Ubisoft: Microtransactions make games more fun
Ubisoft: Microtransactions make games more fun
In a move that feels straight out of the "Did they really say that?" playbook, Ubisoft now claims that microtransactions don't just boost revenue—they actually make games more fun.Marcus Persson (Gamereactor)
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#Sunset #Reflections 2 - #Luna #Park By Kaye Menner #Photography Wide variety #Prints & lovely #Products at:
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![**ACHIEVED 2ND PLACE IN Early Morning or Late Afternoon or Night in Austra...
By Kaye Menner Photography
https://fineartamerica.com/contests/early-morning-or-late-afternoon-or-night-in-australia-photography-only.html?tab=leaderboard
Photograph of the infamous Luna Park at golden hour showing its reflections and the sunset sky in the harbour / harbor. I captured this image towards the end of the festivities of the Australian Navy Centenary in October, 2013.
Golden hour can have so much power and make photographs look seemingly different to their normal daytime view. I await this time of day for the amazing light/glow and hue that the sun offers our planet Earth whilst setting.
[From Wikipedia]
Luna Park Sydney (originally Luna Park Milsons Point, also known as Sydney's Luna Park) is an amusement park located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Luna Park is located at Milsons Point, on the northern shore of Sydney Harbour.
Luna Park is one of two amusement parks in the world that are protected by government legislation; several of the buildings on the site are also listed on the Register of the National Estate and the NSW State Heritage Register. The park has been utilised as a filming location for several movies and television shows.](https://social.trom.tf/photo/preview/640/29966255 "**ACHIEVED 2ND PLACE IN Early Morning or Late Afternoon or Night in Austra...
By Kaye Menner Photography
https://fineartamerica.com/contests/early-morning-or-late-afternoon-or-night-in-australia-photography-only.html?tab=leaderboard
Photograph of the infamous Luna Park at golden hour showing its reflections and the sunset sky in the harbour / harbor. I captured this image towards the end of the festivities of the Australian Navy Centenary in October, 2013.
Golden hour can have so much power and make photographs look seemingly different to their normal daytime view. I await this time of day for the amazing light/glow and hue that the sun offers our planet Earth whilst setting.
[From Wikipedia]
Luna Park Sydney (originally Luna Park Milsons Point, also known as Sydney's Luna Park) is an amusement park located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Luna Park is located at Milsons Point, on the northern shore of Sydney Harbour.
Luna Park is one of two amusement parks in the world that are protected by government legislation; several of the buildings on the site are also listed on the Register of the National Estate and the NSW State Heritage Register. The park has been utilised as a filming location for several movies and television shows.")
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Sal
in reply to Nemeski • • •This is something only an out of touch suit with a buying addiction would say.
I don't care about what people buy for themselves, but implying it enhances the game in any way is extremely stupid. This is why suits ought to stay away from videogames.
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Kichae
in reply to Sal • • •like this
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fckreddit
in reply to Nemeski • • •like this
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Omega
in reply to Nemeski • • •If implemented in a specific way, I actually agree.
Getting thousands of lootbox cosmetics unlockable through MTX or by normal playing is awesome. The MTX funding means the devs can continue to support the game.
Having 10 minor variations on one cosmetic or making unlocks incredibly time consuming is not. Not to mention the millions of other ways they can undermine gamers over greed.
Railcar8095
in reply to Omega • • •like this
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Omega
in reply to Railcar8095 • • •I agree. That's why I said they need to be earnable. I'm not paying for them.
The MTX option just ensures that the devs put time into making them. At least that's how it's worked in some games that did it right.
nman90
in reply to Omega • • •Omega
in reply to nman90 • • •It definitely depends. You need to keep people engaged, so a lot of the time there's still development on good content. But the good content that doesn't fit in the MTX scope is cut.
And I mentioned the flood of bad cosmetics. Although I think fluffing the cosmetics is more about artificially extending replay value for grinders and giving deep purchase incentives for whales. In my experience, the purchase incentives are terrible (expensive) compared to just playing. Then again, I don't buy MTX. So if I'm not advancing without paying, I'm likely to just quit.
SpikesOtherDog
in reply to Nemeski • • •Mosfar
in reply to SpikesOtherDog • • •SpikesOtherDog
in reply to Mosfar • • •shani66
in reply to Nemeski • • •Nikls94
in reply to Nemeski • • •chromodynamic
in reply to Nemeski • • •Quite the opposite in fact. Microtransactions offer the promise of fun, but never deliver, because in order to incentivise users to purchase them, the player must feel like the game is 90% of the way to being fun and that tiny additional purchase will get it there.
