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Penny Arcade - Comic - Late Capitalism

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited November 2017 in The Penny Arcade Hub

imagePenny Arcade - Comic - Late Capitalism

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here


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Posts

  • jwalkjwalk Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    I stand with PA, I will absolutely not pre-order this 12 year old PS2 game!
    61AZ%2BVuVS1L.jpg

    jwalk on
  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    I hope there's serious fallout over this game, and that enough people boycott it that EA loses money on it.

    I don't want to see Star Wars video games fail, but I do want to see EA fail. They are toxic to the industry and super anti-consumer.

    I fully 100% understand wanting to make money and understand that for the suits at EA, the video game industry is just another way to earn the dollars. But for the creators and developers it isn't just about money. It's about art. And those two things do not go hand in hand. You cannot have corporate mandates without destroying artistic vision in the process. And EA are murderers of artistry.

  • JackBeenJackBeen Registered User regular
    Typos in a Tycho post.

    OMG. The end of times is upon us!

  • JackBeenJackBeen Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    Even if their sales dip noticeably... it will still sell incredibly well.

    Most gamers and buyers don't really follow gaming "news" or read sites like this. It's OMG I CAN BE LUKE SKYWALKER or OMG ITS COD WITH LIGHT SABERS. Or parents saying "Timmy likes Star Trek so I think this game is a good stocking stuffer"

    So they'll make like 2 billion USD instead of 2.5 billion. Oh the horror.

    Will I get it? Perhaps. I just tend to play single player games so I'd like to play the (really short) SP campaign here. And my brother will be getting it, so maybe have something to play against him with since we don't hang as much as I'd like. But I definitely won't be paying any micro transactions.

    Am I part of the problem? Perhaps. But if my brother gets it then I'll sacrifice some ideals to play with him and make fun of the size of his light saber :-)

    JackBeen on
  • NamrokNamrok Registered User regular
    Lucascraft wrote: »
    I hope there's serious fallout over this game, and that enough people boycott it that EA loses money on it.

    I don't want to see Star Wars video games fail, but I do want to see EA fail. They are toxic to the industry and super anti-consumer.

    I fully 100% understand wanting to make money and understand that for the suits at EA, the video game industry is just another way to earn the dollars. But for the creators and developers it isn't just about money. It's about art. And those two things do not go hand in hand. You cannot have corporate mandates without destroying artistic vision in the process. And EA are murderers of artistry.

    For over a decade now I can't wrap my mind around how EA just keeps being EA. They've been just consummately evil the entire time I've been conscious of them. They murdered Origin, Bullfrog and Westwood, the trio of my favorite childhood developers. I'm sure the "EA Spouse" blog is as accurate today as it was then.

    They had maybe 2 years where they tried to not be evil. This is when Mirror's Edge came out, along with a few other more creative games. Apparently that was the first year EA lost money, so they just doubled down on being evil.

    I don't understand how anybody still buys EA games. How haven't they burned nearly every consumer on the planet at this point?

    Ok, consumers are idiots. That's an easy excuse.

    How haven't they so thoroughly alienated all the developers that keep lining up to fall into their maw? What fucking developer hasn't gotten the word that EA is going to murder them? How do they keep thinking it'll be different for them?

    I don't know what dark arts EA performs to keep this up. I suspect it has something to do with them going anything and everything to ruin companies they can't acquire.

  • PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    Battlefront 2 is a fun game, my son likes watching me playing it and I enjoy the nostalgia trip. You don't have to buy loot boxes if you don't want to other people killing you be damned.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
  • SadgasmSadgasm Deluded doodler A cold placeRegistered User regular
    Namrok wrote: »
    Lucascraft wrote: »
    I hope there's serious fallout over this game, and that enough people boycott it that EA loses money on it.

    I don't want to see Star Wars video games fail, but I do want to see EA fail. They are toxic to the industry and super anti-consumer.

    I fully 100% understand wanting to make money and understand that for the suits at EA, the video game industry is just another way to earn the dollars. But for the creators and developers it isn't just about money. It's about art. And those two things do not go hand in hand. You cannot have corporate mandates without destroying artistic vision in the process. And EA are murderers of artistry.

