State of the Eververse (Destiny)

by MacAddictXIV , Seattle WA, Friday, October 18, 2019, 08:36 (1645 days ago) @ Cody Miller

“Hey, you know how we usually make you repeat an activity dozens of times just to get that little piece of loot you want? Well now you can just buy it instead!”

A while ago, I listened to Total Biscuit defend the loot boxes in Overwatch. His argument was that since he has more money than time, he appreciated the option to pay to save time. So he thinks they are a good thing and you can use them if you want, and thus fell exactly into the trap that was created.

See, it never occurred to him to ask "why is my time being wasted in the first place? or "Why does earning skins take so much time anyway?" And so the correct solution becomes apparent. Instead of letting you pay to avoid wasting time, just don't design the game to be time wasting in the first place.

He and most critics fail to see it's a case of Blizzard intentionally creating a problem, then giving you the ability to bypass that problem by paying. When you look at it that way, why not just not introduce the problem in the first place?

This is the insidious part of the manipulation. Not only is the system exploitative, but people will actually defend the system as a good thing.

I am now going to defend the system.

If we add the ghost back into the raid like he said then you you have a chance to get the ghost. But if we wanted to make it like Cody says, then we make it 100% chance when completing the raid! Great, but see raids take a long time, some people still can't do that. Do we put the ghost at the first encounter then? or do we put a raid ghost in another activity?

I personally think selling cosmetics is perfectly fine for people who have money but not time. I just think they also need to put those items into activities where people who have time but not money can get them. I think there might be some exceptions for skill based activities that allow people something unique to chase after.