This is 100% a fantastic thing. (Destiny)

by slycrel , Tuesday, October 06, 2015, 02:03 (3432 days ago) @ cheapLEY

So, let's say bungie does sell motes of light. The situation becomes one of "fun". Bungie says "hey, we realize that gaining experience for your weapons and armor can be a grind. So if you pay us, we'll let you skip that". As a player, if I don't want to pay, I am now essentially a 2nd class citizen. I need to spend more time to get the same out of the game than someone who is paying for motes. If my time is more precious than money (generally true once a certain income level is reached), and the people I play with are paying to skip that time, it becomes in my best interest to do so. Not because micro-transactions are bad or whatever. But because the game is different if I choose not to pay.

This is the same as not buying TTK really, on a much smaller scale, and I think that was cody's big concern. The game, quite possibly, will fracture into two different games with two different playerbases. The "leechers" that don't pay but pony up their time, and the "feeders" that are paying and thus feel entitled to more differentiation than the "leeches" that aren't.

I'll admit; I hadn't looked at in that light. It's an expansion of the LFG "must have Gjallarhorn" problem, in a way. People will naturally look for ways to elevate themselves above others, even if it's just "I had the money to buy this useless video game crap and level faster than you."

Yeah, it's a "my team is better than your team" thing. We're tribal by nature in some ways and people will find ways to split into tribes. The dark side of this kind of thinking is the star-belly-sneeches story that doesn't have a happy ending -- just the dude playing both sides off each other and getting rich.

I'm an armchair indie developer and have been following the rise of free-to-play and micro-transactions. They do, in some cases, make a good amount of money. They often do not have a good impact on the game. But sometimes they do -- and allow some games to exist where they otherwise would not. I think Destiny would be around either way.

I really enjoy destiny. Bungie has done something amazing with this game. But some of the MMO aspects are a little disturbing to me.

I guess logically I can't disagree with that. But I personally play the game how I want to play and ignore the fact that I am "behind" a large percentage of the player base that engages with the game in that way, so I don't give it much thought.

I usually do the daily story and crucible for the Legendary Marks. But if I don't get around to it, it doesn't bother me. I know plenty of people that HAVE to do those, or they're pissed because they "missed out" on 30 Legendary Marks. I just don't play the game the way a lot of folks do.

I'm with you, and I think we agree on how all this should work for people. I generally try to play like that. I'm not worried for myself. I'm worried for the people out there like my kids who are seeped in the mire of a bajillion kid-geared web games serving up micro-transactions to get ahead in what amounts to intellectual candy bars. My 6yo son wanted to spend $40 for a MONTH subscription to a minecraft PvP server. Said server was free to play, but if you paid you got a ton of perks. That can be worth it for people. But not for months worth of allowance for my 6 year old. Trick is, if he had had his way (i.e. he knew how to pay online) he would have just done it.

People can get exploited, and do, due to these kinds of systems. For the moment I'm trusting Bungie to do the Right Thing™. But that doesn't mean I'm going into it with my eyes shut.