GTA V Should Be Banned, And Not For The Reasons You Might Think.
I found this post online, and it was pretty illuminating/dissapointing/slightly disturbing. Though I've enjoyed the game, and love the attention to detail in the single-player portion of the game, this game has truly become the epitome of greed and exploitation.
"HAppY_KrAToS • 13 hours ago
so, basically, 500'000 or 750'000 represent... a $50 shark pack, or a $90 shark pack. is this bad for take2/Rockstar? of course not. this alone will give the devs an extra 50 or 100 million dollars, in just 2 or 3 months.
why are they allowing this 'unfair' weapon ? because, well, it is so unfair, that the guy that gets nuked will want to revenge.
let me guess: when a particular user is being targeted, he has no way to know it is coming...but i am sure, i would bet 1 testicle that, once a guy gets killed, he will get a nice prompt at the screen 'you have been nuked with the fantastic weapon you can buy, called 'orbital bomb', by the user 'ILuvNuKiNoObS123'.
what will happen when you get nuked, while you are selling stuff, and lose all your items ? yeah, exactly: you will want to BUY the same weapon, to be able to nuke the guy that just nuked you. revenge. and revenge = $90 shark purchase.
no wonder why they already made between 5 and 10 billions, with gta online alone.
my nephew alone (yeah, he is only 13 but has been playing gta online since he was 11... because most of his school buddies were also playing it, mostly because they watched their 18+ yo brother playing it and found it cool, and basically, most guys that have a ps4 or xbox1, at school, 80% are playing gta online.... and my nephew, every time he receives like 50 bucks, he buys those fking shark packs, because 'hey, uncle, they just released a new dlc, where you need to buy a bunker, a mounted gun, a buggy, an office, a boat...it all costs above 1 million sharks.... so, the kids/gamers, are basically forced to spend 100 bucks, if they want to be able to play the full game.
of course, take2/Rockstar AND sony know there are at least 40-50% of people playing gta online... under 18. there are a ton under 15...13... even 10yo kids are playing it.
damn, i already watched youtube/twitch videos, i would swear the players were only 8 yo.
so, the myth that only 'whales', or the rich guys, only they buy microtransactions and spend tons of money, it is totally false.
there are tons of gamers, tons, dads, mums, etc, who have destroyed their family, because they can't stop playing some games and buying microtransactions and loot boxes, with all the little money they can find, even if their kids have no food or milk.
there are tons, and by tons, i mean MILLIONS of 10-17yo kids that play gta online (dads can't forbid, because some parents let their younger ones play with the older brother), and these kids always manage to convince dad to add another 50 bucks to the psn account, so they can buy the latest gta online items.
these games are like a cancer ? sure they are.
any little item will cost like 2500 or 5'000 credits. any car, boat, yatch, appartement, etc, can easily cost 50k, 100k, 500k credits...
unless a gamer is playing 18 hours a day, and being the team chief, and winning, and doing that 50 days in a row...he will never even get 100k credits, let alone 500'000p or more, required to buy an office, appartement...
ex, if a guy goes race against other players with a standard car: he has ZERO chances to win, as all the other cars are much faster. the only way to expect to win is buying a 200'000 car. but that's like the chiken and egg thing. you need a car to win races, and you need credits to buy a car. only choice left: buying it with real money.
i wonder how many hundreds thousands divorces happened because he/she had become ill, after spending all the money on loot boxes and other shark credits.
funny, alcohol is forbidden unless you are 21, because of the addiction, etc. casinos are forbidden as well. drugs too. but letting a young 18yo kid destroy himself, because of a video game that allow him to spend 100 fking dollars to buy 9 million virtual credits, to ve able to buy a virtual apartment for 700'000 credits, which are just a bunch of polygons on a server, 700'000 that represent like 65 REAL dollars... that, THAT, is perfectly legal.
the most funny thing is, these companies have absolutely no problem to grab 10, 100, or even 50'000 dollars from a single gamer, never will they prompt at the gamer screen 'hey, gamer,we remind you that you already spent $650 on virtual items, in just one week. are you sure you want to proceed and spend another $500 ? ' . but whenever a hack allows a dozen gamers to buy a few virtual items without spending any money, for a total of $1, there they come with an army of 300 lawyers, because, hey, not making that extra $1 is a big deal."
Reference: http://dispatches.cheatcc.com/3396
What do you guys think? Please drop some comments below.
Imagine the uproar in a game like GTA 5 if all currency was only generated at a fixed amount yearly, with the people who played in the first year or so owning almost all of it, and used that to upgrade their gear so that they were invincible to every other player. And even though they say they'll create 9.5%, 9%, 8.5%, and so on every following year, most of it goes to those early players. New players would riot if they found out they would never have a fair share of the generated currency!
I doubt it could keep a player base very long. I think we can find examples of this power-buying in games like some of the Chinese "f2p" p2w games that are designed to appeal to those with the biggest wallets. There's another interesting article on what it took for the top Clash of Clans player to maintain his rank, and that did NOT sound fun.
Developers have the option of catering to addicts and wealthy persons, sure, but if they're trying to make something genuinely popular then the game has to be fun for the average player, and a rewarding gameplay experience has to exist without the pay options. I'm glad lootboxes and microtransactions in games are coming under fire lately and people are finally starting to look at them differently.
Another thing about cash cows is, well, look at the games Rockstar released after GTA 5. And then look at the timeline for games they released before it. Just makes me lol. Same goes for how much energy Blizzard put into WoW, but at least they never made that game pay to win (just extreme on the extremest end of extremely addicting to play, still ruining countless lives by crippling your irl self).
Same goes for development teams in the software world getting huge lump sums of cash these days. Hand them too much cash with no requirements to improve the service and, well, I think you're going to wait a bit on those updates friend, as they're too busy enjoying their yachts.
This is so true, Luckily I play GTA on the PC and there is always more than enough modders online to drop money so im always able to buy the DLC items. For console players though I could definitely understand their frustration whereas it's nearly impossible to unlock this content without spending money or an immense amount of time playing the game. shake my head rockstar
I could definitely understand their frustration whereas it's nearly impossible to unlock this content without spending money or an immense amount of time playing the game.
upvote & resteemed
This asshole literally just copy and pasted my comment... Flag him
GTA 5 was great when I played it.
This is simply the nature of profit-maximization. It's completely rational for the company to make the game this way so they can make as much money as possible. Isn't profit great?
This is very true and even worse for mobile games! These young kids all have their own phones already nowadays. And its way too easy to buy PSN Store cards or other gift cards at the store and use them on those games! They don't even need their parents credit card anymore! This issue should definitely be addressed!
On the other hand parents are giving their kids phones/consoles way too early these days without even monitoring what they are doing with it! 12 year olds shouldn't be playing games like GTA5 after all...
I got out of gaming years ago so I’m just starting to learn in the last few months that people actually buy virtual stuff on games and how big the market is. It’s amazing and sad all at the same time.
I was never into GTA online because of the micro transactions, and the fact that someone could potentially steal them from you.
imagine you could have paid to free the Princess from King Koopa in Super Mario bros. Then along came game genie for 100 bucks. there will always be cheaters but now its socially accepted and expected.
Sounds like darwinism to me.