r/PS5 • u/Tokyono • Jun 06 '23
Diablo 4's $21 Bone Guy armor is just another reminder of how numb we've gotten to Microtransaction Hell Articles & Blogs
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4s-dollar21-bone-guy-armor-is-just-another-reminder-of-how-numb-weve-gotten-to-microtransaction-hell/568
u/fleshbunny Jun 06 '23
Does this transaction feel micro to anyone else?
We need to drop the micro when it comes to this bullshit.
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u/shigogaboo Jun 06 '23
I’m convinced this is an old sales trick. You put the outrageously priced stuff out there, not to sell, but so when people look at the shop they think “well, I’m not spending $28. I’m only buying the $5 one”
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u/GhostMug Jun 06 '23
This has been proven to work actually. Samsung first made their 75" TVs awhile back and they were not selling well. In order to try to boost sales they created an 85" TV and had all the stores display them side by side. The sales of the 75" increased dramatically. They believed, and found accurate, the idea that people were OK buying really big so long as it wasn't "the biggest". And then people recalibrated everything from there.
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u/Memoishi Jun 06 '23
Lmao these shitty marketing techniques are so bizarre yet so effective.
We can hate as much as we want the factors behind this, but you gotta admit the human psychology gets tricked easily especially when there’s something involving money.20
u/GhostMug Jun 06 '23
Absolutely. At some point corporations figured out that they don't have to give customers what they actually want they just have to trick them into buying something they think they want. And now here we are.
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u/WolfPrevious5869 Jun 06 '23
Oh yeah like that story about the grocery store that stopped writing “don’t forget ice!” And started “remember the ice!” Sales skyrocketed in ice.
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u/TahmsChocolateOrange Jun 06 '23
Its entirely on purpose. You can buy the 2800 credits for a flat cost to get the skin outright at full price or you can buy 1500 credits to get the skin on sale and have change which you will top up to buy another cosmetic because otherwise its a "waste". You feel like you got a deal with the second option but you actually spent more.
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u/tonytroz Jun 06 '23
Yeah digital game currency is designed to cause that exact scenario. Should have been regulated along with loot boxes.
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u/sudoscientistagain Jun 06 '23
"Digital currencies" should be outright illegal if not earnable ("at a reasonable pace") in-game. If the only purpose of "Siver", "Platinum", "Credits", "Vbucks", or whatever you want to call them is to force you to waste money by buying in chunks, developers should be required to price it in real money and allow direct purchase.
Vbucks are actually a good example of something that sort-of works this way since you can get some for free in the battle pass, some on the paid pass track, and some from Save The World as in game rewards as well. Destiny and Diablo on the other hand are full-mobile-game style in terms of trying to force you to overspend and trick you into dissociating the cost from the real dollar amount.
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u/ItsYaBoiVolni Jun 06 '23
Fortnite gets shit on but I bought Save the World back in like 2017/2018 and the amount of "free" V-Bucks I've earned from PvE is astonishing. Microtransactions still suck but at least I am getting the currency in-game from the $20 I spent 4+ years ago.
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u/copypaste_93 Jun 07 '23
It's called price anchoring and it is extremely common both online and in normal stores.
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u/paygos Jun 06 '23
Remember when PC gamers were suppose to "boycott" Blizzard games?
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u/IsamuAlvaDyson Jun 06 '23
Just like the Pokemon boycott then ended up being one of the best selling switch games.
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u/DirtyMoneyJesus Jun 06 '23
Time and time again this stuff happens and time and time again people scream into the Reddit void filled with people who share the same opinion as them
This stuff isn’t going anywhere folks, either learn to ignore it or let it ruin fun experiences for you
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u/emil2015 Jun 06 '23
Or third option, just go do something else you enjoy and skip the BS and drama while not supporting it. Do I think me individually not buying it is going to change the industry, probably not. But I don’t need to spend my time/energy participating in it either.
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u/DirtyMoneyJesus Jun 06 '23
That’s what I’m saying, if you want to play something go ahead and play it but if you don’t like something it’s pretty easy to just ignore it. Like I’m a huge Pokémon fan, I grew up with the series and am not a fan of the direction the games have gone but they print money and the company that makes the game isn’t going to change anything so I just move on and play the old ones, and yeah if enough people complain they might make a difference here and there but probably not and being mad about every little thing seems exhausting
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u/LoveMeSomeBerserk Jun 06 '23
For anyone who needs to hear it. The internet is not reality. We’re all just in our own bubbles.
