31st May 2005, 2:34 PM
I mind it being done in ANY game. Just because we don't touch a genre doesn't mean it won't touch us. That is to say, my conjecture is there's not much of a real market border that seperates what they do with one type of game from how they deal with another...
So basically, a company like Sony saying "hey, let's open up a "sanctioned" online market on our site where people can buy and sell armor, only with REAL money, thus promoting a career of people taking all that stuff in game, depriving the normal players of it, and skyrocketing the in-game economy so the people who don't pay real money for... fake money, are faced with literally paying thousands for second level gear or something.
I... keep up on the politics of these games... I have been ever since Penny Arcade made that comic about beaming an unruly rabble in SWGalaxies into space...
At any rate, Sony seems to be intent on creating a world and then giving everyone all the tools they need to destroy it. Virtual inflation has never been so easy. It's yet another reason I don't plan on touching those games. Rich kids always prosper there.
But at any rate, can you really see that not bleeding over into other genres? It's already started. You can pay for additional bits of content for games like Splinter Cell already, or just not GET it. Now the different right now is fair, that's content they made AFTER the game was released. On the other hand, you have something like Jade Empire's special edition. Remember that added content? Well, turns out that extra content is in EVERY SINGLE VERSION of the game, but the special addition buyers get an extra disk that saves an "unlock" file to the hard drive which all the games check for to see if they'll let you get that. And that, is ripping people off. Nintendo isn't immune to this either. Remember all that extra content they locked away unless you used a transfer pack or special cable? It wasn't new content, it was content that was already ON the disk but programmed to only be accessible if you bought more crap and linked it up.
The next step is to make the first few levels of a game, sell it for 10 bucks, then make a few more and sell that for the same price, and then cancel the game when people, rightfully so, don't BUY incomplete games.
Wait until movies are done like this, or books!
...oh wait...
So basically, a company like Sony saying "hey, let's open up a "sanctioned" online market on our site where people can buy and sell armor, only with REAL money, thus promoting a career of people taking all that stuff in game, depriving the normal players of it, and skyrocketing the in-game economy so the people who don't pay real money for... fake money, are faced with literally paying thousands for second level gear or something.
I... keep up on the politics of these games... I have been ever since Penny Arcade made that comic about beaming an unruly rabble in SWGalaxies into space...
At any rate, Sony seems to be intent on creating a world and then giving everyone all the tools they need to destroy it. Virtual inflation has never been so easy. It's yet another reason I don't plan on touching those games. Rich kids always prosper there.
But at any rate, can you really see that not bleeding over into other genres? It's already started. You can pay for additional bits of content for games like Splinter Cell already, or just not GET it. Now the different right now is fair, that's content they made AFTER the game was released. On the other hand, you have something like Jade Empire's special edition. Remember that added content? Well, turns out that extra content is in EVERY SINGLE VERSION of the game, but the special addition buyers get an extra disk that saves an "unlock" file to the hard drive which all the games check for to see if they'll let you get that. And that, is ripping people off. Nintendo isn't immune to this either. Remember all that extra content they locked away unless you used a transfer pack or special cable? It wasn't new content, it was content that was already ON the disk but programmed to only be accessible if you bought more crap and linked it up.
The next step is to make the first few levels of a game, sell it for 10 bucks, then make a few more and sell that for the same price, and then cancel the game when people, rightfully so, don't BUY incomplete games.
Wait until movies are done like this, or books!
...oh wait...
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)