122 points

I an so sick of the “just don’t buy it” response to people complaining about increasingly shitty practices. It’s like if someone pisses in the far side of the pool and other people decide they like the warmth so they tell you just to stay over on the far side - The pool is still tainted, and maybe next time the pool cleaners decide not to use chlorine…

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40 points

It’s not that you can’t complain, but moreso that people are tired of reading about people getting ripped of over and over again.
It’s getting old when the solution is so glaringly obvious.

Alternatively focus your grievances towards the company. That has a better chance of making an impact in reducing the tainted waters.

So in short: you have a right to complain, but we have a right to tell you that you are a part of the problem if you pre-order or support companies continually doing this crap.

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14 points

All this while there are plenty of other companies worth supporting. Sure it isn’t your favorite franchise, but we aren’t surprised leopards ate your face, again. I gave up on all those games from these companies and have found a lot of enjoyment elsewhere. Sucks but I refuse to give them money that makes this a viable model for them to fuckup over and over.

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7 points

Seriously start taking risks on “indie” developers. I know a lot of them aren’t really indie - they’re huge companies with dozens of employees in a lot of cases still, but you’ll find they treat you better. Sure - that $20 game might not be quite as good, but in other cases, I’ve seen them be EVEN BETTER than $70 titles.

Unfortunately it is pretty obvious that the majority of the human population are just going to follow what they’re told to buy via TV and Ads. There aren’t enough of us to turn the tide right away, but hey – stick to your guns, and tell others to as well. It’ll take a bit for players to get well and truly fed up with this shit, but the tide will turn eventually.

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12 points

Alternatively focus your grievances towards the company.

But why would the company care? They’re marketing directly to a certain kind of person here. Anyone that would pay these prices - and plenty must pay because Blizzard hasn’t blinked ONCE during any of this bullshit - has so much money that they wouldn’t care if the colors were three times that.

Blizzard acts like their bread and butter is the upper-middle-class and it must be true because they don’t change at all as near as I’ve been able to tell. Not only do their sales not take a hit, they just keep growing.

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2 points

Oh I agree with you wholeheartedly friend!
They don’t care because people keep buying their shit anyways, which is why many of us tell you to stop buying it and then we’ve gone full circle again.

I’m not recommending complaining to them because I think they will care. I do it because I it could have a greater impact than complaining here which has exactly zero impact.

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6 points
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I don’t understand how that comparison fits because somebody else buying the portal has literally no impact on my game. Someone pissing in the pool is directly
impacting you with their actions.

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15 points

I think the analogy is that it sets a precedent. Now the other companies see how you can pee in the pool and folks are either cool with it (buy) or are on the other end (not buy but meh). Now the pool standard is piss filled pool and we will never have a chance to get into a clean pool anymore.

If you want to take a swim you have to do it in a pissed soaked pool because we never complained or did anything about it.

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1 point

But that’s assuming there’s only one pool. If everyone leaves for a pool without piss in it, the first will probably change their policies to not allow peeing in their pools because it drives away customers.

The problem isn’t that there’s only one pool, the problem is that not enough people seem to care enough to try a different one. Instead, they just complain about the pool they’re at, perhaps because the pool is free or it gets a lot of advertising.

So yeah, feel free to complain about it, but your time is probably better spent just going to a different pool.

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0 points
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Do you honestly believe that complaining on Lemmy counts as “doing something about it”?

I only know about this thing because of this post. I’m not going to buy it, but do you see that what you’re doing is getting the word out and doing blizzards advertising for them?

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6 points

It only affects you if they tell you. Otherwise it’s hidden to you, too, so the comparison is apt.

Similarly, the company focuses on these mocrottansaction features, which does affect where they spend time developing and also how they design and develop the game.

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-1 points

No because regardless of my knowledge of it or lack thereof I am still swimming in urine, which is a health risk and just gross as hell. This is a bad analogy.

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5 points

Use a different pool where people aren’t pissing in them. They exist.

There are plenty of other games that don’t pull this shit. Play them instead.

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19 points

First they did it at EA, but I didn’t say anything because I don’t play EA games. Then they did it at Ubisoft, but I didn’t say anything because I don’t play Ubisoft games. Then they did it at Blizzard, but I didn’t say anything because I don’t play Blizzard games. Then they did it at fromsoft games, but I didn’t say anything because I don’t play fromsoft games. Then they did it at supergiant games, but I didn’t say anything because I don’t play their games.

Then they did it at every other fucking company because it was industry standard.

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-4 points

Then they did it at every other fucking company because it was industry standard.

All you’ve listed are the big publishers. Of course THEY are going to do it. They are publicly traded company’s where they need to draw blood from a stone and pull out as much value as possible to appease their shareholders.

You’re absolutely wrong about every company doing this. It sounds like your only experience is AAA titles.

Play some indie games and you’ll see the difference. Significantly better designed games, built from passion, and without all the bullshit you see with AAA games.

Like I said find a better pool where people aren’t pissing in them. They exist.

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4 points

In fairness to the complaints, there are fewer and fewer good clean pools, and they tend to be the less-and-less awesome ones.

