Black Raven Dragoons

Interview Between Destiny's creative director Luke Smith, and Eurogamer
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015- ... -price-tag
this will catch you off guard...

Luke Smith: You're feeling anxious because you want this exclusive content but you don't know yet how much you want it. The notion of spending this money is making you anxious, I can see it -

Eurogamer: I do want them. I would buy them -

Luke Smith: If I fired up a video right now and showed you the emotes you would throw money at the screen.

Eurogamer: What I'm saying is that fan frustration is not because they don't understand the proposition. It comes regardless of how cool the exclusive content is. The frustration - and mine as a fan - is that the method of acquiring it requires me to re-buy content I bought a year ago.

Luke Smith: [Long pause] It's about value. The player's assessment of the value of the content.

Everything found here:
http://www.destructoid.com/bungie-gets- ... ce=dlvr.it

Release is Sept 15, so they have some time to fix this. Other then that i wanted you Destiny players (HG,T) to know so you don't get screwed.

Wow. "Assessment of the value" is exactly the reason they'll hopefully get screwed, taking that approach.

Wait, am I understanding this correctly: They essentially want players to effectively re-purchase the game and its DLCs and are justifying it based on some nebulous "value" players are placing on the game itself, obviously erring on the high end of perceived value...?

Hey, You read it right? It pretty much sounds like that.

Wow. I know some game companies are major money grubbers, but holy cow. This is bordering on ridiculous. Actually, it's narcissistic--they actually believe people like their game so much they'll buy it twice?

I bet you enough people will vote with their wallets such that they'll have to reverse course.

Matt,
HG and I were way ahead of the curve before you posted this.

This goes to show you that Activision's money politics are in play. Same thing they did to WOW/Blizzard. Old news. Bungie does read their forums and listen to their customers. I'm curious to see what they decide. I'd prefer they fire Mr. Throw Money At The Screen. That's a very poor choice of words on his part.

I don't follow gaming news, so I was interested by Matt's post. I know next to nothing about Bungie and even less about Xbone/PS4 titles. I'm still not sure I understand completely what's going on.

Either way, it seems like a growing trend among (big) companies to exhibit extremely anti-consumer practices. And they like it. Unnamed cable companies (you can have your Internet as long as you pay 5 × the market rate for half the service), large manufacturers, and software companies are all moving toward this model, and frankly it scares the Hell out of me. Heck, even John Deere just recently mused in a press release that they're thinking of changing their pricing models such that farmers never actually own the equipment--due to the software installed, it's essentially just a long-term lease--but of course, the farmers will still spend the same amount on the tractor. It's just that it'll be tiered even more sharply (upwards, of course), for increased automation.

Of course, what these idiots are doing is standard practice among gaming companies (hi, EA!), but it doesn't make it right. And this behavior won't be fixed until people give them the finger and actually refuse to re-purchase the same product or otherwise vote with their pocketbooks and their overpriced triple-A titles fall flat (I guess that's already happened a few times).

Granted, I'm not naive enough to believe this will happen: Consumers are too complacent, generally, regardless of the product they buy, and waving a carrot in front of their nose is guaranteed to encourage them to continue throwing money away. It's why consumer-hostile pricing models are so successful. That said, I also don't think regulation is the appropriate solution (it'll hurt the honest companies disproportionately), but given the incestuous relationship between game developers and certain members of the gaming press, something big is going to have to happen. I'm just not sure exactly what that might be.

Now, there is a silver lining. One of the most important changes games like Minecraft (or probably solely Minecraft) have brought to the industry is the dramatic shift in pricing models that we've seen everyone from indie game companies to Valve experimenting with: Release early, at a lower price point, for feedback and testing to early adopters, gradually increasing the price as the game approaches completion. It doesn't always work (dishonest devs, devs in over their heads), but I think it's an excellent counter to an otherwise troubling trend in every industry. Maybe we'll see similar shifts in the future?

One can only hope. THQ had the right idea with decent prices on games up until they made a few financial mistakes in a row.

And someone asked i cant find who but someone. "What will it take for games to not be shipped in a semi broken state?" i don't know what was sead after that but it looks like it could have been something good to look into.

Don't get me wrong it takes a lot to do what EA, MICROSOFT, ... those are the only ones that come to mind right now... but it takes a lot to think pool money, people, and have those make some sort of idea. Then its gets worse and all down hill from there.

And i don't know a lot of what really goes on in the back ground. But to me it feels like games whore themselves out to make a quick buck and end up having to show a little extra DLC for it... if you catch my drift

But i think my days of Pre-Ordering are done. Unless its something Im really willing to "piss my money down the side of Colombia" to quote someone else. I see only danger and day 1 disappointment.