"Kyno;c-2160711" wrote:
"Jakdnels;c-2160709" wrote:
"Kyno;c-2160706" wrote:
"Jakdnels;c-2160701" wrote:
"Kyno;c-2160688" wrote:
"Ryzak620;c-2160681" wrote:
"Kyno;c-2160643" wrote:
I'm not saying change shouldnt happen, but what caliber of games could you play for free back in the day, without pirating it?
Until the last 20 years, games were simply buy and play, and that's it. You paid $50.00 one time and had access to all of the content. And, the games back then were complete and, in general, less buggy.
Then the MMO came. You spent $50.00 to purchase the game, and then anywhere from $10-15 as a monthly fee. Other MMO's had a free subscription and you could get 95% of the content for nothing.
Now, we are at freemium games. Sure, you can play for free, but every company knows that there are a lot of 1) really competitive gamers that have to be the best at what they do, and/or 2) people that are OCD about collecting everything and not willing to wait for the trickle down. These companies bank on this and that's how they make their money. It's ingenious, bordering on exploitation. But it works. It worked on me on this game for 2-1/2 years, and now it works on me in another game. Fortunately, I can afford to pay to play. But there are many out there that can't and they can't control their spending either. That's not the fault of the makers of the games, but just like people addicted to MMO's back in the early 2000's, the next generation is going into massive debt due to the reasons stated above.
And while I've been out of this game for almost 2 years now, I have some friends that still play. They can't not play because of the time and money invested. That's why it took me 6 months to actually quit. I was really done with the game when the Revans came out. I knew then that any semblance of creating balance in this game was done, and was never going to improve. The company would just keep releasing ridiculously overpowered toons to counter the one released prior to it. The game I'm playing now is better, but the power creep is starting to set in, and I hope I will be able to stop playing when I realize the game has "jumped the shark."
There's no such thing as a free lunch. There's also no such thing as a free game. Every F2P person I know has at least spent $$ on something at least once, even if they consider themselves F2P.
Then that's no f2p, and yes people do play this game absolutely 100% free.
So other than a slight reference to "other MMOs" you didnt event answer my question (or you kind of did), what caliber of games could you play for free before that you didnt pirate???
The answer is shocking, but here it goes, not so great ones. Sure they existed but they didnt have great graphics, or even a solid storyline, definitely no real IP attached to them. You have always had to pay to get a decent game.
Can I ask, do you feel the same way about other luxuries as you do about companies that use the freemium model? They offer things at a much higher price than they need to be, because people are willing to pay to have it, even when it's not any better or more functional than a counterpart. Those are also at fault for people going into debt they cant handle.
I agree regulations should be used to protect people from the bad choices they will make, but that just pushes them to make bad choices elsewhere, it doesnt actually solve the problem.
So you're saying if CG doesn't take advantage of their weakness someone else probably will?
Nope, I'm saying that people that make bad choices tend to make bad choices........ that goes for strong and weak people all over the world from all backgrounds of life. Trying to make a "aaww this poor person" argument as the general statement does work either, believe it or not, there are people who spend a lot of money on games and other things because they have the disposable income and it is no way a detriment to their life. Not knowing someone's lifestyle and not understanding that, doesnt not equate to them " taking advantage of a weakness"
I'm not talking about those people. I'm talking about the one's you say continually make bad choices and need regulations to protect them.
And as I said, most likely people that make bad choices, will continue to do so. Regulations dont fix that, as I said.
Regulations certainly will help. Every single thing in these games that relies on RNG should be published and known to the player and these games should be subject to intense audit. That won't stop them from trying to skirt rules and "fool" the system but it will at least make it more of a pain.
There are seminars that I would wager every single major developer has attended that are centered around exploiting addiction in mobile gaming. It's irresponsible, unethical and some would consider it far worse than that. Once the sights are set it will likely become problematic for many companies.
