General Gaming Thread

[TheWho87]

 

[RPS]

@=BK=

I am super close to completing all check marks in Isaac. Afterbirth and +. Once I 1,000,000% it, I'll be done (???) with the game. 

[Rocky]

FM 2012 isso hard to buy now. I can only find one copy available in my region and it's the same prices as fmt18

[stokeriño]

I only just discovered that Twilight Struggle was on Steam with a single player option. This is amazing.

My current impression of the AI is that it's very good at using cards in isolation, but not so good in considering the Scoring Cards (I.E. When all Scoring Cards are currently in the Discard Pile aside from Asia and Africa, and I have such a lead in Asia that I would score 11 points AND THEREBY WIN THE GAME...he spends his time dicking about in Central America instead. What.).

Also, I'm pretty sure the Space Race is rigged against me.  

[Benji]

I am having real fun trying to trophy hunt my old MP games. I've met some really nice folks through it. Still wish games didn't have MP trophies tho.

[Bobfoc]

EA Sports UFC 3 has been announced. It's being touted as having a deeper career mode and a new submission system. The release date is 2nd February 2018.

[Benji]

Picked up Street Fighter IV again briefly at the weekend. I forgot how weak this game actually is compared to Tekken. The movement and combos are not nearly as fun as Tekken's and it's shocking how much the series has been left in the dust in comparison.

[apsham]

COD: WW2 is.. actually pretty fun.

[MDK]

So it is that time of year again when gamers get the arse about something. This time it is Star Wars Battlefront II. Why? Something about Darth Vader and loot boxes.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

The deluxe edition is something like £80 and people are complaining that half the content is still locked. EA's initial response on Reddit was pretty shit and I think it's now the most downvoted comment ever on there.

[Bobfoc]

I've read that it's a pretty bad example of the "pay-to-win" business model. You can pay real money for extra health and better equipment, while those who've "only" bought the base game have to grind for hours upon hours.

[MDK]

No wonder people are pissed off. I hate that type of model. Okay, I have FIFA but it isn't quite that bad yet. And these companies wonder why piracy is still alive and well.

[OctoberRaven]

Honestly, why would anyone expect different from EA?

[Benji]

14 hours ago, MDK said:

So it is that time of year again when gamers get the arse about something. This time it is Star Wars Battlefront II. Why? Something about Darth Vader and loot boxes.

I mean, to be fair they are totally vindicated. 40 hours to unlock one character is absolutely fucking absurd. There's not many online games I've put 40 hours into full stop, let alone God knows how many hours just to get extra characters. Imagine you are a parent who buys the game to play in their limited down time and finds out you have to put 40 hours in to wreck shit as Vader. That ain't going to happen.

[Skummy]

15 hours ago, MDK said:

So it is that time of year again when gamers get the arse about something. This time it is Star Wars Battlefront II. Why? Something about Darth Vader and loot boxes.

This is above and beyond a "gamers getting arsey" situation, it's an extremely justified complaint about the state of the industry, and it's picking up mainstream coverage.

Where loot boxes are concerned, it's taking the "pay to win" model, and adding an element of gambling - it's not just "pay an extra £10 and you'll unlock Darth Vader, rather than having to play for 40 hours", it's "pay an extra £10 for the chance to unlock Darth Vader". It plays on all the same emotional responses as conventional gambling, but either because it's digital content or because there's no way you can "lose" (even if the loot box gives you a shitty prize, you still get a prize), it doesn't legally fall under the remit of gambling.

The optimistic side of me thinks that we could be about to see a sea-change in how this actually works - either external pressure and regulation forcing the industry to change and adapt (if loot boxes can be legally classed as gambling, developers would be unable to include them in a game with less than an 18 rating, for example, so you'd see them die out almost overnight as - with few exceptions - no one wants their game getting a rating that cuts out a significant chunk of your potential audience), or buyer boycotts. The latter I don't expect to happen, sadly, as chances are people will complain loudly but continue to buy the games regardless.

 

But, yeah, normally I'd be one of the first to suggest gamers get a bit of perspective about what they find worth complaining about, but I am 100% behind them on the loot box issue, it's insidious, greedy, manipulative, and detrimental to good game design.

[Ruki]

If it was a free to play game, sure, grinding for however long to get a character is fine. But when I'm dropping $60+ on a game, I expect to have access to everything. 

[MDK]

I hate the way video games have gone. Microtransactions are the worst.

Oh shit I had no idea they had literal slot machines in the game 

[9 to 5]

I have long being grumbling about kids being literally being able to gamble real money in a game, it is criminal.

[Bobfoc]

They get away with not calling it gambling because you technically always receive something in return for your money. However, it does still play on the compulsions of people with addictive personalities, which is especially concerning when you're targeting children. Some of the most popular Youtubers among young boys are those who buy FIFA Ultimate Team packs and "open" them on their videos, which is a little unsettling for me when you consider how easy it can be for a child to spend huge amounts of real money on a console that isn't password-protected.

I've never indulged in micro-transactions or bought a loot box because I'm genuinely worried about what it might lead to. I've been guilty in engaging in obsessive behavioural patterns during my life, and I'm not willing to even allow the slightest risk of this sort of thing entering my leisure time.

[RPS]

18 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

They get away with not calling it gambling because you technically always receive something in return for your money. However, it does still play on the compulsions of people with addictive personalities, which is especially concerning when you're targeting children. Some of the most popular Youtubers among young boys are those who buy FIFA Ultimate Team packs and "open" them on their videos, which is a little unsettling for me when you consider how easy it can be for a child to spend huge amounts of real money on a console that isn't password-protected.

I think what is important to point out is that is the legal definition of gambling and it was likely defined in terms of "receiving something in returns for your money" for very specific purposes. The definition of gambling could very well be redefined to include lootboxes. From my view, gambling is not exclusively spending money on the off chance you will receive a prize. Gambling, to me at least, is when an individual expends resources on an uncertain outcome, where the majority of outcomes will be of little or no value to the individual and where a slim minority of rewards will have significant value to to the individual.