Quoting: redneckdrow

Quoting: Mountain Man

Quoting: redneckdrowNot to mention that ephemeral crap such as skin pricing is beyond predatory. I've never bought any "skins" for any game, and never will, and $25 is a good reason why! They aren't "micro" transactions at all at this point!

Criminently, they must think my mama named me Nutsy!

By the way, Blizzard Hospitii delendum est!

You may not be willing to buy a skin for $25, but obviously enough other people are for Blizzard to consider it to their advantage to keep it at that price.

It's like this: would you rather sell a $5 cosmetic item to 100 people, or a $25 cosmetic item to 25 people?

Obviously, that's just good business sense. It's the people that buy the stuff that make playing any popular game a chore for anyone over the age of majority with two brain cells to rub together.

Let me be clear, I wouldn't buy either purely cosmetic or pay-to-win stuff at any price. I never bought the horse-armor in Oblivion! Darn it, Jim, I have principles!

Giving in just feeds the problem.

Also, the fact that most of the stuff is aimed at age groups typically without an understanding of the words "financial restraint" or "budget" galls me.

But really, that's a societal problem, huh? I'm scared to how bad it will be by the time I have kids. (Yes, I'm the 30-ssomething who's never dated. :tongue: Mainly by virtue of having the full use of only one arm and being unable to drive, and the fact I haven't met the right girl yet. But I'll figure all that out in due time.)

I remember how ruthlessly Bethesda was mocked for the $1 horse armor. Who could have ever guessed that they were pioneers paving the way for something that a depressing number of people simply accept without question?

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Quoting: redneckdrowNot to mention that ephemeral crap such as skin pricing is beyond predatory. I've never bought any "skins" for any game, and never will, and $25 is a good reason why! They aren't "micro" transactions at all at this point!

Criminently, they must think my mama named me Nutsy!

By the way, Blizzard Hospitii delendum est!

You may not be willing to buy a skin for $25, but obviously enough other people are for Blizzard to consider it to their advantage to keep it at that price.

It's like this: would you rather sell a $5 cosmetic item to 100 people, or a $25 cosmetic item to 25 people?

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I would love to get away from having to use Battle.net, but there's no way I'm going to double dip at full price.

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Microsoft Loves Linux

Microsoft Loves Linux

Microsoft Linux

I expect it will happen eventually.

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Quoting: benstor214

Quoting: PenglingI think I prefer this AI-written movie...

Meh… I think I prefer Sump’n Claus ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Reminds me of a Marx Bros bit where Groucho tries to get Chico to sign a contract with a sanity clause. Chico responds, "You canna fool me, I don't believe in no Santy Claus!"

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Quoting: redneckdrow

Quoting: Grogan

Quoting: EhvisAnd nothing of value was lost.

Yeah, it's not a CEO that does the work... only implements policies to make investors/shareholders money. This is not necessarily aligned with making good products.

I mean, Ayn Rand was less self-absorbed than your average CEO these days. Sigh, the older I get, the more I understand that unscrupulous tactics are the main pitfall of Capitalist/Free-Market economy. Yet, though it may be scummy, I'd take a scummy free-market over any other form of market.

Extremes in any form of market are terrible, no matter who that market is controlled by.

I had to write a paper on Free vs Closed vs Single vs "Post-Free" markets as a teenager, and my A.P. Government and Politics teacher gave me an extension after I showed her the first six (Unspaced! :dizzy: ) pages. It was double that before I was done. I have never had that much to say on a topic since. I went way beyond the assignment, because I went "down the rabbit hole" as it were; I've been burned out on writing for nearly a decade-and-a-half since.

Spoiler, click me

Apropos of nothing, and without revealing too much else, I also happened to pass three A.P. exams that year. I still haven't gone to College (University to you folks across the pond), but if-and-when I do, I'll have quite a few classes that I won't have to take. I never want to touch College Algebra again; it was all I could do to get a B- in that class! I still dream about polynomials and imaginary numbers! :cry:

Capitalist, Communist, Republican, Monarchist, Oligarchic, Theocratic, Fascist, and Anarchist economies all have things that make economics equally nightmarish. Not to mention that any of those governments can any/multiples of those economies, irrespective of their politics.

Doesn't mean I have to tolerate scummy CEOs! My grandfather was a member of Local 89 his whole life! He even paid his dues every year after he retired! I'll be a union man 'til the day I die and stand judged. Power to the people!

As the saying goes, capitalism is a terrible economic system; it just happens to be better than every other economic system that's been tried.

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It seems like Riccitiello is really good at growing a brand and making it successful, and then suddenly introducing a monumentally stupid idea that undercuts his prior success.

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Quoting: SakuretsuYet another Acti/Blizz game coming to Steam just to get a well deserved review bombing.

Not sure it's deserved in the case of Diablo IV which is actually a really fun game, but hating on Blizzard seems to be the thing to do these days. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Doesn't seem like there's any chance of transferring to Steam if you purchased on Battle.net though, annoyingly.

Well, that sucks.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyI read the letter . . . sounds like it's been really tough, and I feel for him.

But it really hit me, the way he was writing it's like there's some kind of massive 2008-style recession. But in the broader economy, there isn't really. North America's basically OK by recent standards except for insanely expensive housing, which is a really big deal but I mean unemployment is low and economic growth seems to be happening. As I understand it Britain is in tough shape, mostly due to a series of self-inflicted wounds and self-inflicted Conservative governments, and Germany's not doing well because of expensive/scarce natural gas due to geopolitical reasons, but overall it doesn't seem like the general economy is as bad as the situation seems to be for gaming companies. Anyone know why the gaming industry in particular is in bad shape?

The economy is not good in the US. Yes, the official unemployment number is low, but our labor force participation rate remains below pre-pandemic levels, meaning that a significant number of people have simply dropped out of the labor market. Gas prices remain very high, which affects the cost of goods and services. Inflation has slowed but is still rising, so every day, working Americans find that their spending power is slightly less than it was the day before. I'm hoping things finally turn around in the next year or two, but I'm not optimistic.

So to answer your question, when it's a matter of keeping a roof over your head and food on the table versus a frivolous expense like video games, the latter will lose every time. That's why the entertainment industry seems to be getting hit particularly hard right now.

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