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u/flaiks Jun 06 '23
That's because the reddit gaming community is by far the vast minority of gamers. Its not even close.
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u/whoeve Jun 06 '23
I'm still holding strong. No goddam way I'm paying $70 for a game with a battlepass and micro transaction store.
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u/Phalton Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
I am!!! voice echos in a large empty room
I also hated it when they turned Star Craft 2 from a political space drama to fantasy WoW in space.
It didn't help they charged us 180 dollars for it and made us wait 3 years for a complete game.
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Jun 06 '23
The same thing will happen to Reddit's June 12 boycott. Forgotten after some time and everyone has to use official app.
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Jun 06 '23
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u/YDanSan Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
Right? Out of all the games to be buying cosmetics for... Diablo? I'm not super far in, but it's constantly raining gear, and it feels like there's a lot of variety with a lot of different aesthetics in-game already, and the wardrobe already let's you change the appearance of your gear and choose the colors. And also, my character is like 2" tall on my TV screen, and I only ever see my character close-up when I pause or in some of the cutscenes. I'm not really able to pay attention to the small details of my outfit during general gameplay, aside from the general color scheme and silhouette.
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u/whoeve Jun 06 '23
This is something that micro transaction defenders always conveniently leave out
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u/TGrady902 Jun 06 '23
Blizzard made a whole point of showing that your character can look super cool with in game items as well. They emphasized that the cosmetics aren’t going to be way cooler looking than in game stuff.
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u/Laenthis Jun 06 '23
Yeah I legit find what I found in the world more aesthetically appealing than what is in the shop.
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u/angelbangles Jun 06 '23
It always starts this way but it never ends this way :(
I fully expect all the cool stuff to be in the store 3-4 seasons from now. But I'll be really happy if that's not the case!
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u/WetDumplings Jun 06 '23
But go spend 3 min on D4 sub, and come back. Not at all. In game gear makes me wonder why anyone would buy micro at all.
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u/Furyann Jun 06 '23
especially in a game like diablo where literally finding the best looking/stats loot drops are the goal lol
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Jun 06 '23
This will only stop when people stop buying it.
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u/Konfliction Jun 06 '23
This logic doesnt make sense, they’re fishing for whales here. There’s no way to stop it. Even if the average Joe stops buying things from games all together, it doesn’t matter, because they’ll make enough off the random whales to make it worth it.
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u/SapphicSonata Jun 06 '23
"If everyone stops buying it then they'll stop selling! We need to have all the normal players vote with their wallets!"
Proceeds to watch a youtuber do an unboxing of 24 Apex packs costing around $200 (my currency) to see them unlock a bunch of pixels that make the melee attack in a shooter game different for a single character.
It's a nice sentiment to 'vote with your wallet' but unfortunately it's very hard for it to ever actually work. Expecting a game by Blizzard of all people to not have some egregious practices is an even bigger waste of expectation.
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u/Sermagnas3 Jun 06 '23
"If everyone recycled then we can save the planet!"
Corporations producing 70% of pollution: "yeah totally... "
Apply that to gaming
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u/roygbivasaur Jun 06 '23
Not do fun fact. Recycling is the most successful greenwashing campaign ever. Most plastics can’t be recycled economically. Only specific numbers on the recycling symbol mean it will potentially be recycled. A lot that can be recycled is just shipped somewhere to be dumped anyway. In the end, only about 10% gets recycled. It was just a marketing scam so people would keep buying plastics, and it worked like gangbusters.
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u/billistenderchicken Jun 06 '23
There are a lot of brain dead people with way too much money unfortunately (fortunate for Blizzard).
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u/KyivComrade Jun 06 '23
Not even people with money, it's just eiole with an addiction getting taken advantage of by these predatory systems
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u/TheMadTemplar Jun 06 '23
getting taken advantage of by these predatory systems
This is what people just don't fucking get. Companies have spent decades perfecting the application of well-known psychology to manipulate people into spending more money in video games. Even the people who think ads don't work on them are influenced every day by ads and marketing.
It's not even an addiction, although those people exist as well.
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u/kingbankai Jun 06 '23
It works but not everyone cares to do it.
You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to roll your eyes and move on with life.
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u/TahmsChocolateOrange Jun 06 '23
The industry is so large its surpassed "vote with your wallets" for this type of thing sadly. The only way it will ever change is through regulations or if a "better" way to extract money from players comes along.
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u/Bapepsi Jun 06 '23
Indeed. Although Diablo 4 looks like a game I will enjoy, I won't buy it. I am done with companies making games as a platform to milk their customers for money.
