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According to Rolling Stone, a new patent has been granted to Activision that may dramatically increase the odds for players to purchase microtransaction items. The patent, filed for in 2015 but granted just today, pairs gamers together to
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Gaming since 1985; Online gaming since 1995; No End in Sight! My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8POVoJ8fdOseuJ4U1ZX-oA
Hopefully, this will turn the tide. I wonder what, if any, impact recent legal maneuvers overseas with regard to loot chest odds and so forth will have on this which obviously wasn't present in 2015?
Of course, we also have to be careful in assuming they'll actually use the patented process. It's possible that things have progressed beyond its capabilities over 2 years after filing.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hmmm that would be pure P2P and P2W, what would be the actual point in playing the game if the best items are bought.
I like the B2P buy the game and expansions and dont get to fork out for anything else as everything can drop from kills/chests or be made by other players.
This whole Item Store shit is getting out of hand now. GREED aimed at the ones that have the wallet and funds but those may buy, rest wont but still wont save the games.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
What a sad industry this has become...
What's next? Walmart Online: The Game
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Sound logic. But hey, common sense is treated as offense on these boards...
Imagine the peer pressure to buy when someone in your social circle is spending up big in a game you play.
Micro transactions will just become the norm and only crusty old vets will remember when gaming in its more pure form.
Must be more of that "need" from the increased cost of doing business, yeah?
Sadly how it is now won't change, it'll only get worse because the devs and publishers know most players are stupid and will buy into microtransactions like a fly to crap. Gamers today that started in the ps2 era have killed gaming as they are the main ones who buy into all this microtransaction crap, because they do not know how it orignally was and they think its normal.
The worst offenders are the games that lock content ALREADY ON THE DISC behind a paywall, today its very rare to actually get a complete game out of the box, most big name games have a large portion of the game behind a paywall, stuff like other game modes and such that in the past would have been a default option, but now a days they want you to pay extra for it, even though its already in the game. I personally find this thing with on disc dlc digusting, and you know what I do to fight it? I just torrent the damn game for spite and tell them to shove it up there ass. Saves me money and it shows that I ain't going to support that crap. Mind you, I feel most AAA games today are garbage so I rarely if ever actually bother with any of them. If you've played 1 fps game, you've played pretty much every AAA fps game out there.
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or
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Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
It will have the largest effect on strictly console players, the gamers who aren't generally plugged into gaming websites like this one to see such news snippets. Who have no idea why they all of a sudden are the only one in the lobby without all the store-bought guns and equipment.
Now as is pointed out you its "impossible" to enforce this but it does influence how a game can be marketed, what sites can be used to advertise the game on etc. - which they can control. Same deal for 3rd party retailers as well. And one thing that games need to thrive is publicity.
And potentially there could be legal issues:
Prosecution: you should have stopped minors playing etc. etc.
Defence: impossible, we had no way of knowing.
Prosecution: you should have ensured you didn't pair an adult (with high disposable income!) with a minor (no disposable income of their own).
Defence: impossible we had no way of knowing who was playing.
Prosecution: Yes you said. You knew and accepted that there might be minors playing and went ahead anyway with promoting your loot crates. Prosecution rests.
Lost my mind, now trying to lose yours...
I notice you LOL'd everyone that posted negative feelings towards this information. Pot, meet Kettle.
I wonder what implications something like this could have on match/party finder mechanics. Intentionally match people with whales in an attempt to advertise? How about charging a premium just to have someone OP in the party?
Might be time to start the Activision boycott.
When you get an Agree, you know you need to reconsider your entire position on the subject.
But they don't just make money for "them". They make money for investors. Very few investors (or a small percentage) invest money to make "just a little to tide me over".
So if they can make 12 Billion they are going to make 12 Billion.
Now, I think this practice is disgusting. But not in a "I"m going to rage on public forums" way but in a "I just won't buy these types of addons". Especially because the guy who won in the above scenario is also going to be "buying" so he can maintain his place in the winning ranks.
As far as this turning the tide, I doubt it. The same type of people who bought gold and items in early games so that they could "get ahead" are the same type of people who would buy gold and items today.
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Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I feel like this is the real problem; a new generation of gamers, brought up on F2P mobile games, brainwashed into thinking that microtransactions are somehow 'just the way it is', or dare I say it 'justified' even in full priced games with optional subs, founders packs, season passes, and 10 different pre-order 'collectors' editions (half of which don't actually include the game)...
For now I've got the likes of Divinity: Original Sin 2, Battlechasers: Nightwar, Grim Dawn (with new expansion), and upcoming games like Battletech to keep me going... though what things could look like in a few years in rather scary, especially if the likes of Battlefront II and Shadow of War are well received :S.
[UPDATE] In a statement, Activision confirmed that this patent was only "exploratory," and such a system has not been used in any games.
"This was an exploratory patent filed in 2015 by an R&D team working independently from our game studios. It has not been implemented in-game," a spokesperson for Activision said.
Additionally, Bungie community manager David "Deej" Dague confirmed on Twitter, "None of this functionality appears in Destiny."
Keywords....working independently.
So how does an independent research and development team file for a patent on behalf of Activision,while Activision is claiming they are not of the same entity?
You see this is the kind of crap devs/publishers are trying to pull on us.Furthermore,how could a Patent be issued based on something NOT fully disclosed and only meant to be EXPLORED?How would they even word it and how did the governing agency/court decide an exploratory idea is fair game for a patent?
Furthermore on the account of "non-obvious",to me this is a very obvious tactic,so to someone skilled in the field of human manipulation or even simple marketing or whatever skilled technician you want to label as here could think of this.SO how did it get a patent if really this is a very obvious tactic?I am assuming there is no official title given any person with this kind of skill,therefore nobody to relate the non obvious to.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
They will apparently issue patents on anything now. Such a dangerous thing to allow corp's, or really anyone, to gain patents on things like this.
Something i bet they might never use...but anything like this that even has anything to do with marketing and matchmaking i bet they will come along and stick out their hands and ask for a share, claiming patent infringement.
People should really go read the info, the vast majority is about matchmaking and making "matches" that will increase the players enjoyment. Just a bit about the marketing part.