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Eurogamer: What happens when F2P games aren't free? (Editorial on XB1 launch games)

You expected an actual critique of games by reviewers?

My friend who's a big racing guy told me in a text that the game doesn't have car clubs, gifting, decal marketplace, free play mode and then he mentioned the no free car thing that's mentioned here too.

I'm not a racing guy but that sounds like a heavily stripped down game that was focused on sucking as much money from the user as possible. What's the consequences for these actions? 9/10s everywhere.

Your friend's a big racing guy.

IMO, most reviewers for car games are simply bad, bad, bad at reviewing them. Racing sims should be judged by real drivers who know what it means for games to be a simulator, not your average gamer reviewer.

Very few reviewers called out on content limitation, the experience associated with the car experience, etc because they don't understand how important those things are to the core audience buying these type of games.

Sessler or Geis doesn't understand how restricted Forza's content is. To them, the lack of the Nurb doesn't bother them, whereas every single racing friend of mine thinks T10 is insane for not having it at launch.
 
If there's a way to fastforward progression and skip grind, then the game is designed with an intentional flaw, and I feel that just the knowledge about it is enough for me to skip that game.

I want fun events and missions that are designed so that I like the challenge of them, and I have a hard time believing that you would offer a way to skip them if you succesfully design such events/missions.

That they're optional is not an argument,. If they are available, then the game will be designed so that you will want to use them.

I have no problems accepting DLC and cosmetic items, but this kind of micro payments are bullshit.
 
And the more traction it's allowed, the more the games will be built for this:

HFsQF.jpg


Whaling. You get irate, even to the extent of not buying the game itself, and it does nothing because there's a whale out there who will go for the nickel-and-diming to compensate.

Then we get people going "BUH BUH BUH ITS ONLY A LIL BIT WORSE *spin spin spin*. That's the point: stopping it before it grows. Remember Horse Armor? Same shit happened then, but the backlash didn't occur, and it grew into this. This far and no further so we CAN have sensible DLC instead of watching as that kind of respectable practice becomes rare.

this crap is going on in NBA 2K series also but it worst in 2K14. The reviewers don't mention how you need crazy amount of virtual currency to do a lot of things. These companies need to stop this crap when we paid $60 for their games.

Didn't see this anywhere; what are we talking here? Throwback jerseys a Tales of Xillia-esque $3 a pop or something?

Disgusting. I'm beginning to worry about GT6 :/

Same. I was looking into that after not playing one since GT3 (seriously), but I think I'll get GT5 both much cheaper and much cheaper.
 
Remember Horse Armor? Same shit happened then, but the backlash didn't occur, and it grew into this.

The backlash didn't happen for horse armour? Well that's wrong. The backlash was enormous, and it was equally ridiculed by both the press and the customers, and it's still used as the shining example of DLC gone wrong, and it's seven years now since it was released. :)
 
The biggest problem is not developers doing this kind of shit, the problem is people buying shit. Let it sink.
 
Rather dirty. Some reviewers picked up on this stuff, alerted the readers and marked the game down accordingly, but many did not - pretty embarrassing journalism.
 
Question: I read a comment somewhere that American journalists were given/are given DLC packs for free but European journalists are not/cannot be given those packs for free because of legal restrictions. Is that true?

I've heard this as well but not from a definitive source. I'd really like to know if it's true, or not.
 
Like I said in the other thread, if I known this was in the game I would of never bought it. Haven't played a Forza since 3 and didn't research this enough so it's my fault. Will not make that mistake twice.
 
Yeah you won cars like in GT in previous Forza titles.

I'd be fine with the pay system if everything were to stay the same and only the previously impatient would use it. But that is obviously a change to add incentive to paying. Not cool.
 
Expected from MS these days but Sony now too? A 2nd party Sony studio? Fucking Polyphony? This fucking blows.
I may hold off on GT6.
 
Problem I see with voting with your wallet here is that you can only vote 'no' once but whales can vote 'yes' many, many times.

Hate this kind of thing. I think it's been in a couple other games, but maybe without the buy-currency thing.
[quote refers to having to buy installed DLC items in the game]

It upsets me more when I get a DLC for some reason and that gives me free guns or stuff like that at a point where it's probably not intended in the game design. Now granted, I don't buy DLC like that so I only know it from free DLC and bundles but e.g. Far Cry 2 started me with an explosive crossbow that made buying the RPGs pointless because it fills the same role and didn't require diamonds to unlock. Apparently the preorder-only bonus weapons in Deadspace 3 are similar, you get them when you wouldn't normally be able to get items of that level. IMO DLC stuff should act just like the non-DLC stuff.
 
