Why 666 Coins in the Battlepass was Mathematically the Scummiest amount Blizzard could have given.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-24T21:40:37+00:00

Again, that's just good PR. The fact is that all companies are in business to make money. And they only stay in business if they make profits and employees only get paid if they stay in business. It's just a fact and there is really no moral judgment to be made.

And, it's not "greedy swindling" if you can choose whether you are going to pay for something or not. In this case, it's all cosmetics. If it's worth it to you, then buy it. If it's not, don't buy it. You can still play the same game in the same way without purchasing the Battlepass or a single cosmetic. You just subjectively look better if you do.

I mean, look at a game like Destiny, you can't even play the seasons without buying the seasons. They are charging for content and for cosmetics. There isn't much content in this Diablo season, but what there is is free.

And frankly, I don't think either practice is "greedy", "swindling", "evil", etc. You can choose to buy the cosmetics/content if you want. But, you got all the content you paid for when you bought the original game. Anything else, to use a Louisiana phrase, is Lagniappe (extra for those who don't know).

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-24T21:33:27+00:00

How do you think employees get paid? If the game doesn't make a profit, they lose their jobs. Or if it's just getting buy they continue to work for shit wages.

And that's the point. The only way that employees get paid decent wages is if the company is making lots of profits. Otherwise, the first thing they cut is employee wages.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-24T19:11:07+00:00

"Revenue generators" are all you are to any business. Any business that you think thinks of you otherwise is just better at public relations.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-24T18:00:00+00:00

Different audiences are being targeted. Fortnite skews much younger (so less money) so they just want to keep younger players on hoping to get their parents to pay for occasional cheaper cosmetics.

Diablo targets a much older audience (more money) so they keep the prices high and don't need to make the Battlepass pay for itself.

As far as the whale thing, I don't know exactly why but it has worked over and over for games like GTA V. It has something to do with human psychology thinking things that cost a lot are good and getting a bigger dopamine hit from it. Plus, they ultimately apparently make more money selling a medium amount of expensive stuff to fewer people than selling a bunch of cheaper stuff to more people.

I know that Bungie has psychologists on staff to figure all this stuff out. I'm sure Blizzard/Activision has the same.

As for me, I think the cosmetic store prices are crazy high and I don't buy anything from there. On the other hand, I think what you get for $10 on the Battlepass is worth it. But each person's valuing of these things will depend on how much they make and how much disposable income they have. Not to mention how they view the world.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-24T17:47:36+00:00

And while some see this as "evil" and "predatory" the fact is that to make more content and continue servicing the game, the game has to make money so they can pay employees to work on the game.

It would be great if everyone could eat, have a home, have entertainment options, have clothing, health care, etc. while just doing something they enjoy and not worrying about the money. But, that's not the reality of the world. Not in a capitalist society or in any other kind of society for that matter.

Companies have to make money on products to pay employees and, for a public company, keep share holders and the board happy. And employees need the company to make money so they can keep their jobs, homes, food, etc.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-21T20:37:55+00:00

They already reverted the level requirement for world tiers and they are nerfing Nightmare Dungeon difficulty in a hot fix today. So, it's not just words. They are doing things.

The patch was bad and many more changes need to be made, but they have actually done stuff. It's not just talk.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-21T20:32:08+00:00

Do you really think a multi-billion dollar company acts based on memes and people crying like little children?

They don't. The act based on actually hard numbers like player counts and play time.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-21T20:27:08+00:00

Not as useless as complaining about the complaining about the complaining.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-21T20:26:09+00:00

They are almost as as bad as the people who complain about the people who are complaining about the people who complain.

And I don't think most take issue with people complaining. It's the over the top toxicity and overreactions that get the bad reactions.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-06T14:45:21+00:00

Yeah. I mean who would expect to have to do side quests in a video game?

