I an so sick of the “just don’t buy it” response to people complaining about increasingly shitty practices. It’s like if someone pisses in the far side of the pool and other people decide they like the warmth so they tell you just to stay over on the far side - The pool is still tainted, and maybe next time the pool cleaners decide not to use chlorine…
It's not that you can't complain, but moreso that people are tired of reading about people getting ripped of over and over again.
It's getting old when the solution is so glaringly obvious.
Alternatively focus your grievances towards the company. That has a better chance of making an impact in reducing the tainted waters.
So in short: you have a right to complain, but we have a right to tell you that you are a part of the problem if you pre-order or support companies continually doing this crap.
All this while there are plenty of other companies worth supporting. Sure it isn't your favorite franchise, but we aren't surprised leopards ate your face, again. I gave up on all those games from these companies and have found a lot of enjoyment elsewhere. Sucks but I refuse to give them money that makes this a viable model for them to fuckup over and over.
Alternatively focus your grievances towards the company.
But why would the company care? They're marketing directly to a certain kind of person here. Anyone that would pay these prices - and plenty must pay because Blizzard hasn't blinked ONCE during any of this bullshit - has so much money that they wouldn't care if the colors were three times that.
Blizzard acts like their bread and butter is the upper-middle-class and it must be true because they don't change at all as near as I've been able to tell. Not only do their sales not take a hit, they just keep growing.
First they did it at EA, but I didn't say anything because I don't play EA games. Then they did it at Ubisoft, but I didn't say anything because I don't play Ubisoft games. Then they did it at Blizzard, but I didn't say anything because I don't play Blizzard games. Then they did it at fromsoft games, but I didn't say anything because I don't play fromsoft games. Then they did it at supergiant games, but I didn't say anything because I don't play their games.
Then they did it at every other fucking company because it was industry standard.
I know this is a metaphor, but where exactly do they exist? If you're in a public pool, it's not like you can go to another town and use theirs. And if it's your own, chances are you only have one.
Like drug addicts. You can't expect drug addicts to take all the blame. Sooner or later you have to realize that the supplier enabling the addiction is part of the problem.
That is a very good point regarding children and mentally challenged people. It does not excuse responsible adults though.
Like drug addicts. You can’t expect drug addicts to take all the blame. Sooner or later you have to realize that the supplier enabling the addiction is part of the problem.
That is not the most fitting comparison in my opinion. I think the solution for the drug problem is legalization of all drugs, free access to rehabilitation combined with thorough education and abuse prevention.
That may be true if you're into some F2P/gacha stuff, but not in a full-price game. These people just encourage more enshitification. Diablo used to have no microtransactions and was arguably a lot better too.
They're the reason these shitty practices are profitable in the first place. Don´t forget we are talking about Diablo IV here, which is a full priced game. Off topic you might have a point concerning F2P games though. However, even the F2P games that are not P2W are usually at least to a certain part "pay for functionality/content/convenience" and not just purely "pay for cosmetics". Because of this I think it´s generally better to pay once and get a full game for that.
Most people could buy palworld if they just cooked their own food instead of ordering.
Pretty silly to start saying this with Diablo really, when we can do the same with so many other products and services as well, Ofc it's really silly to charge 30 for a digital paintjob. But im not gonna police what other people do with their own money.
"Clean house" feels optimistic. Standard procedure for a buy out:
Executives are retained or let go with generous packages
Middle management is summarily executed
Someone sorts a spreadsheet of developers by salary and lays off the highest paid (and sometimes best, though no telling when we're talking about these two garbage fires)
Remaining developers are shuffled. Some are asked to move to teams that are doing wildly different things than what they were doing before. Some teams are filled with lower cost "resources" from other countries.
And PoE has some of the most expensive cosmetics I’ve seen and even they aren’t as bad as a $30 color variation portal. PoE balances it out because the game is free to play. What’s Diablo’s excuse?
And poe has much cheaper, frequently on sale, qol purchases.
Do I need a $2 currency storage tab? No. Will it make the game mildly smoother, and functionally be the "price" of the game for me if thats all I ever buy? Yup.
Do I get to play as much game as possible before I decide to "buy" the game and get my currency tab? Absolutely.
Cheap qol purchases for a f2p game makes the outrageous cosmetics far more acceptable.
I think the issue here is people knew Diablo 4 was filled with monetization, season passes, cosmetic items etc and they bought it anyway and are complaining about it after the fact. The correct way to respond to sleazy companies is to take your business somewhere else. Reward games for being good, not for being cash grabs.
I think I saw they said there is another update coming. Not sure how much actual content there is though. They specifically noted it's not an expansion / DLC. Just an update.
This may be an unpopular opinion but as I see it most of D4s microtransactions are fine (still a trash game but that's a different point). They're mostly just cosmetics. They only exist so that people who want to can throw money at the company. If you don't want to buy them then just don't buy them. Like this portal recolor one. Sure it's $30 but it isn't like there is any advantage to buying it. It's not giving you faster warps to town or more xp or anything like that. It's only there for you to throw money at blizzard and have a graphic showing that you threw money at blizzard. If you don't want to throw $30 at blizzard for no gain then don't throw $30 at blizzard for no gain. If a bunch of whales want to throw away their money on cosmetics then let them.
In addition to that jimquisition that another user commented, remember that its easy to say "it doesnt affect me if i dont buy it" but people do buy it. Some people spend silly money on cosmetics and if people keep dojng that then it encourages game companies to spend less time on making the games good and more time on pumping out cosmetics.
The proof is in tbe pudding. Games are mostly shit now.
These are massive companies whos sole aim is to make money, not entertaining games. They dont care, they will just follow the money.
This is mostly a me problem but I get mad at the very idea of someone spending $30 on a skin. That is such a clash with my values it's upsetting.
Like, I don't want to slide all the way down the "why spend any money on fun when people are starving" slope. I understand that people need some joy in their life.
But I just don't see how the skins in these games bring joy anywhere near the money charged for them. Like the title, you could buy a whole other smash hit game for that much money! Plus tons of other non game stuff. That's a small dinner with friends. That's a small band's concert.
So I just get kind of mad that people are spending their money on this stuff at all. It's not a good use of money. Stop it. Be better at money. Reminds me of an old friend's idiot brother that would blow his money on expensive not-bulk soda and candy when he needed a new keyboard. Like literally failing the marshmallow test.
But I can't control other people. Sadly.
That's before any of the "blizzard wants money. They see the huge ROI for this stuff. It's a better ROI than other content. They will make more skins instead of other content" train of thought.
But I just don't see how the skins in these games bring joy anywhere near the money charged for them.
The simple answer is that, for a fair amount of people, $30 isn't a notable purchase, such that it's not particularly a substitute for anything else they may be interested in doing.