EA: Consumers 'enjoying and embracing' microtransactions

[JazzJack2]

Same thing applies to ME3. Mystery packs can all be bought via ingame currency.
And as for Sims 3, there is already a large, EA-approved community which offers a far broader selection of minimods and items for Sims 3 for free.

But again TF2 is free, where as EA decides to charge $60 for ME 3(a game which had considerably less effort put into it than TF2) and then has the nerve to add microtransactions on top of it.

That doesn't change the fact that, despite both companies doing the same business practises,

Except Valve has never taken over and ruined perfectly good Devs and then shat in the faces of its fans has it?

 

[V1rax]

My opinion on Mircotransactions is very different from this board, but I think it's reasonable. Before we enter that I just want to mention is only goes for Micros and not for Season Passses, or on disc DLC. (Separate DLC is different, but thats another story)

Microtransactins in my opinion, should not effect how anyone plays the game. It offers people who want to 1) rush through for the story 2) play just for achievements 3) People who are just bad at the game, to get through without having to retry the same 3 rooms over and over dying all the time.

We as gamers should not be choosing and deciding how people play their games. If they decide to buy a resource pack for 2 bucks that helps them pass a section in the game they are going to be happy. The Mircos in ME3 and DS3 (not sure about others, please mention them if i'm not right here) offer you ways to get those resource packs without using actual money. For Dead Space 3 it has rations which you get from scavenger bots. So not only did I have the ability to get resource packs WITHOUT using my actual credit card, I can do it fairly easily. This is the proper way to do it.

I get why people are upset, because they are looking at this like EA is fucking them over. Which EA is known to do, and I won't defend them as a publisher. For these games though the Microtransactions are giving gamers options, and I don't see how that is bad.

 

[Shadows Risen]

The ME3 microtransactions were fine as they were optional and if you spent a bit of time playing the multiplayer, you'd get the credits to buy the packs regardless. Using actual money was just a shortcut for those that didn't want to spend time doing that which I find a bit odd but each to their own.

The micros in the Sims sounds like a dick-ish move if they're blocking off a chunk of the game and refusing to let you use it UNLESS you part with actual money, on top of the price of the game.

And as for the Valve/TF2 argument, there's no comparison. TF2 itself is free, and the hats are optional extras that you don't have to buy. Bit different from taking out parts of the game.

 

[DoPo]

So it's "fan reaction", actually.

Heh. That's pretty clever spin, actually. Someone in marketing deserves a raise.

It is clever, isn't it Especially, since if anybody bothers to look up where that quote is from, it's from an article called In defense of the 'Mass Effect 3' ending [http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/03/22/mass-effect-3-ending-bioware/]. Although the context of the quote is omitted - it's just explaining why the games were popular to begin with, but it's still out of context.

 

[Atmos Duality]

The title might as well read "EA's Consumers enjoying and embracing price hikes/gouging".

 

[Tom_green_day]

ive bought most mass effect 3 dlc and loved em. Im very happy to see it continue to get support 1 year later

Beside the point but big up to that!
I have the intelligence not to buy a microtransaction if I don't want it and so they don't bother me. They don't hinder my progress and I don't complain about them online.
However, I can see how people might dislike them.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Oh I see tell gamers that they love it and hope they believe it then just see how hard you can fleece them hopefully by the time they realise all their games are in bits they have to buy to put back together again people will just accept it as the way it is like a lot of DLC that has no right to exist atm because it should have been in game or left off entirely.

Wasnt it someone from EA a while ago who was on about charging for individual bullets that you fired in a gun in a game yeah sure you can collect ammo normally but need help well just take out that credit card and we will top up your bullet inventory for you, instead of say making the game balanced so it wasnt a problem unless you played like a complete tard.

I hope this blows up in their face seriously I play games to relax ive paid my money now I want to enjoy it not pay my money then have the game try and flog me other bits to it. There is a place for micro transactions and DLC in some games its just definitely not for all.

Free games may use micro transactions for instance no problem there they dont really appeal to me because of this business model but I can see why they would do it although how free they actually are is also up for debate some are pretty good about it while others are definitely not.

I dont play EA games have anything to do with and havent for years with very minor exceptions (had to get Alice Madness returns)so this will not effect me directly I just hope others dont follow suit but I wouldnt be surprise if Activision Blizzard didnt try something similar if it looks like its making EA a lot of money.

My main beef with micro transactions in particular is they feel so malign and sinister it reminds me of that story of the fruit from that tree everyone wanted because it looked and smelled so good eventually they gave everyhting they had just to try some and when they got this wonderful fruit they found that it was entirely bland to the taste and completely failed their expectations on every level and so they were left broken and hollow everything was lost. Except the one who sold the fruit of course he was a very rich person and also extremely hated by everyone.

 

[krazykidd]

ive bought most mass effect 3 dlc and loved em. Im very happy to see it continue to get support 1 year later

Well that's just DLC, which has been going on since previous generations. The micro-transaction part would be those "mystery packs" that you could buy in the multiplayer portion of the game, which I am yet to see gamers "enjoy and embrace".

