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askmerriauthor · 9 months

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I said the game demands microtransactions, not that it requires them. That's not just me being pedantic about wording, but rather a big indication of how the developers designed the game to work. Pokemon Sleep doesn't want you to play for free and is designed to make playing-without-paying a worse experience.

Like many free-to-play games out there, they operate on the idea of monetizing convenience and "fear of missing out" (FOMO). Such games will either create a problem in order to sell you a solution, or rely on a rotating/limited availability of enviable items to encourage impulse buying to avoid losing the chance to have the item. Pokemon Sleep does both of these.

Despite Pokemon Sleep being presented as a passive "something in the background while you sleep" kind of novelty, that's not the actual gameplay at all. The game actually wants you to be extremely active and paying a lot of attention to it non-stop, along with encouraging you to get others involved as well. Up to 500 potential invitations with a 50 individual approval list of contacts, specifically, and the system "helpfully" lets you link to your Google, Apple, or Facebook accounts in order to facilitate that and further scoop up lots of personal data for advertising.

The basic gameplay cycle of Pokemon Sleep is that you have a 7-day period in which you can power up your Snorlax as much as possible, with a higher power score equaling a greater variety of visiting Pokemon for you to catch. Visiting Pokemon will appear in a variety of sleeping types, of which there are at least 415 to collect (with individual Pokemon having multiple sleeping types). These Pokemon can also be "befriended" by giving them a sufficient number of items, which means they'll then join your team and help you boost Snorlax's power score over time. You can further boost Snorlax's score by feeding it, which the game encourages you to do three times per day within a given time window. Your Helper Pokemon will supply you with ingredients to make meals for Snorlax at different intervals, and the meals you make have different potencies based on the ingredients used.

So, to summarize, you have a limited period in which to get a number as big as it can be, with various randomized factors able to improve the rate of progression, before it all resets and you're back to square one.

Yes, you absolutely can play this game without spending any money. But the game itself is designed in a way that urges you to spend money at every turn. Every element of gameplay is improved if you spend money, and will actively degrade in effectiveness and quality if you don't. Remember how you can befriend Pokemon to help you out with getting Snorlax's score up? That's faster and easier if you spend money. Those same Helpers who gather ingredients for you? They lose Energy (an arbitrary limit put in place by the game system) the longer they're around, and become worse at gathering ingredients the less Energy they have. But, good for you! You can just buy more Energy for them! Rather, you have to make two purchases - the Energy-restoring item only gives back 50% of their Energy, so you need to buy two in order to max them out again. And you can just buy a box of random ingredients too! How convenient! And if you really want to get the most out of sleeping, you can buy the monthly auto-renewing (until you manually cancel it through Google or Apple, not the game app itself) Premium Membership! Which literally makes your sleep more valuable than the same - or even higher quality - sleep of people who aren't Premium members! But you better buy fast, because all of these items for sale are on a rotating schedule and will swap out of the shop at different 15 or 30-day intervals. You wouldn't want to miss your chance, would you?

A core facet of microtransaction pricing is that it's intentionally and carefully designed to never be enough. You'll always be in a position where you need to buy just a little more than the minimum, and it always comes out at odd numbers that never fit exactly where they need to in order to maximize your purchase, and are priced in unorthodox values specifically to trick the buyer's brain into thinking it's a better deal than it is. With that in mind, it pays to look at the minimum and maximum amounts the game wants to try and charge you since that gives a good idea of their intended range of interaction with your wallet, and how far a given amount of paid microtransactions will take you. Because, remember, such games are built around the idea of NEVER giving you enough. They ALWAYS want you to be in a state of wanting a little more and being tempted to dish over some more cash for it.

In Pokemon Sleep's case? The minimum buy-in for "Diamonds" - their premium microtransaction currency - is 60 Diamonds for $1.19. Their maximum? 7000 Diamonds for $97.99. So what this says outright is that the game is designed in such a way that it expects 7000 Diamonds to NOT BE ENOUGH to maintain a player's best experience. Because, again, such games will NEVER give you a value sufficient enough to deter the need for further purchases. This is a game that wants players to spend $100 multiple times over throughout the lifespan of their interest in the game. Will the majority of players do this? No. There's absolutely going to be a number of whales who will, especially among influencers and content creators on social media who make their own career off these sort of things. But what Pokemon Sleep is relying on is that there will be a far greater abundance of players who think "Oh, it's just a dollar..." or 'Oh, this item is going away... it's not even $5, so why not?" on a very regular basis.

And I haven't even touched on the overt security/privacy issues and the personal info scraping the app has potential for as well. So, yeah, I'm just going to go ahead and sleep on Pokemon Sleep.

#pokemon sleep #pokemon #game development #game design #microtransactions

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toskarin · 4 months

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I tried getting into elona a while back after you talked about it and remember being confused about the different versions; omake, elona+, and the Mobil version seemed really different and gatcha heavy.

