In Diablo IV there are constant “sales” for visuals… Some of these packs are €50+ on discount. And there’s dozens if not hundreds of them. It’s madness, and I can’t imagine spending that much on purely cosmetic stuff. Of course, I’m almost entirely paying solo, but still
We buy what we want. We may kvetch about it, but we are willing to pay for that robbery… (not me, but so many do)
RblDiver
3 days ago
Or try SwordPass(tm), just $15/month!
Soeroah
3 days ago
There was one shareholder who suggested to Nintendo that they make a microtransaction that would let Mario jump higher, as if that wouldn’t entirely break the level design
That is exactly what is wrong with most shareholders. They are separated from reality by a degree or two, and often make insane suggestions that chase after profits without consideration for what made the products work well in the first place. Then, enshittification ensues. We pay more, while getting less. It starts with the pointless stuff we were already OK with not having.
It’s what ultimately made me largely abandon gaming. Nowadays I almost exclusively play retro, and I’m happy. No more FOMO. No more invasive DRM schemes. Not to mention how I don’t have to chase new hardware or stick with Windows.
I’ve basically did the same. I have a massive backlog of titles to play from previous years + cult classics, even from DOS era. And I won’t mind buying an indie game from time to time, because that’s where the fun’s at.
I’m to the point that I can go back to playing games from the 1990s and 2006s and I’d be happy. They keep throwing more visual things (that actually make some games useless for many folk) and they want to make money for every breathe you and your character have.
The real answer: Get a small studio (10 at the largest). Build a good game. Then do another, instead of trying to run 15 updates and seasons and all that.
And let me put my one server without needing a platform.
Most shareholders don’t even know what the customers of that company even want really. Some might know a bit but generally are more focused on milking the customers for all of their money instead of keeping them happy and attracting new customers.
M37h3w3
3 days ago
Letting the people with no knowledge or care about what they’re investing in but who have a desperate feverish compulsion to have it make ever more money every cycle also have some form of creative control has got to be one of the worst things to happen to gaming.
If someone charges too much then people won’t buy it. That’s the basis of capitalism. Remove all incentive to make anything great and you have communism.
Speaking as a historian, “communism” is responsible for _at least_ 100 *million* dead. _At least_. Gripe about capitalism, but at least you won’t starve because your leaders take & sell your food (Ukraine under Stalin), or have “pests” killed which kept vermin in check (Mao, FIFTY million starved).
NOBODY forces me to buy ANYTHING. “Communism”? It’s very easy to get into, swinishly hard to get out of… if at all, Dovarish (comrade).
J.D.
3 days ago
this is why i still play old games.
ouRKaos
3 days ago
You’ve collected three pieces of heart! Get a fourth and extend you life meter for only 200 Moblin Coins! Press {A} to enter the store!
For 300 more Moblin Coins, you may have the ‘invisible cloak’. It will never been seen by anyone. It cannot be stolen from you. You will always know you have it on. Press {A} to enter the store!
Greevar
3 days ago
What a strange game! It seems the only winning move is to not play.
To repair the broken Biggoron’s Sword will cost you 1,200 Shiny Rupees.
No, you can’t find Shiny Rupees by playing the game, you have to go to the microtransaction shop and buy them in packs of 500 Shiny Rupees for $10 each.
Yes, that will means you will have 300 Shiny Rupees left over, just for extra irritation. And nothing in the game costs just 300 Shiny Rupees, so to spend those you’ll need to buy even more first.
Not that Brian
3 days ago
Interesting choice of framing subject matter. It’s definitely a problem in our games that this exists, but given that the OOT remake has been demonstrated to almost certainly be not this, it makes it interesting to see this. Admittedly, 3 months ago when this comic was made the OOT remake was just internet rumors, so I get how it could have been used. In reality, this comic I think goes to show the issues with the current format of this site. I don’t have a problem with a slower release cycle for free viewers, but when the original comic is… Read more »
I’m not sure why Tim doesn’t just slot current events into the “next” slot in the schedule, bumping whatever the next story page was going to be to the next one down (that was a lot of “next”). I get that he’s reduced the free tier delivery cycle to encourage Patreon membership, but delaying game news-related comics seems weird. I don’t have time for gaming since the last few years, so I don’t really care that the news stuff is late, but from a logical standpoint it seems like the Ethan and Lucas story would slow down as it has,… Read more »
Bernie Margolis
3 days ago
This seems like every mobile game ever, aside from the fact that it’s presented as a one-time cost as opposed to a temporary buff that’s granted for a couple of weeks.
wakeangel2001
3 days ago
I don’t recall Nintendo ever doing something like this, but then that’s a good way to show just how fucked this practice actually is when it’s done by other companies but gets glazed over because they’re not Nintendo.
For Nintendo, it’s more likely to be that “Spirit of the Hero is only available by tapping the Spirit of the Hero amiibo, available for $39.99 in stores now! … Oops, too slow, it’s already sold out.”
Eldest Gruff
1 day ago
Manufactured outrage. Show me one person who literally, *truly* is upset that they can’t put a mask on that looks like N64 Link, rather than someone just upset about the principle. Not to mention, most phones can send out the same NFC signals that Amiibos have, and son you can get it for nothing at all. They make Amiibo, and if they let them unlock something cool people complain that they’re hating content, and if they let them do almost nothing but a tiny bonus people complain that they’re useless, and now they made it so it unlocks a tiny… Read more »
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The base game is $20, and a random skin $60. Sadly it is viable enough to work.