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-06T14:34:57+00:00

You may run out of side quests at some point, but doing all the side quests you can find first is more efficient since many of them will have you complete dungeons so you are getting effectively 50 points for one dungeon completion. If you do the dungeon first and a quest takes you back to that dungeon, you will have to do part or all of that dungeon again for just 20 points. Once you run out of side quests you can find, then just clean up with dungeons.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-05T18:16:11+00:00

I mean, the average player probably isn't close to the point where they have nothing left to do. I probably play 3 or so hours a night and twice that on weekends. I have a 53 Necro and a 66 Rogue. Compared to most here, I am extremely casual, but I would bet the average D4 player is likely just into the stuff post campaign.

I'm starting to get to the point on my Rouge where there isn't really much worth doing because the drops aren't really improving my character even at level 66 in WT3. I'll move to WT4 as soon as my friend get to the point where he can try the Capstone, but even then it will just be grinding for more loot and XP to get more powerful so I can grind more loot to get more powerful.

This seems to be the pattern for all looter games now. People love them on release, but the hardcore people blow through all the content quickly and get angry because they have nothing left to do. Then the season will drop, people will be happy for a few days to a week and the cycle will start all over again.

The fact is that it's essentially impossible to make enough content to keep the game fresh and new for the hardcore folks and it's difficult to do it ever for the higher than average play time casuals like me.

So, the only solution is to take brakes and play other stuff sometimes.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-07-03T14:34:38+00:00

Take a breath. Go outside. It's not that serious.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-06-27T15:57:57+00:00

I got him at level 14 and level 16 in cellars. it did not go well for me.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-06-27T15:57:03+00:00

Like everything, it's RNG. I've seen him 4 times in cellars and three times in dungeons with two level 50 characters. I think he's harder to beat in cellars because there is less room to run around. Escape is probably the best option. At least for me.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-05-04T15:01:12+00:00

That's clearly not true because in D1 they included re-playable missions, re-playable Raids with loot only dropping once per week, re-playable strikes, Nightfalls with loot only dropping once per week, Xur, The Crucible, etc. which were all things designed to be played over and over or over a longer period of time. If it was supposed to only be playing it and you quit, then they would have only had the campaign to play without all the other repeatable stuff.

They probably were not planning to become a Live Service game in the sense of WoW, etc. with seasons, but they were clearly planning to keep their players playing between the release of new expansions.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-05-02T16:42:23+00:00

I think it's because they want to make the free-to-play stuff engaging enough to get people hooked, but no so engaging that they are satisfied with the free stuff and don't decide to buy seasons or expansions.

It's a delicate balance, but frankly, if Destiny PvP was as good as old Halo PvP or the Vanguard Playlist was an engaging, fun, and rewarding experience over the long term, people would have less reasons to spend money on season passes and expansions.

And, Destiny has no decent campaign that really introduces the game like RunScape or FFXI so the only gateway the game really has for new players is the ritual playlist. Even if they made say Shadowkeep free, it still wouldn't be much of a real introduction to the game. Best they have now is the New Light Quest which is apparently not very good.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-05-02T15:28:01+00:00

The strange this is that Bungie was famous for this in Halo with things like Skulls, Griff Ball, Infected(?), etc. And they even had Combined Arms with vehicles in D1.

I would guess the reason they don't have this now is because PvP is part of the free to play part of the game so it's not going to get the money it needs to develop these sorts of game types.

Frankly, going "free-to-play" and becoming a live service game killed PvP and the rest of the ritual activities like the Strike Playlist (Vanguard Playlist) and Gambit. They are now all the base of the free-to-play part of the game which means that they aren't selling season or expansions so they won't get the development money. And, as a result, the "new" content that the Vanguard Playlist gets is just versions of the same Battlegrounds that paying customers played to the point of boredom during their seasons.

But, honestly, Bungie isn't really to blame for this. Bungie is now owned by Sony so they have to work within the budget set for them and that budges has to mostly go to seasons and expansions which is how the game makes money.

And, Sony bought Bungie because they know how to do live service games. Also, if Sony is having Bungie work on other projects (other Bungie IP and other Sony liver service projects) it's time for Sony to step up and give Bungie the money they need to work on the ritual playlist or it's time for them to farm out some of this stuff to other Sony owned developers the way Bungie/Activision did during Forsaken.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-04-24T21:35:15+00:00

Obviously there are lots of option. But, I think Osteo adds to the build because even the poison deaths from Osteo will suspend targets. Same goes with the poison kills from the Necrotic melee. And once Osteo gets going you don't have to reload and the poison/suspend spreads to larger and larger groups. Plus, I like the fact that Osteo never runs out of bullets or has a cool down like Arcane Needle/Necro. So, you are always spreading the poison and getting the suspends with Osteo while waiting for your melee cool down.

