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Are the whales the ones complaining? Because the whole concept of a whale is that they are the exception. The vast majority of players pay only the minimum amount or slightly more, but the whales dump so much money in that they are still worth more to the devs than the other 99% of players combined.
You're right. The definition of a whale includes that he has enough money to not complain about any price at all.
Except complaining is his kink... Then he gets double the satisfaction from his payments.
A whale doesn't need enough money not to complain. The tactics used to attract whales are meant to build or take advantage of addictions. When I was drinking I would regularly complain about the cost of alcohol yet still spend much more than I could afford on it
Whales aren't people who can afford whatever, so they spend whatever. Whales are people invested enough that the perceived value added is more than the money it costs. Most whales, therefore, are regular people who are addicted to the game rather than moneybags who could easily afford it. So yeah, it does smell of victim blaming. We should be calling out the bad business practice, rather than calling out those being victimized by the bad business practice.
Or the whale is German, because complaining is a national past time.
You know who look like whales? Problem spenders who spend far beyond their means, and are preyed upon by predatory business practices that use psychological manipulation to encourage people to spend as much as as they can. Like, I've literally watched video game developer conference talks where a dev explains in great detail and depth on how to hijack human psychology to milk every last dollar they can. Whales stopped being "those who can afford to spend" a long time ago.
I've seen whales complain. Maybe not whales, but people who pay for skins and random bullshit
Remember the Boycott for Call of Duty? And most of them were playing on Day 1.
This is so bad that it reminded me of reddit protest that I managed to forget about. xD
The worst part was how people that couldnt get off the platform called terminally online to those who could.
At this time I'd like to shill for Warframe.
The game is free. The battlepasses are free. The lootboxes are free. The ways you open those lootboxes are also free. The premium currency is a tradable item, so it is 100% viable to get it and buy premium shit without ever spending real money. Digital Extremes (the devs) once accidentally created a gambling machine (for pet cosmetics), and upon discovering what they did, removed it from the game and refunded everyone who spent money on it.
Warframe is the one game that I've spent more money on than any other game, I'm not biased, you're biased.
EDIT: I'm glad that people around here like warframe.
EvE is similar but with a functional economy including scammers, thieves and general douchebags... And spaceships, is pretty fun but extremely addicting and technical.
The problem with Eve is that you will have to join a big group to enjoy it, and if you join one up, you are increasingly going to feel the pressure to whale if you are a normal player who isn't min-maxing the system. The game is chock full of whales.
I'm a miner, my father was a miner, my mother's a miner, my father's father was a miner.
Yeah some pressure you sure but I just stayed with newbie guilds and turned to helping people instead.
Honestly some of the technically non combat classes are quite fun. It's been awhile since I've been on but I have more money than I could honestly figure out what to do with just from mining.
That said yeah even mining has spreadsheets, which is both neat and kinda daunting.
I miss having time to play Eve - big fleet battles were fucking epic but I can't dedicate the hours anymore.
Yes I'm aware there are ways to have quicker fun, I remember faction warfare, but that's even hard to do when you have to drop at a moments notice (kids don't pause well).
S Tier game
Don't look at my steam hours
Wait, what was that about the pet cosmetics? I must've been on hiatus when that went down.
At the time, changing the colors and patterns of the fur of your kitty and doggo were tied to a randomized drop, which there was a roundabout way to just buy chances for. Some dude spend literally thousands of dollars just to get his doggo to look the way he wanted.
Just past week restarted the game and I love finding random Tenno in these comments. Hadn't played for a year or more and it's still going strong with exciting new content free for everyone to play. If you're bored of the loot-n-shoot part you can go fishing, decorating, trading, horseriding and whatever else is in the game.
Also love to look for streamers starting fresh and reliving the awe of the game through them.
The biggest reason of why I struggle to get into any of the subscription-based games, because none of them are only subscription based, they charge you both for the game and the subscription afterward so you have both the price of the game plus any type of expansion packs plus the subscription cost monthly afterward and that's without including any of the microtransactions. I don't know why anyone plays them
Can't understand people who spend hundreds of dollars on virtual shit they don't even own, just a "licence" to rent it. Like how do you spend that much with almost nothing to show for it.
Me after realizing it's me with American Truck Simulator, buying all those DLC and truck packs.
Was going say your right how stupid, then dawned on me I have done this....😭
The truck packs maybe but most dlc is map expansions which I don't see as equivalent
It's no different than spending thousands on travel or hundreds to watch movies at the theater. You're paying for the experience and entertainment, not something physical.