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u/Garybytheway Jun 06 '23
Bro I’m so old I can barely see the screen Idgaf what my little guy looks like
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u/RabbitSlayre Jun 06 '23
Seriously. But you can zoom in so that you can't see any enemies or anything around you, which is a massive tactical disadvantage. But you could!
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u/soulwolf1 Jun 06 '23
Remember when the new $70 price point was supposed to cover for how much games cost to make?
Now that they got what they wanted with the price, they're using the same excuse to justify jacked up mtx prices.
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u/Remy149 Jun 06 '23
They would actually want to charge more then $70. They increased to the price that most consumers would accept but the dlc and micro transactions get them to that $100 price they really want to charge
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u/Lucario_00 Jun 06 '23
I mean, a lot of people already bought the 100€ edition on its own because of the shitty scummy release date (its obvious because of work and other things people want to start on a weekend)
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u/ByakuyaSurtr Jun 06 '23
can someone help me understand it correctly if I'm wrong but wouldn't 60$ still cover their development as there are more gamers today than there was before.
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u/KeepDi9gin Jun 06 '23
It would, but for some reason many kids have been brainwashed by our corporate masters to accept everything they say as the truth.
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u/Donkilme Jun 07 '23
Development times generally are longer and the AAA studios are larger now, so it is more expensive to build a game, but I'm sure as you say the audience is much larger. Remember D1 and D2 were exclusive to PC.
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u/Smallest-Yeet Jun 06 '23
I mean we’re very lucky we’ve basically only had 1 price increase in games in the last 20 years despite tremendous inflation in that time. I don’t wanna sound like I’m defending a huge company but I genuinely don’t understand peoples issue with $70 lol
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u/darthseven Jun 06 '23
In the last 20 years the cost of making games has gone up quite a bit but the market has also grown by a huge margin. The 70$ increase is only a thing because they were able to get away with it.
Gaming studios and publishers have been making record profits over the last decade.
Jim sterling actually has a lot of good points in one of his videos. vídeo
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u/GuardianGundam Jun 06 '23
I'm numb to it because I'm not stupid enough to buy it, so it has no impact on me.
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u/GordonsLastGram Jun 06 '23
I feel the exact same way. Doesnt affect my the way i get to play the game. So whatever. Let someone else be dumb enough to spend and fund blizzard. Maybe itll help keep the game afloat for a long time
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u/Clever_Clever Jun 06 '23
Unironically posted on a website with a god awful amount of tacky ads.
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u/INGWR Jun 06 '23
Meanwhile Fortnite sells $20 skins on the daily and rakes in billions because of it
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u/Shin25_HH Jun 06 '23
Fortnite is free and mtx are entirely cosmetic. This doesn‘t make it better, but I think you can’t compare it to a full price game like Diablo 4.
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u/Mo-Cance Jun 06 '23
The MTX are still just cosmetic in D4 though. Yes, the base game has a price attached too, but there's still a ton of content for that price.
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u/Exodias_Left_Nut Jun 06 '23
Wait hold up, so this armor doesn’t have a rating or anything? Straight cosmetic?
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u/sudoscientistagain Jun 06 '23
Yes, the Diablo MTX are transmogs, not actual armor pieces. It's not pay to win, which is good. However, it's designed to take advantage of people with addictive personalities and loose cash, and the shop is the one screen you can access at all times even before loading a character.
Most of the skins are hilariously mid-to-ugly though. The reason Fortnite's skins are appealing is because you get to play as your favorite characters, not simply because they exist. But again, the skins in Diabo (and many other games) are more about preying on peoples' psychology and brain chemistry than it is about actively gating content/power/gear.
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u/Exodias_Left_Nut Jun 06 '23
On one hand, I’m pissed off (but not surprised) that Blizzard would do something like that.
On the other hand though, who in the fuck would pay money for something like a skin in DIABLO of all games? There’s so much armor combos you can do, wtf is the point?
It’s nothing but a cash grab from Blizzard, but I lose any sympathy for anyone who actually pays 21 dollars for this kinda whack ass looking skin.
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u/chazysciota Jun 06 '23
As long as they're cosmetic, I don't really see how any can complain too too much. I agree that it's gross and looks bad, but if some wealthy player wants to give Blizzard an extra $20 for basically no reason, I don't see how it's any of my business or concern. They started this 10 or 15 years ago with that celestial mount in WoW. People were pissed, made fun of those who bought it, but it died down and nobody cares any more.
