Reply 2

by Avateur , Sunday, March 03, 2013, 20:47 (4368 days ago) @ Kermit
edited by Avateur, Sunday, March 03, 2013, 20:52

My reply kind of rambled. Sorry. I'm a capitalist, so there's that. Cliff seems to be one, too. That said, I don't think you're quite characterizing Cliff accurately--did you miss this part?

Well as I said, I pretty much completely agree with it from a 100% strictly business perspective. It makes perfect sense. But we're talking about entertainment and fun, and a lot of the time strict economic sense can have a very, very nasty and negative impact on a consumer or on the ability for a product to be well made (or in a video game sense, even well balanced).

"I’ve been transparent with most folks I’ve worked with in my career as to why I got into this business. First, to make amazing products – because I love the medium more than any. "

I did see that, and I found it interesting that his entire thought process revolved around his third point, which was profit. There was almost zero balance to what he wrote. I believe he did actually get into the business to make amazing products because of how much he loved the medium. I believe there might even be a way to balance microtransactions or other forms of leveling in general with or without said transactions in a way that works really well in games. Some games (few and far between) pull it off to some extent. He makes no case for this.

It's almost like he threw this part in to say something to the effect of, "Look, you know me! I'm Cliffy B! I love the medium! I do this and did this because I want to make amazing things that people enjoy and find amazing! Trust me! Now give me all of your money because my real aim is to make all the profit in all the ways ever."

And again, I don't believe that his intent is to just make all the moneys ever, and I do truly believe him about his motivation for getting into making games. It's just interesting to me that his approach in what he wrote was from a strictly economic side, consumers, fun, gameplay (balance, grinding, whatever) be damned.

Cliff is uncertain about what the future will look like, but he doesn't seem pessimistic. I believe that there is always a market for something new and different and better. New trends wear themselves out and old trends come back, reinvented. So I guess my attitude is that this, too, shall pass. Periods of turmoil end. Someone creative is going to do something no one expects, people will love playing it, it will make money, then that model will be the trendsetter.

I'm hoping that will be Bungie. Bungie does a great job of setting trends. Unfortunately, EA could be a negative trendsetter with this "all games going forward" that may put the industry as a whole down that path. I'm not a big fan of Halo 4's multiplayer. I especially can't stand how something as mundane as emblems are locked to me. This model of gameplay design is already unfortunate. What happens in Halo 5 if 343 Industries decides to charge you $5 to unlock all of the emblems early? I'm not saying this would ever happen, but that'd basically be an admission that it's not worth the trouble of getting them, and people do want their emblems and feel an attachment to them, so hey, milk it. This can unfortunately be applied to many games right now, and I get the feeling many more to come. I just used Halo 4 as an example because I'm closest to it currently in finding all of their "locked content" fairly ridiculous.

Also, so don't buy it, right? I wouldn't. I'd never buy into that. No harm no foul there, especially over something that doesn't impact gameplay, right? On principal alone, I'd really love to just have my #9 emblem right from the start. Identity. I've had it since November 9, 2004. Well, until they removed it from H4, but you know what I mean. It's unfortunate that I need to play 90 hours and get 8023975628 EXP to unlock it. Or I can just spend $5 and get it right away. Or I can just be disgusted by it and not spend money on it. It does make perfect business sense. It also alienates me as a consumer that they wouldn't just give me my little emblem from the start, offering up a ton of grinding to get it or a pay option for something that I really already purchased once I purchased the game itself (and thus, as mundane as it is, why not just make it available?).

You might say it's destined to happen. ;-)

I actually started replying to your last paragraph before I even saw this. Haha. :D