Oh yay, a 20 minute video of a single, static camera shot.
To the topic, F2P isn't all bad. But, it is mostly bad.
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... and yet, scarier than any horror movie released in the last decade.
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It's an informational talk. That's how they work. People come in, a professional shares their experiences and skills, it's filmed to be uploaded. Not sure how you missed that. This and the second comment feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, so maybe I missed something.
F2P isn't the issue, I'd say. The issue is the predatory monetization system. This can and already has happened in premium AAA games (with price tags of $60 or even more). Abusing a customer base for extra money is scummy, no matter if the game's F2P or $60. That's what I'd say, at least.
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its banking on whales and not focusing on more smaller purchases.
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I think the reason for that is mainly because the whole structure's built around "recurrent user spending", a term which is actually used by most who are in that business.
A loot box with rarity systems, daily deals, temporary boosts, subscriptions. It's easy to sell digital goods a single time. Just give the user a shitload of in-game stuff for a relatively low price. So you have a semi-successful game and you sell a $2.50 package to 200,000 people in the first month, followed by lowered profits each time. Sure, it's profit, but it's very finite. So instead, have $10 packages (not cheap enough to entice most people, only the weaker willed ones) and make sure that the goods only look valuable. So they run out of currency quicker or maybe add a luck-based element, in which case you have a lootbox and each time they fail at getting a rare thing (a thing that costs you no money to give them to begin with) they just buy another chance (essentially gambling). Or be "more ethical" and have a timed item, like a boost. So every 24 hours you need to buy a new one since it just disappears. 24 hours is a good number too since it encourages people to play more since their investment's finite and it'll disappear and also a good portion of that 24 hours can't be used since most people sleep. Sell that boost in bigger packs for a cheaper per-boost deal. And boom, you have a successful system to get whales. Addiction's more reliable than goodwill.
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It's an informational talk. That's how they work. People come in, a professional shares their experiences and skills, it's filmed to be uploaded. Not sure how you missed that. This and the second comment feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, so maybe I missed something.
Lol, that doesn't make the video any more dynamic or entertaining to watch. I can criticize production quality without attacking the content.
Especially since this is old information, and can be found in half a dozen other more efficient forms, I don't see the need for ardent defense of its presented state.
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Nah, that's fair enough. I wasn't trying to aim at that. Just wanted to say that the style of presentation might not be good, but it's not meant to be. The focus is on the talent that they bring here. There's no real way to make the video more visually appealing, unless you're entertained by seeing the other side of someone's face every few seconds. I just hope people don't dismiss content they don't get visually drawn into when that's not the point of the content.
I'm not gonna claim that I haven't done the same thing. But I will say that I have missed out on good content because of it.
EDIT: I started responding before your edit. If you have those more efficient forms, I'd love to see them. It's an interesting topic and there's lots to learn. :)
No real ardent defense from me.
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Do they have multiple camera operators with dollies operating under a director of photography and a post-production team to edit a snappy documentary film at the work conferences you've been to? I'd be surprised if any of the conference presentations I've seen were even recorded let alone had a cinematographer trying to bring a storyboard artist's vision to reality.
"Pfft...Opus audio codec. Bob might have made some interesting points but unless there's a recording with at least five channels of audio in a lossless 24 bit, 192 kHz format like DTS-HD Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD, I guess I'll never know."
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https://www.steamgifts.com/go/comment/6ba025R
I can criticize production quality without attacking the content.
You’re three days late.
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I wasn't commenting on what could be done but what should be done. [clears throat] I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where conference seminars will not be judged by the cinematography of their recordings but by the content of their presentations.
(and now I'm six days late)
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I think people need to be cured of their love for opinion videos. Read a tautly written piece by someone who doesn't prattle on for far too long.
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Most cat videos are based on reactions though. Cat usually sees something and reacts to it. Not to mention the ones who film it tend to react too :/
Dang it, no cats :(
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Maybe it's not a video but a gif, but you can't say it is based on reactions ;)
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Well alright then professor, I guess based on newtons laws, pretty much everything ever is going to be a reaction to something. So no more videos.
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Lol, okay, thought we were being lighthearted here... :/
But yeah, if you have an incessant need to have some sort of fight... on such a broad topic... in a thread like this.. a topic which stemmed from a comment being literally just wrong and therefore also off-topic...
Most shit's based on reactions and opinions. Our internal biases run most things. Reviews, gone. You can't report any news now because our internal biases have influence over what we include and exclude from our reporting. Of course, any consumer or social advocacy is absolutely out and gone.
