Off topic - but relevant none the less. Micro transactions and how it will effect you.

Below is a link that’s kinda killer to gaming in general.

I’ve been banging on about these since day dot. Gaming has been a hobby of mine for over 20 years, and I don’t want it to become the new poke machines of this generation. “I don’t buy them, they don’t effect me” has always been a relevant argument for most who do not care. Well, get ready to be effected.

I remember the Forza 5 backlash - I was a loud mouth about it back then, more for what I could see it become. I think we should be well switched on about how these really will end up impacting our beloved hobby if we keep rolling with the punches.

Other than that sour note, I hope you’re all loving your racing! I’ll be joining you lot soon as X1X hits :wink:

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Luckily, I don’t PvP.

I think of this more of an example than anything else. Progression changes, the grind of things, to me it’s what’s crept in to games over the last decade more than anything else. For instance, arcade mode in forza used to let you run the entire roster of cars - great for those with little time that want a racing game. I don’t know if forza 7 is back to that glory but I know that roster was locked out after forza 5. But tokens were introduced.

Leave it unchecked long enough and you’ll be playing a completely different game.

This is far more insidious.

They are deliberately matchmaking new players with players who have high end gear to encourage the new player to spend on microtrans.
They are deliberately gating content, then using social manipulation to get you to spend.

Whether that is direct dlc or loot boxes, or tokens for loot boxes.

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Micro transactions don’t bother me at all, i am not going to use, anyone is free to use as much as they want for me, won’t change my experience in any way.

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Oh but they will. You clearly didn’t read the article.

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Tokens were actually introduced in Forza 4, I believe. And the grind, generally speaking, isn’t anything new.

I wont be using tokens either
Refuse to
Not necessary
Once vip is back like it used to be credits will be raining from the sky again
Enjoying this game the way it is at the moment
Will only get better too

the excessive credits I get I will then use to buy the loot crates etc, will never use real money

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Let’s be honest. This has been a tactic used by T10 since they first introduced DLC in FM2. The car packs have always contained one OP leaderboard car so people have to buy the packs to say competitive.

FM2 - you want to be competitive in X class? Too bad, better get the DLC F50GT
FM3 - you want to be competitive in R3? Too bad, better get the DLC Mosler
FM6 - you want to be competitive in P class? Too bad, better get the pack with the Jag

and so on so forth

While reading this article, EA’s FIFA Ultimate Team came into mind right away. I’m a football nut and I was avid FUT player for years. I must admit, that the thing is pretty addictive and expensive. Game costs, depending of edition, 60€ to 90€, but you can end up paying hundreds of euros (if not thousands) because of microtransactions. I must admit (again) that, whoever came up with the idea of FUT, is an evil genius, because that concept and results that it brings to EA is very impressive (EA’s Ultimate Team now worth $800 million annually). The reason, why FUT came into my mind, was the fact, that the game might be rigged, because your team can act very differently from game to game. One moment your team that consists of very good players can play like a dream team, next game, while facing far inferior team, your team acts like a bunch of drunken imbeciles. The goal is keeping everybody somewhat satisfied but also pushing them to buy more player packs. Some believe that the game is being manipulated, some don’t believe it exists. It has been a taboo topic as long as FUT has been around and officially the game is as legit as it can be, but you get instant ban from the official forums even mentioning that so called handicap/scripting in some vague way. I have been playing video games since the mid 90s and I have never raged (and probably will never) as much as I did during the time I played FUT.

I don’t want to see these kind of practices in Forza and this is, why I’m against any sort of loot crates and mod cards. There was nothing wrong with the old system that previous Forza titles had.

There was a time, when you were rewarded with cool cheatcodes and skins after finishing the game. Today, if you are “lucky”, you can buy those cheats and skins as a DLC, but, if you are not, you have to buy crates or packs hoping to get that one particular thing you are after. Of course all that comes after you have purchased the game and all the bits and pieces that have been cut from it and forged into DLCs.

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Everything is being labelled a micro transaction just now but that’s incorrect.

Micro transactions are different to optional add-ons. A micro transaction is something you need to purchase in order to play or advance in the game. Without them you can’t access game features or earn additional lives or game progress is impossibly slow.

Other than DLC, the odd unicorn and rivals challenge prizes everything in all FMs has always been available to every player. Tokens in the past may have speeded up progression for some but that’s all. So long as content remains accessible to all the ability to circumvent game play using cash is largely academic.

