Diablo Immortal streamer spends $10000.

[Elim Garak]

So are you arguing most people couldn't understand a simple probability table?

Most people don't even understand probability, not to mention the whole table.

That people can't come to the same conclusions, and that a large amount of people coming to the same conclusion somehow discredits its validity? There is no reason to criticize anything blizzard does unless you hate the company in it's entirety?

Number of people that share a conclusion is irrelevant to the conclusion's validity.

Gambling addictions have never caused loss of property, health or mental issues, or death?

There's no gambling in Diablo Immortal. And the actual number of people with gambling addition is pretty low - and most of them are not even playing games. Gambled their iPhone and lost.

And you dispute that some games were free before microtransactions? Really? Every single game ever created before microtransactions cost money? And as a cherry on-top, the false equivalence that because prices have gone up, it's okay to charge 5 or 6 figures for stats in a videogame?

It's ok to charge whatever in a video game.

[Zardas]

One is a trading card game so p2w is expected. The other is an anime game so most people don't care about it.

Hearthstone is 100 times less p2w than Diablo Immortal : you can get to legends in a few days as a f2p player in Hearthstone, can you do the same in Diablo Immortal ?

As for Genshin, it has likely more download than Diablo Immortal, so pretty sure that a lot of people "care about it".

Can't wait to see your face when you disagree with your fascist government's view on what is "healthy"

Nice troll bro

lol people even remember thag those kind of sites exist in 2022 ?

who cares - only metric important is the amount of downloads which is beaten only by candy crush :P

When speaking about the quality of a game, reviews are definitely more important than download. Or are you implying that Candy Crush is one of the best game ever ?

Guys I understand that your knowledge about the market is below zero, but immortal is a mobile game. Every mobile game works like that , no one is forcing you to spend 10k and it is not even worth since the power gain is nothing game changing that you cannot have playing F2P. Can you grow a bit and move on?

That's wrong, there is mobile games with zero micro-transaction or that have cosmetic-only transactions. Eager to see Path of Exile mobile get released for you to see what's a good mobile arpg is.

[Jerot]

Most people don't even understand probability, not to mention the whole table.

It's not like it's an foreign language, if you tell someone they have a 1/2,222 chance of getting the thing they want for each $2.50 they spend. They aren't going to expect to get it after spending $10.

Number of people that share a conclusion is irrelevant to the conclusion's validity.

That's my point, some people seem to think that because its said frequently and by a lot of people, it's less true. Without looking at the data or logic behind the conclusions.

There's no gambling in Diablo Immortal. And the actual number of people with gambling addition is pretty low - and most of them are not even playing games. Gambled their iPhone and lost.

There is, and that is a baseless claim.

It's ok to charge whatever in a video game.

They can, but it doesn't make it a logical price point, or any less worthy of critique.

Especially when they take measures to obscure the full price beforehand.

[Elim Garak]

It's not like it's an foreign language, if you tell someone they have a 1/2,222 chance of getting the thing they want for each $2.50 they spend. They aren't going to expect to get it after spending $10.

It is foreign language to most people. "What does 1/2222 even mean? Do you get it every 2222d rift or something?"

That's my point, some people seem to think that because its said frequently and by a lot of people, it's less true. Without looking at the data or logic behind the conclusions.

Again, the number of people saying something is irrelevant in EITHER direction.
Conclusions are not automatically correct simply because there's data and logic.

There is, and that is a baseless claim.

I agree, your claim about there being gambling is baseless.

They can, but it doesn't make it a logical price point, or any less worthy of critique.

Any price is logical if it works. That's economics 101.
Critique is easy. Understanding is hard.

Especially when they take measures to obscure the full price beforehand.

There's no full price. This is where your math was wrong.

[Kyanion]

There's no gambling in Diablo Immortal.

Bull. Shit.

[Tiwack]

This is peanuts to the top millionaire streamers. "Behind every great fortune lies a great crime"

[shadowmatrix]

Sigh, people ignored an issue for decades but think jumping in now is going to magically solve everything. Those pennies you spend in other games can easily match DI without you realizing it. Pay to get rid of ads, more energy, faster leveling, better gear, etc.

[rynaluis]

nice blog thanks forthis

[Maell]

Well... I blame Todd and his horse armor for all of this.

[Jerot]

Quin now over $15,000 no gem
So for that much money DI will give you a chance for a 5-star, probably closer to 2-3 with average luck, many more 3s and 4s, tons of 2s and 1s to upgrade with. Platinum for buying normal gems and duplicates for gem upgrades. A battlepass worth some gold and crafting materials, and a cosmetic set of armor for one character. Out of all of it, it's likely only the cosmetic armor will matter a year or two from now.

