Microtransactions: the Future of Games? (LootBoxes and Gambling)

I hear you can get a fair bit of credits by going to the forzamotorsport.net website and cash in some of the rewards you get there, that are tied up to what you did in the game. May be worth checking out if you have the game, apparently quite a lot of credits to be had there, especially if you let yourself rank up to tier 4 or something like that before cashing in.

Although you can win quite a lot of stuff in GT6 very fast (I have over 5? million worth of cars I think by now in prize cars and I have earned 1,3 million credits), it does seem to be slightly more grindy than before. People are still finding the 'best' races for earning cash though, best I've read so far is about 40k per 4 mins, which is about half a million credits per hour. Would take long to get all cars that way though, as I think even if you stick to Premium cars, there are now 400+ of those? Anyway, I saw quite a few cars I would like in my garage already for sure that would empty my wallet immediately.

Also, Arcade mode does seem to have quite a limited amount of cars as well, something like 20.
 
joker454 said:
Interesting, seems like they are GT-ifying Forza. Maybe people thought Forza was too easy or didn't have enough lasting power so they made it tougher?
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That would require the changes to be independent of the inclusion of microtransacitons. And given the reported abundance of advertising for in-game purchases, isn't it (far) more likely that they changed the grind to increase chance to sell in-game content, rather than they changed the game because players felt it was too easy or didn't last long enough?
 
Arwin said:
I hear you can get a fair bit of credits by going to the forzamotorsport.net website and cash in some of the rewards you get there, that are tied up to what you did in the game. May be worth checking out if you have the game, apparently quite a lot of credits to be had there, especially if you let yourself rank up to tier 4 or something like that before cashing in.
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Whoa, nice call! I just logged in there and got a free 1,040,000 credits. After playing a little more, I'll get another 2mill.

That should help a lot :D

It's pretty annoying when you listen to Clarkson describe all these amazing cars for a new class, and then when you go to buy one, you can afford your favorite, or even 3rd favorite one...
 
Shifty Geezer said:
That would require the changes to be independent of the inclusion of microtransacitons. And given the reported abundance of advertising for in-game purchases, isn't it (far) more likely that they changed the grind to increase chance to sell in-game content, rather than they changed the game because players felt it was too easy or didn't last long enough?
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Well I meant as far as difficulty. Forza used to be much easier to acquire good cars in than in GT just from racing, but it seems like that has come to an end and now you must grind more just like in GT. That wasn't the case in past Forza games. I'd be surprised if the grind is as tough or tougher than GT's as that would be quite the jump, but irregardless for anyone who has played past Forza games it sounds like the new one is closer to GT in grind than it is to Forza. Clearly some will like that as there were mainly complaints even here about the ease of getting good cars in Forza, whereas some like me would hate it.

Whether or not they changed the game purely so they could add micro transactions, or they first changed the game to more compete with GT and then added micro transactions to appease previous Forza buyers who would be in for a shock once they played the new one, well I don't know which one it is.
 
Forza 5 micro transactions are a joke and an insult to my time and purchase of the game. I bought it blindly without much research due to my time constraints.

If a massive industry crash is what it'll take to buck this trend, then I'm all for it.

I've barely touched the game due to this. You can't even test drive the full lineup of cars. Instead grind needlessly or hey! buy some tokens!
 
joker454 said:
then added micro transactions to appease previous Forza buyers who would be in for a shock once they played the new one, well I don't know which one it is.
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If they wanted to appease previous Forza buyers they would of added cheat codes not sold them
Codemasters did the same with racedriver games only in a more devious way they made every copy need unique bonus codes and you had to phone a premium rate phone number to get them

A great quote from jim sterling
"microsoft with its launch lineup seems to be trying to train its users to accept a future where $60 only buys you a shell, a hub, a delivery method for more paid content.
Just look at forza 5 immense quantities of dlc in a $60 dollar game featuring product placements powered by an add supported subscription based online network in xbox live hosted on a console sponsored by mountain dew."
 
joker454 said:
well I don't know which one it is.
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It's not that hard to figure out, as they're owned by Microsoft, and Microsoft is pushing the entire API and needs showcase content. Forza always pushes the latest MS initiative, last time it was Kinect, now it's cloud-based computing and Microtransactions.

