The cost of Optional MODS in a Free Market Place by Third Party Modders *Spawn*
- Thread starter Bludd
- Start date
You don't have to pay for it, yet some people will. Those early payors will undoubtedly tell the rest of us, via some clickbaity "content creator" coverage, if they thought $10 was a worthwhile spend.
In the end, everyone votes with their wallet. Either the "single $10 quest" ends up being profitable for Bethesda, or it doesn't. And you can guess what happens next, based on that outcome... Maybe we should all pray to our chosen diety (where applicable) nobody buys it. I see this as foundationally no different than some games outright charging $100 USD (or more) for new titles. They're testing the water, no differently than NVIDIA setting an MSRP of $1500 for video cards. Either the market supports it, or it doesn't.
(I'm guilty of buying a 4090, and a pair of 4070 Supers, and a 3080Ti before those... Sorry
)Our father who art in Texas, Carmack be thy name...
If they do exist, Carmack deserves a rightful position in the pantheon of the Gaming Gods.
How dare you sir....
vjPiedPiper
Newcomer
I mean, I'm sure the gaming gods used to exist, it's just that doom guy, may have gone and killed them all by now!
Anyone got a list of good mods to start with on xbox for starfield?
or reccomend a guide/site that has such a list.
I pretty much gave up after going thru the singularity the first time round, but i'd be keen to get into again for new content and new experiences
Anyone got a list of good mods to start with on xbox for starfield?
or reccomend a guide/site that has such a list.
I pretty much gave up after going thru the singularity the first time round, but i'd be keen to get into again for new content and new experiences
GhostofWar
Regular
It's a slippery slope, some people will say oh it's only 10 bucks but the mission is worth it yada yada you don't have to buy it etc. Same thing was said about horse armor and look at what that turned into, the transactions arn't exactly micro anymore and just like that if bethesda can get people to accept it then it's only going to escalate the same way horse armor started the shitshow that "mtx" has become.
It depends on what the mission is doesn't it ? What if its a 10 hour mission ? 20 hour mission?
GhostofWar
Regular
Not a chance unless they pad the hell out of the mission with some kind of mmo type mechanics where your doing the same thing over and over, I don't think I even clocked 20 hours in their 30 dollar xpacks for fallout 4 and nuka world felt like a mod quality wise.
If I am wrong and some of those have an actual 10 hours of real new content I would be ok with that. I do think that it would get worse value over time however similar to what dlc did to expansions. The expansions for the witcher and cyberpunk are similar to what we used to get from most expansions and the elden ring one looks pretty substantial (although the price is closer to a new game than an expansion), but most other "premium" dlc these days are like 30 dollars for 3-5 hours content and if they get away with selling small pieces at a time for 10 bucks they will probably just stop with the 30 dollar dlc and just drip feed 10 dollar mission/quests. Similarly how the premium dlc essentially killed proper expansions.
There is no slippery slope here cuz we've already taken the ride.
What do you mean 'and look what that turned into'? It's this. It's the current situation. It's the same thing. This is horse armor. Just dumb, throwaway microtransaction content for starved and impatient fans desperate for more and will be largely ignored by the vast majority playing the game.
I'm not defending the practice, it's lousy, and such effort would be much better used designing quests/content for a more packaged expansion of some degree(even if smaller in scope), but this is nothing new. Creation Club stuff has had these kinds of microtransactions since its introduction. It's hardly new in the industry, either. It's just it's so easily ignorable most of the time, it doesn't get attention.
Here's the unfortunate reality we all live in: every person or company selling you something will do what they feel will maximize their profits.
One person or company may decide to price themselves far lower than others in their landscape, irrespective of quality, to gain notoriety, favor, or marketshare.
Another person or company may decide they will be more profitable by providing quality merchandise or services at affordable prices, hoping to establish a good repuation and a steady flow of customers.
Others may simply decide to produce whatever quality they want at prices which exceed (perhaps grossly) the market average, because they feel the market will bear it.
I've oversimplified obviously, and there's plenty of gray area. It's also worth pointing out what most of us implicitly understand by now: most publically traded companies will absolutely target increased quarterly and annual earnings, along with the implied stock price expansion, at the cost of long term viability. Why? Because those leaders can get rich, and then can get out and the inevitable fall can be someone else's burden to bear.
There's also no reason the same individual or company couldn't operate at any one of these three of these stages over time, or even operate under all three at the same time. I'm a fan of bourbon, and most of the big names will absolutely produce an inexpensive but otherwise decent bottle, along with whatever their tried and true namesake is at a medium price for a reliably good product, along with a few boutique items which can often drive strong opinions for both product quality and price.
This is capitalism and you vote with your wallet. Here's the trick though - just because you vote for what you want, doesn't mean the overall election goes in your favor. If people are willing to pay money for a thing, that thing will continue to sell.