    For over a decade now I can't wrap my mind around how EA just keeps being EA. They've been just consummately evil the entire time I've been conscious of them. They murdered Origin, Bullfrog and Westwood, the trio of my favorite childhood developers. I'm sure the "EA Spouse" blog is as accurate today as it was then.

    They had maybe 2 years where they tried to not be evil. This is when Mirror's Edge came out, along with a few other more creative games. Apparently that was the first year EA lost money, so they just doubled down on being evil.

    I don't understand how anybody still buys EA games. How haven't they burned nearly every consumer on the planet at this point?

    Ok, consumers are idiots. That's an easy excuse.

    How haven't they so thoroughly alienated all the developers that keep lining up to fall into their maw? What fucking developer hasn't gotten the word that EA is going to murder them? How do they keep thinking it'll be different for them?

    I don't know what dark arts EA performs to keep this up. I suspect it has something to do with them going anything and everything to ruin companies they can't acquire.

    It's really not complicated, like every other corporation on the planet, they can abuse and cheat as much as they want because of how much money they have.

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    consumers in the main are short sighted and self-interested; like I dunno how many people are angry enough about EA shuttering westwood for it to actually influence their purchasing decisions, but it's not very many. They also have a lot of big brands that people want to buy (madden, star wars, etc)

    in general, consumers like microtransactions way more than anyone likes to admit. If they didn't this business model would've been an outright failure long ago

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • RavelleRavelle Registered User regular
    Boy cotting won't do much, the small portion of the internet compared to the regular consumer masses that doesn't browse the internet and is up to date with the latest controversy. Then there's the oblivious parents and grandparents buying video games for their kids/grand kids.

    D083uBC.jpg
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    in general, consumers like microtransactions way more than anyone likes to admit. If they didn't this business model would've been an outright failure long ago

    I think the more accurate statement is that "in general, consumers buy microtransactions way more than anyone likes to admit." I think saying they "like" them is a big leap. If freemium games have taught us anything, it's that people can dislike playing a game that they're still totally hooked on. Turns out if you plug into those lower level skinner box instincts, you don't have to care about the higher level critical thought processes.

    I fully admit that to the corporations, this is a distinction without a difference.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    JackBeen wrote: »
    Even if their sales dip noticeably... it will still sell incredibly well.

    Most gamers and buyers don't really follow gaming "news" or read sites like this. It's OMG I CAN BE LUKE SKYWALKER or OMG ITS COD WITH LIGHT SABERS. Or parents saying "Timmy likes Star Trek so I think this game is a good stocking stuffer"

    So they'll make like 2 billion USD instead of 2.5 billion. Oh the horror.

    And the usual industry reaction to making a lot of money but not all of the money is to double the fuck down on stuff like this.

  • InvertinInvertin Registered User regular
    "Boycotting it won't work so I might as well buy it anyway"

    That's... The most fatalistic self-defeating nonsense I've ever seen.

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    I wasn't gonna buy it before and I'm still not, for several reasons (no money and too many other games already being the big ones).

    I still agree, nope, it won't work. We're doomed.

    Eat Arby's.

  • ProwlingmonkeyProwlingmonkey Registered User regular
    Give 'Pew Pew' alternatives then. Seems these big companies respond a bit more to seeing people flock to something else than just absence of a 'potential' customer they can't see.

  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    Invertin wrote: »
    "Boycotting it won't work so I might as well buy it anyway"

    That's... The most fatalistic self-defeating nonsense I've ever seen.

    For only $.99 you can buy a fatilist doubler or for $2.99 you can eat Arby's.

  • Zoku GojiraZoku Gojira Monster IslandRegistered User regular
    I can’t even really pretend that I was interested in a Battlefield version of Star Wars in the first place. So count me in for the boycott, I guess.

    Maybe it’ll help ensure that this loot box pay to win pachinko parlor crap doesn’t infect Titanfall 3.

    "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
  • desrdesr Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    My friends were really hyped for this game and even though I quite dislike SW (don't torch me pls :P ) I was going to buy it to play with them.