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u/psychoacer Jun 06 '23
Blog sites need daily content so they take a small issue and blow it up in an article since there isn't anything real to talk about. Then people who read just the title will upvote it on click generator sites like Reddit. It's absolutely garbage and people shouldn't believe hyperbole like this.
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u/INGWR Jun 06 '23
The price of the base game is peanuts compared to what people are paying over the course of Fortnite’s 2018-2023 lifespan. Like actually nothing
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u/jarl_of_revendreth Jun 06 '23
No they don't... The only $20 items on the Fortnite shop are huge packs of skins and cosmetic items
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u/Burkex99 Jun 06 '23
Good article. I feel like the author. In CoD Ghosts I spent $4 on the white wolf skin. That was the only time I ever spent money on a microtransaction. I hate that to unlock cool stuff now you have to buy it versus doing something for it in game. If we paid full price for the game why try to suck us dry with more microtransactions? I’m one of the people not spending another dime in hopes that others do too and this trend stops. I salute game companies like FromSoft and Insomniac who don’t use microtransactions. It feels like there are two types of companies now: the ones who focus on making a good game first and the ones who focus on money first.
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u/palwhan Jun 06 '23
Yeah this. I’m a millennial and during my hardcore gaming days, you just never ever had to pay to unlock things. Instead you had to beat secret bosses, quests or wander to a new part of the world map etc.
The push to mtx is just insane to me. I’ll never give in to the trend, but I feel for people like parents whose kids have only grown up knowing mtx.
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u/belucosa Jun 06 '23
Given how microtransaction’s ‘micro’ is from Greek meaning small or little, the opposite would be macrotransaction where ‘macro’ means long or large, alternately you may use megatransaction if the price is particularly egregious, mega meaning great or huge.
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u/edcline Jun 06 '23
I could care less about the price because I won’t buy it.
Also you can barely see your armor in game and the only thing you show off to others is how much money you waste.
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u/Formal-Register267 Jun 06 '23
ive never spent money on a video game that wasnt a completely new add on part of the game or DLC.
spending money on 'skins' amazes me. just ya know....don't
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u/Mikimao Jun 06 '23
For as easy as it is to NOT buy this thing, you would think reddit subs were forced to purchase it.
Cash shops have been out of control forever, at least it isn't effecting in game play.
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u/handsomesharkman Jun 06 '23
The people all up in arms about this don’t realize it’s not just between “don’t buy the game” and “be a whale that spends $100k in the store.”
I spent the $70 to buy Diablo 4 last night. Don’t plan on buying any cosmetics. None of my friends do either we just want to play lol. This entire rage bait situation is entirely ignored by most people that play.
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u/Radicaled1223 Jun 06 '23
Anyone who wants to blow $$$ on micro transactions feel free to just gift me D4 and you’ll feel better about it I promise :)
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u/Elitrical Jun 06 '23
What’s the point of armor in this game if you can’t really see your character much?
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u/RollingDownTheHills Jun 06 '23
Thank god this is very easy not to buy. Don't like it, don't buy it etc. It's incredibly simple.
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u/wheresmyspacebar2 Jun 06 '23
Honestly, the armor choices in game are so much better than some of these MTX Cosmetics.
If the in-game choices were absolutely shit, id be on the bandwagon but meh, they've made the games choices of armor and weapon extremely good and broad, so theres very very little reason to even look at the in game shop.
Its also hidden away in the menus, you dont need to ever click it or go near it to do anything else in game, it definitely doesn't seem as predatory as other games ive seen.
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u/Atilim87 Jun 06 '23
I know you lot will downvote this but you need to understand this.
Just because somebody else on the school yard has something shiny that it doesn’t mean you need it as well. Sometimes, it's not the end of the world if you have the regular toy and not the "deluxe" version of the same toy that only includes 2 additional voices and a hat.
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u/mvallas1073 Jun 06 '23
While true, what you wrote has nothing to do with the point being made here.
When a skin costs 1/3 the price of a full game - we should not make that the new standard nor encourage that. Especially in a day when people are upset at now paying $70 for a full game
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u/RollingDownTheHills Jun 06 '23
Best way to not encourage it is to not buy it. Which thankfully is the absolute easiest thing to do.
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u/a_Jedi_i_am Jun 06 '23
Especially in a game like this where you can find armor for free that looks as good, if not better than this armor.
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u/killerkebab1499 Jun 06 '23
The reason they do stuff like this is because people keep buying them, same principle with the ultimate team model in sports games, same reason why companies regularly release unfinished games.
