State of the Eververse (Destiny)

by Claude Errera , Wednesday, October 23, 2019, 10:50 (1648 days ago) @ someotherguy

But for digital goods? There's literally zero reason for it except to manipulate.

See, here's where you and I diverge.

Bungie has said (more than once, and in plenty of public places) that one of the reasons for scarcity is so that people can say "I was there when X". You have a certain emblem, you did a certain thing at a certain time. You were playing the game at a time when Eververse was selling that special ornament. You have a set of Iron Banner armor that new players can't get any more because you were playing this game when it was new. Whatever.

YES - that's manipulation; they're playing to your sense of vanity, really. "Don't you want to be special? Don't you want people to know you're one of the OG Guardians? Buy this ornament, and everyone will know it!"

But holy shit, the game you're suggesting they build means that one of the things people like most - standing out from the crowd - is something you don't respect, something you don't care about, whatever. BUT OTHER PEOPLE DO. And Bungie is catering to those people.

There are plenty of things that are difficulty-gated, that you could earn early on but that you can STILL earn - Cruel just got his Not Forgotten, for example. (Even there, you'll find griping, though - "I earned that gun before the nerf, when it was HARD!") But you're suggesting that things that you can buy - things that don't take actual skill to earn - should be available always, because to time-limit the purchase is to manipulate the market... and I simply can't buy into that.

When a store has too many options, I often find myself walking away without buying at all; I've gone into a supermarket to find cereal without a clear idea of what I want, gotten overwhelmed by the variety, and walked out without cereal. I'm sure that concept is one of the things Bungie considered when creating their system.

Especially a store that is operated using a videogame controller; the idea of choosing between 500 ornaments with my controller gives me hives.

Those are a couple of things that might affect the permanent availability of digital items that really aren't aimed at screwing the user. I'm sure there are more.

Not saying for a second that the idea of getting people to buy BECAUSE it might not be available later isn't ALSO part of the equation... just saying it might not be the ONLY thing.