In Diablo IV there are constant “sales” for visuals… Some of these packs are €50+ on discount. And there’s dozens if not hundreds of them. It’s madness, and I can’t imagine spending that much on purely cosmetic stuff. Of course, I’m almost entirely paying solo, but still
most of the armor packs in Diablo IV are ugly af though so at least I’m not even tempted over there lol.
We buy what we want. We may kvetch about it, but we are willing to pay for that robbery… (not me, but so many do)
Or try SwordPass(tm), just $15/month!
There was one shareholder who suggested to Nintendo that they make a microtransaction that would let Mario jump higher, as if that wouldn’t entirely break the level design
I’m surprised they didn’t actually go for it.
That is exactly what is wrong with most shareholders. They are separated from reality by a degree or two, and often make insane suggestions that chase after profits without consideration for what made the products work well in the first place. Then, enshittification ensues. We pay more, while getting less. It starts with the pointless stuff we were already OK with not having.
It’s what ultimately made me largely abandon gaming. Nowadays I almost exclusively play retro, and I’m happy. No more FOMO. No more invasive DRM schemes. Not to mention how I don’t have to chase new hardware or stick with Windows.
I’ve basically did the same. I have a massive backlog of titles to play from previous years + cult classics, even from DOS era. And I won’t mind buying an indie game from time to time, because that’s where the fun’s at.
I’m to the point that I can go back to playing games from the 1990s and 2006s and I’d be happy. They keep throwing more visual things (that actually make some games useless for many folk) and they want to make money for every breathe you and your character have.
The real answer: Get a small studio (10 at the largest). Build a good game. Then do another, instead of trying to run 15 updates and seasons and all that.
And let me put my one server without needing a platform.
Those were the days…
Most shareholders don’t even know what the customers of that company even want really. Some might know a bit but generally are more focused on milking the customers for all of their money instead of keeping them happy and attracting new customers.
Letting the people with no knowledge or care about what they’re investing in but who have a desperate feverish compulsion to have it make ever more money every cycle also have some form of creative control has got to be one of the worst things to happen to gaming.
And people don’t realize that a feverish compulsion to make an increasingly larger profit is the very basis of capitalism.
That’s why they don’t want people learning about communism. They don’t want people to realize how awful capitalism is.
If someone charges too much then people won’t buy it. That’s the basis of capitalism. Remove all incentive to make anything great and you have communism.
Speaking as a historian, “communism” is responsible for _at least_ 100 *million* dead. _At least_. Gripe about capitalism, but at least you won’t starve because your leaders take & sell your food (Ukraine under Stalin), or have “pests” killed which kept vermin in check (Mao, FIFTY million starved).
NOBODY forces me to buy ANYTHING. “Communism”? It’s very easy to get into, swinishly hard to get out of… if at all, Dovarish (comrade).
this is why i still play old games.
You’ve collected three pieces of heart! Get a fourth and extend you life meter for only 200 Moblin Coins! Press {A} to enter the store!
For 300 more Moblin Coins, you may have the ‘invisible cloak’. It will never been seen by anyone. It cannot be stolen from you. You will always know you have it on. Press {A} to enter the store!
What a strange game! It seems the only winning move is to not play.
Hah, nice Wargames quote.
Hah! Joke’s on you Navi! All I need is the Big Goron Sword! I don’t need no “master sword” sounds like something the nazis made!
To repair the broken Biggoron’s Sword will cost you 1,200 Shiny Rupees.
No, you can’t find Shiny Rupees by playing the game, you have to go to the microtransaction shop and buy them in packs of 500 Shiny Rupees for $10 each.
Yes, that will means you will have 300 Shiny Rupees left over, just for extra irritation. And nothing in the game costs just 300 Shiny Rupees, so to spend those you’ll need to buy even more first.
Interesting choice of framing subject matter. It’s definitely a problem in our games that this exists, but given that the OOT remake has been demonstrated to almost certainly be not this, it makes it interesting to see this. Admittedly, 3 months ago when this comic was made the OOT remake was just internet rumors, so I get how it could have been used. In reality, this comic I think goes to show the issues with the current format of this site. I don’t have a problem with a slower release cycle for free viewers, but when the original comic is… Read more »
I’m not sure why Tim doesn’t just slot current events into the “next” slot in the schedule, bumping whatever the next story page was going to be to the next one down (that was a lot of “next”). I get that he’s reduced the free tier delivery cycle to encourage Patreon membership, but delaying game news-related comics seems weird. I don’t have time for gaming since the last few years, so I don’t really care that the news stuff is late, but from a logical standpoint it seems like the Ethan and Lucas story would slow down as it has,… Read more »
This seems like every mobile game ever, aside from the fact that it’s presented as a one-time cost as opposed to a temporary buff that’s granted for a couple of weeks.
I don’t recall Nintendo ever doing something like this, but then that’s a good way to show just how fucked this practice actually is when it’s done by other companies but gets glazed over because they’re not Nintendo.
For Nintendo, it’s more likely to be that “Spirit of the Hero is only available by tapping the Spirit of the Hero amiibo, available for $39.99 in stores now! … Oops, too slow, it’s already sold out.”
Manufactured outrage. Show me one person who literally, *truly* is upset that they can’t put a mask on that looks like N64 Link, rather than someone just upset about the principle. Not to mention, most phones can send out the same NFC signals that Amiibos have, and son you can get it for nothing at all. They make Amiibo, and if they let them unlock something cool people complain that they’re hating content, and if they let them do almost nothing but a tiny bonus people complain that they’re useless, and now they made it so it unlocks a tiny… Read more »
wow after 24 years they’ve still got it