Personal Responsibility. (Destiny)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Thursday, October 17, 2019, 19:44 (1871 days ago) @ cheapLEY

Sparking FOMO? Horrific! I love you, cheap, but I can't agree with this take. FOMO is a quintessential feature of being a human being. You could die in the next moment. Every decision you make, whether to sit or stand, sleep or eat Sushi can be said to be guided on some level by FOMO.

Oh c’mon. I have never once thought “I better go get some sushi in case I die tomorrow.” My entire life is filled with a distinct lack of worrying about dying soon.

My point is, everything is a limited-time offer. Many choices we make involve making decisions about what we don't want to miss out on.

I like Trader Joe's, but I rarely find the same thing twice when I shop there. Are they scummy for not telling me that they'll never have dark-chocolate-covered macadamia nuts after this month or that they'll be half-price next week? I don't think so. I accept Trader Joe's for what it is. I don't feel entitled to more.

Again, c’mon. Trader Joe’s is selling things that are constrained by very real world circumstances that affect supply. Destiny’s ghost shell supply is arbitrarily limited in order to make people feel pressured to buy it and for literally only that reason. There is no other reason to not just let people buy the things they want for as long as Destiny exists as a service.

I think I'd agree if they were selling something that actually mattered in the game. There's plenty of emblems I can't get. When is rarity okay?

Trader Joe's was a just a real-life analogy to Eververse in terms of limited availability, regardless of the reason. As with TJ, I realized immediately that Eververse stock had limited availability. You say that this is "absolutely designed to get people to buy it right this instant just in case they can't get it later. The only limitation there is an artificial one that Bungie imposed to in order to get as many people to spend as much money as they possibly can. It's not like they're going to run out of Harpy Ghost Shells after this week." Yes and no. How much people can spend is different than how much they choose to spend, and it is a value proposition in which they have a choice. (And they still get a chance to get the thing for free!) I mean, has Bungie deceived anyone? Does anyone not know that the items that can be bought today might not be sold again? And if people know that, how is it underhanded?

You love the band. You bought the album and the concert ticket. The show rocked. You had a great time. Do you need the t-shirt? Does the shirt affect your enjoyment of the concert? These things are small batch, so who knows if you can find it later, and hey, as it turns out, t-shirt sales actually provide a significant source of income for the band. So okay, you buy the shirt, mainly because it looks cool. Ah, man! Those sneaky, nefarious bastiches strike again!

I know this. Bungie makes cool stuff. Love the new raid--it's really awe inspiring. That awe isn't created on the cheap. I sincerely believe that they're trying to be independent and profitable without being scumbags, and I want them to be successful--I'd like them to be wildly successful. More awe, please.

I also believe all that. The point here is I think they’re at least partially failing on the “don’t be scumbags” thing. Not egregiously by any means.

Thank you for pointing to that reddit post, though. I usually completely ignore Tess unless I've got an engram for her, but now I'm inspired. I'm buying something tonight.

I’m glad. I’ll probably spend some bright dust on that ship myself.

At the risk of treading into politics, I’ll just say a lot of this is not only about Destiny. I think the fact that “they’re just a business trying to make as much money as possible” is floated as a legitimate response and everyone takes that as a matter of fact and just accepts that as a completely legitimate defense is absolutely troubling. Yes, it’s at least a little hyperbolic. It’s a video game, there are far bigger issues to worry about. But it’s a tiny indicator of a problem in the system at large.

For the record, I'm not saying they're trying to make as much money as possible. I think they're in a very competitive market and they're trying to find a business model that allows them to continue to make cool stuff. When I say I want them to be wildly successful, I say that precisely because I think the majority of the people at Bungie are not Scrooge McDuck, eager to take swan dives into a lake of cash. Like most of us, they probably want financial security while doing fulfilling work. I believe, however, the more money they make, the more cool stuff they'll make. I think this is at the heart of the moral code and trust that Cruel spoke of. I believe they will continue to make stuff that is worth how much they charge for it. I actually think $60 is pretty cheap for a game like Destiny--for most of us it's just about the least expensive entertainment we can buy. In the grand scheme of things, I just can't get worked up about limited edition cosmetics, especially if it helps make more great content possible.