Jim Sterling (The Jimquisition)

In the case of Anthem it's mostly the latter I think. Destiny 2 and Warframe are basically doing the thing, but successfully, Anthem being a raging trash fire is something else.

I admit I'm kinda hoping hoping the new Tom Clancy's: Wildlands crashes somewhat.

I think Jim summed it up nicely in the vid about that, where he said that for such a long-term investment like live services, AAA companies are too focused on short-term proffet to make it viable. Remember when Destiny was supposed to last ten years?

Anthem's an Audience-Alienating Premise. It's decent enough to be functionally playable, but Bioware's audience doesn't care about the shooter gameplay, the company itself is inexperienced with games that aren't story-heavy, and the uncertain base to start with already meant Anthem was one hell of a mountain to climb before it could be a success. And that's the best case scenario, now it's just been dying slowly over the last 6 months.

Isn't Warframe free?

On top of that, Bioware was already facing a bit of an internal crisis even before Anthem. That Anthem Kotaku article went in-depth on how Bioware was in deep shit already. Anthem merely exposed how deep the problems actually were.

Yes, Warframe is free-to-play. Which is why its microtransactions are more excusable.

Edited by M84 on Sep 18th 2019 at 9:41:27 PM

Only more excusable?

I don't particularly like microtransactions in free-to-play games, but I acknowledge that they're necessary for the games to exist.

After both Jim and Totalbiscuit defended the way Warframe does it's microtransactions, I'm inclined to believe their word that this is a slightly more acceptable case, although I've yet to see it for myself to confirm it.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Sep 19th 2019 at 7:04:32 AM

Well, almost nothing in Warframe is locked behind a paywall. Microtransactions give no gameplay benefits and are almost entirely cosmetic. (The ones that aren't would let you skip grinds rather than give you exclusive items - TB spoke at length about him being fine with pay-to-skip.) Which works out for them since dressing up your space ninja barbie is one of the main draws. You can earn the premium currency through the in-game economy somehow, though I wouldn't deign to know how it works.

Edited by GoldenKaos on Sep 19th 2019 at 11:45:05 AM

My point about Warframe being free wasn't about microtransactions (but if they're just cosmetic in an F2P game, fine); rather, it's that F2P like Warframe and Overwatch, and subscription-based games like World of Warcraft, have an incentive to keep improving and updating because they need to keep people spending money.

If the game is an up-front purchase, that incentive isn't there because they already have your money.

Oh, right.

Edited by VampireBuddha on Sep 19th 2019 at 11:57:15 AM

Overwatch isn't free to play. You need to buy the game first.

Paladins is tho. Probably more worth it too.

RuneScape Under Fire With Player Spending $62,000 On Microtransactions

...Why are there microtransactions in fucking Runescape?!

Edited by SomeNewGuy on Sep 19th 2019 at 1:22:01 AM

I know, right?!

Apparently, there's a metric fuckton of microtransactions in Runescape.

I'd even forgotten the game existed, honestly.

Sounds kinda like my brother. Shelled 10 grand out on buying an account to have it banned for RMT violations a few months later.

There has always been mictotransactions in Runescape from what I remember?

Runescape 3 right? I think the only thing you can buy in OSRS is bonds.

Since we're on microtransactions...

How much money have y'all actually spent on these things? Across all of the games you've played in your lifetime?

Looking back, I think I've spent maybe $20 or less on microtransaction stuff in my years of gaming. I generally avoid games with these systems.

I recall spending like 20 bucks around once or so on Fate/Grand Order before I eventually dropped it.

I have spent some in a browser based card game like a decade+ ago, some in Ragnarok Online, don't think I dumped anything into Wo W besides subscription and been clean zero on them since.

Even though I still play the occasional game with microtransactions, I don't actually spend anything anymore. The most I spent was in the cartel store in SWTOR. Thankful I realized how bad it was there, cause it's only gotten worse.

I've spent a little here and there on certain things. If I play a game a bunch, I'll consider chucking them a buck or two for the hours I put into it. I think I've put about £10-20 into Clash of Clans, which honestly has VERY fair and generous microtransaction system anyway. You get a steady and generous supply of gems in that game. Some to League of Legends (probably about £15) and some to Hearthstone (because it's TCG).

I have put quite a bit more into Overwatch (don't know how much exactly, probably north of £40, not including buying the game), which was - looking back - kind of addictive to buy.

The biggest one was Planetside 2. Bought my way into the beta, was a premium member, bought a lot of Planetside dollars to buy skins and hats so on - difference is I was deliberately trying to support the game I was regularly playing 3-5 nights a week with my outfit so that they could make it better and keep development going and meet their roadmap goals and so on. Then my internet got too shit to play properly and I had to step away, and also they got shit at actually doing that roadmap. Like, this was back in 2012/13 so it's essentially the same time the dumb Kickstarter shit was occurring, so it's easy to draw the parallels. About £100-150 most likely.

Edited by GoldenKaos on Sep 20th 2019 at 11:18:14 AM

40 bucks or so over my playtime in fire emblem heroes, and... I geniunely can't think of other cases.