Whats frightening is that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

If DLC and iOS micro transactions are any indication this stuff always starts off innocuous enough. Each wave of games will continue to push the idea more and more.
 
You expected an actual critique of games by reviewers?

My friend who's a big racing guy told me in a text that the game doesn't have car clubs, gifting, decal marketplace, free play mode and then he mentioned the no free car thing that's mentioned here too.

I'm not a racing guy but that sounds like a heavily stripped down game that was focused on sucking as much money from the user as possible. What's the consequences for these actions? 9/10s everywhere.

Well gotta keep that Metascore high AT ALL COSTS!!!
 
Yeah I read about Forza, dick move and really pisses me off. Still GT6 is going to have them too now, vote with your wallets people.

I'm curious if "journalists" will treat GT6 with the same scores as Forza5 and keep hiding this shit under the carpet or if they will go all out on PD and reward the game with low scores (which will be very hypocritic of them).
 
I'm curious if "journalists" will treat GT6 with the same scores as Forza5 and keep hiding this shit under the carpet or if they will go all out on PD and reward the game with low scores (which will be very hypocritic of them).

Either way, it would be deserved.
 
Microsoft always at the fore front of nickel and diming. Along with EA I suppose. In any case, consumers should just speak with their wallets. Or hit Twitter or whatever and get their voices heard. We can't let this become industry standard. It's paying for Online all over again. Once a few get away with it, they'll all jump on board.
 
Wait, you pay an extra 50$ (that's a total of 110$ for the game) and you have to pay again in game money (or more $$$) to unlock the cars that you've bought for fifty fucking dollars?
 
I hate where a lot of gaming is headed. Forza, Killer Instinct, GT6, and Killzone's idiotic fee to play co-op. So shitty.
 
Don't buy shitty games like this if you don't like it. Otherwise publishers such as
NSA
Microoft will never learn.
 
The backlash didn't happen for horse armour? Well that's wrong. The backlash was enormous, and it was equally ridiculed by both the press and the customers, and it's still used as the shining example of DLC gone wrong, and it's seven years now since it was released. :)

Well, it was more reguarded as an attack on the silliness of someone buying something like that, the shocking chutzpah of Bethesda to charge for that rather than an attack on what gamers can expect for their money the practice can evolve to in the present time.
 
Question: I read a comment somewhere that American journalists were given/are given DLC packs for free but European journalists are not/cannot be given those packs for free because of legal restrictions. Is that true?

If this were the case, it is even more interesting to note that European publications were on average more harsh on the FM5's use of microtransactions (which I'm guessing is what you were pointing at).
 
Seems somewhat shady. Forza 4 had credits you could buy but money was easy to come by. I don't mind them having this system, I do mins them pushing it in the UI. Sleezeball stuff. Forza Horizon did it, but it didn't irk me there, so as long as the new one doesn't get worse than it was, I'm in.
 
You mean the season pass, right?

Yep, fortunately the game isn't good enough for me to even consider the pass anymore, but it still sets a shitty precedent. With MS, it feels like most of their exclusives at launch are released half-finished, and they're charging you extra to play the rest of it as it gets worked on.
 
Seems somewhat shady. Forza 4 had credits you could buy but money was easy to come by. I don't mind them having this system, I do mins them pushing it in the UI. Sleezeball stuff. Forza Horizon did it, but it didn't irk me there, so as long as the new one doesn't get worse than it was, I'm in.

It's worse in Forza 5!



http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-20-forza-motorsport-5-review

All that's left is the grind, and it's not a particularly pleasant one. Unlike previous outings, cars don't unlock upon levelling up. Everything must be bought in Forza Motorsport 5, and all transactions take place in a slightly misshapen economy. A series will, on average, net the player in excess of 110,000 credits for just under an hour's effort - but with some of the premium racecars costing well over a million, it's a somewhat brutal grind. Good job, then, that there are tokens purchasable on the Xbox One's marketplace for you to attain the car you're after, or to temporarily boost the rate at which you gain XP. When you've already paid ÂŁ429.99 for a new console, ÂŁ44.99 for the game and maybe even ÂŁ349.99 for the only steering wheel that the game supports at launch, such tricks appear a little unsavoury, and in Forza 5, mechanics greedily smuggled from free-to-play games trample over the elegant RPG elements the series once embraced so effectively


And that's the whole point: It will keep getting worse!
 
