GTAV Microtransactions

[AtomicPunk]

Just imagine if EA had managed to wrest control of R* away from Take-Two:

 

 

That WAS a worrisome time, for real. And you guys are hitting the nail on the head. This is how things would be--we would be charged for things that should've been in the game in the first place. Gamers need to stay away from games that are taking this approach. Let them go bankrupt. That's the only way these greedy bastards will get it because they don't give two sh*ts about quality of video games, they're in it for the green and nothing else. Parasites. Modern-day vampires, just replace the blood with money. Everything else stays the same.

[BUT THE BENZ]

SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK

 

STEEEEEEEEEEEEAK

 

SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK

 

PIZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

SNAAAAAAAAAAAAARK

 

LETS LOOK AT OLD SCREENSHOTS

 

SNAAAAAAAAAARK

 

/fin

[KayleyLovesGTA]

 

Realistic Steak/Pizza = 1000 Microsoft points

 

Unrealistic Steak/Pizza = 500 Microsoft Points

I'd pay.

But which one would you fork out for?

 

 

Double the pixels, double the fun!

 

Therefore, I'd fork (I like it) out for pizza, with steak toppings! Yeah! Why didn't anyone think of this argument-resolution?!

[thatstupidbug]

and what if we can avoid the micro-transactions, but only trough overly-long tasks?

 

*congratulations, you unlocked a new safehouse! Now pay 500.000 in-game money and wait 90 real days to use it, or pay 9.99$ for your brand new house now*

 

 

[saintsrow]

EA's SimCity crashing and burning:

 

EA is trying to keep very tight control of SimCity playtime by requiring always-connected Internet. It is biting them in the ass.

 

Seemed like a good idea at the time....

 

SimCity crumbles under online issues

 

 

On March 5, gamers eagerly downloaded Electronic Arts's (EA) latest game, SimCity. By March 6, players were angrily posting about the game (or lack thereof) and by March 7, Amazon stopped selling it.

 

...what should have been a magnificent launch for EA has turned into a nightmare. The latest SimCity game will not work unless you are playing online.

 

...

 

But things fell apart, either by fan overwhelming the servers or through simply mismanagement on the part of EA.

 

....

 

“This is, obviously, not the situation we wanted for our launch week and we want you to know that we are putting everything we have at resolving these issues."

 

So what is the problem with SimCity? Well, to start off, the long wait times for server connection have frustrated players across the Internet. Wait times of 30 minutes or more have been reported as well as saving problems. That last one, the saving problems, has had a huge effect on digital mayors. Players have reported losing hours of work and planning due to connectivity problems.

 

“How would you feel if you waited for the new Corvette to come out, preordered one, and when you try to drive it home with its massive V8 engine the dashboard tells you, ‘Gas Pump not connected, aborting’?” writes Amazon user Jonny. “Bottom line: Go up to a random stranger, preferably a musclehead, hand him your $60 and ask him to punch you in the face. You'll get more out of your money, and it'll be less painful to watch."

 

The game’s previous high ratings have slipped. Amazon users hold it at one star and the site has a notification up, warning users about the server problems. Polygon has dropped its original rating of the game, a 9.5, down to a mere 4.0.

[The Pizza Delivery Guy]

 

GTA V has stopped working. Please pay $5 to send error report.

 

 

Congratulations! You have completed Grand Theft Auto V! Please pay 5000MS points to unlock free roam after storyline.

 

 

[GTAfan786]

Rockstar isn't the same as other idiotic and money grabbing companies like sh*tty EA and Activision/Treyarch. Rockstar respect their own business and franchises and always know how to manage their business. Considering how successful they are, they will NEVER use microtransactions, it would be their stupidest move ever.

[YoungChrist]

I was afraid that this was a serious thread suggesting micro transactions in GTA for a second lol.

[GTAfan786]

The only reason EA and other money grabbing companies like them are successful is because half cast retards always buy their products without using their heads. Half the blame has to go to those f*cking dumbo's.

[saintsrow]

Another handy benefit (for game publishers) of DLC and after-purchase microtransactions is that even if you buy a used game and even if you can actually still play a used game in next gen consoles, you can't buy used DLC, as I am sure many here have pointed out. Although I bought TDU2 used, I'm paying for TDU2 DLC now, 80 MS points at a time, for the privilege of being able to spend my in-game money to buy a motorcycle. The tip of the iceberg....