    At the moment not a single one of my friends intend on buying it anymore, even though they were very impressed by it, so I'm off the hook too :)

    desr on
  • Skull2185Skull2185 Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    I can’t even really pretend that I was interested in a Battlefield version of Star Wars in the first place. So count me in for the boycott, I guess.

    Maybe it’ll help ensure that this loot box pay to win pachinko parlor crap doesn’t infect Titanfall 3.

    Titanfall 3 is doomed. :(

    Star Wars is a huuuuuge thing, and when you fuck it up this badly, it has a far reaching effect. Titanfall is awesome, but not exactly a beast of an IP even in the videogaming world. EA will choke the life out of Respawn and Titanfall with a belt around the neck and there will only be a relatively quieter backlash.

    Skull2185 on
    Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
  • T-DangerT-Danger Registered User regular
    I've honestly never understood how lootboxes have become so popular and profitable over the last few years in games. I get the appeal of paying a small amount of cash and getting some random goodies, with the hope of getting something really cool/useful. But after a point, don't people logically get sick of constantly shelling out and receiving random crap they don't want, and would rather just pay directly for the things they're after? Or don't bother with lootboxes after they get what they want? Sure, you're making lots of cash for a while, but surely that drops off fairly quickly, to the point where it's not worth the effort.

    Shortsighted and greedy as EA are, you'd think even they wouldn't be stupid enough to go full hog on this as much as they've done on Battlefront II, without realising its going to bite them in the ass in some fashion.

  • YoungFreyYoungFrey Registered User regular
    T-Danger wrote: »
    I've honestly never understood how lootboxes have become so popular and profitable over the last few years in games. I get the appeal of paying a small amount of cash and getting some random goodies, with the hope of getting something really cool/useful. But after a point, don't people logically get sick of constantly shelling out and receiving random crap they don't want, and would rather just pay directly for the things they're after? Or don't bother with lootboxes after they get what they want? Sure, you're making lots of cash for a while, but surely that drops off fairly quickly, to the point where it's not worth the effort.

    Shortsighted and greedy as EA are, you'd think even they wouldn't be stupid enough to go full hog on this as much as they've done on Battlefront II, without realising its going to bite them in the ass in some fashion.

    People keep doing it because gambling is exciting. It's why MMOs work, if WoW gave you the loot you wanted after an equivalent amount of playtime, it'd have closed up shop years ago. Loot boxes just abstract the monster drops out a step. fundamentally, killing X monsters and looting them is no different from killing X monsters to get a crate that contains what you would have looted from them. This allows them to be simultaneously sold for actual money. I'm not supporting this industry shift. But human beings (and almost everything else) react very positively to random positive reinforcement. Rewarding a behavior every time is way less effective than rewarding it some of the time. In a way it's surprising it took the industry this long to get here.

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    MichaelLC wrote: »
    Invertin wrote: »
    "Boycotting it won't work so I might as well buy it anyway"

    That's... The most fatalistic self-defeating nonsense I've ever seen.

    For only $.99 you can buy a fatilist doubler or for $2.99 you can eat Arby's.

    How much do I need to pay to not eat at Arby's?

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    YoungFrey wrote: »
    People keep doing it because gambling is exciting.

    This is exactly it. I didn't really get the connection until Shut Up and Sit Down talked about how random cards in packs like in MtG and Pokemon was "gambling for kids." (And adults, of course, but... kids, geez, how low can you get?)

    This also relates to my earlier reply to the claim that (paraphrasing) "people must secretly like microtransactions because they keep paying for them." It's like the defense that people really "like" slot machines because they keep feeding money into them. It's a word that plots on a different axis than people's connection to gambling. "Like" ain't got nothing to do with it.

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    T-Danger wrote: »
    I've honestly never understood how lootboxes have become so popular and profitable over the last few years in games. I get the appeal of paying a small amount of cash and getting some random goodies, with the hope of getting something really cool/useful. But after a point, don't people logically get sick of constantly shelling out and receiving random crap they don't want, and would rather just pay directly for the things they're after? Or don't bother with lootboxes after they get what they want? Sure, you're making lots of cash for a while, but surely that drops off fairly quickly, to the point where it's not worth the effort.