Do you have a recommend for someone looking for the entrance to the rabbit hole? Or should I just wait for Elin?

so with elona, let's get one thing out of the way that's hard to glean from community discussion (because most players don't really talk about how to get into it): you shouldn't be playing vanilla elona in [current year] unless you specifically want to do it to get a glimpse into what it used to be like

your assessment of the mobile version is correct! it's fucking awful and, in spite of what a lot of people seem to believe, has no financial connection at all to the original creator. that game makes a lot of money and noa doesn't see any of it, to my knowledge

the mobile version is full of microtransactions and reworks several systems from the base game to encourage spending (including adding a companion and weapon gacha, timegating shop refreshes, turning sleeping bonuses into a daily reward, and making god battling an arena minigame), so its streamlining of gameplay is entirely in service of getting you to spend money on what's supposed to be a free game

so that leaves deciding between OO and Plus, and since you're starting out, Plus is the best choice.

Plus is not only the most popular of the two, but also has a not-insignificant amount of english language learning resources available. beyond that, its lack of build diversity is actually a boon because the game makes it pretty hard to well and truly ruin a character (you'll pretty naturally gravitate towards A Good Build)

OO is really good, but it's very bad at teaching you to play elona and a lot of its more opaque mechanics kind of require a working knowledge of how to play the game to reverse engineer them, in lieu of having seen the development process that informed them

I wrote a little bit on how to get into Plus over here

if you have any questions about the game that you want answered quickly, you can find the non-JP discord here. the JP elona discord is over here, in the event you want that as well

be of good cheer!

#at some point I really want to make a resource that demystifies elona #because I sincerely believe that if it were more often presented as an open world turn-based jrpg with positioning mechanics #the controls would make so much more sense to so many more people

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existslikepristin · 7 months

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Unexpectedly busy week, that was. Except today. Today I got home and ate ice cream

Only two options in the poll this time! Is there a secret reason?! Yes, it's because I didn't have any more ideas The poll is only going to be available for 24 hours, because I should be able to get the next part up tomorrow!

Tags: NSFW, S.M.U.T., genie, microtransactions???

(Story Index)

Anime Girls

"I wish for a harem of anime girls!" you blurt out before you can think.

Joy appears mildly shocked for a moment, but then she gives you a wry smirk. "Look at you, making a wish like that. You perverted weeb."

You frown and put up a finger of protest, but Joy quickly continues, "I know. I know. You're not the first of your kind I've come across, master. Being a weeb is an honored profession nowadays, and you're all special because of your unique waifu and/or husbando selection(s). I know the drill."

The air around you seems to contract and expand simultaneously, and everything in your line of sight briefly tints green. Except, that is, for Joy herself. Even as space bends in front of your very eyes, causing no small amount of queasiness to knot about in the pit of your stomach, Joy remains on the table, sitting up with the same smooth grace she has continuously displayed up to this point and only looking as green as usual, which isn’t all that green, really.

And then it's over. The air feels normal again, and your standard color vision has returned.

"Was that the wish?" you ask.

"Sure was!"

You look around. Nothing has changed. You see no anime girls. Not even your waifu (though, considering Joy told you she can't read your mind, you're not sure how she would have known to pick her). "So, where's the harem?"

"I figured you wouldn't be able to list each and every anime girl you've ever wanted to fuck."

Joy pauses. After a few seconds you say, "That's not a useful explanation."

"Oh. Right. Check your phone."

"My phone?" you inquire, as you reach down to take your phone from the pocket of your discarded shorts.

"Yup! I've noticed that most weebs are very heavily invested in their own tropes, which I appreciate, as you can imagine. And one of the more common tropes in harem anime I've seen is that the protagonist controls some aspect of the world around them with a supernaturally-powered smartphone."

You tap your phone out of sleep mode. "So, I have a phone… harem?"

"No, master. You have a magic app that summons anime girls into your presence, all of which are suspiciously and sexually attracted and devoted to you, of course. This will make your harem as weebly wobbly as you can possibly get!"

You exit your phone's internet browser, where, obviously, you had been reading existslikePristin fanfics, and go to your home screen. A new app does a little inflation animation to let you know of its location. The icon is a silhouette of a lithe woman on a green, circular background, and is not labeled. You tap to open it. There is no waiting on load time. You're immediately taken to a very cluttered generic fantasy town isometric view, with bubbles of text all over the place. You think the text might be Sumerian.

"It's a mobile gacha game!" Joy looks and sounds far too proud of herself. "And with my special djinnfluencer promo code, you get one thousand free shards! And that's not all! You get ten free spins, five billion gold coins, and double daily rewards for the first week!”

Options:

Okay, that was exceptionally dumb. Ask if there’s a way to undo a wish.

Whatever. A harem’s a harem. Figure out this app and summon an anime girl.

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wolfnanaki · 10 months

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I've had people on YouTube and Twitter try to mock me by calling me "Goodbye Volcano High's strongest soldier".

But you know what? Going to bat for KO_OP, a worker cooperative queer indie studio with 4-day work weeks? And they avoid crunch and ensure the mental health of their employees? I'll gladly do so.

Especially since I've seen what "gamers" will defend.

