-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
...is it just me, or is it mostly American/European-made games that are big in scummy practices?
- Thread starter "D."
- Start date
- Status
Look at any game by nexon. They've been doing this kind of p2w stuff since at least... 2004? With maplestory, and quite possibly earlier with other titles.
That exists in Japanese games too. Stuff like Shin Megami Tensei 4 or Fire Emblem: Fates have DLC packs where the only purpose is to give you easy exp or gold or weapons.
Korean MMOs did this way before western AAA games did and they still do it.
sorry OP, no matter how much you move the goalposts you're not correct here.
Or Konami.
Yeah they have them, but I find they have more big publishers in Japan that risk their capital than we do here. Capcom takes risks as a big-money publisher, as do Nintendo and Sony of Japan also took a great many risk on Playstation things. I struggle to even think of a western publisher that isn't regularly doing microtransactions these days.
Isn't that mostly a mobile thing though?
OP says mobile doesn't count, for reasons.
I'm a bit surprised by the thinking that only EU/US companies would be high on this when Japanese companies have been at the forefront of finding ways to avoid gambling regulations for literal decades now.
And like seriously you should see the kind of shit Bamco and Toei put in their games.
Would make Kotick blush.
And like seriously you should see the kind of shit Bamco and Toei put in their games.
Would make Kotick blush.
OP
OP
Nah I know for a fact mobile is the absolute ground zero of this type of thing....but not every "mainstream" gamer plays mobile games like that to the point of spending ludicruous amounts of money on them...so I excluded mobile games out of the topic cause its plain as day that's what the platform is designed for and theres no need to discuss the obvious.
MMOs aren't as prevalent as far as footprint and sheer amount of games so I didn't really include those too but yeah I'm aware MMOs have those tendencies too...but once again the "average" gamer probably isn't playing an MMO like that or at all...its a niche genre
I can understand that perception OP, I do get the sense that Japanese studios are far image conscience in their company reputation and while they'll happily monetise in areas where it's standard and tolerated to do so, (mobile, MMO, fighting) they seem less at the forefront of pushing new exploitative practises (lootboxes, season pass, launching broken incomplete games).
The worst offenders in the West (EA, Activision, WB) seem happy to accept their negative reputation and aggressively monetise since interest in their games is more pushed by the attractive IPs and licenses they've acquired rather than their reputation as a studio for quality games.
The worst offenders in the West (EA, Activision, WB) seem happy to accept their negative reputation and aggressively monetise since interest in their games is more pushed by the attractive IPs and licenses they've acquired rather than their reputation as a studio for quality games.
To answer your question- yes, it is you.
The idea of both F2P in its modern form and P2W comes from Asia, originally from many Korean MMOs and PC games.
P2W as a concept is still more widely accepted over there as well, and that is even before getting into the purely P2W Gacha mobile games, or hundreds of dollars of DLC you can buy for many console titles.
The idea of both F2P in its modern form and P2W comes from Asia, originally from many Korean MMOs and PC games.
P2W as a concept is still more widely accepted over there as well, and that is even before getting into the purely P2W Gacha mobile games, or hundreds of dollars of DLC you can buy for many console titles.
Believe me, Nexon is the king of pay to win. Ever heard of MapleStory? And they aren't the only ones. Plenty of Korean MMOs are full of pay to win stuff.
You can't discount mobile when talking about Japanese gaming. It's where the industry has gravitated.
And the scummy mobile practices subsidize the console games. IPs like Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy, Pokémon, etc are all being used for gatchas. They just keep it separate from the mainline.
And replied to you with a deluge of Korean MMOs and other exploitative mechanics in even 2019 games.
"Your honor, I know the accused's DNA was on the murder weapon, but that's too obvious, so I'm going to focus on the circumstantial evidence."
I'm increasingly suspicious of the OP for ignoring posts countering his point and focusing on ones that mention mobile games.
Seems that way because the big western publishers like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc all does it. While big japanese publishers like Square-Enix does it much less or not at all in most games.
