Why microtransactions, IAPs and LootBoxes are here to stay thread

[Asura]

That’s not quite accurate with Pokemon cards. Pretty much every expansion set of cards can be used/played competitively for a good few years before being rotated out, not to mention the fact that you physically have the card and the valuable ones tend to remain valuable/collectible. I have been collecting for a few years now and have good number of cards worth £20+ each.

No offense, but I knew someone would reply with these points. Yes, it's technically true the cards still exist and you can use them, but the point is that WizardsOTC (or whoever makes the game for various TCGs) actively power creep the game and rotate the card sets, with rules about what can/can't be used at most events, to promote obsolescence. Like they have systems they've created which are intended to make physical cards unusable in the future. You can't rock up to a Magic: The Gathering tournament with a deck that was legal in 1998, and even in games where you can, you'll likely get stomped.

And the cards "appreciating in value" thing is a bit misleading. Just because The Black Lotus exists, that doesn't suggest that TCG cards are of any inherent value in real terms. It's true that some TCG cards can become valuable but I think that's an outlier.

In a sense it's no different to Steam. I buy games on Steam which have no physical presence, but do I regard them as having no inherent worth? If Steam went down, of course, I'd lose them, but at the same time, I can't "claim back" the MTG cards I lost then I was 14. That's false equivalency, maybe, but I guess a better point is that they're made of card, which will, one day, disintegrate, and are owned by someone who will, at some point, die. In both respects they're ephemeral.

My point, I guess, and this goes for Fortnite skins too, is that value is entirely relative. What's valuable to one person is value-less to another. FUT is a great example of this; to me, it does seem like throwing money down the drain, but then I hate football culture and I'm not a fan of the FIFA games.

[cutmymilk]

This is kind of the point I was trying to make earlier. Not being a "default newbie" in fortnite and pwning your mates in FIFA makes it worthwhile for a 14 year old boy to spend his birthday money on codes.

[gambit6613]

No offense, but I knew someone would reply with these points. Yes, it's technically true the cards still exist and you can use them, but the point is that WizardsOTC (or whoever makes the game for various TCGs) actively power creep the game and rotate the card sets, with rules about what can/can't be used at most events, to promote obsolescence. Like they have systems they've created which are intended to make physical cards unusable in the future. You can't rock up to a Magic: The Gathering tournament with a deck that was legal in 1998, and even in games where you can, you'll likely get stomped.

And the cards "appreciating in value" thing is a bit misleading. Just because The Black Lotus exists, that doesn't suggest that TCG cards are of any inherent value in real terms. It's true that some TCG cards can become valuable but I think that's an outlier.

In a sense it's no different to Steam. I buy games on Steam which have no physical presence, but do I regard them as having no inherent worth? If Steam went down, of course, I'd lose them, but at the same time, I can't "claim back" the MTG cards I lost then I was 14. That's false equivalency, maybe, but I guess a better point is that they're made of card, which will, one day, disintegrate, and are owned by someone who will, at some point, die. In both respects they're ephemeral.

My point, I guess, and this goes for Fortnite skins too, is that value is entirely relative. What's valuable to one person is value-less to another. FUT is a great example of this; to me, it does seem like throwing money down the drain, but then I hate football culture and I'm not a fan of the FIFA games.

My point simply was simply in comparison to FUT, Pokemon cards are much more usefull product for a longer period of time than FUT. Not to mention they are physical product that i will always own and personally i really enjoy my Pokemon cards, at least from a artistic perspective. I think the biggest con of these games like FIFA and Madden etc is having to start all over again each year. The whole buisness model stinks but this is the really kicker.

[wakka]

[MENTION=5941]Asura[/MENTION] Yeah, all fair points. I feel like I'm a thousand years old if I complain about kids 'wasting their money' on Fortnite skins.

[fishbowlhead]

No offense, but I knew someone would reply with these points. Yes, it's technically true the cards still exist and you can use them, but the point is that WizardsOTC (or whoever makes the game for various TCGs) actively power creep the game and rotate the card sets, with rules about what can/can't be used at most events, to promote obsolescence. Like they have systems they've created which are intended to make physical cards unusable in the future. You can't rock up to a Magic: The Gathering tournament with a deck that was legal in 1998, and even in games where you can, you'll likely get stomped.