This is not true. Lots of people are happy to sell things at perfectly reasonable or 'to sell' pricing. I know when I sell stuff, I always try and make a bit of a deal out of it so it sells quickly and I feel good about making somebody happy about getting a good deal on something.
And in terms of business, there's plenty of non-public companies who similarly practice perfectly reasonable practices and pricing based on a sustainable model rather than an exploitative one. Heck, even some public companies get away with good customer practices because they become known for it and it works for them.
Maybe you would always try and be greedy and extract as much money as possible from others, but it's a great fallacy to think everybody else is just like you. And we absolutely should not just accept pure greed and selfishness as the default state of everybody and everything in every situation. People who see things that way only do so because it's how they think.
Nothing I typed was wrong; my very first example was folks who sell quality for less cost than others could easily charge because they would prefer the favor of not being someone who chases ultimate short-term profit. The favor, in this circumstance, is to society and not to themselves. And in the end, that goodwill would expect to breed repeat customers, which ultimately results in a lucrative and sustainably-profitable business. I also made no statement anywhere in my post about my own personal feelings nor how I "reward" anyone whom I choose to purchase from.
Finally, to your respone I quoted above: I specifically said to vote with your wallet, which is all you can really do. If you personally feel the sale of some goods or services are purely in service of someone's greed or narcissicm, then your action is clear: don't give them your business. Yet, precisely as I described, if enough people DO give them money for that good or service, then the good or service will continue to be sold despite whatever your feelings might be, and despite other people being in agreement with you.
Wanna know why games are costing $70, $90, $120 and more? Because people continue to pay.
Wanna know why NVIDIA sells cards for >$1500 MSRP? Because people continue to pay.
Wanna know why Intel continues to sell mostly the same CPU with higher clockspeeds and higher TDPs year over year for $1000+? Because people continue to pay.
Wanna know why shitty DLCs that last a few hours can be sold for $30 or more? Because people continue to pay.
We can continue, but I expect you understand.
You, me, most people on this forum don't NEED any of this gear, so of course you and I and anyone else in here can choose not to buy those items. Turns out, enough people DID buy them, which allows the business to continue selling them.
The only real limiting factor here is laws, and (at least here in the US) I'm not convinced the laws really are able to do enough. Or arguably worse, I'm unconvinced the courts would be willing or able to really apply a lot of laws to those people or corporations who wield enough power and influence (bluntly: wealth) to avoid the consequences of their greedy actions.
Last edited:
I really don't see the issue with charging $10 for some content pack or quest so long as it doesn't represent content that was peeled away from the main release in an attempt to later upsell existing customers. Starfield's shortcomings aren't a lack of breadth in quest lines or anything else that could be attributed to changing monetization trends.
So what you think its a 10 minute mission ?
I'd wait for more of the scope of the expansion comes out before we start claiming its a very short mission.
GhostofWar
Regular
I think it will be 60-90 min as long as there's no padding like making you defend something for 30 minutes or having to run around an empty planet for 30 minutes scanning for some new rare resource etc.
Probably using the same assets already in the game with maybe a reskinned enemy as the boss and some new weapon or gear item as the reward only available from said mission.
That should be enough detail so I can be called out if im wrong without any wiggle room for me to try make excuses
I am sorry
For what it's worth, I waited quite a while before buying my 4090. At least I "only" paid MSRP, does that help? Some of the cards at release were >$2000...
But yeah, I'm an enabler on that front. It folds like crazy tho!
I think its going to be longer but I guess we will wait and seeI think it will be 60-90 min as long as there's no padding like making you defend something for 30 minutes or having to run around an empty planet for 30 minutes scanning for some new rare resource etc.
Probably using the same assets already in the game with maybe a reskinned enemy as the boss and some new weapon or gear item as the reward only available from said mission.
That should be enough detail so I can be called out if im wrong without any wiggle room for me to try make excuses
Wanting a sustainable business is not the same thing as 'always chase maximum profit' as you initially claimed.
Wanna know why shitty DLCs that last a few hours can be sold for $30 or more? Because people continue to pay.
I've not seen any DLC for $30 that's only a few hours long. That's expansion DLC pricing. Whether you think it's good or not is a whole different question.
Wanna know why Intel continues to sell mostly the same CPU with higher clockspeeds and higher TDPs year over year for $1000+? Because people continue to pay.
I mean, that's definitely not what is going on. Their CPU's are not $1000+, and they would offer a proper new product/better product if one was available. You're acting like they're purposefully sandbagging progress or something, which isn't true.
The only real limiting factor here is laws, and (at least here in the US) I'm not convinced the laws really are able to do enough. Or arguably worse, I'm unconvinced the courts would be willing or able to really apply a lot of laws to those people or corporations who wield enough power and influence (bluntly: wealth) to avoid the consequences of their greedy actions.
There's nothing illegal about being greedy. And certainly talking about legal ramifications for some throwaway microtransactions seems highly excessive. I'm all for big government and all, but this would be a big overreach.
Similar threads