$70 games that are broken at launch and teeming with microtransactions, DLC, and gambling mechanics. Games that take up over 100GB of hard drive space. Executives who crunch their employees to dust and allow rampant sexual abuse and wage theft, followed by mass layoffs to preserve profit margins and corporate bonuses. Cultures of racism, misogyny, and queerphobia, both in the workplace and in the gamer community. AI and NFTs being incorporated into game development. Lack of accessibility for players with disabilities. "Live service" games touted as being supported for years only to die in months. Decades of games no longer being available except through piracy. The lies and broken promises. The list goes on. There's so much of all of it everywhere, and it seems to get worse by the year.

Yet for gamers, all of those are secondary issues, if at all. They're more concerned if the video game girls are sexy or not. Or if a reviewer gave the "right" score for their golden goose game. Or if a game has - heaven forbid - an easy mode. And when their games are awful, their go-to blame is towards the "woke", the "SJWs", the "game journos". They keep financially supporting the things that are ruining games then blame marginalized people and reviewers for games being bad.

So yeah, screw it, I'll gladly throw my support towards an indie studio that represents what I want to see more of in the game industry. Come at me.

If there are other studios you want to show support for that you think are doing the right things too, feel free to share in the replies and reblogs.

#Nanaki's Rants #video game industry #Goodbye Volcano High #KO_OP #indie games

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spitblaze · 8 months

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Try our premium plan. Use our new AI-assisted feature. Please subscribe at 4.99/mo to access this feature. Try our premium plan. Turn off your ad blocker, it's how we make revenue. Microtransactions available in this app. Last chance to subscribe to our premium plan. This offer expires in 2:59:59. Suggested based on your activity. Suggested based on your location. Try our premium plan for two.

#gore tw #blood tw #spitblaze says things #feeling very normal about the current state of technology

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sonicreferencephotos · 4 months

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Why I Dislike Sonic Speed Simulator

I sometimes see people in the notes of Speed Sim refs saying that maybe they should start playing it/get back into it. I want to ask, for your sakes, that you do not. The only reason I still play it is for this blog. I would love to stop. I keep going so that no one else will have to play to unlock characters for references. I will also be adding a disclaimer to future Speed Sim posts. Maybe this is a bit excessive, but this game is starting to break me.

I understand that some people like the game, and you all control what games you choose to play. In my opinion however, playing Speed Sim is really, really not worth it.

If you want a specific explanation of the problems, you can read it below the cut

Problem 1: Gameplay

The gameplay of SSS is simple, to put it kindly. There are a few different aspects of the game, each of which has only the bare minimum amount to do.

You can run around the world. This lets you collect rings and experience. You can also destroy badniks, which exclusively consists of doing repeated homing attacks until you destroy them. They can technically hit you, but all that does is knock you back.

You can do time trials. Actually somewhat fun. Not much more to say about them.

You can enter races. PvP races which are fine. Fun at first, get boring when you have to grind for race tickets.

You can fight bosses. By "bosses" I of course mean "Eggman" and "Eggman but with more health." It is almost exactly the same fight. You run around breaking shield generators, dodging the same two attacks, and then deal a set amount of damage to him before the shield returns. Repeat. Your prize is spins on (one of) the gacha wheels.

You can complete quests. Actually decent! At least until you run out of quests. Good thing there are daily quests to keep you "entertained" with their repetitive tasks. Also, ignore the fact that the tasks for quests are just engaging with the rest of the mediocre game.

All of the above mechanics grow dull and grind-y very quickly. Soon, every part of the game becomes a chore. The game itself even seems to have realized this, and thus includes an auto-run feature, so you can collect rings and xp without needing to do anything!

I am generally of the opinion that it's a bad sign if a game is un-fun enough it needs to add in the ability to skip the gameplay, but that's just me (that's part of why I stopped playing Star Rail).

Problem 2: Skins

We all know the real reason people play SSS isn't the game itself: it's the cool outfits! 95% of which are only available during limited events and/or by spending actual money. You can also expect to do a lot of boring grinding if you don't spend money. Speaking of spending money...

Problem 3: Microtransactions

Time to talk about the true "heart" of the game: Robux. Now, I will give Speed Sim itself half a pass on this one, as from what I've seen, Roblox as a whole has what I would consider an unsavory emphasis on microtransactions, especially for a game with a playerbase of 50% children aged 12 or under, and another 15% between 13 and 16 (Statista: Roblox user distribution worldwide 2022, by age group). With that being said though, Sonic Speed Simulator doesn't seem to have any qualms about asking for money wherever they can.

I could make a whole other post about all the ways this game offers for you to spend money. You want more spins on the gacha wheels? Spend money! You want to get three gacha eggs for the price of one (certain vending machines only)? Spend money! You want to skip the animation you have to watch every time you buy an egg from said gacha machines? Spend money! You want to do less grinding for xp/race tickets/event objectives/candy/whatever? Money, money, money!!!

The game has a lot of the trademark warning signs for a cash grab gacha game:

Several different kinds of currency, most or all of which can be purchased with premium currency

Many different skins to unlock, using the assorted currencies mentioned above (including ones that are specifically only purchasable with premium currency)

Gacha wheels. Many, many gacha wheels. (Not counting the dozens of vending machines, I can think of at least four)

Grindy gameplay that can largely be skipped by spending money

Again, if a game is un-fun enough to have an option for players to spend real money to skip the gameplay, that's a bad sign.

