Jim Sterling (The Jimquisition)

EA gives up on lootboxes for SW:BF 2 and goes for cosmetic microtransactions

So how long until you can buy a pink Darth Vader?

Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.

There's a mod for that already.

And that's going to stop EA from doing it how exactly?

Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.

I feel this was a bit...forced.

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

That's entirety of VSWID, circlejerk memes with intentionally bad grammar. Not exactly high-brow.

edited 18th Mar '18 8:12:52 AM by UltraWanker

Oh, EA may definitely do it. But they won't get a penny for it as the mod already exists for free. Unless they want to ban mods being used.

edited 18th Mar '18 5:54:42 PM by TamH70

Don't give them ideas.

Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.

Jim fires a broadside at the excessively expensive "Collector's Edition" video games that...do not even include the actual video game they're promoting?

"What?! What the f**k?!"

Seriously though, they don't even bother to include the actual video game in a DVD installer or thumb drive installer^note (for those who think optical disc drives are obsolete)? Or at least a redeemable code for the game if they can't be arsed to make an installer? (Nevermind that a digital download depends on a stable, constantly-on Internet connection...)

Talk about a Violation of Common Sense... It's just as bad as video games that aren't sold as a single, "complete" bundle (read: base game + all available Expansion Pack/s or DLC)—especially if the video game in question has been out for years now.

edited 19th Mar '18 9:20:31 AM by IncognitoNinja

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

I went into the video thinking this was just gonna be about collector's editions that included download codes and/or the mentioned "digital deluxe" editions, speaking as someone who'd prefer a pretty physical copy to look at than anything.

And people fall for this... how? It's like Jim said, there's games that offer better value with their editions both past and present, and yet looks like all the big releases are still pulling this "game not included" card and I can only assume that's because it works.

Imagine going to Mc Donald's, ordering a chicken tenders combo; and all they give you are the drink, fries, and Szechuan sauce. Sure, you only got the combo for the sauce, but where's the goddamn chicken?

🏳️‍⚧️she/her | Vio Rhyse Alberia

Won't be long till we have to start kickstarting the next Final Fantasy

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.

x2 Exactly. (Slight personal story time ahead.)

While most of the games I get on Steam nowadays are digital downloads, I remember buying a physical copy* of Empire: Total War when I got my gaming rig back in 2013. (Yes, it had ye olde optical disk drive that was removed when it was replaced with newer parts in 2016.) T'was also my first legit copy of a video game with Steam and where I started going mostly legit, as the pirated version of Empire was still bugged AF.

And get this: The physical copy of Empire: Total War included another disc and a redeemable code that unlocked the game's Warpath Campaign and Elite Units DLCs. (As well as the instruction manual and an art booklet that looks like a "Letter of Marque" with leather wrap/cover.)

Makes me wish Creative Assembly—or rather, their publisher overlord SEGA—released complete editions of their older PC games similar to that copy of Empire instead of making me search every nook and cranny of Steam for known expansion packs or hidden pre-order bonus DLC (like the Fox Company Rangers in Company of Heroes 2).

(* Note: I also have an old two-disc CD copy of Dune 2000 in an "EA Classics" package as well as a pre-Steam "Game of the Year" edition of Dawn of War that included the Winter Assault expansion. So yes, I don't mind a legit physical copy of a video game I like—even if digital distribution seems more convenient these days.)

What I'm saying is: If you're gonna sell a "Collector's Edition" of a video game, then make sure to include the complete damn game in it!

edited 19th Mar '18 10:17:46 AM by IncognitoNinja

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

The moral of the story is to just buy video games after they came out and you've seen good reviews.

That's the moral of a lot of stories surrounding skeevy business practices from publishers.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Blossom Tales sells 20x more on Switch than Steam, further showing how hostile Steam Direct is to actual indy games.

Well, to be frank, 2D Zelda-esque titles have been floating around on Steam for years and have been a very niche market for just as long. The whole lack of indie visibility was just magnifying an already existing trend here - Blossom Tales was always going to sell better on the Switch. It was just a question of how much better.

edited 21st Mar '18 7:55:32 AM by TotemicHero

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

Do you have any recommendations for 2d Zelda clones (not just on steam just in general

Anyways a bit late to the collectors edition part but this recent video from Dunkey comes to mind

edited 22nd Mar '18 9:37:45 AM by GraymanofBelka

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?

If you want 2D Zelda-esque or other video game recommendations, go here.

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LYVAIrvYi4&t=104s - Ten Worst Types Of DLC In History

Hold on, lemme get that embed for you.