Path of Exile could have given you (I'm collating similar smaller rewards at the end, these are just the big parts of these packs)

Ruler of Wraeclast (retired) $12,500
-Artist commissioned to create unique avatar art just for you, for the official forums
-Work with the developers 1 on 1 to come up with a monster design to be included in the game
-Work with the developers to create a unique item that will be added to the game (You make the name/flavor and general idea behind the item, they balance it and determine where it drops)

Grandmaster (retired) $500
-Your character immortalized in the unique map "Hall of the Grandmasters" as a unique boss

Highgate (retired) $1,100
-Design a divination card, pick its name, art, flavor text, and reward. GGG will work with you to balance it, create the art to your specifications, and add it to the game.

Ultra VIP Exilecon ticket (2019) $1,000 (1/15)
-Ticket to Exilecon (Like blizzcon, where they announced PoE2 and PoE Mobile)
-Invitation to private BBQ with the company founders
-Priority queue at merch shop at con
-VIP seating during event
-VIP dinner @ a brazilian steakhouse with other VIP guests, GGG staff, artists, programmers, and celebrity guests. Including community content creators, voice actors, David Brevik, Max & Erik Schaefer, and more. (They were spread out across different tables so you could meet with them wherever you sat)
-All the VIP guests were also present on the con-floor walking around, GGG staff wore unique shirts with monsters on them and in the lootbag attendees got a set of cards for a game everyone could play. Where you used your cards to match symbols and defeat the monsters on devs shirts while walking around and getting to talk with them, earning loot and crafting materials to upgrade or trade for more/better cards. The head of the company Chris Wilson was "The Shaper", the final boss to defeat.

This also included roughly ~15 each of full sets of armor, weapon effects, pets, back attachments, forum titles, and in-game portrait frames. (These high tier packs included all the lower tiers bundled together) Several signed pieces of merchandise, T-shirts, cloth game map, and more, all exclusive to these packs which were eventually removed from sale and replaced with new packs and rewards.

As well as currency for the in-game shop, roughly 27,000 points (You usually get value 1:1 but ruler of wraeclast was less generous as one of the first packs) This is enough to get all stash tabs and between 40-50 full armor sets with weapons, effects, and pets each, or drop a few for hideouts (player housing) and decorations.

Fully usable across all characters. Realistically more than any player would use unless they were trying to. Assuming the average dedicated player rolls 2-3 characters per league and they run 3-4 months each. You could wear a unique outfit on every character for several years without repeats.

And if you didn't care about the design a monster bit, you could downgrade the first pack and basically buy almost every other supporter pack, adding thousands of dollars worth of premium currency, almost a dozen t-shirts/hoodies/other physical goods, and many many more armor sets, effects, pets, and other exclusive limited-availability COSMETICS.

And the best part? There have been a ton of free cosmetics you can earn just by playing, they didn't just hold back everything to sell. Some of the most sought after items in the game are from racing rewards and event winners. The demi-god set which makes your character appear larger for every piece worn, alternate art version of uniques only awarded to some of the best competitive players. Challenge rewards added every new league, and twitch drops from tuning in to the announcement streams.

All of this cool stuff and none of it impacting the play experience of other players. You just get to enjoy the game looking like a badass wherever you go.


Why can't blizzard ever do something this cool? It's not like they don't have the resources to. Having been to both Blizzcon ('09) and Exilecon, it was no contest. You didn't get to do a whole lot at Blizzcon even back then, it had a bunch of marketing booths and some panels. But staff stayed away from public areas, it was mostly just players and fans. The stream is 85-90% of the whole experience.

[Toppy]

Well... I blame Todd and his horse armor for all of this.

People dont like to admit it, but this really started with Halo when they released a small map pack for money. It sold well, horse armor did not. But it made it very clear gamers will spend good money on little content. Before that the only sorta DLC type content were expansion packs, which added a bit of everything. Once they sold 9 maps for 20 bucks it was all over. And it beat horse armor by a year.

[KrayZ33]

People dont like to admit it, but this really started with Halo when they released a small map pack for money. It sold well, horse armor did not. But it made it very clear gamers will spend good money on little content. Before that the only sorta DLC type content were expansion packs, which added a bit of everything. Once they sold 9 maps for 20 bucks it was all over. And it beat horse armor by a year.

Nah... whole different beast.
Even before Halo, I paid money for Mission CDs on C&C and/or on other games (I still have them, would have to look if it was C&C or some other game).
Those weren't expansions either.

Those were post release additions.
Not withheld on release to make an extra buck or two or *designed* to be the actual purchase with mechanics and gameplay behind it.

[Dhrizzle]

People dont like to admit it, but this really started with Halo when they released a small map pack for money. It sold well, horse armor did not. But it made it very clear gamers will spend good money on little content. Before that the only sorta DLC type content were expansion packs, which added a bit of everything. Once they sold 9 maps for 20 bucks it was all over. And it beat horse armor by a year.