It's like the cartoon image of the donkey rider holding a carrot on the end of a rod. The donkey keeps moving to try to get the carrot, but never quite reaches it.
Zedd_Prophecy
in reply to Nemeski • • •randomaside
in reply to Nemeski • • •I've felt that the introduction of micro transactions was the beginning of the end of videogames. There is no reason to push boundaries inside of an industry as an artist when it is so heavily commoditized down to your basic attention in seconds.
I think maybe we need a little history to understand how we got here from gaming meaning gambling, to pinball, to "video" gaming, to Electronic Entertainment as a whole to realize where the boundaries are supposed to be.
Deceptive business practices need to be put in check. Consumer protection needs enforcement otherwise there would still be lead in everything you touch.
Who needs artists pushing boundaries when it's legal to sell heroin.
Gurei
in reply to Nemeski • • •LordCrom
in reply to Nemeski • • •I go back to history of games. My favorites through time...not 1 of them had micro transactions.
Uncharted...none
Eye of the beholder and all early DnD games...none
Civilization (up to about civ 4)...none
And pretty much all pc games before 1989.
Just create and sell me a finished game on media I can keep. Why is this so fucking hard nowadays
Rekorse
in reply to Nemeski • • •Pycorax
in reply to Nemeski • • •I mean they're not technically wrong, if it wasn't fun for people, people wouldn't be buying them. Considering the context and all, I guess it makes sense. There's too many whales enabling them. We get the games we voted with our wallets. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Headline makes it a bit misleading that Ubi thinks it's referring to all their players, but the actual line does say specify that it's for people who choose to buy them.
imetators
in reply to Pycorax • • •I am not a psychology major or anything, but isnt it that microtransactions are designed in such a way that they hook players in not by being fun but by being a literal gambling? Or in case no lootboxes, FOMO? Like LoL once done with many skins stating "It is a one time possible to purchase, never comes back like ever!!!1!11" to later sell them once again.
Back in a day you either customize game yourself by downloading mods and models, or you earn your fancy skins by being good at the game. Today it is just a purchase. There is no fun in cosmetics beside bragging about them. There might be fun in pay to win, but not for those who doesn't pay. Neither it is healthy fun.
Pycorax
in reply to imetators • • •I mean I get what you mean and I do agree that it plays a factor but your example here only makes a lot of sense for multiplayer games. CoD is a really good example of this in my opinion. The skins there are ridiculous and the amount of effort they spend to show it off is absurd for a full priced triple A game. On the other hand, most of Ubisoft's games are singleplayer so this FOMO effect doesn't really apply for those games.
I also don't think we can deny the agency of the player too if they do choose to make these purchases. If someone does do their research and justifies the micro transactions after looking at it rationally, is it fair to say that they've been completely manipulated? I've personally given money to EA for Titanfall 2's prime titan skins because I felt that it was a good value and wanted to support it. So I think there are somewhat more ethical micro transactions.
squaresinger
in reply to Pycorax • • •Have you ever watched someone play Candy Crush? It's full-on manipulative. "Oh, soo close! You almost managed to beat this level! Don't let this chance escape! Just pay 5 gems and you can continue!"
There are certainly different kinds of players and some are more or less easily manipulated. But somebody who manages to stay rational wouldn't play Candy Crush eitherway. If you tell them beforehand that they have to pay €200 to play this stupid minigame they'd ask you what you are smoking. But with microtransactions it's quite easy to draw money out of somebody's pockets.
People like that have as much agency over their microtransaction spending as a smoker has over their next cigarette or a gambling addict has over playing the next bet. The mechanics of microtransactions are often close to identical to the mechanics of gambling.
Pycorax
in reply to squaresinger • • •squaresinger
in reply to Pycorax • • •Tbh, I don't think that Candy Crush is an extreme example. On mobile this is more the norm than an outlier.
And even on PC, there are far worse examples, like games that allow you to resell lootbox content, which is literal gambling. It's a scratch card with extra steps.
Literally the only point for microtransactions to exist (versus e.g. expansions/DLCs) is to split up the cost into smaller chunks so that players lose track of how much they actually spent.
"I'm not paying €50 for a handful of cosmetic items" becomes "I'm just paying 20 gems for this one cool item, and then I'm going to do it again and again and again."
The very concept of microtransactions is to hide the cost to manipulate and exploit players.
Otherwise they'd just release an expansion or a large DLC with all the content in it for a fair price.
Remember how everyone laughed at the horse armor? Well, that's standard now.
Flames5123
in reply to Nemeski • • •