The current landscape of gaming is so foreign to me. Gaming for me has always been an experience to get lost in a fantasy world — something akin to reading. Nowadays everyone seems obsessed with the online and competitive sides of it. It feels like you can’t have a conversation about videogames without someone bringing up Fortnite and the new skins they unlocked by treating it as a job.
Well, some people just treat it like playing sports. Wanna go play ball? Wanna play CSGO? Hey, this ball/shirt/skin looks fancier! It’s foreign, but understandable to me.
It also seems to be as many people as it was back shooters became a big thing. Out of the few people I know who video game, one only does FPS, one sticks to a few different games (Ultrakill, TF2, Peak to name a few), one either plays co-op with his gf or does Single player, and one mostly plays single player like me. Chatting up random people about games, that ratio seems similiar.
Most people don’t treat sports like that, though. Even those who do, know to shut up about their stats when talking about their sport with someone who isn’t that into it. You don’t say “oh, I went golfing with some friends last week” and immediately hear “I can score an 85” because that’d be obnoxious. I know there’s always been people like that but it honestly feels like “competitive” play has become the norm and it didn’t use to be like that.
because that’s what the majority of people play.
the majority of people buy 1-2 games a year and play them all year. COD, sports games, the big popular shooters or whatever is trendy at the moment.
they are casual fans. they don’t give a shit about stuff like Expedition 33 and would be totally uninterested in a game like that as boring and stupid. these are the same people who only watch marvel movies or hollywood action crap.
all my friends/family who play games think I’m a gay weirdo for liking non sports, non military, non racing games.
Its partially lack of marketing. You have to have the time to be at least somewhat keyed into the gaming community to even know what exists and is good.
For example I don’t have a lot of time to play, so I am ideally looking for something like 15-30 minute increments. All the mass produced things marketed on tv or whatever are that type of game. God forbid I find a game and then realize it has some punishing save system.
Clickbait
If that ain’t proof microtransactions are a bane on society, then we’re already too corrupt to care.
If it isn’t proof they target children, I don’t know what is.
Microtransctions prove they should be illegal every time I read any article about them
Not to mention there’s hardly any micro transactions left, a lot of these micro transactions are the prices of full games or more!
This is what I don’t get, why would you get some in game currency or item that will help you for like five minutes for the same price as a game that will give you tens of hours of fun. Cosmetics I somewhat get, you wanna show off. Still think it’s kinda dumb but I get it since I’m tf2 player.
Nah it’s worse, because you can trade TF2/Steam items. You can’t do shit with games like Fortnite, Overwatch, Valorant, etc…
Doesn’t the trading kind of encourage the gambling aspect of it though?
In a roundabout way, yes, because it allows a player to player economy to form (outside of valve’s purview), which other games prevent by preventing trading.
However, the ability for items that have been purchased or acquired to be traded to people has a great effect of making common things more accessible to players as a whole, even those who don’t spend money (Craft hats or unique weapons in TF2, for instance).
I think that as a buyer, you would want to have something that isn’t permalocked to your account, but I could see the argument from an abuse standpoint.
because FOMO
someone else has it and you don’t. that’s a huge motivator for most people, and super important for kids.
Macro transactions 😎
I see it as as much of a problem as cheap toys from Toys r’ us. The kids love them for about 30 minutes, then they break and that’s it (the toys that is). But does it really matter? Just because something is digital, does it really make it worth less to the children?
It’s less about the value to children and more about exploiting that to extract money without any regard to the children’s wellbeing. Crappy toys would be purged in a more ethical state of the world instead of being allowed to thrive and take over.
That’s just every single thing ever sold and marketed to children. No company has ever given half a shit about children’s wellbeing. With that said, what part about them buying a skin to show off to their friends hurts their wellbeing?
The part where they buy a skin to show off.
Very environment friendly:)
I mean I can understand it. What do kids have these days? Arcades died, malls died, “why won’t kids play outside?” the outside old people built
I mean.
Crazy stuff. Just brings to mind how many kids are playing fortnite and the like. A lot probably just goes onto skins
Sold my (child’s) soul to the company store…
Help us European Union, you’re our only hope.
Kids my age: Remember when you could just download a skin for Quake from a website, install it, and still have other players see it? And it was free?