Congrats on banning critical thinking. No more opposing or supporting ideas. Nah, that's rough. There are dumb people out there, so let's get rid of it. This is ignorance at its finest. I can't disagree more with you. I'll be honest, I don't know what benefits you get out of blocking people from expressing themselves. If you had your way, the 50s wouldn't have seen the Civil Rights Movement emerge either. A literal reactionary movement that fought for civil liberties. Suffrage wouldn't have been established. Another reactionary movement started by the republican party.
What's the gain here? More so, what's the loss from having people express their opinion and reactions? More so, why are you going against your own rhetoric and even speaking up? No better way for blanket censorship to kick itself in the balls than vocally supporting it.
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Uhm, I was being lighthearted! :-)
It was the 'mock offended' card, with some absurdist logic to 'concede' your point, but i guess you didn't read it like that?
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No... I genuinely was! Sorry if you didn't see it that way.
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Got about a minute in but then stopped because I couldn't handle the constant lipsmacking.
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Don't disagree but I fail to see the relevance here though, this video is not an opinion video. It's one F2P developer speaking to other developers about making games.
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I think I'm blind or something right now. Where did the "opinion" video part come in? Or is the statement purposefully ironic? I'm probably just completely confused right now :D
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I got the wrong idea. The OP does not make it clear what he is linking to. And I don't click youtube links to find out what they are. Way too many are just some fool going on and on about some idea they have.
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The OP does not make it clear what he is linking to.
He says it's a video, he gives the title in the hyperlink and you can see the redirection leading to Youtube without even clicking it.
I mean, mistakes happen and it's fine, but no need to blame the OP for something that he's not at fault of. Anyways, it happens, so whatever.
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He doesn't make it clear that it is a presentation at a conference. I assumed it was another opinion video.
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+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1
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This video is like an "How to Skin Baby seals tutorial".
Educational but horrifying. A must see for every gamer, thou
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Damn, that was a good example to top notch capitalism.
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You haven't really tried to find with story then lol
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i dont, they do have some "story" but progression is either too long or need some incentive ($$$$$)
no thanks
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I personally haven't found an F2P game with any more of a story than "We need to do this, so let's go" with small snippets of dialogue.
Can you point me towards a few F2P games with good stories? I'd be down to try them out :D
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Oh, I completely forgot about this one! I didn't think they had a F2P model tbh. Thought it was just free.
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They have a subscription for some (monthly?) stories, and a microcurrency called Fate "Buy Fate to get premium content, extra storylines or faster progression."
But very enjoyable for free as well.
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Did homeboy give Derek Riggs money for using that devil from the Number of the Beast cover art, or did he F2P it?
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"I will leave morality of [those tricks] out of the talk" is probably the best subtitle for this movie, followed by "Make sure your games aren't too skill based, I made that mistake myself.".
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I like playing F2P card games like Hearthstone before and MTG Arena now, but never understood how to get more wins by paying. I guess I could pay some pro to coach me or something. Putting in 10 or 20 every now and then and getting hundreds of hours of entertainment is quite cheap value compared to buying some crappy AAA game for 60 that offers maybe 10-20h playtime.
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I play Hearthstone too. But to be honest, if you can master the arena, you can pretty much play for free. I have a friend who doesn't spend money on it, yet has managed several times to get to the top 5 ranks on the ladder. You need to average 5 arena wins though.
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You don't need to do that either unless you think you need to collect every card and not just enough for a strong deck or couple. Left HS for MTGA when it became public beta and can't even remember what the daily rewards were like there any more, but I know they feel much better on MTGA. And even if the game is 25yo it feels much fresher than stale HS, but that might just be because it's a new thing for me.
If anything the games are Grind2Win, paying to get all golden/foil/whatever cards hardly increases your skills and makes you win more.
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Heathstone is flat/repetitive and boring after a short time, in my opinion.
Try Faeria if you want something with much more tactical possibilities.
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Exactly why I uninstalled it when MTGA came out. Can't remember if I ever looked at Faeria, but Shadowverse was one I wanted to try for obvious reasons but never did.
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I do enjoy Hearthstone though. Although, I quit for a while since I was very sick after my surgery, and now that I'm back playing games more, I have just been playing tavern brawls and single player games over the past couple weeks or so. This weeks Tavern Brawl is similar to the Dragon Run. Have to beat 8 bosses with one of 4 heroes. Haven't touched the ladder because I don't have the cards yet to compete in those...yet. Been gathering gold from the quests.
As for MTGA, it's Windows-only, so out for me atm. I've seen Faeria alright, but... I have a massive backlog of Steam games XD. That's why I didn't buy it.
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You can play MTGA with Wine on both Mac and Linux.
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It's simple. You can either grind for months or even years to get all the cards you need to be able to compete with other players, constantly losing to people with much better cards and decks, or you can pay to get them instantly. That's inarguably pay-to-win. The exception is if you play Arena only.