Let’s not tar every game with the same brush.

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They’re still microtransactions because you’re still handing over cash in return for something in the game. Regardless of whether you need the item to play or advance the game or if the item is completely cosmetic, it is still a microtransaction.

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No, that makes them an optional purchase for something that isn’t in the game unless you buy it. It’s over and above the content of the original game.

Micro transactions are payments you make to keep playing or to progress through the base game.

Game add ons have been with us for around thirty years and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them. Micro transactions have only really appeared recently with phone and tablet apps. They’re two different things.

QFT!

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If what you’re paying for affects the game in ways such as more credits, or unlocking something that’s already in the game, it’s a microtransaction.

DLC is paying for content to be added to the game.

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This Activision patent was all over YouTube yesterday and I think it’s just a sad thing. This manipulation of player matchmaking is a pretty ugly apparition.

I worry more though, about future games being built around these micro transactions. Look at the player progression model of the new Star Wars Battlefront game where absolutely everything is tied to loot boxes. Now more and more these things are creeping there way into our single player games as well (Shadow of War). I really don’t want my single player experiences to be affected and turned into grind fests, while they hold these $ carrots in front of our faces to take the grind away.

I’ll buy dlc and expansions but I draw the line at randomly generated loot boxes. I would rather grind.

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I’m really not tarring every game with the same brush, not the point of my post at all, some have in-store purchases that I think are done really well. Destiny 2 for example is one that hits that mark for me as a good balance.

Moreso what these are doing to the gaming landscape in general, such as random roll rewards now in just about every title - purchasable or no - and what must happen to a game for a consumer to gladly part with cash on in-game purchases. Even if you’re a non-purchaser, you’re still playing these games which have to have some way of enticing a consumer in - how far do they go? Premium? Free to play? Freemium? It’s getting blurry.

That article is a pretty good example that I myself didn’t see coming, such implementation would be pretty well hidden and absolutely effect a no-way-i’m-ever MT purchaser. Not to mention actually kinda disturbing some companies are actively researching ways to tap into your psyche for a dollar manipulation. Since the degradation of linear progression for instance, there might not be an actual way to get the “unlockable” you’re after, so even a random roll reward now is geared to keep you coming back. For those that aren’t tempted by the purchase though, I guess we’re just gonna keep coming back.

If you don’t buy, well that’s where I live too. But I can’t say that I can look at my game library now and say any one of them hasn’t been effected by these new mechanics. Whether it’s skins or mods for those on PC, a whole lot of gaming is changing. I’m still OK with a lot of it at the moment, but… I think there’s more to come.

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Games have absolutely been affected by these mechanics and Shadow of War is one of them. You will hit a point after the story, that you must complete a mode called Shadow Wars in order to get the true ending and roll the credits. Now to beat Shadow Wars you will need an army that is stacked full with Legendary Orcs and they are rather rare through out the game with natural progression.

So you are left with two choices at this point:
One, grind away for hours upon hours to buy chests with in game currency.
Two, spend some real money on chests for guaranteed Legendary Orcs to skip the grind.

This cancer is affecting all games these days and I don’t care much for where it’s headed.

You should check out the channel Pretty Good Gaming on YouTube. Those guys can be pretty comical about this topic and it’s constantly being discussed on there.

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Microtransaction is a business model where users can purchase virtual goods via micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions are a staple of the mobile app market, they are also available on traditional computer platforms such as Valve’s Steam platform.

Free-to-play games that include a microtransaction model are sometimes referred to as “freemium”. “Pay-to-win” is sometimes used as a derogatory term to refer to games where paying for in-game items can give the player an advantage over other players, particularly if the items cannot be obtained by free means. The objective with a free-to-play microtransaction model is to get more players into the game and provide desirable items or features that players can purchase if they are interested in them - it is hoped that in the long term the profits from a microtransaction system will outweigh the profits from a one-time-purchase game.

Items and features available by microtransaction can range from cosmetic (such as decorative character attire) to functional (such as weapons and items). Some games allow players to purchase items that can be acquired through normal means, but some games include items that can only be obtained through microtransaction. Some developers[1][2] ensure that only cosmetic items are available this way to keep gameplay fair.

Cut and paste from Wikipedia

You guys can go back and forth or you can realize that you are both right.