Diablo Immortal Discussion

[DeathReborn]

People need to stop throwing money at blizzard.
Also senators need to get off there butt in this whole left wing right wing, and actually think of children, and how loot boxes will just mess up our younger generation.

Seriously, there is nothing good about loot boxes other then profits for the company, at the cost of our children.
I really have no idea how loot boxes lasted so long, yet games like GTA3 and GTA4 got censored backwards and forwards silly because it had sexual instances.

Where are all the Karen Moms not raising hell and pitchforks on predatory loot boxes?

There should be 18+ age checks on every game doing these kind of micro-transactions. Maybe require them to register as gambling organisations too so they also come under that regulatory system too. I tried DI for a couple of hours to confirm my suspicions about it (paid nothing) but wiithin hours it became clear the "core" gameplay is the "give us money" mechanic and everything else is just to entice you to buy. All praise to Belgium & Netherlands for banning this utter steaming pile.

 

[Aikouka]

People need to stop throwing money at blizzard.
Also senators need to get off there butt in this whole left wing right wing, and actually think of children, and how loot boxes will just mess up our younger generation.

Seriously, there is nothing good about loot boxes other then profits for the company, at the cost of our children.
I really have no idea how loot boxes lasted so long, yet games like GTA3 and GTA4 got censored backwards and forwards silly because it had sexual instances.

Where are all the Karen Moms not raising hell and pitchforks on predatory loot boxes?

The thing is that it's not just kids but also adults with issues that make them more prone to impulse spending in the games. It's bad enough that psychologists are hired at game studios to find ways to make the games more incentivizing to the weak-minded players.

 

[Dannar26]

I think that this "game" launch has taught the absolute worst lesson to gaming companies and the entertainment industry at large. This game was panned by everybody I care to pay attention to (please let me know if somebody is giving this abomination a good review), and has a record setting low score on meta critic. It was boo'd at blizzard's own fan-attended convention...like the one place where you know you'd have fans, right? Nobody thought this was great.

And yet, I'll wager it'll make millions. It'll far surpass the costs to make it. It. Will. Be. Profitable.

That's it ladies and gents. We have proven that gaming companies don't need gamers.

What a terrible precedent to set...

People need to understand that Psychologists (whom are supposed to normally HELP people in need when they're not mentally healthy) are actually hired in big companies like that in order to find all sorts of ways to exploit the consumers they're making products for, on purpose of course and it's not only legal; it's desired by them. That, to me, is already beyond predatory. It's pretty much inhuman, unethical and should be criminal and illegal.

This smacks of what cigarette companies do/did. At least we made sure they couldn't directly market to children, and we tax the hell out of those guys...

People need to stop throwing money at blizzard.
Also senators need to get off there butt in this whole left wing right wing, and actually think of children, and how loot boxes will just mess up our younger generation.

Seriously, there is nothing good about loot boxes other then profits for the company, at the cost of our children.
I really have no idea how loot boxes lasted so long, yet games like GTA3 and GTA4 got censored backwards and forwards silly because it had sexual instances.

Where are all the Karen Moms not raising hell and pitchforks on predatory loot boxes?

I'm sorry, Karen couldn't be reached for comment, as she was busy with telling 19 year old college students trying to pay their way through overpriced education that they will never amount to anything because they messed up her mocha latte BS drink.

I'm so tired of the Red and Blue team worshipping. Our leadership has gotten objectively worse, and it's impacting the life of the common man.

Spoken as a gamer and a father, I want this microtransaction nonsense taxed to high heaven. Maybe that will make them think twice about ignoring the traditional model of make a good game and it sells many copies for gambling machine that prints money. Fix my roads with it the proceeds...make college free....or for the love of god just stop raising my property taxes? It would be nice to entertain the idea that my kids could own homes before they're 75....

Sorry for the politics. Changing the topic a bit here...

I remember lining up at midnight releases for blizzard games. I wasted so much time playing Warcraft 3 custom maps, and starcraft before that. Blizzard is like this old friend that you loved to hang out with, but as you got older, they just got worse. The care, the stories, the magic of what made blizzard what it was is gone. The people behind those things are gone. The magic is gone. And the new generation of creative folks that doubtlessly work there are likely kneecapped by the nonsense of management backed by greed-driven investors.

 

[Aikouka]

I think that this "game" launch has taught the absolute worst lesson to gaming companies and the entertainment industry at large. This game was panned by everybody I care to pay attention to (please let me know if somebody is giving this abomination a good review), and has a record setting low score on meta critic. It was boo'd at blizzard's own fan-attended convention...like the one place where you know you'd have fans, right? Nobody thought this was great.