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You still don't need all the cards for anything other than collecting. There have always been cheap strong decks that you can use to rank up, it's only if you want to play some specific super expensive deck that you need to grind a lot or pay.
Decks like this are for memes, not competitive play.
Decks like this are for making #1 Legendary.
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Not everyone enjoys constantly playing 1 or 2 budget aggro decks. Also, the 30 legendary deck is irrelevant. Certain legendaries are necessary if you want to play anything other than budget decks.
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Then you're paying for your own enjoyment, not to win the game, there is a clear difference. Also the dust system on HS allows you to just craft the deck you really want to play after a while. Several streamers like Trump have almost always managed to hit Legend ranks with a totally new F2P account in a month with only the 1 free Arena run. That clearly shows that you need skills to win, not paying. No amount of paying will give you more skills so you will just keep losing with your expensive decks.
Good thing MTGA has a much better reward system for F2P, you get lots of free packs and wildcards to craft any rare/mythic. That allows you to get tier 1 meta decks bit faster.
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Then you're paying for your own enjoyment, not to win the game, there is a clear difference.
They're not mutually exclusive... You're paying because you're losing to better cards/decks, while obviously trying to play the decks that you enjoy playing or want to play. You're both paying to win and to have fun. Also, a lot of players don't know how effective some budget decks can be, so they pay to win.
That clearly shows that you need skills to win, not paying. No amount of paying will give you more skills so you will just keep losing with your expensive decks.
Nonsense. No one is arguing that skills aren't required to win. And you're actually arguing that paying money to unlock some of the best cards in the game doesn't allow you to win more..? That's it then, you're too much of a fanboy and this is a completely pointless discussion. 'Nuff said.
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Late edit: Here he starts claiming I'm arguing something I'm not and calling me the fanboy he is, claiming everyone must pay a lot to enjoy the game at all. Then when I do the same I'm the dishonest one, makes perfect sense. And the whole time I was talking about winning and he was talking about enjoying, which are totally different things even if can have both at the same time.
You're arguing that paying more than the 10 or 20 couple times a year that I like to do is somehow required and allows you to win more while I'm arguing based on years of playing that it's all that's required to unlock some of those best cards, if you had bothered to read what I write. I'm paying that tiny sum because I'm not a tryhard, just a casual who wants to have fun and I view it as the same as buying a cheap game. Yet I manage to have the decks I want to play and no amount of paying more would make me win more in any way or form. You seem to imagine paying anything at all for a game makes it automatically Pay2Win, so every game on Steam must be?
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I wonder if you're ever not intellectually dishonest when you're in a disagreement with someone? Probably not.
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Huh? I wonder if you're ever not making things up when you're losing the disagreement? Probably not. But I guess your imagination means more than actual experience on the subject. Have you ever even played the game or just making things up based on rumors? I played HS from closed beta to when MTGA public beta came out, but not after because it got boring and stale.
Pay2Win does not mean that paying a tiny sum allows you to not spend time getting the same thing for free. This is the same as spending 20 to buy a game from Steam. Instead it means someone paying 1000 with no skills would always win over someone only paying 20 with great skills. Like the stupid mobile games the video is talking about. That is not anywhere near the case with HS or MTGA.
So once again, please provide me information on where do I insert more money to start winning more? Other than paying some pro for coaching etc.
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Not taking the bait. (Well, maybe a little bit.) You've proved time and time again that you're not interested in having an honest discussion with people you disagree with. All you do is try really hard to appear as if you've won the argument by discrediting them, be it through lying, twisting their words to fit your narrative, make baseless assumptions, etc, while being in total denial about every valid point they may have.
A few examples:
You're arguing that paying more than the 10 or 20 couple times a year that I like to do is somehow required
No. I never said that.
You seem to imagine paying anything at all for a game makes it automatically Pay2Win, so every game on Steam must be?
Nope, not even close to what I've said or implied.
But I guess your imagination means more than actual experience on the subject. Have you ever even played the game or just making things up based on rumors?
My imagination? You're the one living in a fantasy world where most people are interested in playing budget decks only (which are extremely limited), for the huge amount of time it takes to get the cards you need to play other decks competitively. And that paying to unlock some of the best cards in the game can in no way cause you to win more, which is a ridiculous idea for any honest person who has played this game for more than a couple of hours. I've played this game for years, actually. If I were to guess, I have around 1500 hours. I can both enjoy the game, have a lot of experience with it, and think it's P2W at the same time. Amazin, right?
I'm not wasting any more of my time on you. Now go on and do what you always do (be dishonest). I'll let you have the last words. I know you want it.
