Bioware's "Anthem"

yeah, that's definitely some over-the-top doom-saying. there's definitely a point to be made about not standing your ground though.

Where are people getting this $20 number from? Just because the number said 2000 doesn't translate into $20.00. That's your doing. Fucking fake news, jesus people.

I'm not condoning egregious pricing but noone has any idea what it is until they release it. Until then it's 100% conjecture.

j00t said:

yeah, that's definitely some over-the-top doom-saying. there's definitely a point to be made about not standing your ground though.

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That's how it starts, overpriced red underwear in a video game, then the camps!

I mean, the level of salt over stuff thats not effecting gameplay is pretty absurd. If this was P2W type shit then yeah i could get it, but it literally is just a bunch of shit that doesnt have anything to do with gameplay. I mean if you want to ironman the fuck out of your Jav and this is hurting your pussy then so be it, but its still a lil cray over cosmetic shit.

meStevo said:

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i'll concede that i haven't seen any diamonds to dollars ratio, but this tweet is wrong. everything in the vip demo was priced at 25 coins. the leaked picture had the skins priced at 40,000 coins and 2000 diamonds (or whatever they are going to be called. Anthem points.)

Xexx said:

I mean, the level of salt over stuff thats not effecting gameplay is pretty absurd. If this was P2W type shit then yeah i could get it, but it literally is just a bunch of shit that doesnt have anything to do with gameplay. I mean if you want to ironman the fuck out of your Jav and this is hurting your pussy then so be it, but its still a lil cray over cosmetic shit.

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Yeah that's sort of what's funny here - people are raging and grabbing the torches over unknown made up pricing for shit that honestly doesn't matter. This is why there are NDA's, those numbers are placeholders to flesh out UX issues.

Ladro said:

Yeah that's sort of what's funny here - people are raging and grabbing the torches over unknown made up pricing for shit that honestly doesn't matter. This is why there are NDA's, those numbers are placeholders to flesh out UX issues.

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listen, i'm excited for anthem. i've been one of the reservedly optimistic people posting here. that being said there's NOOOOO way that's "just a placeholder." if they were trying to flesh out ui goblins, they'd be using different numbers in the pricing list, not long strings of 0's. someone, somewhere, in a big enough position of power let that number get out there thinking it might be okay.

again, this ISN'T a bioware issue. it's an EA thing. if you think EA isn't in charge of microtransactions, i just don't know what to tell you.

Hey, if I was EA, I'd be fleecing idiots and wales whom want to dress up their dolls, too. Right up until the level that public outcry was too much. Look, regardless of what they will cost (and as I said, it won't be remotely close to $20), the ball is in the consumers court. There are literally thousands of extraordinarily priced stupid shit in cash shops across dozens of games. Some people buy it, most don't. If you don't find the value in it, then don't buy it.

And no, your play experience is not being significantly impacted because it's too expensive to make your faggot robot ninja, neon pink.

Grabbit Allworth said:

Hey, if I was EA, I'd be fleecing idiots and wales whom want to dress up their dolls, too. Right up until the level that public outcry was too much. Look, regardless of what they will cost (and as I said, it won't be remotely close to $20), the ball is in the consumers court. There are literally thousands of extraordinarily priced stupid shit in cash shops across dozens of games. Some people buy it, most don't. If you don't find the value in it, then don't buy it.

And no, your play experience is not being significantly impacted because it's too expensive to make your faggot robot ninja, neon pink.

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Yes... and no. I'm not up in arms about microtransactions, but I do worry that many of the people buying these are not well adjusted adults. They're probably a) kids, b) some poor bastards with fucked up brain chemistry, when you look at it from that perspective the pricing seems predatory.

uh. i mean, but they're not?

SWTOR for example. if you don't understand what they are doing, it seems INCREDIBLY terrible. but if you sub for like, 2 or 3 months, you get enough coins back to unlock everything you need forever. that's bioware.

EA comes up with nickel and diming their customer base into the ground.

I'm thinking this'll be EA's last PC game, TBH. Let them have their mobile P2W strategies. It'll take the gaming press some time to discover that EA doesn't make PC games anymore. I'm thinking about thirty years after I'm dead is when it'll finally start to dawn of them.

j00t said:

uh. i mean, but they're not?

SWTOR for example. if you don't understand what they are doing, it seems INCREDIBLY terrible. but if you sub for like, 2 or 3 months, you get enough coins back to unlock everything you need forever. that's bioware.

EA comes up with nickel and diming their customer base into the ground.

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Dude, SW:TOR had to do something to save its own ass.

And yes, they are the same damned company. EA says jump, BioWare says how high?

Developers/publishers have been coming up with additional ways to increase revenue for years. Cash shops fleecing the low-IQ, young, or (as you say, Luthair) mentally ill isn't new, but is it predatory? My gut reaction is a hesitant, no. However, my perspective is through the lens of above average intelligence, pragmatism, and a tremendous amount of self-control. Loot boxes, many cash shop items, etc are extraordinarily unpopular unless there is significant 'value' baked in to the item. The problem is that 'value' is subjective. Despite the fact that I have never purchased a cosmetic item in any game, I have spent money when there were deep sales on the best store items and each of them impacted my gaming experience in a tangible way. I just don't find the appearance of my character that important when I have to spend money to change it.

Trying to determine whether or not the price point of skins in Anthem is predatory is futile because we have no idea what it will eventually be. For the sake of the argument, let's say it stays the "$20" a set. I very seriously doubt that a large percentage of the player base would buy-in because it's absurd, but those that do will have obviously found enough value in it. I am highly skeptical of the suggestion that a lot of those who buy-in at the ridiculous price point are members of especially vulnerable populations. Even if they are, I'm still having trouble finding (predatory) fault in a system that is serving (on average) normal human beings who can make sound decisions on their own. All that said, I'd likely have a very, very different opinion if the EA model introduced some form of gate-keeping or other similar gameplay bullshit that impacted the game which I already own.

In fact, I feel that if the skins WERE $20, each of us have a moral obligation to the larger gaming community to NOT buy that garbage and send the message that it isn't acceptable. Of course, all of this is going to be moot when they're much cheaper and relatively easy to grind out in-game.

I know I seem a bit contradictory in my position, but there's a difference between predatory and acceptable.

Anthem is a "Live Service" game. All the future content is going to be free (or so they say). The cash shop is very likely one of, if not only, revenue source for continued development costs. Like many games, the cash shop is just an alternative to a subscription fee. Even so, I'd prefer that the shop pricing model be reasonable so people A) Use the shop (and therefore fund quality updates) and B) Don't feel like they didn't get value for their money they do buy something.