no interest in Tton, but It's not like I wish it's fan didn't get a follow up.

[the_dog_days]

A new Torment game from Beamdog may be in the works, Torment: Unraveled:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-11-14-beamdog-new-planescape-torment-unravel

If it turns out to be good, then great. Otherwise, I'm invested.

[Keyrock]

The issue is that when you introduce pay to win elements, especially in a multiplayer competitive game, you have to wonder if the game is designed around pushing the player toward making purchases, which you damn well know it is. Heck, large corporations have entire departments dedicated toward figuring out just how far they can push their customers to get the maximum amount out of them. This is exacerbated by the addictiveness of gambling, and make no mistake, loot boxes are gambling. Sure, it's not really egregious yet, emphasis on yet, they will ramp this up slpwly. You only have to look as far as f2p mobile games to see where the road leads to. This is why we need to push back now and hard.

[ShadySands]

A new Torment game from Beamdog may be in the works, Torment: Unraveled:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-11-14-beamdog-new-planescape-torment-unravel

How did Tides of Nurmanurma end up doing?

 

I finished it but I thought it had a lot of near misses at doing something awesome and ended up kinda blah.

[Gfted1]

But you dont have to pay to win. You have to pay if you want to win RIGHT NOW! Every single thing is accessible via grinding.

[Oner]

Oucast - Second Contact (aka graphical upgrade) has been released today. Yay!

Edited November 14, 2017 by Oner

[213374U]

But you can get the every single reward for free via grinding, right? So the contention is that its not instant?

 

I'm not having a go at anyone. I honestly feel that this position is so indefensible that I must be misunderstanding the point. Almost every game Ive ever played required me to <do stuff> to make my toons stronger or better equipped so I guess I just have to accept that I don't get it.

 

The contention is that the "grind" is made to be soul crushingly long and boring on purpose to entice you to pay. The "grind" here is absurd even compared to traditional MMO grind.

 

How many non-Korean MMOs have you played lately? How many EA games with "progression" systems? Because people who are strangers to neither are rising concerns exactly about this. The progression is designed with microtransactions in mind -- it's not something that was added afterwards as a gracious gift to level the playing field for those poor folks with more money than sense time to play.

 

The issue is that, if there were no microtransactions, the current progression rate would be completely unreasonable, and would be a major factor driving people off. I'm not making this up, I've seen it happen. Of course, nobody has given a satisfactory explanation about why these games need "progression" systems to begin with, when their predecessors were both critical and commercial successes without them. That is, beyond the recurrent consumer spending model.

 

Report to be filed under "Whiny Entitled Manchildren LOL"

Edited November 14, 2017 by 213374U

[Gfted1]

I suppose one persons "soul crushingly long and boring" and "completely unreasonable" grinding is another persons ~40H of gameplay. I would have punched a baby fur seal in the face to have "only" 40 hours work to get the best gear in WoW.

[213374U]

I suppose one persons "soul crushingly long and boring" and "completely unreasonable" grinding is another persons ~40H of gameplay. I would have punched a baby fur seal in the face to have "only" 40 hours work to get the best gear in WoW.

 

Yeah, you falling back to "well I'm sure someone must like it" was completely predictable, which is why I pre-emptively addressed it by comparing it to MMO grind. Again, have you played any of EA's $60 titles laden with microtransactions lately? Because if you haven't, you simply don't know what you're talking about. Not that that's ever stopped you before!