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You can either grind for months or even years to get all the cards you need to be able to compete with other players
You have 1500 hours but still it takes you years to grind your first meta deck, makes sense. Others are paying nothing and reaching Legend ranks in less than a month time and time again, how is that possible? Maybe you just suck at the game just like you suck at arguments when your only way to win is calling others dishonest when their opinions are backed by actual reality.
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I absolutely agree. As I've said, I have a friend... or well two of them actually who have F2P accounts and are in top 5 ranks all the time, when they want to be. Highest I've ever gotten is 9. I'm no where near as good as them. XD. I never have the cards to make the most expensive decks though, but I know a better player than I could get to Legend with the same cards. One of them had been giving me advice on how never to pay for HS. Haha! I did it anyway in the beginning because I was way behind on cards and needed a booster to start enjoying the game. After that, you can generate enough gold and dust to craft what you need.
You don't even have to be a top player. You just have to be a half-decent strategist.
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Highest I ever got was rank 3, rank 5 was easy to get after the they changed it so you can't drop from 20/15/10/5. But I seldom bothered playing more than doing the dailies and couple games every now and then when I felt like it so that wasn't enough to get Legendary with my skills and patience.
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It's a pretty insane video to see. It's one thing to give information, but he often inserts himself. He knows he's taking advantage of people and he knows he's lying to the consumers and he's not only proud of that, he also proclaims it to others to take note.
Well, for people who don't have an addiction to a F2P game or systems like that, it's enlightening since he's basically taking away the subconscious aspects of those tactics. But I doubt it helps those that are already addicted, sadly.
The dude's a scumbag, but we should also give him some props for accidentally making a financial dent into his own business model.
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Yeah, it's pretty disgusting. I was a top player in Evony Age1 over 10 years ago. I didn't actually spend much at all on the game. I was just good at it because I understood the range mechanics, like many people in my clan. No one could break my city purely because I knew exactly how to kill every wave coming in. Just took using their brains a little. Then the bots happened (people who hadn't a clue and thought they needed bigger armies to beat people like me and my clan) and I quit because I was not prepared to stay on every waking hour to keep up with relentless bot attacks. I would have to "truce" my account while I slept. Evony did nothing about the bots because they realised it was making people spend to stay safe offline. It was an addiction, to be honest. I decided not to play further into that addiction, but actually had to holiday my account for a bit so that my clan would get used to a new leader. Then, I gave the account away so I'd have no way back, essentially curing myself. Games like Clash of Clans are basically much-improved clones of that game, but... still prey on addiction.
Now, think of how addicting that game was. Log out, someone could wreck your entire account and you might have to start over from scratch. Years of time invested in the game would be gone. People shared passwords to watch each other in the reports so that offline players wouldn't be destroyed. A few members of my clan did get into the money thing in a big way and literally spent 1000's on the game. There was even a divorce in there after I left because of one guy spending all of his time on the game.
I logged into the clan Skype group years later and a group I knew was still playing. Most had quit by this stage though. The clan had won the server. There was nothing left to do. Evony refused to merge the servers because of the botting. Yet, these people were now running bots non-stop. They even bought more computers to feed their botting habit to have bigger accounts and armies. One guy was discussing his 5 computers currently running like it was totally normal. I questioned why they were behaving this way and they went on the defensive. I was so fricken sad to see that a game had reduced people to living like that.
It was the most unethical game I've ever played and several games have since copied it's model. They just left out the "log out you can die" but but kept the "Ooh look, get people addicted and they'll spend money" part. He doesn't specifically say it in that video but they are promoting addiction. The "hook." For some people, game addiction is just as terrible as alcohol or gambling.
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I rarely play mobile games. I think to myself, why play this cash shop microtransactions BS when I go play REAL games with NONE OF THAT.
I've been playing back super old backlog of GBA, DS, PSP and other games. In 10 years I'll probably catch up to Vita and Switch and then PC where all those games will have "gold" or "GOTY" or "Complete" versions and I don't have to wait for DLC for spend .99cents on BS.... I hate modern gaming!
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That applies to platforms and services but not so much F2P titles, because at the end of the day it is the user who's expected to pony up the cash.
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This is sadly now so deeply imbued in the AAA industry, that this things are happening:
https://kotaku.com/ubisoft-bans-player-created-assassins-creed-quests-that-1836294719
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I have a personal rule, to never spend money for ingame stuff which doesn't give me new content
So I never buy anything which is just aesthetics or time savers
I mostly don't play games that rely on you buying stuff anyway
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it's an old video so maybe you know it already. it got some coverage lately and that's how i found it, too.
obviously & most likely they have even more sophisticated ways to get into your heads and pockets by now.
Let’s go whaling: Tricks for monetising mobile game players with free-to-play
20 minutes to cure yourself of f2p / p2w trash once and for all.
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