In no particular order I'd assume, as all ten are pretty bad:

• 10: DLC endings, citing Asura's Wrath and Prince of Persia (2008) as the two biggest offenders here. The trend took off around when the games industry was first trying to introduce ways of making people pay buck directly to them on used copies.
• 9: Unlockable "cheat codes" that you pay for, the examples give here include Skate 2, the Tales Series, and ESPECIALLY Dead Rising. It goes back to what he said before about paying extra money to skip playing the game and how that devalues the game.
• 8: On-disc DLC, something many games have practiced though Street Fighter X Tekken remains the poster child for it. The big issue here (past paying for things you technically already own) is it's false advertising, as the content isn't downloadable- just time locked and behind a paywall.
• 7: In-game DLC, stuff that the game itself nudges you towards by reminding you that you can buy stuff from within the game experience. A PGA game was marked as one of the worst offenders here, but of course Dragon Age: Origins remains the most mocked.
• 6: Pre-order DLC! You know how it works, pre-order the game ahead of time or else you don't get the full experience; and of course individual retailers getting their own exclusive DLC can prevent anyone from getting the full experience at all come launch. Transformers: War for Cybertron is singled out here, and some shade is tossed towards Hyrule Warriors too.
• 5: Carved content, that is to say when games remove features that were in the base game of a previous entry just to resell it as DLC in a sequel. The Sims 4 is the most blatant example of it, with the base game containing significantly less content than its predecessor.
• 4: DLC... for DLC! Yes, it exists, thanks Sims 4! This is DLC you can only buy for the DLC you already own. ...I can't believe this exists.
• 3: "Pay to win bullshit," in Jim's words. Unsurprisingly Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) is the crown coal of this category, but EA's been doing it for a while- purposefully making the good stuff grindy so that the only way to have a fighting chance is to pay more money.
• 2: Hope you didn't forget about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, because remastered DLC is still a terrible thing that exists! If you've followed Jim for a while you know the story- most remastered games have all the DLC while Modern Warfare Remastered didn't, and what's more is it marked up the price on its DLC because of course.
• 1: Save slots! #FucKonami for this one, as Metal Gear Survive makes players pay ten dollars just to have an extra save slot for the game. It's borderline not even DLC as there's no real "content" and you're just handing Konami ten dollars for nothing, to paraphrase Jim.

And an honorable mention goes to launch day DLC.

edited 26th Mar '18 9:00:28 AM by NesClassic

🏳️‍⚧️she/her | Vio Rhyse Alberia

A Jimquisition video that has contains both "Oh, Ubisoft!" and "Fuck Konami News" segments? This must be serious...

6 and 5 are the ones that struck a little too close for comfort, as these two are in Total War: Rome II.

6. Pre-order DLC: The "Greek States Culture Pack" (which contained Epirus, Athens and Sparta) was this. "Pre-order Rome II and get this culture pack for free," they said. Pre-order DLC for a game is already irksome. But pre-order DLC for a game that turns out to be an incomplete, bug-ridden mess is much worse. No wonder Joe got real angry. ^NOTE While continuous patches eventually fixed most of Rome II, the point remains that pre-ordering remains a risky business, and pre-order DLC exacerbates things to the detriment of consumers.

5. Carved content: This is the impression I get from the "Beasts of War" and "Blood and Gore" packs. Want to play with Camel Cataphracts or have realistic bloody battles? Then you gotta buy those packs! Ditto the other Culture Packs that unlock new factions and units. Made even more egregious since in the original Rome: Total War, you can unlock factions by conquering them (which increased the game's replayability). Or by editing a text file in the game's folder.

I hate paying full price for DLC. Whenever possible, I buy them at a discount (75%) or find a legal method to get them for free. So whenever I see games that don't give 75% discounts for older DLC (or a "complete edition" of a game that never goes lower than 35% or 50% off), I take it as a sign of good old avarice on their end. After all, isn't DLC just virtual crap anyway?

Too bad the Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense "gamers" encourage such shitty business practices from those publishers in the first place.

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

Not sure if No True Scotsman is the solution this one there.

Yeah, I agree. It is not like there is some inherent deeper meaning to being a gamer. It is, at its core, a hobby. That is not to say that video games cannot be art, but there is no benefit in engaging with the No True Scotsman trope since they are gamers, and pretending otherwise allows for the more toxic elements of both the community and industry to fester.

Don't catch you slippin' now.

Not all DLC is bad, mind, and Ya Boi has talked about good examples of it a few times before.

It's just a matter of it giving you actual content for your buck as opposed to being more busywork. Compare something like, say; the expansions for The Binding of Isaac and how the stuff there can substantially change how you approach the game, to something like Batman: Arkham Knight just giving you more of the same for most of its DLC.

And of course there's the swathes of games that use DLC to make more money on long-term player retention, in a world where Splatoon and Monster Hunter and Overwatch, lootboxes aside give their playerbase all that for free.

🏳️‍⚧️she/her | Vio Rhyse Alberia

@ UltraWanker and Kakuzan: Well, what's the general, colloquial term for people who like video games?

Perhaps I should have used the term "whales" to refer to that particular subset of gamers/gaming enthusiasts, but that makes me sound no different from those publishers Jim rails against.

OK, maybe it's arguable whether the so-called "whales" are Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense. Perhaps there are rich gamers who also want to get good-value video games for the money they spend. However, there are "whales" who are still willing to throw their money at publishers known for nickel-and-diming their customers...which encourages those publishers to nickel-and-dime their customers some more.

edited 28th Mar '18 7:24:32 AM by IncognitoNinja

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

I think people were mainly taking issue with the quotation marks around gamers, it made it look like you were saying people who support these practices aren't real gamers. That's where the No True Scotsman accusations come from.