Problem 4: Crunch

I haven't done much looking into it myself, but I've seen many people say that GameFam (the company that creates Speed Sim) treats its employees very poorly. The game advertises its weekly updates, which requires a lot of crunch in order to get content out quickly. This is obviously bad for the people involved, and also has negative effects on the game.

Many features are clearly rushed, and there's a general lack of polish. From glitching through the map, to races starting several seconds before or after the countdown ends, to untextured models, to many small bugs, it's clear that the developers are not given enough time to clean things up before they have to move on to the next week's content.

Thank you to anyone who actually read this far. This was a long post, but I wanted to be thorough in my explanation. This is probably the last dedicated post I will make about this, since this is really not what this account is for, but I still think it's an important one.

You are welcome to ask questions about any of this — preferably in the replies so as not to clutter the sonicreferencephotos feed — but otherwise the disclaimers are all I'll be saying on the topic for the foreseeable future. Take care of yourselves.

#not references #sonic speed simulator #roblox #microtransactions

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milijanakomad · 8 months

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Product design and psychology: The Role of Grinding in Video Game Design

Keywords: Grinding, Video Gaming, Game Design, Player Engagement, Psychological Manipulation

Abstract:

This paper scrutinizes the utilization of "grinding" as a technique in video game design, particularly as a method of psychological manipulation that affects player engagement and behaviour. Case studies are explored to deliver a comprehensive understanding of the practical application of grinding and its implications, all from a product design viewpoint.

Introduction:

The design principles governing video games frequently incorporate mechanisms intended to stimulate player engagement and prolong interaction time. One such prevalent mechanism is "grinding," defined as the practice of executing repetitive tasks within the game environment to achieve specific objectives. While grinding can evoke a sense of achievement, it also carries the potential to induce exhaustion and frustration among players. This study endeavours to explore the intricacies of grinding, its role in game design, and its influence on player experience.

Explanation:

Coined from the concept of persistently "grinding away" at a task, the term "grinding" in the gaming context implies the undertaking of repetitive actions by a player to attain certain results or to advance within the game. In numerous instances, such actions may not directly correlate with the game's primary storyline or objectives but are aimed at accumulating experience points, in-game currency, or specialized items.

Grinding is an omnipresent component across a vast array of game genres, with its prominence notably manifested in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). In these games, the player's progression and performance are often gauged based on their character's level, skills, and available equipment.

From the standpoint of game design, grinding assumes several roles. It serves to extend the game's lifespan by instituting goals that necessitate substantial time investment. Additionally, it fosters a sense of accomplishment and progression and can encourage social interaction in multiplayer environments. Despite these advantages, critics contend that grinding can lead to monotonous and ungratifying gameplay experiences. The considerable time commitment required by grinding may propel some players towards purchasing in-game enhancements using real-world money, thereby generating additional revenue for game developers.

Further, there is an ongoing discourse concerning the psychological implications of grinding. Its repetitive and rewarding nature might precipitate addictive behaviours and excessive consumption of time, mirroring the effects typically associated with gambling disorders. Through the exploration of these aspects, we aim to shed light on the complex dynamics of grinding in the context of modern video gaming.

Grinding in Gaming: Conceptualization and Design

Grinding typically refers to the act of performing repetitive actions in a game to attain a specific goal, often associated with levelling up, obtaining items, or advancing in-game skills. Although it can give players a sense of progression, it can also serve as a roadblock, encouraging players to consider alternative paths to progress, such as microtransactions.

Case Study: World of Warcraft

Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft (WoW) extensively employs grinding. Players often engage in repetitive tasks like fighting the same enemies, repeatedly battling against non-player characters (NPCs), or completing the same quests to increase their character's level, to gain experience points, in-game currency, or rare items. This grind contributes to a sense of achievement but has also been criticized for sometimes leading to a tedious gameplay experience.

youtube

Case Study: Candy Crush Saga

King's Candy Crush Saga uses grinding as a monetization strategy. As players progress and levels become harder, the option to grind through the game becomes more attractive. Alternatively, players can buy power-ups and boosters to surpass the grind, effectively translating grinding mechanics into revenue for the game developers.

Case Study: Destiny 2

This game provides an example of a 'loot grind.' Players repeatedly complete activities like strikes, raids, or public events to earn 'engrams' – randomized gear drops. The goal is often to collect more powerful gear to increase a character's power level.

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Case Study: Old School RuneScape

In this MMORPG, players might grind by repetitively performing tasks like mining, fishing, or woodcutting. These actions, though monotonous, boost the player's skill levels, enabling them to perform new tasks, quests, or create new items.

Implications for Game Design

Grinding, while a tool to extend game playtime and potentially drive monetization, must be thoughtfully implemented to avoid player fatigue or burnout. Game designers should strike a balance between meaningful progression and repetitive grind, ensuring the game remains engaging and satisfying.