Very simple fix for this. Vote with your wallet. Don't buy this shit. If enough don't then developers and publishers will get the hint. It's been proven it works. We've certainly proven that can work the last several months.

It's sad that they're doing this shit with Forza too. The franchise has been a very good franchise.
 
I'm curious if "journalists" will treat GT6 with the same scores as Forza5 and keep hiding this shit under the carpet or if they will go all out on PD and reward the game with low scores (which will be very hypocritic of them).


I'm holding off on GT6 for now. If the game is the same as GT5 but people can buy credits then I don't care. But if they change everything to make buying credits the only realistic way to progress I'll be disappointed ... if they remove prize cars I'll be fucking shocked!!
 
Didn't see this anywhere; what are we talking here? Throwback jerseys a Tales of Xillia-esque $3 a pop or something?


You need VC to buy clothing, shoes, accessories for your charcter in Mycareer. You need VC to buy shot animations, dunk packages. You need VC to take your Myteam online. You need VC for pretty much everything in MyGM mode. If you have 2K14 you would see this the moment you start anything besides quick play. You have to farm your ass off just to do simple things that should be unlocked from the get go. They are going to kill the series.
 
I'm holding off on GT6 for now. If the game is the same as GT5 but people can buy credits then I don't care. But if they change everything to make buying credits the only realistic way to progress I'll be disappointed ... if they remove prize cars I'll be fucking shocked!!

I feel exactly the same.
 
It's funny really, because the position of if this is good or bad, largely depends on where you are standing.

The bad is obvious, and doesn't need repeating again. It comes across as milking the fanbase for every dollar going.

However, there are positive reasons for doing this. Think back to - I think it was the first - BFBC2. They had shortcut DLC for the weapon unlocks, something that continued with BF3. I don't think there is anything inherently unfair about this. It is not milking customers, and allows the option for those with limited time to 'pay off' that time instead. There are many, many people that do not have 100+hrs to devote to a game to unlock things, just to be on even ground, and for these people, those packs are a god send. They are not out of reach for those that do not want to pay, and are there to help people that can.

This model I am fine with. Gran Turismo has always been a massive grind to get the more expensive cars, and so I would welcome the change to pay maybe a ÂŁ1 or ÂŁ2 instead. I assume Forza is similar but have never played it.

The problem comes I think when DLC is presented to the gamer as something they should already have, something that is missing and shouldn't be. This is easy to avoid if they want too, and still be able to do the above. People just need to feel that:

a) It is presented as an option of money / time.
b) It is not something that should be present and is being sold as DLC - a removal
c) It does not unfairly advantage those who can afford against those that cannot.
 
Or how about developers don't put in massive grinds into their games to incentivize DLC unlocks?

I don't want F2P/Mobile game design philosophy lead to grindier games this gen.
 
Welp its moves like this that make me feel relieved I didn't but into microsofts supposed "enlightening" after the e3 backlash.

It seems once again Microsoft is using a new generation as a means to try and lead the charge to further nickel and dime players with shitty paywall content that hurts the consumer.

I just hope Sony really isn't following suite with GT6.

Frankly I put up with the rise of paywalls and DLC but if this stuff becomes the new norm I really am probably out when it comes to major publishers videogames.
 
I hate where a lot of gaming is headed. Forza, Killer Instinct, GT6, and Killzone's idiotic fee to play co-op. So shitty.

I wouldn't lumber KZ in there. They're giving us 6-8 major DLC maps completely free. It's an excellent trade off. Better to pay for entire new modes if there has to be DLC, than to pay for competitive maps which split up the community. Guerrilla Games absolutely got it right.
 
I didn't think I had any confidence in games reviewers left to lose, but wow. How does someone who calls himself a games reviewer give Forza 5 a 5/5 or 9/10 without even mentioning microtransactions? Do they care about the consumer at all? Given that these journalists have been spouting anti consumer rhetoric for a while, it's not surprising I guess, but this is a total alienation of the consumer's interests. smh
 
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