Earliest thing I remember was American Revolt for Syndicate on the Amiga which cost £12.99 in 1994.

And of course Blizzard have always been notorious for it with Warcraft 3 and Diablo II both telling incomplete stories without the expansion packs.

[Elim Garak]

Nah... whole different beast.
Even before Halo, I paid money for Mission CDs on C&C and/or on other games (I still have them, would have to look if it was C&C or some other game).
Those weren't expansions either.

Those were post release additions.
Not withheld on release to make an extra buck or two or *designed* to be the actual purchase with mechanics and gameplay behind it.

Splitting hairs since CD era. Technology evolved. Now you unlock "things that previously could only be post release additions" in the game shop.

I'm pretty sure you are not crying at night because you can no longer use your old cellphone and has to use the abomination that is a touch-screen smartphone. So why do you want content to be distributed post release on CDs?

[sanaubia]

Why can't blizzard ever do something this cool?

They don't have to. There is nothing to gain by spending money to create content for every season, it's so much easier to create a shop where whales can use money.

It's cool that PoE provides stuff like this. My first time playing PoE was back when act 1 was still being tested. I love the game and all the updates they have done, really interesting builds and zones. I just get overwhelmed with all the league changes, multiple different currencies to farm, combat not being smooth, random one shots, players rushing everything until they get to maps. It feels so stupid that there is so much content, but the best way is to get as many movement speed skills and flasks to skip everything fast.

And if blizzard has patent for "A system and method is provided that drives microtransactions in multiplayer video games. The system may include a microtransaction arrange matches to influence game-related purchases. For instance, the system may match a more expert/marquee player with a junior player to encourage the junior player to make game-related purchases of items possessed/used by the marquee player. A junior player may wish to emulate the marquee player by obtaining weapons or other items used by the marquee player." why not use it?

[Twdft]

There's no gambling in Diablo Immortal.

Can you explain with a straight face how paying money for a chance to get 5 star gems is not gambling?

[Jerot]

They don't have to. There is nothing to gain by spending money to create content for every season, it's so much easier to create a shop where whales can use money.

It's cool that PoE provides stuff like this. My first time playing PoE was back when act 1 was still being tested. I love the game and all the updates they have done, really interesting builds and zones. I just get overwhelmed with all the league changes, multiple different currencies to farm, combat not being smooth, random one shots, players rushing everything until they get to maps. It feels so stupid that there is so much content, but the best way is to get as many movement speed skills and flasks to skip everything fast.

True

And that's fair, for all the good GGG do, the game certainly still has it's own issues. It's not for everyone, but I'm glad they treat players right and not like mindless ATMs.

Blizzard wouldn't get nearly as much hate as they do if they didn't see their players and even their own game content as disposable. They've been cashing-in on fans goodwill for so long now... Coasting on the talent of their artists, certainly not their game designers. If they still had the same passion as they did in the early 00's at the helm this whole time, I could only imagine how well the company would be doing today.

[KrayZ33]

Splitting hairs since CD era. Technology evolved. Now you unlock "things that previously could only be post release additions" in the game shop.

I'm pretty sure you are not crying at night because you can no longer use your old cellphone and has to use the abomination that is a touch-screen smartphone. So why do you want content to be distributed post release on CDs?

Once again you are wrong (like always)
These additions were often released a year later and weren't part of the initial game at all, nor were they planned.
Everything you aquire in the MTX shop in D:I (and many other games) for example was by design withheld from the game or the game was designed with the MTX shop in mind.

Not splitting hairs at all.


Not sure what your bullshit comment about CDs is there for though. Nothing like that was said or even mentioned, but I don't expect *you* to understand anything properly in the first place. Nice strawman.
Just don't bother me with your bullshit, you are annoying.

[Elim Garak]

Can you explain with a straight face how paying money for a chance to get 5 star gems is not gambling?

I'm afraid I will have to first explain what gambling is. But I'm pretty sure you can google.

- - - Updated - - -

Once again you are wrong (like always)
These additions were release a year later and weren't part of the initial game at all, nor were they planned.
Everything you aquire in the MTX shop was by design withheld from the game.

I'm extremely correct.
There was no way to add content to the game and unlock it later. TECHNOLOGICALLY. There was no tech. So that's why no one even THOUGHT of that.
Games were sell and forget.
It was a dawn of digital entertainment.
Things evolved.

You dismiss natural evolution of technology. The CDs with expansions and mission packs - evolved into MTX. Thanks to technological progress.

[Dhrizzle]

Can you explain with a straight face how paying money for a chance to get 5 star gems is not gambling?

In most places gambling is defined by giving out cash or prizes that can very easily converted to cash.