Conclusion

Grinding, as a mechanism of psychological manipulation in video game design, can greatly impact player behaviour and engagement. Striking a balance between challenge, satisfaction, and repetition is vital to ensure a rewarding gameplay experience. As the video game industry advances, it will be intriguing to observe the evolution and refinement of grinding mechanisms and their psychological impact on players.

References:

Sicart, M. (2013). Grinding in Games: Understanding the Appeal. Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, 8-11.

Hamari, J., Alha, K., Järvelä, S., Kivikangas, J. M., Koivisto, J., & Paavilainen, J. (2017). Why do players buy in-game content? An empirical study on concrete purchase motivations. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 538-546. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.045

Blizzard Entertainment. (2004). World of Warcraft [Video Game]. Blizzard Entertainment.

King. (2012). Candy Crush Saga [Video Game]. King.

Bungie. (2017). Destiny 2 [Video Game]. Activision.

Jagex. (2013). Old School RuneScape [Video Game]. Jagex.

Yee, N. (2006). Motivations of play in online games. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9(6), 772-775. doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772

Johnson, M. R., & Woodcock, J. (2019). The impacts of live streaming and Twitch.tv on the video game industry. Media, Culture & Society, 41(5), 670-688. doi:10.1177/0163443718818363

King, D., Delfabbro, P., & Griffiths, M. (2010). Video game structural characteristics: A new psychological taxonomy. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8(1), 90-106. doi:10.1007/s11469-009-9206-4

Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification". MindTrek '11: Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, 9-15. doi:10.1145/2181037.2181040

#Grinding #Video Gaming #Game Design #Player Engagement #Psychological Manipulation #product design #gaming #user experience #player behaviour #destiny 2 #world of warcraft #runescape #old school runescape #candy crush #Youtube

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maaarine · 3 months

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The secret of OnlyFans: It's much more than porn (Marta Biino and Madeline Berg, Business Insider, Jan 18 2024)

"OnlyFans has become a place for users — the majority of whom are men — to fill their emotional needs.

Many creators on the platform aren't just selling photos and videos; they're selling connections.

"Microtransactions" — such as pay-per-message chatting or custom content — pay-per-view videos, and tips account for over 50% of OnlyFans' revenue, which hit over $1 billion in 2022, the last year for which data is available.

Walter, for instance, pays hundreds of dollars whenever he chats with Farrah.

(…)

Sweetheart has made well over half of the $2.6 million she's earned on the platform since 2020 from direct messages.

"The queen of sexting," as she calls herself, spends up to eight hours a day chatting.

She said she'd developed such close relationships with her "boyfriends" that she doesn't ask them for money for daily content — they give her a spontaneous "tip" depending on their interaction with her.

OnlyFans creator Jade Nicole has a free account with safe-for-work photos and another account — with a $14.99 a month price tag — with more explicit content. Clients pay extra to message her, unlock pay-per-view content, and receive custom content.

For $600 a month, Jade offers the "girlfriend experience": near-constant messaging and access to her personal-cell number.

(…)

The idea of finding companionship in sex work is nothing new, and many experts said that OnlyFans is an evolution of phone-sex lines, strip clubs, and chatrooms — all places where men have sought connection.

The difference with OnlyFans, though, is the accessibility: No longer do people have to hide in bathrooms with a running faucet to call a phone-sex operator or sneak out of the house to go to a strip club.

"The more advanced the technology becomes, the more problems we see," Weiss said.

(…)

A lot of it comes down to masculine norms — specifically "normative male alexithymia," which is characterized by difficulty in recognizing and expressing emotions.

For some, it's easier to open up on OnlyFans than it is to be vulnerable to family or friends.

"They could consider themselves above the woman because she's a sex worker, and that enables them to feel OK about violating the masculine norms," Levant said."

#article #weaker sex

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thathomestar · 10 months

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The 3 main things wrong with Destiny 2 right now

I've been enjoying my return to Destiny 2, but this has mostly been carried by the sublime gameplay. Most other aspects of the game are in desperate need of refinement, but these three are the major problems that are truly keeping the game bogged down in mediocrity.

Complete lack of narrative cohesion

It's no secret that "sunsetting" was one of the worst possible decisions Bungie could have made for Destiny 2. Removing whole swaths of the game that people paid real cash money is obviously awful, but the knock-on effects of this have been somewhat dire, primarily the fact that you can no longer experience a fairly important chunk of Destiny 2's story within the game itself.

New players starting Destiny 2 for the first time right now have no real entry point to the story. They get the New Light tutorial quests, which are terrible at introducing the world compared to how it was done in Destiny 1. If they bought the DLC, the earliest campaign they can play is Shadowkeep, one of the weakest stories in the game's history and one that makes no sense to new players. Not to mention that the seasonal story model, where you buy a battle pass every three months to access the new story content, locks out the story after the season is over. If you missed the big story moment from a past season, it's fucking gone forever! Fuck you!

There's not even an in-game cutscene viewer or a bare-bones written summary of the events that have transpired. There's an in-game timeline, sure, but it only gives you a sentence or two about the general events of a given DLC's story. It's basically nothing. Do you seriously expect people trying to understand the basic story of the game to go watch hours of Youtube videos to catch up? That's complete horseshit.

