What you need to know
- As Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched on PC Thursday evening, a previously hidden suite of microtransactions became available for purchase.
- Things you can buy for the single player ARPG include fast travel points, Rift Crystals for hiring Pawns and buying special items, appearance change and revival consumables, a special camping kit that weighs less than normal ones, and a few others.
- In response to the microtransactions, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is being review bombed, with the game currently sitting at “Mostly Negative” on Steam.
I’m playing the game right now moron, you don’t have to spend a single dime for any of the things you spend money on. It is pay to play faster, cry more about it. Your experience isn’t tarnished because someone else spent more money on the game than you.
The fact that the MTX exists in the first place is just predatory. It doesn’t matter if it’s optional.
Don’t forget that things got this bad to begin with because everyone kept defending early MTX with the same excuse. These companies are always trying to push shit. Give them an excuse and they’ll run with it.
The problem that everyone seems to be missing with this “slippery slope” bullshit is that you all acknowledge that there are MTX systems worse than this one. That worse one likely being P2W MTX, because that is undeniably the worst form.
The RE4 remake literally had P2W. You could buy the weapon upgrade items for real money. DD2s MTX are in no way P2W.
So to organize the factors I’ve presented as they pertain to the discussion, plainly:
Everyone wants to avoid P2W because it’s a bad sign for games. P2W is the reason why gatcha is the way that it is.
The Resident Evil 4 remake (oh you know, Capcoms biggest franchise) had a P2W system (that thing we just established as being the worst form of MTX).
DD2 has an MTX system so functionally worthless that I’m about to beat the game and the only reason I’ve even considered spending money is because I’m lazy. You actually get more out of spending your money on gatcha games (on literal fucking P2W scams).
We reach this conversation, where you’re suggesting that “It’S a SlIpPeRy SlOpE”.
I cannot fully express through words how genuinely stupid it is to be picking this game to cry about how bad microtransactions are. Genuinely, this is some of the dumbest shit I’ve seen from gamers. In your analogy, we already reached the bottom of the slope and the people fucking cheered for it.
Yeah there are worse MTX systems out there. I think that makes a pretty good case for calling out bullshit when you see it no matter how you see it. If a company sees people accepting it, they’ll push it further. Therefore I’d say there’s a pretty good point in complaining about DD2.
RE4 having shitty monetization doesn’t make DD2’s monetization not bad. Both can be bad, this isn’t a mutually exclusive thing.
DD2’s MTX issue is still bad regardless of worse things being out there.
Again, call it out early. So that, if they made another DD game then they don’t try to push it further. Like you said it’s already bad for RE4. So if there’s no push back for DD2 then don’t be surprised if the next DD game has something worse. Call it out before it gets all fucked up, you know? Don’t just go “Oh but other game bad so this one is actually ok!”.
DD2’s MTX system is basically preying on people with poor impulse control. You might see it as useless but you can bet there’s people out there that’ll buy that shit even if they don’t need it.
Yeah that’s because it is a slippery slope. We didn’t get to this point just like that did we? It started out small, with companies slowly pushing things to see how far they could go. Turns out, gamers are largely a masochistic lot that just let it roll in. Ball started rolling and here we are.
In this case we’re seeing Capcom start out small by pushing an MTX to a specific series that seems small in comparison to other systems. Just because they could do P2W to RE doesn’t necessarily mean they can get away with it in DD2, difference audiences and other factors. Making it small in comparison also has the benefit of getting some people to react like you’re doing, rolling over and giving up because “Oh we’re already at the bottom.”
Yes, we already have P2W in some games. But I don’t think that necessarily means that were are absolute rock bottom. Companies still give treat franchises with some level of individuality. While they might do something with one series, like MTX with RE4, they might think twice about trying it with another series if it gets push-back. Especially if that series is a big deal for them. That’s why capcom doesn’t have P2W in all of their games.