The problem is trying to monetize full priced games. F2P games need to have monetization systems so i dunno why ppl are trying to compare F2P games with full priced games.
But there are also examples os eastern full priced games heavely monetized, especially fighting games. And pretty much all online games are filled with monetization stuff, eastern or western.
The problem is trying to monetize full priced games. F2P games need to have monetization systems so i dunno why ppl are trying to compare F2P games with full priced games.
But there are also examples os eastern full priced games heavely monetized, especially fighting games. And pretty much all online games are filled with monetization stuff, eastern or western.
Yet you still seem to conveniently ignore the notion of F2P and P2W being largely popularized by Korean PC games.
So you can't blame people who feel that you seem to shift the goal posts a lot here.
Sorry but Japan kind of helped glorify Gacha games in the biggest sense, which is one of the most terrible things to happen to gaming. So while it may not be in "mainstream" gaming Japan has definitely contributed with scummy practices. I'm just glad it's not in the big games/titles right now.
You can say you "ignore mobile" but that stuff being popular and making money is what investors and publishers look at in terms of how to maximize profits. Regardless of looking at the isolated games themselves gacha and mobile have been a huge factor in why games monetize the way they do now.
You can say you "ignore mobile" but that stuff being popular and making money is what investors and publishers look at in terms of how to maximize profits. Regardless of looking at the isolated games themselves gacha and mobile have been a huge factor in why games monetize the way they do now.
OP
OP
Are these console games or PC games you're speaking of? Enlighten me and I don't mean that sarcastically....I'm genuienly curious.
I don't understand why mobile games are being omitted in the first place.
Gacha is literally a Japanese name!
Like the name we use for shitty practice is literally japanese in origin!
OP
OP
I apologize but I don't know much about the Korean MMO market....seems I misstepped in excluding it. I DO play MMOs but its just mostly the "mainstream" stuff. If people are saying that about Korean MMOs and it is indeed true then it is what it is...can't argue there. My fault
Those business models are not as prominent in Japanese console/pc games because the console/pc market is much smaller than the mobile market there. If/once the console market there is in a position of strength again then those models will become as popular in the console market as they are on the mobile market
You can't just write off the fundamental factor to your question.
Eastern gaming companies focus heavily on the mobile market because the Eastern mobile market is fucking huge. They've also been effectively trained over years to be incredibly receptive to gacha mechanics, which doesn't help.
I often find that Japanese working practices are TOTALLY reasonable, too
Work in Japan: extra working hours, no extra pay - Raconteur https://www.raconteur.net/business-innovation/japan-work-culture
Japanese work environment - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_work_environment
Work in Japan: extra working hours, no extra pay - Raconteur https://www.raconteur.net/business-innovation/japan-work-culture
Japanese work environment - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_work_environment
You can't "not count mobile games" when mobile is the biggest market, by far, for video games in Asia.
It's like saying "Is it just me, or are there not enough superhero movies coming out in the US?"..."Oh by the way, I'm not counting movies released in movie theaters or streaming services"....like, what are you comparing it to at that point?
It's like saying "Is it just me, or are there not enough superhero movies coming out in the US?"..."Oh by the way, I'm not counting movies released in movie theaters or streaming services"....like, what are you comparing it to at that point?
Yeah it's just you OP. Everyone else sees the massive mobile Asian market that preys on whales. Then you have companies like Tecmo Koei pushing their ten trillion DOA DLC scantily clad outfit packs.
DMC5 and plenty of Korean MMO, from Maple Story to others.
You can also look at the whole catalog of Koei and the kind of monetization used by Bamco on most of its titles.
Well the best-reviewed AAA title of the year RE2make charges you $5 to unlock the OG soundtrack, so there's that.
I get where OP might have been coming from but they really didn't phrase it right. I feel Nintendo and the like on their console stuff are not taking the same shitty dlc and microtransaction ideas that other games are in the big names, but it's still a bad argument as soon as you start to delve deeper into it.
- Status