Video Game General

BBC Report Discusses How Children Are Tricked Into Spending Thousands On Microtransactions [Jim]
 
Here’s the article itself if you want to read it.

@Meanlucario  
“Parents give their children a credit card, shocked they use it”
 
These games are warned in the mobile store and on the physical boxes that they have microtransactions, and these devices have family/child accounts and payment blocking/authorization settings. What else is there, that every transaction requires a passport scan and a livestreamed conversation with the buyer along with a mental maturity test (in the case of that 22 year old)?
 
First it was that kids “somehow” got access to GTA or Manhunt or whatever adult/mature game, now this.

@The Smiling Pony  
That happened to my group home worker.

@Meanlucario  
@The Smiling Pony  
Should companies be fined every cent they earned this way?

@Wiimeiser  
Should we fine candy makers for having sugar in their products and packaging them with bright colours, or stores for candies in impulse-purchase areas or on prime-shelf real estate?
 
Or maybe parents could, like, realize they’re responsible for a small hyperactive psycopath with no understanding of health or money. All this is no different than parents being surprised that they left their kid alone and gave their kid an ipad and they ended up on a pornsite, or gave them the cable remote and ended up on an XXX channel. All these things have parental controls, locks, and warnings for when the parent just cannot be there, it’s not hard, and they’re certainly not a new concept.

@The Smiling Pony
 
 
@The Smiling Pony
 
Um… I don’t wanna be that guy, but it sounds an awful lot like you’re defending lootboxes here…

@Meanlucario  
Jocat strikes again.

@Jarkes  
If a mechanic is clearly explained, isn’t cutting content from the base product, and doesn’t have a hidden bias behind it (like “give a good lootbox early to entice, then lower the quality for the next 3, then give a good one, and repeat”), then I really don’t see the issue.
 
Lootboxes are bad in general because they have hidden mechanics that aren’t actually random (see above) or the chances aren’t explained at all/the stated value is a lie.
 
I’ve also, like, never bought one, or really any microtransactions in any game, despite playing games riddled with the things for almost a decade now, and still managed to feel content with my game purchases and time spent playing dozens of F2P games without dropping a dime.

@Jarkes  
From a certain perspective it’s fine to take advantage of ignorant/stupid/emotional individuals; a lot of the United States functions on that concept.
 
Supposedly some of the worst gacha games in those terms have terrible rates for most of their girls yet supposedly some still spend a lot of money for the (small) chance for to get a cute anime girl. “If they’re willing to pay for it, who says we won’t receive?”

Okay yeah, Garuda has got to be everything wrong with FF3’s combat system in a single fight. For years one of the few things I knew about FF3 was that Garuda requires a party of dragoons to be even remotely possible. Well I finally got to the bird and even a dragoon party still means the entire fight is based purely on luck.

@Dustcan
 
Well, you’re farther than I ever got in the game anyway. I usually hit a brick wall at the Kraken fight, if I was even lucky to get THAT far.

@Josh103  
And if they’re an addict who are addicted or aren’t mentally old enough to know better?

@Jarkes
 
I found Kraken pretty easy. Before now the only two bosses I lost a round with was the first one That was my bad. I thought ‘first boss, just mash attack’. Turns out he has just enough HP that I need to use just a single potion to stay alive long to whittle his HP. and that lizard Gutsco turned into Again, another easy one…as long as you heal up before his fire breath attack he uses when he’s near death.. Other than those 2 the game has been challenging but smooth once you get a hang of the more BS mechanics.
 
All that changes with Garuda. The game already heavily hints at using dragoons, fair enough, but all that means is that the battle goes from unwinnable into one of luck. And of course this is just a prelude to the horror story that is the final dungeon!

To everyone.
 
Taking advantage of human psychology and our lizard hindbrains is what video game programmers have been doing since games were invented. Explore, collect, build, survive, defeat, conquer. Every human wants to do these things. If a game doesn’t do all of them, it does at least one or a few of them. The reason we become addicted is that very basic human urge to become better than what we were yesterday.

@Dustcan
 
What about Hein? That’s another difficult one.

@Jarkes
 
I had a Scholar tossing elemental items at him and won in like 3 turns.
 
Did you play the NES version? The 3D version apparently added the ability for Scholars to double item effectiveness.

@Dustcan
 
I actually played the DS version. And I had forgotten about the double item effectiveness thing, but I probably took advantage of it.

@Jarkes
 
What was your primary party up to that point?

I’m liking Eragon for the DS, definitely has that Zelda Ocarina of Time look to it

@Dustcan
 
I don’t remember, it’s been almost 10 years.

I played the first game in Crash N-Sane trilogy, being my first Crash Bandicoot game I’ve ever played.
 
Being more of a Super Mario/Sonic fan when it comes to platformers, my feelings are a bit mixed, (how the hell can I miss 20 boxes in a level? Are there tons hidden rooms in them I can’t find?) but overall I’m enjoying it despite being a li’l frustrating at times, but I suppose all classic ‘90s games have to be a li’l challenging, otherwise they’d be dull.
 
In other gaming news, I hear there’s some drama over Nintendo deleting user-submitted levels for “Super Mario Maker 2.”  
Maybe it’s because the levels suck? (Constantly getting levels that are just one enemy and a flagpole in the “easy” difficulty was kinda an annoying thing about the original game. So maybe they do need to moderate them a li’l bit.)

Me and my friends are currently developing a flash horror game.

@Beau Skunky  
Crash 2 is better than the first one, also there are colored gems you need from later levels to get the rest of the boxes in earlier levels. It’s a collectathon.