Microtransactions and Content Explained.

You state that there are thousands of quests, upgrades, raids, and mob types with different strategies. This is not the case. There are 2 quests; fetch quests and timed fetch quests. There are NO upgrades; only cosmetics. There is 1 raid in the game. There is a total of 4-5 mob types in the game, none of which really need different strategies, I find it’s easier just to beat on the golden one than find a bucket of water, and the shadow one? Pull out a lantern and it’s a normal skeleton. Pirate captains are just regular skeleton’s with increased health, and the plant one is just really fast. That’s it. The game was supposed to have a lot more at launch, and we don’t have that. People were constantly saying “it’s just the beta, there’ll be more in release, Rare is just keeping a lockdown on what they have” was a lie, I paid $60 for a game that I’ve been playing for free for a year, with minute differences. It is frustrating to put this much time into a beautiful game and have it not be what I thought it was going to be. This Article details what was originally said to be in the game, AT LAUNCH, little more than 2 months ago. Very little of it is there. Now tell me, why should we have microtransactions for a game that did not fulfill it’s promises, did not “expect this amount of players” (even though they INSANELY hyped up the game, and should expect a MASSIVE amount of players at launch), and to maintain the grind, increased the cost of all cosmetics 10 times over?

@deadtree-alive You can make anything less by simply saying it differently, there are thousands of different quests. You are talking about a very specific way categorising them into either timed or not timed? That's not how you define quests? You define them by the challenge.

As for the artical don't read information not from the developers themselves.

@samoclarkey

The untimed ones are the Gold Hoarders and Order of Souls. So one, you go and fetch a chest, and have to dig for it. The other, you go and fetch a skull, after killing some skeletons. I see little to no difference. The Merchant Alliance has the timed fetch quests, except they don’t tell you where to go to do the fetching. There is no difference in ‘challenge’ for the separate levels of quests other than you have to find more than the previous level of quests.

The article was using information provided to the company by Rare, which I recall reading about as well.

@Blam320

In other games, being pure cosmetic is fine. In this game, where cosmetics are literally the only thing to grind for, it is not fine, unless I too can gain access to it by playing the game.

@blam320 sagte in Microtransactions and Content Explained.:

@hobosloth28 said in Microtransactions and Content Explained.:

no no no MICROTRANSACTIONS are the most toxic thing in the videogame industry today and they will make me loose all my faith in rare and Microsoft to be differnt and a for gamer company.

They're optional and purely cosmetic. Nearly every other game in existence follows this model.

Nearly every other game has a gameplay loop that is way longer than ten minutes. There could be system like in Shadow of Mordor for skeletons, so they get a meaning. There could be an actual economy so it makes sense to trade goods. I think before this game gets microtransactions it needs a long and hard look into the mirror. Yes, that short gameplay loop can be fun. I am having a ton of fun with the game. But it's barebones. Feels like not even half of what should be there is actually there.

@deadtree-alive That's completely incorrect, have you played the game in 90% you havn't as Order of souls you do raids/captain bountys? Or are you trolling?

@hobosloth28 Explain please? You going to fund the millions to keep it up?

@miserabletax445 If there are buy-able pets in-game it means all content is free as you can gain that content else where. Depends how you view it. Upgrades are cosmetics in many games and this. I'm rep 30 seen over 100 different riddles and quests now.

@hobosloth28 How? Okay you want to pay monthly subscription instead? Or pay for each DLC/new content? what one mate would you prefer?

@samoclarkey

I feel like I'm living in some weird late-stage-capitalism dystopia that people feel the need to unquestionably reinforce this myth that microtransactions are unequivocally good for games. The consumer does not benefit from this profit stream. So outside of some sort of weird shareholder mindset, I don't see why people who self identify as "gamers" prop up this profit mechanism for publishers. It really is mind blowing to me.

Do most microtransaction purchases just end up as a supplementary revenue stream, or is that revenue (on average) reinvested into the development of updates/content for users. As far as I can tell, all we have is the rocketing stock prices of big publishers, which makes me really doubt the narrative that "microtransactions are needed for post-launch continual development."