My brother got minecraft to play with my niece and there are two versions now, from what I can tell one that’s like what I was playing a decade ago but updated, and one that has microtransactions. The old one lets you download skins and mods for free. It seemed like a no brainer but he went with the microtransaction one, and now my niece keeps asking for cosmetics.
There must be a reason to yoke yourself to the pay-for-skins version, but I’m really not sure.
There’s two editions of Minecraft, Java edition and Bedrock edition. Java is the original version that just gets updated with the new features, but is only available on PC. Bedrock edition is available everywhere but has microtransactions and bonus Microsoft garbage
There must be a reason to yoke yourself to the pay-for-skins version, but I’m really not sure.
The MTX-filled version is the only thing you have on console.
I made my own Quake skin for my clan!
You also learned some valuable PC navigation and troubleshooting skills in the process of adding the skin to your game.
Kids today: why wouldn’t I spend $20 to be able to dance the running-man as Goku in Fortnite?
Remember the custom warehouse level filled with crates and everyone wearing a crate skin?
Oof.
Society peaked in 1999 and no one can tell me different.
there was no fortnite in 1999 tho 🥺
sad panda
…and the world was a better place for it.
Fun fact: On December 31st, 1999 at 11:59 myself and my cousin were sitting in my bedroom playing the first Medal of Honor.
While I agree that this is not a good thing, I have to say it is not much different to for example Pokemon cards. Sure you could sell physical cards - if you’re lucky maybe even without loss - but I don’t think it is so much different.
Physical cards last for years. Maybe the online game will be around in ten years, but maybe not.
I have most of my magic cards from my youth. They’re a thing I own. I can do what I want with them- play the game, use them for decorations, sell them. Digital shit is transient with few options for the buyer.
See: Ubisoft. Pay for gane with own money, sorry fuck you games gone now.
I understand that. But to be honest the value of these cards is in most cases much lower than the purchase price - so the real value is not what these cards are worth but the fun you have / had collecting them and playing with them. And I am willing to believe that the same fun can come from digital assets in a game. You’re right that the company in charge can end this any time they want but usually this happens when nobody is playing it anymore. I don’t like this development either but I nevertheless can imagine that a Fortnite gift card can bring the same joy as a booster pack of MtG.
I think most games get shut down when they still have players. Plus they could release server code so people could host their own games, like in the olde days of the 1990s. They don’t because they’re primarily concerned with profit.
That aside, “it brings joy” is not sufficient on its own as a justification. Heroin brings joy, but you likely wouldn’t say that’s a fine gift for a child. Why is that? Probably because we recognize the potential harms and unhealthy habits. Maybe you accept the risks and harms of digital slop are acceptable. I don’t think I’d want to encourage that in children.
I don’t say I want to encourage that. All I want to say is that this might be a similar situation to the “satanic panic” in the 80s and 90s which in hindsight feels stupid and a thing of the past.
Company scrip is back lads
And here my kid wants a tamagotchi for christmas.
whatyearisit.jpg
And my kid wants a fingerboard. What’s next, pogs?
90s are retro cool now.
another few years and the 2000s will be retro cool
I wish they just made up their mind.
who, kids?
it’s all relative. anything before the living memory of teens is retro. that’s why it takes 20 years for stuff go to become cool again.
when i was a teenager everything 70s was retro and cool. around 2005 it became the 80s.
for my teenage nephews anything more than 1-2 years old is ‘ancient’. they think elden ring is a super old game, for example. it came out in '22. last year they wanted to show me this ‘cool old game and had i ever heard of it’.
I hope you said something like, “oh, that looks cool, can I try?” And then go around easily killing some enemies you already know and then comment on how easy the games kids are playing these days are.
Sickning…
I get the old man sentiment. But I remember being excited for a gift card to the arcade. Is it very different? Is it bad?
It’s also no different than a RuneScape membership in the 2000s, or hell, Roblox Builder Club almost 20 years ago.
Both of those brought me an immense amount of joy and connection to others that I would never otherwise had gotten to experience living in an isolating rural area.
imo a subscription service is far more ethical than the current model. Its a very straightforward transaction. Now I have to convert real money to a fake currency (in set amounts of their choosing), purchase a pack of some kind, and gamble my way to a new pointless cosmetic item.