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-1 points

How so? I’ve had no issues finding games to play that don’t suck

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1 point

I know this is a metaphor, but where exactly do they exist? If you’re in a public pool, it’s not like you can go to another town and use theirs. And if it’s your own, chances are you only have one.

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0 points

Public pools aren’t the only pools. There are literally millions of pools in the world. You have options even when you think you don’t. If you limit yourself to the one and only public pool in town then you’re limiting yourself by only thinking in a box.

There are hundreds of thousands of games in the world. Many of them aren’t AAA garbage fleecing their customers. If you limit yourself to only AAA games then you’re limiting yourself by thinking in a box.

Go on and explore the world already. You have more choices than you think you do.

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-3 points
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Deleted by creator
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102 points
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People who decide to throw money at games with such shitty practices are part of the problem.

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32 points

I’d say they are victims of predatory practices.

Like drug addicts. You can’t expect drug addicts to take all the blame. Sooner or later you have to realize that the supplier enabling the addiction is part of the problem.

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-5 points
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I’d say they are victims of predatory practices.

That is a very good point regarding children and mentally challenged people. It does not excuse responsible adults though.

Like drug addicts. You can’t expect drug addicts to take all the blame. Sooner or later you have to realize that the supplier enabling the addiction is part of the problem.

That is not the most fitting comparison in my opinion. I think the solution for the drug problem is legalization of all drugs, free access to rehabilitation combined with thorough education and abuse prevention.

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6 points

I think the point they’re making is that these things (drugs and games) are being designed to be addicting. Game companies literally hire physcologist to design systems that play into addictive personalities. It’s unfair to put all the blame on the person given how these companies act.

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1 point

To some people, $30 is chump change and they’ll gladly part with it for some glitter. The whole microtransaction business relies on those people as “whales” and you can’t really ask people to “stop paying so much” if they don’t even mind the amount they’re paying

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10 points

FOMO is strong in them.

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9 points

Yes, they are. The problem is that they are millions.

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2 points
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Yup. I loved Diablo and I’ve played it since the first one came out. I never bought the last release, though. Fuck Blizzard.

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1 point
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Yes, Diablo 2 was the last good Diablo game. Hate blizzard, love PoE!

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1 point

I’m trying to stay away from MMOs, which is were all these practices were really born.

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-33 points

No, I love them. They pay so I don’t have to.

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43 points

That may be true if you’re into some F2P/gacha stuff, but not in a full-price game. These people just encourage more enshitification. Diablo used to have no microtransactions and was arguably a lot better too.

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-23 points

How does this ruin the game?

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8 points

Lol you think you get a discount because of this.

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-3 points

I know I am because I played 3 super cell games, each for years, and never paid a dime.

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6 points
*

They’re the reason these shitty practices are profitable in the first place. Don´t forget we are talking about Diablo IV here, which is a full priced game. Off topic you might have a point concerning F2P games though. However, even the F2P games that are not P2W are usually at least to a certain part “pay for functionality/content/convenience” and not just purely “pay for cosmetics”. Because of this I think it´s generally better to pay once and get a full game for that.

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77 points

That’s an excellent analogy, to say “you can buy palworld for that” which really makes it hit different for me.

It shows you how absurd it is, even with it being optional. It’s still absurd.

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35 points

Better yet. For the price of 2 portal recolors, you can get 1 Baldur’s Gate 3.

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20 points

The cosmetic skin prices in D4 are absolutely laughable, and the fact that they can only be used with ONE class make it even more bonkers.

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-14 points

Most people could buy palworld if they just cooked their own food instead of ordering.

Pretty silly to start saying this with Diablo really, when we can do the same with so many other products and services as well, Ofc it’s really silly to charge 30 for a digital paintjob. But im not gonna police what other people do with their own money.

They worked for it. They spend it.

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0 points

Someone could give me a billion for a Booger. Would be their right but would make them an idiot aswell.

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73 points

Right now. Somewhere on Earth. Someone. Is currently purchasing Diablo 4.

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25 points

P.T Barnums every second a sucker is born quote comes to mind.

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11 points

And they have to live with the shame.

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5 points

and Palworld

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2 points

cept palworld is actually good and worth its price

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4 points

And will happily drop more cash on microtransactions.

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1 point
*

It’s on sale!

It’s probably worth 40 bucks

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27 points

Blizzard literally became so shitty I can’t waited for Microsoft to take over and clean house.

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18 points

MS haven’t bought them to clean them up.

They bought them because they’re already the level of shitty they’re aiming for.

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12 points

“Clean house” feels optimistic. Standard procedure for a buy out:

  • Executives are retained or let go with generous packages
  • Middle management is summarily executed
  • Someone sorts a spreadsheet of developers by salary and lays off the highest paid (and sometimes best, though no telling when we’re talking about these two garbage fires)
  • Remaining developers are shuffled. Some are asked to move to teams that are doing wildly different things than what they were doing before. Some teams are filled with lower cost “resources” from other countries.
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4 points
*

Nice description of enshittification from behind the scenes.

This is why corporations shouldn’t be able to buy each other! Try that shit out as a model you fucking whores.

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4 points

They already are in control. Kotick is gone. But yet, shit like this still continues

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