From my understanding, it's an issue with rampant capitalism mixed with feduciary responsibility. Essentially, the company is responsible for doing the most for their shareholders. They could make claims that ignored potential revenue (e.g., leaving out (some) microtransactions) could be done for intangible and/or long-term benefits (e.g., reputation); however, I wouldn't be surprised if doing so resulted in a request for evidence. In other words, being able to provide substantial evidence that ignoring short-term gains is better for the long-term.

To a degree, I wouldn't be surprised if some people just love the game, and by "game", I do not mean Diablo Immortal. I mean the game of making money; treating real life as if it were a game of Monopoly. It's easy to hand-wave and ignore consequences, because you're so disconnected from the 20-somethings with addiction problems that spend too much on your products. If news does start to break, they'll make concessions. "Oh, they're just wealthy individuals or children of wealthy parents."

I'm so tired of the Red and Blue team worshipping. Our leadership has gotten objectively worse, and it's impacting the life of the common man.

There are plenty of politicians that actually seem to care. I don't want to get too deep into politics here, but I doubt you'll see much change in the government until you remove or vastly reduce the significance of money in politics. It's far too expensive to run for office, and while I don't like their actions, I understand why politicians avoid biting the hand that feeds.

Spoken as a gamer and a father, I want this microtransaction nonsense taxed to high heaven. Maybe that will make them think twice about ignoring the traditional model of make a good game and it sells many copies for gambling machine that prints money. Fix my roads with it the proceeds...make college free....or for the love of god just stop raising my property taxes? It would be nice to entertain the idea that my kids could own homes before they're 75....

There are a lot of issues causing the housing market to be pretty awful right now, but I don't know if I'd look much at taxes. The low interest rates during the pandemic were causing a heavy amount of investing in rental properties, which included buying lived-in homes for use as rental properties. That influx of buyers drove up prices all over the United States; however, we're starting to see that turn around now. I recall seeing a news segment talking about how home purchases are starting to fall through, and there was some city in Florida (Tampa, I think?) where it had something like 30%+ of contracts fall through.

I'm not an expert on this, but just looking around my own area, I see plenty of other things that factor into it. One problem is that no one seems to want to waste money on lower income housing, and I'm not even talking something like Section 8. Why build small houses (~1500 square-feet or less) that are good starter homes when you can build McMansions? Everything gets built as part of the suburban sprawl where homes are built for the middle class. There's also a heavy push in my area to create more and more rentals. If rentals were meant more as temporary locations for incoming people or younger folks, why are we getting so many of them?

I remember lining up at midnight releases for blizzard games. I wasted so much time playing Warcraft 3 custom maps, and starcraft before that. Blizzard is like this old friend that you loved to hang out with, but as you got older, they just got worse. The care, the stories, the magic of what made blizzard what it was is gone. The people behind those things are gone. The magic is gone. And the new generation of creative folks that doubtlessly work there are likely kneecapped by the nonsense of management backed by greed-driven investors.

It might be a bit foolish of me, but Microsoft has been really good lately with this sort of "developer first" attitude. They seem to be willing to let developers have a bit of free reign. I don't know if this is based on some serious lessons learned from how bad they kneecapped previous acquisitions like Rare. Now, it's probably easier to let a company like Double Fine be a bit more independent as they cost a small fraction of what Activision did. Although, Activision-Blizzard is made up of three distinct parts, and I could certainly see Blizzard getting a different internal priority than King.

 

[Fenixgoon]

From my understanding, it's an issue with rampant capitalism mixed with feduciary responsibility. Essentially, the company is responsible for doing the most for their shareholders. They could make claims that ignored potential revenue (e.g., leaving out (some) microtransactions) could be done for intangible and/or long-term benefits (e.g., reputation); however, I wouldn't be surprised if doing so resulted in a request for evidence. In other words, being able to provide substantial evidence that ignoring short-term gains is better for the long-term.

I just want to point out that there is nothing in the CFR that legally obligates a CEO to maximize shareholder returns above all else.

Plenty of CEOs have run companies into the ground with nary a lawsuit from shareholders.

 

[Aikouka]

I just want to point out that there is nothing in the CFR that legally obligates a CEO to maximize shareholder returns above all else.

Plenty of CEOs have run companies into the ground with nary a lawsuit from shareholders.

I'm not in the financial world, so I won't pretend to know a lot about how it works. Ultimately, my understanding is that the company makes and executes the decisions, but the shareholders (owners) are able to call those decisions (and any presented future plans) into question. I assume that if the owners sit by idly, the company can just do what they want so long as they're properly open about it. (Kind of like that lawsuit about the misconduct at Blizzard not being reported to shareholders.)