Confusing and aggravating pricing model

Some Destiny Youtubers have been stirring the pot recently about microtransactions, and this is not really about that. I'm talking about straight up purchasing the game. A recent change Bungie has made is a Legacy Collection, which bundles all the previous available campaigns together in a single pack. This is good! Why are they still available to purchase separately from the bundle? Like seriously, look at this store page:

This is a whole bunch of redundancy, and it only serves muddy the waters. "This is so people who have some of the DLC don't have to rebuy the ones they already own when they buy the bundle" that's stupid. There's two solutions to this: either A) have the bundle recognize which DLCs you own and offer a discount based on that (this is possible to do on Steam already), or B) just lower the price of the whole bundle to the price of the latest included expansion (which is Witch Queen, so $30) so people won't feel that bad about rebuying something they own. The latter is what FFXIV does. Buying the latest expansion gets you all the ones that came before it bundled in for $40. Easy. Makes sense.

Then we have the Forsaken Pack and 30th Pack. The Forsaken Pack should just be included in the free to play portion of the game. The fact that they culled Forsaken from the game but still charge money for that content is insulting, though the 30th Pack is arguably worse. $25 for a single dungeon and a single exotic weapon. For the record, dungeon keys, which give you access to two dungeons, is $20. A complete slap in the nuts ripoff.

Speaking of dungeon keys, the fact that dungeon keys have to be bought separately from its corresponding expansion is moronic. Regardless of the reasons Bungie does what it does with dungeon keys (or excuses people come up with for it), it ends up feeling like squeezing people for every dollar they have.

I know at the end of the day, Bungie is a business, and they need money to pay their staff and survive as a studio, but they really need to give some thought into how people actually purchase their game, the process they go through, what they see and encounter along the way, because for a lot of people it's really, really off-putting.

Lack of meaningful player interaction

So Destiny's whole thing is that it's an MMO, right? At the very least, it takes a lot of elements from more traditional MMO games. Something it does not do very well is get people to actually mingle with each other in a meaningful way.

When I play FFXIV, I can strike up a conversation with people hanging out in the main cities if I so desire. There will be people willing to engage in some small talk at the very least. You might tell someone you think their character looks cool, you emote at each other, maybe even add each other to your friends list. You basically cannot do this in Destiny. Text chat might as well not exist with how little I see people use it, and almost nobody opts in to voice chat during activities. People occasionally emote at each other in the Tower or in the field, and that's about it. I've made friends with random people playing FFXIV. I have not made friends with anyone playing Destiny.

Destiny also lacks a proper Group Finder feature common in most other MMO games. They've toyed around with adding matchmaking to raids, but that feature has been in Beta™ for roughly 7 years, so it's safe to say it's never going to properly get off the ground anytime soon. People trying to find pick-up groups for harder content have to use external sites (or know a guy who knows a guy, which is how I've gotten through most of D2's raids).

They have taken a small step in the right direction with player commendations, where you can rate whether people on your fireteam were fun to play with, were a stout ally, or fashionably dressed. This is good! But they really need to make it easier to communicate and form groups outside of matchmaking from within the game to truly take a big step forward.

just about the most interaction i ever managed to get in the tower

To summarize, you can't experience a large portion of Destiny 2's story within the game, trying to buy the game itself is convoluted and the pricing structure is all over the place (and kind of high in my opinion), and for an always-online MMO-style game, it's challenging to find groups or even make friends with other players. Destiny 2 feels like a game that is in desperate need of some true backend maintenance and development, but that kind of work doesn't translate into profit, so it is heavily minimized.

A player starting for the first time right now is not going to know who Cayde-6 is outside of a couple of references. He has been effectively excised from the game. Why should they care about his return in The Final Shape?

#destiny #destiny 2 #destiny the game #bungie #long post #ths writeups #this game is a mess but i'll keep playing it for now #and continue to complain about it because it could be so much better goddammit

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fandombird123 · 7 months

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My Opinion On Mortal Kombat 12

The good, the bad, and the salty.

Quick disclaimer, I am not at all a professional reviewer, this will not be formatted or written with any sense of professionalism. If you can not handle, openly simping, stupid meme references and jokes, cussing, very strong feminine opinions, or general NRS criticism maybe pass on this one.

First- Spoiler free game play advise:

Kitana's AI in story mode is brain dead, she'll be the easiest fight in the game.

Shao is pretty easy to beat as long as you don't let him hit you.

Hit boxes are wild and (maybe) broken. Basically you're gonna 'miss' a lot of shots you could have sworn you actually hit. Don't be surprised. Just keep attacking and eventually you'll land a hit.

NOW I will be spoiling the story. Sooooo SPOILDERS FROM THIS POINT ON.

The Good:

Kronika wasn't actually part of the story. Not gonna lie, they had me in the first half (I have more to say on this but those belong in the Bad and the Salty list).

Baraka, Bi Han, Reptile, Sareena, and Nitara can get it. Yes I'm being shameless right now. It's my blog.

FEMALE REPTILE! FEMALE REPTILE! (This skin better be available or I will have words)

I don't know if this was intentional, but having Sareena share a voice actress with Sindel was a cute call back to the two being originally played by the same actress during their OG games.