 

So in the limit, game companies can start charging $30 for original games, and then charging microtransactions all throughout the game, as in the many nicely cynical examples that people have added above, so that eventually the player has put out $60 to $120 in microtransactions to achieve 100% of the game, and if somebody buys the used game, the publisher stiil gets $30 to $90 from that second player. Win-win for the game company.

 

To see where this is going with the rest of the software world, Microsoft has a new way to charge forever for their Office software, $60 per year. Games are probably next in line. Rent all your content, all the time, own nothing.

[Racecarlock]

Another handy benefit (for game publishers) of DLC and after-purchase microtransactions is that even if you buy a used game and even if you can actually still play a used game in next gen consoles, you can't buy used DLC, as I am sure many here have pointed out. Although I bought TDU2 used, I'm paying for TDU2 DLC now, 80 MS points at a time, for the privilege of being able to spend my in-game money to buy a motorcycle. The tip of the iceberg....

 

So in the limit, game companies can start charging $30 for original games, and then charging microtransactions all throughout the game, as in the many nicely cynical examples that people have added above, so that eventually the player has put out $60 to $120 in microtransactions to achieve 100% of the game, and if somebody buys the used game, the publisher stiil gets $30 to $90 from that second player. Win-win for the game company.

 

To see where this is going with the rest of the software world, Microsoft has a new way to charge forever for their Office software, $60 per year. Games are probably next in line. Rent all your content, all the time, own nothing.

Don't worry, we've still got freeware.

 

http://blog.naev.org/

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/

 

See you on the space lanes.

[saintsrow]

Here's another potential lesson learned for EA SimCity that might apply in some ways to GTAV.

 

SimCity Burning: A Warning to Microsoft, Sony, and All Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM

 

If I understand, the SimCity online connection is not just for DRM, but also for the basic game architecture, which locates a player's city in physical proximity to other players' cities, requiring interaction of trade, resources, pollution, etc.

 

I am thinking that there are plenty of legacy SimCity players out there (who have been waiting years for this update; we can relate!) who just wanted an HD generation, single player version of SimCity with better graphics, more area and resources, deeper simulation accuracy, etc.

 

Instead, what they got, whether they wanted it or not, is a smaller area for their city and apparently unavoidable interaction with other neighboring cities, for better or worse. The reviewers were already complaining about the city size limits even before the game came out. So the question is, did the game designers and game publishers even understand what SimCity super-fans wanted, or did they just put together a game architecture that would allow them the kind of DRM control that they wanted, and then forced the game to have elements consistent with being always online?

 

If I apply this thinking to GTAV, what I wanted at a minimum was a bigger, better, HD version of GTA-SA, not a forced multiplayer mode, always online, in the middle of what was traditionally a single player game (and plenty of GTA fans are dedicated single-player types, including me). So I wonder what Rockstar has in mind?

 

Anyway, we don't know yet about the details of GTAV's "bold new direction" including new aspects of Multiplayer. In the beginning, I was looking forward to a more continuous experience between single player and multiplayer, so that achievements and assets that I earn and accumulate in single player would have some persistence and value in a multiplayer world, and multiplayer might have some more roleplay, "living in the sim" modes rather than just being a twitch shooter, like nearly all existing mulitplayer is.

 

But with the SimCity example, I see now how GTAV could be done wrong. I hope that it won't be done wrong.

[Vucovar]

Obviously R* is putting some easter eggs aswell.

 

 

Wanna go bowling? That'd be 1977 MSP thank you very much.

[Lucky32]

Obviously R* is putting some easter eggs aswell.

 

 

Wanna go bowling? That'd be 1977 MSP thank you very much.

No wonder nobody wanted to go bowling!

[IDredMan]

WASTED!

 

TIP: You have been wasted, you will respawn at a hospital, the police have confiscated all your MSPs, please pay 6000 MSP to regain 10% of your losses ...Which is 200MSP. If you do not, you will not be able to continue playing.

[Lukijs]

I already hate this on android. When I started playing android games few years ago like Zenonia or Fruit Ninja and Gameloft it was fun. Now Gamevil,GLU,Gameloft,EA ,they all release most of great games for free ,but if you want to proceed further than you have to bu all that sh*t like gems etc,its f*cking ruining everything.