    Shortsighted and greedy as EA are, you'd think even they wouldn't be stupid enough to go full hog on this as much as they've done on Battlefront II, without realising its going to bite them in the ass in some fashion.

    Paying directly for the things they're after would constitute or simply be interpreted as "pay 2 win," which is why you rarely see games do it. You'll see premium packs with a more narrow scope of prizes, before an a la carte buy.

    It won't drop off after a while because they generally release new content in the boxes over time too... wasn't going to buy this game before because I imagine it has a million multiplayer achievements that will take forever to complete, so I don't have a horse in this race.

    Also Star Trek is better.

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    MichaelLC wrote: »
    Invertin wrote: »
    "Boycotting it won't work so I might as well buy it anyway"

    That's... The most fatalistic self-defeating nonsense I've ever seen.

    For only $.99 you can buy a fatilist doubler or for $2.99 you can eat Arby's.

    How much do I need to pay to not eat at Arby's?

    A tiny bit of self-worth and preservation.

  • Skull2185Skull2185 Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    MichaelLC wrote: »
    Invertin wrote: »
    "Boycotting it won't work so I might as well buy it anyway"

    That's... The most fatalistic self-defeating nonsense I've ever seen.

    For only $.99 you can buy a fatilist doubler or for $2.99 you can eat Arby's.

    How much do I need to pay to not eat at Arby's?

    For $10 a month, I can offer you the chance to not eat Arby's.

    You'll receive 1 crate a month, and it will either be empty or contain a Beef n' Cheddar sandwich.

    Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    Skull2185 wrote: »
    dennis wrote: »
    MichaelLC wrote: »
    Invertin wrote: »
    "Boycotting it won't work so I might as well buy it anyway"

    That's... The most fatalistic self-defeating nonsense I've ever seen.

    For only $.99 you can buy a fatilist doubler or for $2.99 you can eat Arby's.

    How much do I need to pay to not eat at Arby's?

    For $10 a month, I can offer you the chance to not eat Arby's.

    You'll receive 1 crate a month, and it will either be empty or contain a Beef n' Cheddar sandwich.

    Okay, I'm interested. Do you have any kind of "loot booster" that can decrease my odds of getting the sandwich?

  • Skull2185Skull2185 Registered User regular
    I offer "Skull's Fun-Bags" for $5 a piece. You can also get "Skull's Jumbo Fun-Bags" which is a pack of three for $10(BEST VALUE)

    Should you obtain a sandwich in your crate, simply use one of the durable, black plastic fun-bags. Place the sandwich inside, and then leave the fun-bag in the nearest garbage can!

    Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
  • OverkillengineOverkillengine Registered User regular
    Don't forget to drink the verification can that comes with the game as a pre-order bonus!

  • KalTorakKalTorak One way or another, they all end up in the Undercity.Registered User regular
  • YoungFreyYoungFrey Registered User regular
    KalTorak wrote: »

    So. Bets on when micro-transactions are coming back. I assume it'll be shortly after The Last Jedi comes out.

  • Skull2185Skull2185 Registered User regular
    It was mentioned in the AMA that they were looking at instituting cosmetic only loot boxes. They'll probably bring the microtransactions back when those are ready. This would be fine with me, as long as everything else stays only earnable in game and the grind is reduced to reasonable levels.

    Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
  • Skull2185Skull2185 Registered User regular
    Also that should be an apology from EA, not some poor schmuck from DICE.

    Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
  • InvertinInvertin Registered User regular
    edited November 2017
    This is the sort of thing EA do and have done in the past. They've already decided via market research and whatever else that their system is going to work and get them ridiculous amounts of money, so all they have to do is make tiny "changes" to it when people complain to make it look like they're fixing the problem and make the outrage outdated.

    E.G sure it won't take 40 hours of grinding to get a single lootbox anymore, but it'll take 30. Sure you can't buy lootboxes, but you can buy currency to buy lootboxes with. Sure, you can't buy the currency anymore, but you can buy this resource booster that allows you to grind for the currency faster.

    It's just a rabbit hole of false compromises.

    Invertin on
  • jwalkjwalk Registered User regular
    apparently if you buy the $80 "deluxe" version you still get enough loot crates to upgrade a couple of your character/classes to nearly max, on day 1..

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