- 293
MONETIZATION OF OUR TIME IS UNACCEPTABLE. GAMERS REGROUP !
Today, we just learned that Forza 5 (XBone) and GT6 (PS3) will both have microtransactions to skip their -laborious/glorious- grinding mechanics.
Of course, these are not the first games doing this (EA made quite a big push in this matter..and even Forza 4 already had those in...), but they are the 2 flagships of the 2 biggest actors of the videogame industry.
This dangerous trend is sending a very bad vibe about where we are going to : F2P model in games we payed full price.
Let me try to explain why this is so disgusting in the first place, especially with games where grinding is the very core of the mechanics. For practical reasons, I'll focus on Forza/GT examples. But the reasoning is the same for most of the games.
With games like GT or Forza (or others...), the currency is not actually Credits...it's our time. How much time are you ready to spend on our ****** grinding mechanics before you give up and buy it from us? How much boredom will you endure? They don't even make the game harder... just longer. Monetizing is not buying new cars, it's buying your own time. How ****ing sick is that?
PD and Turn10 applied the free2play mechanics to full priced games... and if we do nothing about it, this is not gonna change. It's gonna get worse. It is already actually.
(Edit: Well... Looks like JimQuisition explains all this way better than me. A must see video.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...811-Fee-to-Pay)
My point, and the aim of this thread is to send a clear message to Sony, EA, MS and co...
We gamers don't accept these f2p models in games we payed.
DLC made AFTER the release? (like new cars, new tracks/maps expending the experience: that were produced AFTER the release) Ok. It's fair to pay because there obviously is a cost for devs.
Monetization of the game mechanics? Paying to avoid the broken/pervert grinding mechanics? Buying our time from them? **** no! These are unfair methods.
So what can we do?
First: be vocal about it...just like we were about the DRM stuff with the XBone... Let's send tweets to every executive/journalist in the place: same list as the DRM stuff.
second: let's send nice tweets to devs that respect their consumers and do DLC well (please feel free to propose names). Let's let them know we appreciate what they do. I think it's important to show that we are not putting everyone in the same boat.
Third (the hardset part unfortunately): Let's just not buy those games/DLC. If you find it too hard to resist to your GT/Forza addiction, at least buy them second hand. We fought for this right: let's use it now.
I am very conscious that this thread is messy and all... English is not my first language and I am a messy mind anyway. Many have explained the issue much better than me and I am sure my logic might not be as strong is I'd hope.
But I really feel that we are at a turning point of this industry: a point where we gamers can make a difference.
Let's do it.
I think we should get inspiration from famousmortimer's action...
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthre...033&highlight=
...and send very clear -but very respectful- tweets to every big man in the industry.
(btw, follow us at http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=719935)
SONY:
Shuhei Yoshida (president of worldwide studios) @yosp (easily the highest level person on twitter and quite accessible)
John Koller (head of hardware marketing) @jpkoller (dude has like 150 followers - heh)
Guy Longworth (senior vice president PlayStation Brand Marketing) @luckylongworth
Scott Rohde (PlayStation Software Product Development Head for Sony Worldwide Studios America) @rohdescott
Adam Boyes (Publisher and developer relations at Sony) @amboyes
Shahid Kamal Ahmad (third party relations, europe) @shahidkamal
Nick Accordino (SCEA ISD A. Producer) @nikoro
Phil Rosenberg (SCEA - reports directly to Tretton, thanks GoFreak) @philrosenberg
MICROSOFT:
Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft Studios https://twitter.com/XboxP3
Aaron Greenberg, chief of staff for IEB https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg
Phil Harrison, man in charge of MS Europe https://twitter.com/MrPhilHarrison
Mike Ybarra, manager of games developed by external studios published by MS https://twitter.com/XboxQwik
Yusuf Mehdi, marketing for Xbox https://twitter.com/yusuf_i_mehdi
Major Nelson https://twitter.com/majornelson
THIRD PARTIES
EA
@petermooreEA
Activision
@erichirshberg
Here's one of Activisions Board of Directors
https://twitter.com/luciangrainge
Christian Guillemot
Co-founder of Ubi Soft
https://twitter.com/Kristian66
PATRICK SÖDERLUND - EA Vice President: @PatrickSderlund
Social media teams... probably a waste of time.