And the cards "appreciating in value" thing is a bit misleading. Just because The Black Lotus exists, that doesn't suggest that TCG cards are of any inherent value in real terms. It's true that some TCG cards can become valuable but I think that's an outlier.

In a sense it's no different to Steam. I buy games on Steam which have no physical presence, but do I regard them as having no inherent worth? If Steam went down, of course, I'd lose them, but at the same time, I can't "claim back" the MTG cards I lost then I was 14. That's false equivalency, maybe, but I guess a better point is that they're made of card, which will, one day, disintegrate, and are owned by someone who will, at some point, die. In both respects they're ephemeral.

My point, I guess, and this goes for Fortnite skins too, is that value is entirely relative. What's valuable to one person is value-less to another. FUT is a great example of this; to me, it does seem like throwing money down the drain, but then I hate football culture and I'm not a fan of the FIFA games.

But you still have a physical object and can still use them with mates, school, collect etc if your not worried about the competition side.

Fifa is basically stealing from the public, you get nothing thats worth nothing.

What the games industry is doung right now is gambling, but 10x worse as you get zilch.

[Asura]

Fifa is basically stealing from the public, you get nothing thats worth nothing.

When you go to the cinema, they don't give you a DVD to take home with you. When you go paintballing, you don't get to keep the gun. You just keep the memories of experiencing that content. Those things aren't worthless and they aren't stealing.

Bear in mind that FIFA is a weird case; I'm not saying it isn't gambling. It totally is. And I'm also not saying gambling can't be harmful. It absolutely can be. I'm just trying to get across that those games (and all the gacha waifu games on iOS, or the likes of RAID: Shadow Legends) have fans who are entirely satisfied with the product. They're not all stupid kids, deceived adults or gambling addicts. They spend an amount on those experiences that they judge them to be worth. They're far too successful for an entire industry to be propped up by kids stealing their parents VISA card info.

More importantly though, Fortnite skins. Kids love them. They're not worthless just because you think so. My parents used to despair at the amount of money I put into the likes of Art of Fighting in the 90s.

[fishbowlhead]

No, fortnight skins are 100% worthless and a waste of any amount of money whatsoever.

[fishbowlhead]

Fifa back at it again. Turns out the whole fut system can be manually manipulated by ea & staff to increase/decrease the rarity of players on the fly. Player get popular in real life? Say goodbye to them out the pool so you can spend more money.

EA staff are also able to sell non tradable players directly into your account.

Easier to link to the Era thread than repost it all again https://www.resetera.com/threads/ea-...o-1000.391834/

[MartyG]

The fact it's better value for money to go to the blackmarket and spend $1700 to get a "R@RE" card tells you everything you need to know about lootboxes.

[Asura]

The fact it's better value for money to go to the blackmarket and spend $1700 to get a "R@RE" card tells you everything you need to know about lootboxes.

As valuable as Neo Geo carts. Got it.

->Open Spoiler<-

Fifa back at it again. Turns out the whole fut system can be manually manipulated by ea & staff to increase/decrease the rarity of players on the fly.

I'm not even sure why this surprises people. I mean, even if they weren't doing it on-the-fly, the rarity of players in the system is clearly just set via some master Excel spreadsheet set up by someone at EA. It's not like every player is of equal rarity, just like with Pannini stickers. Those albums back in the 90s were a racket too; Pannini knew that of the 500 stickers that made up the album, 50 of them were much harder to get, 5 were rare as rocking horse **** and one of them you needed to use that thing at the back where you sent them 200 stickers to get the final one.

[wakka]

To be fair that card will hold its value though.

->Open Spoiler<-

Right up till they release the next year game 6 months later

[Asura]

To be fair that card will hold its value though.

Well how else will EA's shareholders keep paying for that Colombian marching powder?

[Cassius_Smoke]

Well how else will EA's shareholders keep paying for that Colombian marching powder?

It's just the pigs rolling in **** isn't it

[Cassius_Smoke]

Who would have thought gambling leads to gambling?!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56614281

[fishbowlhead]

Im shocked. Shocked i tells thee.