Ryse is another example, of an MS published title, with XP booster built right into it.
 
Well hey it is what it is I guess, they had to make it affordable somehow to keep making these expensive games especially when they forgo backward compatibility and force themselves to launch multi million dollar games to tiny audiences. Perhaps they figured this is a way to have 99% of launch titles not lose money for a change. Based on sales it looks like almost every launch game is yet again a financial loser but maybe these micro transactions will help turn that around.
 
I've been thinking about that, maybe b3d could set something up so members could donate food parcels to hungry developers.
 
They'll patch it. What are you expecting, PlayStation ninjas sabotaging consoles? ;)
 
DSoup said:
They'll patch it. What are you expecting, PlayStation ninjas sabotaging consoles? ;)
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Well yeah they'll patch it, but if they want to stop everyone from using it, that won't be good enough. Hence my pondering on the matter.

The 1.01 patch is a legitimate, signed package. You can't directly install package files on the PS3 of course, but there's nothing stopping techies from using proxy redirection tricks to inject it that way. So patching it wouldn't be good enough, as it will always be possible to downgrade to 1.01/1.00 so long as you have the package.
 
Actually, this situation highlights a class with the reasoning given for micro transactions - if the purpose of MT is to give people with limited time the chance to gain content that would otherwise take too long for them, that service could be provided for free. There's no reason to charge for it as there's no cost in providing that service. It's more like a tax on people with limited time, who have to pay extra to gain access to the content on disc.

Viewed like that, it's not in any way a positive convenience.
 
joker454 said:
Well hey it is what it is I guess, they had to make it affordable somehow to keep making these expensive games especially when they forgo backward compatibility and force themselves to launch multi million dollar games to tiny audiences.
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I guess, I can't help but think that simply charging everyone $65, and leaving all that other bullshit out, would've been a far superior (and more profitable) alternative.

Who knows, maybe they'll make a buttload of money off it. I really hope not, I hope it's rejected by most console gamers, and doesn't become a profitable initiative.

In terms of selling to a small market, that's a classic double edged sword, smaller pond, but you get all the attention. I'm sure Forza will get to 2-3million+ sales soon enough, that should be enough to make money on a racing game, on a 2yr dev cycle.
 
Apparently Turn10 is making some major changes to the Economy in their next patch. Addressing everything that is wrong with the current pacing:

Turn 10 said today that it is "dramatically increasing" the rate at which players earn in-game credits. For example, driver level payouts are going from just over 15,000 credits to 35,000 credits. And those who are playing on average difficulty settings will see their credit earning rates jump by about 60 percent. The developer is also dropping the price of Forza 5's best cars, with an overall reduction of 45 percent in the total price of the cars on the game disc.
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http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/13/5207120/forza-5-update-first-economy-changes-tag-mode-drag-racing

Nice :)
 
Jupiter said:
Sony Talks Shift From Hardware to Monthly Active Users; Plans to Explore Microtransactions: https://www.dualshockers.com/sony-microtransactions-ps4/

It should be clear why they are doing it: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-03-01-eas-ultimate-team-now-worth-USD800-million-annually


_
By the way, I have no problems with Microtransactions etc.
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i remember a time when i was told my opinions were bullshit when MS did it; because they were last place, they switched to reporting only on MAU.
 
iroboto said:
i remember a time when i was told my opinions were bullshit when MS did it; because they were last place, they switched to reporting only on MAU.
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It is bullshit except for financial people who care about money in vs. money out. However for Microsoft it makes sense as they have a "generationaless" strategy where each generation's hardware sales are as less important than the total market for which you can possibly sell software title X. Sony's future PlayStation strategy is more of an unknown but this makes me wonder...

Of course it could just be a relatively obscure executive dodging a question a not some indication that Sony are thinking progressive ecosystems over console hardware generation margins.
 
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