In my opinion, the rhetoric that microtransactions are "just cosmetic" is not good enough. There is software/games built entirely around roleplaying by customizing your character (VR Chat is probably the best example right now, but there are obviously a ton of other examples). So even if we are being totally reductionist about what constitutes a "game mechanic" I'm fairly certain that being able to customize your character is in fact a game mechanic.

The bigger picture is that consumers are now largely "okay" with buying non material (digital commodities) with credit, built on a labor force that largely doesn't receive the gains from this revenue stream, with very little accountability/transparency to where any of that money/credit goes.

Again, I still haven't seen compelling evidence about where most capital earned by microtransactions goes. At least not enough to warrant the axiom that microtransactions are a necessary and good for modern game development.

Free-to-play microtransactions make up 80% of app store revenue (https://venturebeat.com/2014/02/21/...actions-make-up-79-of-u-s-app-store-revenues/) Do you really think the revenue from the mobile platform is being used invested back into creating "better services" for the consumer? Obviously the economics of F2P titles on mobile are significantly different than the economics of "AAA" 1st party titles. However, if you look at publishers like EA who made 1.68 billion in microtransactions in FY2017 coupled with with stock prices that have risen exponentially since the advent of the modern microtransaction, is it really fair to say that these big corporations would be hemorrhaging cash if it weren't for this added revenue stream? Again it seems far more likely that they will continue to exploit this revenue stream for increasing corporate gains so long as people are "okay with cosmetic microtransactions."

@hobosloth28 What do you mean Microsoft wont let them run out of money... Rare fund there projects mate. The flow from game-pass does not go to Rare. It goes to Microsoft and they will pay Rare a certain figure to have it there. That will be very small per person.

I think you are not thinking about it carefully enough. These are the options.

• Microtransactions
• Monthly Subscriptions
• Paid DLC / Season pass
  Because of the type of game it is it needs updates and content frequently Microtransactions are the best for us as we are not forced to buy the little pets offered all other options you will be paying at least £100 a year forced.

@miserabletax445 Cosmetics are upgrading a piece of gear just because you are used to it being used in a advantageous way it does not. We need to see legendary cove to know there are no upgrades as the pirate legend ship is mentioned to be a 'Upgraded galleon'.

@pilks4k 300/500k dev costs like i said AAA titles can be upwards of 200 million not 300k I don't think you have worked or researched the games industry have you? Think about your comment then.

@hobosloth28 All it will be mate is a few different pets to the normal ones being add I believe. Nothing serious. Just a way for people to support them developing new content.

Will be fun to see what they charge for, when the I game content is four outfits.

@mcdoll More in pirate cove you need to level up to unlock more

I wouldn't mind paying for the Pets IF I knew this was defiantly going towards new content. And by new content I don't mean new cosmetics. I mean the things that everyone wanted from the off, mini games, fishing, more enemy/ship/weapon types, a big social hub, row boats etc.

Then again this stuff should be in the game without us having to fund it further. Don't forget MS are bank rolling Rare and they need this game to be a big success to compete with Sony.

Not saying this as a hater, I love the game, just want it to reach its full potential without having to pay more for it

@samoclarkey said in Microtransactions and Content Explained.:

@miserabletax445 If there are buy-able pets in-game it means all content is free as you can gain that content else where. Depends how you view it. Upgrades are cosmetics in many games and this. I'm rep 30 seen over 100 different riddles and quests now.

Saying there are 100 different quests, cos there are so many different riddles is like eating a tin of baked beans and saying there's a hundred different meals.

And is telling people to wait to unlock legendary for the rest of the content just the new "wait til launch, the beta is only 10-20% of the content"?
Cos that didn't work out so well given that the only new stuff in full release is
*snakes
*a lady to sell skulls to
*8 tentacles from ultima 7
*tea and spice crates

So how much more content must be locked behind legendary of beta was only 20% and full release has added maybe another 2-5%??

@mcdoll No that was first beta all there was is a few gold hoarder missions no 3 reps no skins really no commendations tons of stuff you clearly haven't been here long or paying attention to the alpha/beta not closed beta there was more in there yeah so stop trying to be a smart a*s hating on everyone.

And no one knows that's the point i'm saying don't judge the game too hard when we haven't seen it all we never know until we get there.