Baraka was really interesting and I hope he come back. He wasn't just some savage monster, he actually had a real personality and goals. It was a great evolution of his MK11 version (but I'll still miss MK11 Baraka). I want to see him progress more and get his own proper story line.

I have opinions about Hanzo in MK12, but I will compliment one thing. His new suit is bad ass. That's the only nice thing I will be saying about this topic.

Bi Han didn't die, I was quite pleasantly surprised.

With the Mortal Kombat competition never happening I believe this means Hydro is canonically alive. So Maybe Hydro in MK13?

Johnny and Kenshi's friendship was wholesome and I loved it. It was really the highlight of the game for me and I'm looking forward to another Johnny/Sonya/Kenshi team up.

The writers actually remembered Johnny's divorce. I'm shook.

Smoke is adorable and got to live through the story. I'm so proud of him and he deserves the world.

Evil Sindel's outfit was 11/10... if only there was a way to unlock it (I'll get to that later)

I like the Special Forces characters, but it was nice to get a short break from them. Gave us some time with other characters. That said I want them in the next game. I'm missing Sonya, Jax, and Kano already.

While I'm not a huge fan of the base skins (they're not bad, just not great) I loved a lot of the alternative skins shown off in the storymode look amazing and I'm hoping they're unlockable.

I was incredibly happy Raiden's old voice actor came back for this game. I'm not sure when he'll get to play Raiden again so it was nice to see him take up the roll one more time.

I liked that you could pick which character you played in the ending.

The Bad:

First thing is first: there are microtransactions. WHY DID I PAY 60 DOLLARS FOR A GAME IF THERE WERE GOING TO BE GOD DAMN MICROTRANSACTIONS?????????? Boon???? Why??? It'd day 1 and there's already god dang microtransactions. Like I guess it's nice that the invasion is available, but charging me 60$ and then asking for more is stupid.

The AI really puts the i in idiot. Basically it's bad. I know I originally mentioned Kitana's AI (since that's who it's the worst with in my opinion) but I also had an issue with Ashrah and Baby Raiden. They will literally walk backwards until they hit the end of the stage, of if they can fly they'll just jump in the air and stay there. Even on the harder difficulties the game felt too easy. I have lost a total of two fights between both the story mode and invasion.

It feels a bit manipulative that the whole 'tournament' that was heavily featured in the trailers only lasted maybe about 1/3 of the actual plot. It was such a nothing plot point, you could probably cut it out and it wouldn't be missed. Yet that was the only real plot point we saw in the trailer.

Jerrod's death is never explained. He was just killed, but apparently by no one of relevance. He just fell and couldn't even get back up.

They REALLY went with Evil Bi Han, which doesn't even make sense. Let me explain, as far as we know Bi Han has no reason to hold the opinions he does. Human opinions don't exist in an echo chamber. His father was against his ideas, his brothers were against his ideas, everyone around him was against his ideas. Where in the hell did this come from???? I would have understood if maybe if Shang Tsung had been slowly manipulating him throughout the game, but Bi Han was already on that 'f#ck them gods' juice since the beginning of the game (which is a mindset I very much indorse). (Okay I just thought about it but what if instead Quan Chi had used Sareena to try and tempt Bi Han over to their side. As in he sends her in infiltrate the Lin Kuei and get close to Bi Han so she can talk him into turning on Liu Kang, but has she spends more time in the Lin Kuei and with Kuai Liang and Bi Han she starts to have a change of heart and kind of has a sort of Mythologies arc where she begins to understand human feelings and gets attached to them. Having her then join the good guys and tries to undo her manipulation on Bi Han. Sorry idea rant. Back to the review.) MY POINT is that as far as we know there is no one who could have influenced Bi Han in this way. It just doesn't make sense why he thinks this. At least with Shang Tsung and Quan Chi it made sense since 1. They were manipulated and 2. Liu Kang actually f#cked them over and they had a valid reason to be mad. Bi Han had no given reason to hate Liu Kang other then he didn't like his clan being under the god's boot (WHICH I MEAN IS KIND OF VALID).

They didn't even have the balls to let Bi Han murder his his own father. "I didn't help save him!" WTF does that mean???? Did Bi Han just wait to long to call 911??? Did Bi Han watch him fall off a cliff? What does that mean?

NRS Writers have yet again created a situation that made me have to sit there and wonder if we were really on the good guys side. There were a few points where the "bad guys" said something that made me pause and be like "wait, let's hear them out". Often times that makes Liu Kang look like kind of a d!ck since he did design this timeline. See this post here for more of my feelings on this. Examples:

Ashrah confronted Nitara and Nitara explained she just wanted to save her people but apparently we're siding with Ashrah, the woman who's magic sword told her to commit murder to "cleanse her soul". Not Nitara, the woman who's people are incredibly ill and at risk of dying (ALSO WHO ASHRAH ADMITTED TO KILLING).