There’s still a chance to keep bullshit out of stuff that hasn’t yet been coated in it. So yeah I think it’s pretty worth to make a point about it. It’s certainly better than giving up and going “Guys things are already bad therefore it’s stupid to try and change things for the better”. If you want to roll over then go for it. Just don’t try to bring other people down with that defeatist bullshit. Like what’s the point of your reply? To say that things are bad so we shouldn’t try to push people to do better?
You do not understand what you’re talking about. You very clearly do not understand what I said.
I’m done with this conversation.
Nice cop out. I think I’ll give it a 9/10.
I’ve elaborated. I’ve explicitly detailed how you’re wrong, and you turned around and literally said exactly what I said you would. “BuT iT iS a SlIpPeRy SlOpE”.
It isn’t. You just haven’t been paying attention.
Yes, that’s because it is a slippery slope. You haven’t elaborated on how it isn’t beyond “BuT oThEr GaMeS”
Fact is, it is a slippery slope. I’ve explained how but you didn’t seem to get it. So let me explain it again for you.
Yes P2W exists. But that’s not the slippery slope.
The slippery slope is how MTX is introduced to games/series. They often don’t come out of the gate fully stocked with P2W bullshit.
A series often starts by putting it’s best foot forward so as to not immediately piss everyone off. Then as things progress. So, a series gets new games or a live service starts to establish itself that’s when the monetization starts to creep in. The Devs/Pubs start to push the envelope to see what they can get away with and keep going. That’s the slippery slope.
Gacha is a bit of an exception, because Gacha is straight up defined by it’s gambling mechanics. The whole thing is about replicating the gachapon machine experience.
For DD2 it’s the shit it has now. But DD3 may be worse if they see their monetization was effective and that people are willing to buy that shit. For DD3 they may include the same monetization but make the items much harder to obtain, making more of a push to pay for it.
That’s the slippery slope.
That’s the whole point of complaining. To identify a problem before it becomes too bad.
Yes, other games might have P2W, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s no point in complaining because it’s a per-game/series thing.
If it were exactly as you described then every game would just be coming out with P2W. DD2 would be worse than it is because fuck it other games have P2W, so why not DD2 or literally every other game. Since your logic is that we’re at the bottom already because P2W exists.
But that’s not how it is, is it?
What is happening is that games/series undergo a decline. Start off small, ease people in.
A relatively common tactic now is to do something like this: Increase the cost of something from 100 to 1000. Let people get angry. Then “Apologise” and dial it back to 500. That way people get their “We did it reddit / OMG company really listens to the players!” moment while also not realizing they’re still worse off.
I know what’s going on. I actually pay attention and I’ve noticed the patterns as to how this shit goes down.
Do you want to know why I know you don’t understand a thing I’ve said? Why I know you’re just talking out of your ass?
Dragon’s Dogma 1 had the exact same monetization scheme, minus fast travel. Everything you could buy on the store was easy to earn in game (it is the exact same way in Dragon’s Dogma 2). Dragon’s Dogma 1 was also a failure in Western markets.
It was, however, a success in Japanese markets! Do you know what else is very common in Asian (that includes Japanese) video game markets? That’s right, aggressive microtransactions.
So tell me, if the game was a success in Japanese markets and had this monetization scheme: why would it not have a more aggressive microtransaction scheme for the second game if what you’re saying is to be believed?
The game is very fun and not once did I think of paying anything beyond 3 dollars on MTX, and that was because I’m impatient. It literally would have been a waste of money, as the game opens up every fast travel point you would need in the post game. It also gives you nigh infinite fast travel items. There is no drop in quality for the game.
You can claim you “pay attention” all you want, but all you’ve done is prove how little you understand what you’re talking about.
Yes, there are bad MTX models. CAPCOM literally has worse models, RE4 remake, Monster Hunter Rise and World. Weird how you people weren’t crying about those but fixated on DD2, despite it being so fucking benign by comparison.