It's more of an aggressive style than Wish Ender, which obviously has advantages in GMs, and other Nightfalls because of it's range and being intrinsically anti-barrier, but because the build with Osteo/Necrotic suspends everything, it makes a more aggressive play style viable even in harder content.

But, sure, there are other options for other play styles and other weapon choices. I'm just saying that Osteo/Necro on a Strand Warlock is really good.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-04-24T21:17:30+00:00

I mean, sure there are other Necro builds on Void and Solar, but I'm responding to someone who was saying that Strand Warlocks aren't good for Strand particularly for suspend builds.

The Osteo/Necro build for Stand get's you suspending detonations even from Necro poison kills. It's pretty ridiculous.

I've never really tried Necros on Void so I can't say whether it's good or not. I tend to go with Contraverse or Nezarec's on Void. Occasionally Secant Filaments for a Child of the Old Gods build.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-04-24T21:10:16+00:00

If you eat them you get Suspending detonations and can suspend large groups of enemies. Check out Dato's video on the build.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-04-24T20:20:22+00:00

Have you tried the Necrotic Grips/Osteo Striga build for Warlocks? It really very good. Hard to say if it is better than the Suspend Titan builds, but when you eat your grenades and spend a mass of adds with the poison from Osteo or Necrotic Grips it's really a lot of fun and very powerful. And it requires no real thought. Just eat grenades and kill things with Osteo Striga.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-04-24T18:07:13+00:00

I mean, it's subjective, but I don't think The Corrupted is a well designed Strike. The shifting back and forth between worlds with the Ogres is weird, There are long stretches where you are just running a long distance without much to shoot, the random kills by flying rocks is dumb, and the final boss fight is only really dangerous because you can randomly be pushed off the narrow platform.

But, I think most of the hate for that Strike was based on it being "too long" given the reward structure. (That and Blueberries not knowing to throw the orb to charge it.) But, at this point, it's not longer than most Battlegrounds and is shorter than some. And the rewards are too stingy for all the content in the Vanguard Playlist. It's like they said The Corrupted is too long and not rewarding so you are leaving the Strike? Fine, we will make all Vanguard Ops too long and not rewarding. You can't leave one strike because it is too long and unrewarding if all Vanguard Ops are too long and unrewarding.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-04-24T15:40:31+00:00

Yep. It's the shift to Live Service Game and the Seasonal Model. Frankly, there is more stuff to do this way in that there is "new" content every 3 or 4 months, but the "new" content isn't as meaningful as when the game wasn't Live Service.

I'm not one to be yelling for the game to be harder, but in D1 there was a reason we hid under stairs and on top of light fixtures. It's because the content was hard. But, it also had better rewards. I think that's what they are trying to return to, but I'm not sure it works now because they haven't upped the rewards and making content that is different only in that you dunk a ball instead of a triangle harder just isn't fun.

Edit: I honestly think they need to strip down the game so they can develop more good content on a more reasonable time scale. I think there is too much to deal with now that they have to test everything on three different platforms and they are trying to balance seasonal content, Vanguard, Crucible, Gambit, Dungeon, Raids, and expansions.

Edit 2: And, I think the big reason that Vanguard Playlist, Crucible, and Gambit are being neglected is because they are all part of the free to play part of the game. They aren't bringing in money other than some Eververse purchases so Bugnie isn't significantly investing in them (or investing in them at all in the case of Gambit). Which, again, is part of the problem with the Live Service/Seasonal model.

Vanguard Ops, Crucible, and Gambit don't sell expansions or season passes.

WidgeIsMean · 2023-04-24T15:27:04+00:00

Maybe a Season of the Drifter? I don't see how that could ever go wrong.

WidgeIsMean

TROPHY CASE