Ubisoft
https://twitter.com/UbisoftUK
https://twitter.com/Ubisoft
EA
https://twitter.com/EASPORTSFIFA
https://twitter.com/EA
https://twitter.com/EASPORTS
https://twitter.com/EA_ActionMan // EA UK Marketing
https://twitter.com/EA_DICE
https://twitter.com/CriterionGames
Activision
https://twitter.com/Activision
https://twitter.com/OneOfSwords // Activision Community manager
https://twitter.com/beachheadstudio
OTHER MEDIA
Who else to contact in the mainstream media (PLEASE DO NOT SPAM):
New York Times
https://twitter.com/nickwingfield
https://twitter.com/bxchen
Wall Street Journal
https://twitter.com/iansherr
https://twitter.com/DrewFitzGerald
https://twitter.com/RolfeWinkler
https://twitter.com/adamnajberg
Edge
https://twitter.com/Neil_Long_
https://twitter.com/taylorcocke
Wired
https://twitter.com/kobunheat
CBS
https://twitter.com/chendangak
ABC
https://twitter.com/DanMilanoABC
https://twitter.com/JoannaStern
Time
https://twitter.com/mattpeckham
AP
https://twitter.com/liedtkesfc
I got all these informations from famousmortimer's topic. So credits to him and all those who helped him.
I suggest we wait to be numerous and organised before sending anything. Timing and number is the key.
For the sake of the demonstration, some examples of microtransactions invading our games.
Ryse
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ter-we-promise
This is how microtransactions in Ryse work: multiplayer progression is an armour-based progression system. In the arena, the mode in which multiplayer takes place, players earn experience and gold. The gold is used to purchase equipment in packs, similar to those in Mass Effect and FIFA Ultimate Team. These packs come in tiers, which can be purchased either with in-game currency or real world currency.
Crimson Dragon
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-dragon-review
There's the option to grind, of course, and come back to levels with more firepower at your fingertips. And if you don't want to grind, you're covered by micro-transactions, with Crimson Dragon's economy another facet of Microsoft's bold redefinition of free-to-play gaming.
We also have GTAOnline, BF4, GT6, Forza 5, Diablo 3, etc... big names really.
I can't know exactly every kind of monetization in each of these games, nor can I for all past games, I just want to point that it's a strong trend in videogames. Devs asking themselves "now...what can I monetize?" in games we already payed for.
And usually what they can monetize is our time. Unacceptable.
Today, we just learned that Forza 5 (XBone) and GT6 (PS3) will both have microtransactions to skip their -laborious/glorious- grinding mechanics.
Of course, these are not the first games doing this (EA made quite a big push in this matter..and even Forza 4 already had those in...), but they are the 2 flagships of the 2 biggest actors of the videogame industry.
This dangerous trend is sending a very bad vibe about where we are going to : F2P model in games we payed full price.
Let me try to explain why this is so disgusting in the first place, especially with games where grinding is the very core of the mechanics. For practical reasons, I'll focus on Forza/GT examples. But the reasoning is the same for most of the games.
With games like GT or Forza (or others...), the currency is not actually Credits...it's our time. How much time are you ready to spend on our ****** grinding mechanics before you give up and buy it from us? How much boredom will you endure? They don't even make the game harder... just longer. Monetizing is not buying new cars, it's buying your own time. How ****ing sick is that?
PD and Turn10 applied the free2play mechanics to full priced games... and if we do nothing about it, this is not gonna change. It's gonna get worse. It is already actually.
(Edit: Well... Looks like JimQuisition explains all this way better than me. A must see video.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...811-Fee-to-Pay)
My point, and the aim of this thread is to send a clear message to Sony, EA, MS and co...
We gamers don't accept these f2p models in games we payed.
DLC made AFTER the release? (like new cars, new tracks/maps expending the experience: that were produced AFTER the release) Ok. It's fair to pay because there obviously is a cost for devs.
Monetization of the game mechanics? Paying to avoid the broken/pervert grinding mechanics? Buying our time from them? **** no! These are unfair methods.
So what can we do?
First: be vocal about it...just like we were about the DRM stuff with the XBone... Let's send tweets to every executive/journalist in the place: same list as the DRM stuff.
second: let's send nice tweets to devs that respect their consumers and do DLC well (please feel free to propose names). Let's let them know we appreciate what they do. I think it's important to show that we are not putting everyone in the same boat.
Third (the hardset part unfortunately): Let's just not buy those games/DLC. If you find it too hard to resist to your GT/Forza addiction, at least buy them second hand. We fought for this right: let's use it now.