Isn't that literally everyone who owns digital games? All your shit on Steam is a license to use the software, you don't actually own any of those games.
I mean, I get the point, cosmetics and such and anything virtual is not tangible in the real world but let's not pretend we aren't all doing that with every game we spend money on.
Having said that, the amount of money companies charge for some of this stuff is outrageous. Luckily, nobody is pointing a gun to your head forcing you to buy it!
I'm so happy I don't give a fuck about looking cool or having nice effects in a game.
The only one I ever spend more bucks than I had to is Path of Exile. And the supporter packs give you your whole worth of money spend as premium currency plus you get the usual skins, emotes and tracking tools.
I totally feel that I'm okay with buying functional stuff like inventory space if the system itself feels fair.
In 10 years and around 5000h (only game I play except tarkov for a while) in I spend 122€ so a mount for 90 bucks seems crazy.
People who think that way are dumb
But when I sometimes think that way it's cool
Logic
I've completely stopped playing MMOs, but there is a difference when it's an online service. What I consider absurd are the publishers and developers who close down their MMOs when they still have players who have invested and will invest money into it, without even considering selling it off. I'm looking at you, NCSoft. Almost happened to Spiral Knights, and because it didn't, it's still going. It's like they think that people playing them are players that would otherwise playing their new MMOs, when the reality is they avoid those publishers that don't respect their persistence and investment.
There's also a lot of MMO's with no subscription and plenty of whaling. But cosmetics are cosmetics, there's people that can legitimately complain about a $90 dollar mount if it gives an unfair advantage when they would otherwise not mind paying for just cosmetics. But there are people who don't mind unfair advantages in certain games either, as long as they have a F2P model and the devs have a good rep.
Nowadays, what drives me off is the feeling of never getting the full experience, having to constantly feel that way to avoid getting caught in predatory addiction loops they implement, and just being able to buy a full, self-contained experience for what would otherwise be two months of subscription in an MMO.
The difference mostly is that the old games were games built first and microtransactions second. Slowly creeping up the invasive methods. Which is acceptable for most people.
However new games have a fully fledged out microtransaction system and shop and the whole game is built around maximising profits. Just like mobile games are.
It is rare that when you put the money first you will produce a game that is fun. And definitely not possible to make a good one.
"I can't afford this"
*pull out credit card*
Most people who vote with their wallets have long since stopped playing.
I vote with my wallet by buying indie games or old discounted single player AAA games. This also means I can game on a crappy machine. Being a retrogamer also helps. I literally have more games to play than time to live.
Whales are the idiots who keep the Madden games alive.
I want to see them come out with a literal flying whale mount for $999 and see who buys it.
I'm sure that would cause a significant portion of the playerbase to react with angry and hurtful messages. Then poor Blizzard would have no choice but to wipe their tears with their massive new pile of hundred dollar bills.
The problem with this mount (beside the cost in the first place) is it provides exclusive functionality otherwise not available.
It provides portable access to the in game auction house and mailbox.
Good to see that Dark Legacy Comics is still not funny after all these years
Acquaintance of mine just dgaf. He'll get banned on a game for cheating and just spend another 60.- to get another copy. DLCs, micro transactions, pay to win, doesn't matter. He's a cancer on the whole industry.
Disgraceful behavior...
Right my Sims? looks to how horribly her game is glitching up due to owning more expansions than Maxis ever intended for Sims 4 to actually have
But for real, the idea of an MMO still requiring a monthly fee in 2024 is ridiculous.
in 1998 when it was a new concept and a lot of money had to go into maintaining the sheer volume of people using servers at a time when the internet couldn't handle more than 20 Star Trek fanboys at once without using up all the bandwith, sure. I could see that.
But in 2024 where even small Indie studios can afford regular free content updates and still make a profit from word of mouth game sales? Yeaaah no.
I remember the first big MMORPG that was on the internet: Ultima Online. I wanted to play it back in the day, but I couldn't because I was far too young to have my own credit card to pay (and my dad was quite firmly not going to pay) and in the very late 90s, at least where I lived, the internet was still a pay-as-you-play affair, meaning every second you spent was logged and charged on your next phone bill. Sometime around 2000 or very early 2001 the internet got some plans by the company that had us pay a single fixed fee, so I could remain online as long as I wanted without worrying about a skyrocketting bill.