Well if people buy them i guess it's the same thing as enjoying and embracing lol.

OT: Man fuck the Game industry . Now i'm just watching to see how much they can get away with , i don't even care anymore . I'm just going to sit back and watches people giving them money and sigh .

 

[Launcelot111]

The entirety of all the microtransactions I've ever bought is putting $5 towards two heroes on League of Legends. Beyond that, I'm heavily against microtransactions. I either buy the whole game as the traditional model would define it or I pay nothing (the only DLC I've ever bought is for Binding of Isaac because it was a dollar). The flip side of this is that free games I do enjoy are largely financed by microtransactions whether I support them or not. I guess in some sense, I am freeriding, but microtransactions often seem like artificial barriers to enjoyment rather than you getting extra enjoyment over the free user. I also wonder how the amount of new content released would change in LoL or something if you could buy a boxed version with all existing champions instead of microtransacting or saving up IP for each individual hero.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

if you want to see microtransactions taken to an extreme check out their sims3 store. 30 cents for a chair, etc it all adds up

Oh good god yes. Biweekly clutter sales, and a new item sale every six hours. Nothing like playing to an impulse community.

 

[ThriKreen]

Wasnt it someone from EA a while ago who was on about charging for individual bullets that you fired in a gun in a game yeah sure you can collect ammo normally but need help well just take out that credit card and we will top up your bullet inventory for you, instead of say making the game balanced so it wasnt a problem unless you played like a complete tard.

You mean the video of John Riccitiello talking about price points and impulse buying and asking the player when they're most engaged in a game (i.e. 2-3hrs into it)? Where one wouldn't be very price conscious at that point, using an example where if offered to refill your ammo in the middle of a fight, people might be more willing to do it? Nevermind no designer would really allow that in a multiplayer game, as it can be viewed as a 'cheat' - Whooo~ have $, unlimited spray and pray!

Of course that didn't stop people from misinterpreting the video to think "ZOMG EA IS GOING TO CHARGE FOR BULLETS" based on a poor example spoken out loud in a conference call.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Actually if they are making money on it and a large number of people (several thousand at least) which they most likely are, then I'd say that probably qualifies as embracing and enjoying. Doesn't really matter how many people in this echo-room of a forum dislike it if its working for them.

Actually this thread stinks of "lets take their latest statement that doesn't match our opinions and belittle them over it for our own amusement!" I think this is probably what racist white power groups do when the NAACP releases statements.

 

[Kmadden2004]

If EA are really so sure about this, how about they release some analytics to show us just how many people are even using these micro transactions, let alone "enjoying" them?

 

[Hero in a half shell]

EA doesn't even have decent f2p titles(except I hope the new C&C), what the hell they're talking about? Are people really really buying the "cheat code" unlock packs for bf3 and ds3? -_-

snip

I now need a bottle of Whisky, thank you very much.

Their F2P model absolutely sucks ass, not to mention the games are understaffed, rarely updated, with virtually no bug fixes or moderation of hackers, and totally underhanded in creating overpowered pay2use weapons and nerfing them so they're useless just before they release the next batch of even more OP guns.

But successful? People really do eat this crap up. Here's a thread from a guy who spent about £60 (pretty much $100) trying to get a single gun scope for one of his 4 characters (two of which you have to unlock through microtransactions) and the attachment isn't transferable between his soldiers.

http://battlefield.play4free.com/en/forum/showthread.php?tid=113541

He spent £60 on it. That's the price of 1 and a half new AAA games, and the kicker is that because the only way to get it is through a random item generator he didn't even get the item he wanted.

And that's a single attachment for that game, there are a hundred other (even more expensive) microtransactions that he'll probably use.

Personally I point blank refuse to pay any microtransaction ever, but this news doesn't really phase me, EA don't make any games that I'm interested in buying any more.

 

[rob_simple]

I usually try to defend EA, just because I like the challenge, but I really think they're confusing what people are happy with and what people are gullible enough to do. I'd be really interested to see a demographic breakdown of who is using micro-transactions the most.

As for my personal stance, I don't really have an issue with micro-transactions that just let you skim past game play (buying level ups, ammo etc.), if people are stupid enough to pay for that then it's their call, but I do take issue when devs --even good ones like the Arkham City guys-- start charging for things we used to get for free; like cheats and unlockable costumes.

At the end of the day though, it doesn't stop me from enjoying the games, I just don't use the micro-transactions; if they start to become intrusive ("You have run out of ammo. Please wait thirty minutes for your ammo to replenish OR pay £10 to recharge instantly") that's when I'll stop buying the games.

 

[Lunar Templar]

yeah? and?

Mircotransactions aren't going away, since the people like you whom complain about/don't like them are in the vast minority.

Besides, the practice isn't 'evil' by nature, how it used is another thing but there's nothing inherently wrong with 'mircotransactions'