 

[Dannar26]

From my understanding, it's an issue with rampant capitalism mixed with feduciary responsibility. Essentially, the company is responsible for doing the most for their shareholders. They could make claims that ignored potential revenue (e.g., leaving out (some) microtransactions) could be done for intangible and/or long-term benefits (e.g., reputation); however, I wouldn't be surprised if doing so resulted in a request for evidence. In other words, being able to provide substantial evidence that ignoring short-term gains is better for the long-term.

It's my personal fantasy that these cash grabs ultimately fail, and the companies are forced to go back to their roots: making awesome video games. I am afraid that the exact opposite is playing out.

It's just like Nvidia in the GPU space. The chased after those mining dollars at the expense of gamer dollars. I hope they pay for it.

To a degree, I wouldn't be surprised if some people just love the game, and by "game", I do not mean Diablo Immortal. I mean the game of making money; treating real life as if it were a game of Monopoly. It's easy to hand-wave and ignore consequences, because you're so disconnected from the 20-somethings with addiction problems that spend too much on your products. If news does start to break, they'll make concessions. "Oh, they're just wealthy individuals or children of wealthy parents."

Sadly, I already encountered somebody praising DI on my guild's discord. In their opinion the game is great mechanically for a mobile game (I can't argue that). And then they went on to claim that it's "not as predatory" as it could be, and that they were doing "just fine" as a free to play player.

Even if the above are true, am I being too much of a justice warrior for wanting to boycott the game regardless? I hate what DI stands for even more than I hate "normal" mobile games. Who decided that mobile games have to universally be pay-to-win money extractors anyway? And why shouldn't I hate something that's both predatory, AND takes a beloved IP down a notch in it's slimy process?

There are plenty of politicians that actually seem to care. I don't want to get too deep into politics here, but I doubt you'll see much change in the government until you remove or vastly reduce the significance of money in politics. It's far too expensive to run for office, and while I don't like their actions, I understand why politicians avoid biting the hand that feeds.

The money needs to be taken out. It should be a jailable offense to even offer a politician a dollar, before or after service. I know I'm oversimplifying, but it would be nice if the only hand our politicians need to fear biting was that of the voter's.

There are a lot of issues causing the housing market to be pretty awful right now, but I don't know if I'd look much at taxes. The low interest rates during the pandemic were causing a heavy amount of investing in rental properties, which included buying lived-in homes for use as rental properties. That influx of buyers drove up prices all over the United States; however, we're starting to see that turn around now. I recall seeing a news segment talking about how home purchases are starting to fall through, and there was some city in Florida (Tampa, I think?) where it had something like 30%+ of contracts fall through.

I'm not an expert on this, but just looking around my own area, I see plenty of other things that factor into it. One problem is that no one seems to want to waste money on lower income housing, and I'm not even talking something like Section 8. Why build small houses (~1500 square-feet or less) that are good starter homes when you can build McMansions? Everything gets built as part of the suburban sprawl where homes are built for the middle class. There's also a heavy push in my area to create more and more rentals. If rentals were meant more as temporary locations for incoming people or younger folks, why are we getting so many of them?

I've been looking to buy simply to upgrade my house for my growing family. It's been a sobering process, and I know that many don't have the means that I do.

I think that tax revenue (even with the inherent corruption and inefficiency) could be put to good use. In my state, propery taxes are high, and it would be nice to see that being removed as a barrier to home ownership. However, there are plenty of other uses for that money; all of them better than Bobby Kotick's 5th yacht.

It might be a bit foolish of me, but Microsoft has been really good lately with this sort of "developer first" attitude. They seem to be willing to let developers have a bit of free reign. I don't know if this is based on some serious lessons learned from how bad they kneecapped previous acquisitions like Rare. Now, it's probably easier to let a company like Double Fine be a bit more independent as they cost a small fraction of what Activision did. Although, Activision-Blizzard is made up of three distinct parts, and I could certainly see Blizzard getting a different internal priority than King.

I don't think it's foolish to hope. It's a wary hope, but hope never the less.

 

[RPD]

I forgot where I saw it, but I believe I read DI was already pulling down 1M a _DAY_.
You have to realize you are posting on a tech forum in a sub gaming forum. We are not the target audience, companies are going to follow the $'s almost every time.
Sucks for people that want good games and are willing to pay for them, but "freemium" gaming is probably the worse thing to happen to the game industry.