After Sindel tells Rain that he was like a son to her (a relationship we never get to see) Rain made a comment about how Sindel limited him. I actually what to know what he's talking about. He could just be being a salty bitch, but we don't know since this comment is never explained. Plus Sindel in intros has been shown to be rather cruel if she viewed it to be in her benefit, so what Rain was referring to might have happened. She might have nerfed the demi-god if she viewed his as a threat, but we'll never know since this is never explained.

I think Mileena's outfit is too pink. Her color has always kind of been this purplish pink color and I think the color they picked was just too pink and not purple enough. X had this issue too but we're not talking about that one right now.

The whole 2nd half of the plot was honestly a whole mess. It just completely went all bonkers. I don't even have words. It's like they had two different writing teams and switched mid way through the plot with no communication back and fourth. While I'm glad Kronika wasn't back the actual plot twist was somehow worse. It just felt like to much and felt very unsatisfying in the end.

Mileena and Tanya's relationship feels more like Kitana x Jade then Mileena x Tanya. It feel like the writers wanted to do Kitana x Jade but got told no and just wrote Mileena and Tanya in the roles instead.

Hanzo... Now this. I'm not going to repeat myself so to see how I feel about this in context of how it effect Hanzo as a character go here. I will go over some other issues I don't talk about in that post. The fact Kuai Liang's first canonical love interest is Hanzo's dead wife is something so rage inducing I'm not sure how to put it into words. Kuai Liang has never had his own thing, he has his brother's title, his father's powers, he remade his old clan, and now even his wife was another's before she was his. As a long time fan of Kuai Liang the only reasonable response to this I can have is disappointed. I'm just disappointed in NRS's handling of this character and their clumsy recreation of Hanzo rather then just including Hanzo in the game. Even in a new timeline NRS is to scared to try something too new. It's different but not different enough to mean anything. Just an endless circle of the same story they told two timelines ago. I really don't have the words to properly express the storm of unpleasant emotions this plot point causes me. It just sucks.

Sub Zero vs Scorpion has gotten old. This is all.

The Salty:

(This is just things that annoy me personally and I don't really view as actual criticism. Ignore this part if you don't care about mindless ranting)

I don't like this Mileena. She feels nothing like her previous self and I'm just not a fan. There's none of her fun loving, but creepy, personality she had before. I kind of get why but as a hardcore Mileena simp I just don't like the change.

I didn't unlock a single new outfit during storymode and that's very frustrating given the amount of unlockables we got in MK11.

Since when has Bi Han been a blood purest??? That seemed stupid.

I don't like Sindel's story mode outfit. Hers in particular I'm not a fan of.

I hate this version of Ashrah. She seems to self righteous for my liking. Plus her blaming Quan Chi for her sister's deaths when SHE was the one who killed them kind of annoyed me.

Honestly overall 4/10 story wise and maybe I'll post about the invasion later, but I don't know.

#mortal kombat #mortal kombat 1 #non fic post #bi han #sub zero #kuai liang #rain #mk rain #mortal kombat 1 spoilers #review post #opinion post #scorpion #sareena #mk sareena

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erosrageclaw · 1 month

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i was extremely intrigued by the claim of "excessive microtransactions" in dragon's dogma 2, to the point of players claiming the game was unplayable without them. i decided to try to purposely buy into these microtransactions to see if these rumors were true, and here's what i found:

- the "in-game store" just opens an external web page to the dragon's dogma 2 steam page.

- the item based microtransactions appear to be the items from the "boon for adventurer's" DLC pack, but parted out and priced individually so you don't have to buy the whole pack for a single item.

- the steam store sells the pack and items as DLC, not microtransactions. the store will not let you buy more than one of the adventurer's packs, and one of each of the individually listed items, so you cannot buy more than two of each item total.

- with the exception of the custom music and sound item, all other items appear to be obtainable in game, with most being obtainable within the first couple hours of gameplay.

- rift crystals are available to be purchased in a microtransaction currency pack. but so far, from my own gameplay experience, these are so easy to obtain, there doesn't seem to be any pressure from the game, or any realistic reason, to have to buy them.

- appearance changes are available through a barber shop in the first town for gold. complete recustomization is available from the pawn's guild in the first town for an extremely low amount of rift crystals.

in conclusion: with the (very weak) exception of the rift crystal bundles, i can't actually appear to find anything that resembles a necessary microtransaction, or even an actual microtransaction in the first place. items are offered on a strictly DLC basis, and you are quite literally not able to buy more than one of each. given that the majority of these are found within the first couple hours of gameplay, they don't appear to give a significant advantage, or really one at all.

i'm going to stick my neck out here and conclude that these rumors are mostly unfounded, and born of a severe misunderstanding of what is being offered, and what is already available in game. for example, i am under level 10, with less than 10 hours of gameplay on record, and i was already able to afford to recustomize my character multiple times by the time i reached the first city.

yes, of course the game is struggling with a poor launch, and absolutely should not have released with that AA price tag for so many bugs and optimization issues and everything else plaguing its launch. but as far as claims of excessive microtransactions? the rumors just aren't true.

#dragon's dogma 2 #tired of people who never played the first game shit on this one because they dont understand it's not skyrim lol #if you honestly feel like you're being pushed to buy a 1.99 recustomization token #that's a skill issue

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