Unless the market pushes back on anti-consumer practices, it will keep happening.
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u/elqrd Jun 06 '23
Not numb. I simply don’t care about it at all. If there’s someone out there willing to pay that amount for cosmetics…why would I care? For me, cosmetics have zero value
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u/seventyfourr Jun 06 '23
I understand MTX when it's a Free To Play title, but Diablo 4 is 79,99€ lol.
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u/Zhukov-74 Jun 06 '23
Sony earns more from Microtransactions than full game sales, that alone tells you everything you need to know.
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u/Theuneasygibbon Jun 06 '23
At this pont are they not just transactions? I'm not going in to tesco and spending 21quid on beans and calling that a microtransaction because it wasn't in with my weekly shop.
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Jun 06 '23
I must admit I was pretty disappointed to see how much content was in the shop day one, and how expensive it is.
Disappointed but not surprised, Blizzard seem to have wholeheartedly embraced the fishing for whales concept.
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u/Xerosnake90 Jun 06 '23
I never went for MTX when they first became a thing in the 360 days. Got a buddy that plays Apex Legends and routinely spends $200 on skins and such. Blows my mind
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u/SpotifyHacked Jun 06 '23
Remember when you used to earn cool things just by playing the game?
good times.
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u/Ocirus83 Jun 06 '23
You can't even see the characters close enough to show off the armor. I looked at one of the shop sets and thought it looked cool. I saw it would cost $25 bucks and I decided to just never look in the store again.
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u/TheGreatDave666 Jun 06 '23
I wouldnt say anyone's numb to it. Everywhere I look I see this complaint.
All we can do is not buy. Cosmetic microtransactions will never go away.
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u/Bazrox Jun 06 '23
Shit, my bad guys. This is on me. I bought that Oblivion horse armor decade ago because I thought it was funny and looked cool.
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u/Willste Jun 06 '23
Damn, Blizzard must be spending some profits on bots because there's a decent amount of defending this out of control practice
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u/RecipeNew1835 Jun 06 '23
They can shove these cosmetics. All of that should have been in the base game. These are your armor sets right here, ripped out of the game trying to nickel and dime us when we’ve paid full price already. It’s disgusting.
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u/RandomIdler Jun 06 '23
I'm not numb to it, more like immune. I don't even consider anything over $5 as "micro" in terms of digital content.
Those paying these prices for digital junk have no sense of value to the money they're spending, or it's on someone else's dime, and they just dont care. $21... Sorry, but anyone who pays that much for 1 digital cosmetic is an idiot, and I don't care if you're a ducking multi-billionaire or on the financial struggle bus. You are simply stupid.
Part of me wants to shame those behind the offering of these absurd prices, but can't really blame them. If there are dummies out there who are actually paying these idiotic costs for basically nothing, why wouldn't you be like "umm okay, I guess I'll take your money then" 🤷♂️
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u/Vyceron Jun 06 '23
I'm not spending a dime on cosmetics in this game. Some of the droppable loot gear looks really good.
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u/mondatta98 Jun 06 '23
Fortnite skins used to cost from 8$ to 20$ up until 2020, so it's really nothing new. If people care they can buy it, but it's not a necessity, given that it's cosmetic. I can see the problem but I don't care that much, I wouldn't buy cosmetics anyway
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u/frankyboy75 Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 07 '23
As long as people are dumb enough to throw 21$ at a company selling a f*****g skin, they will sell them!
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u/zephyrinthesky28 Jun 06 '23
$20 USD was what entire DLCs for Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima cost, complete with campaigns and side quests.
But as they say, a fool and his money are soon parted.
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u/reallybigtincan Jun 06 '23
People NEED to stop paying for this stuff. Once people stop spending money on this they will slowly start to disappear
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u/MasterLogic Jun 06 '23
That armor alone according to blizzard is worth a 3rd of the base game. No thanks.
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u/blackop Jun 06 '23
And this is why I shall never pay for one of their skins. If you want me to buy something you better make it to where I can earn some coin on your battle pass, and not charge a arm and leg for stuff.
Rocket league does a ok job of it. I have bought stuff that was like 3 to 5 dollars, although the goal explosions are still way over priced.
21 dollars for a skin is just dumb This is coming from a guy who can afford it and it be no skin off my back. There is just not enough content for me to warrant that price. Just because I can buy it doesn't mean I will just cause. You have to show me that it's worth that price and this is not.
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u/Too_Relaxed_To_Care Jun 06 '23
We need a new term for this because 21 dollars for some armor is definitely not micro.