I am very conscious that this thread is messy and all... English is not my first language and I am a messy mind anyway. Many have explained the issue much better than me and I am sure my logic might not be as strong is I'd hope.
But I really feel that we are at a turning point of this industry: a point where we gamers can make a difference.
Let's do it.
I think we should get inspiration from famousmortimer's action...
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthre...033&highlight=
...and send very clear -but very respectful- tweets to every big man in the industry.
(btw, follow us at http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=719935)
SONY:
Shuhei Yoshida (president of worldwide studios) @yosp (easily the highest level person on twitter and quite accessible)
John Koller (head of hardware marketing) @jpkoller (dude has like 150 followers - heh)
Guy Longworth (senior vice president PlayStation Brand Marketing) @luckylongworth
Scott Rohde (PlayStation Software Product Development Head for Sony Worldwide Studios America) @rohdescott
Adam Boyes (Publisher and developer relations at Sony) @amboyes
Shahid Kamal Ahmad (third party relations, europe) @shahidkamal
Nick Accordino (SCEA ISD A. Producer) @nikoro
Phil Rosenberg (SCEA - reports directly to Tretton, thanks GoFreak) @philrosenberg
MICROSOFT:
Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft Studios https://twitter.com/XboxP3
Aaron Greenberg, chief of staff for IEB https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg
Phil Harrison, man in charge of MS Europe https://twitter.com/MrPhilHarrison
Mike Ybarra, manager of games developed by external studios published by MS https://twitter.com/XboxQwik
Yusuf Mehdi, marketing for Xbox https://twitter.com/yusuf_i_mehdi
Major Nelson https://twitter.com/majornelson
THIRD PARTIES
EA
@petermooreEA
Activision
@erichirshberg
Here's one of Activisions Board of Directors
https://twitter.com/luciangrainge
Christian Guillemot
Co-founder of Ubi Soft
https://twitter.com/Kristian66
PATRICK SÖDERLUND - EA Vice President: @PatrickSderlund
Social media teams... probably a waste of time.
Ubisoft
https://twitter.com/UbisoftUK
https://twitter.com/Ubisoft
EA
https://twitter.com/EASPORTSFIFA
https://twitter.com/EA
https://twitter.com/EASPORTS
https://twitter.com/EA_ActionMan // EA UK Marketing
https://twitter.com/EA_DICE
https://twitter.com/CriterionGames
Activision
https://twitter.com/Activision
https://twitter.com/OneOfSwords // Activision Community manager
https://twitter.com/beachheadstudio
OTHER MEDIA
Who else to contact in the mainstream media (PLEASE DO NOT SPAM):
New York Times
https://twitter.com/nickwingfield
https://twitter.com/bxchen
Wall Street Journal
https://twitter.com/iansherr
https://twitter.com/DrewFitzGerald
https://twitter.com/RolfeWinkler
https://twitter.com/adamnajberg
Edge
https://twitter.com/Neil_Long_
https://twitter.com/taylorcocke
Wired
https://twitter.com/kobunheat
CBS
https://twitter.com/chendangak
ABC
https://twitter.com/DanMilanoABC
https://twitter.com/JoannaStern
Time
https://twitter.com/mattpeckham
AP
https://twitter.com/liedtkesfc
I got all these informations from famousmortimer's topic. So credits to him and all those who helped him.
I suggest we wait to be numerous and organised before sending anything. Timing and number is the key.
For the sake of the demonstration, some examples of microtransactions invading our games.
Ryse
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ter-we-promise
This is how microtransactions in Ryse work: multiplayer progression is an armour-based progression system. In the arena, the mode in which multiplayer takes place, players earn experience and gold. The gold is used to purchase equipment in packs, similar to those in Mass Effect and FIFA Ultimate Team. These packs come in tiers, which can be purchased either with in-game currency or real world currency.
Crimson Dragon
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-dragon-review
There's the option to grind, of course, and come back to levels with more firepower at your fingertips. And if you don't want to grind, you're covered by micro-transactions, with Crimson Dragon's economy another facet of Microsoft's bold redefinition of free-to-play gaming.
We also have GTAOnline, BF4, GT6, Forza 5, Diablo 3, etc... big names really.
I can't know exactly every kind of monetization in each of these games, nor can I for all past games, I just want to point that it's a strong trend in videogames. Devs asking themselves "now...what can I monetize?" in games we already payed for.
And usually what they can monetize is our time. Unacceptable.
