Ditto, yet here we are discussing this topic about the one game that keeps us here and not working on each of our near-infinite backlog of games.
Well, actually, I cleared one game out of the backlog this year, Nier:Automata, which was worth the time investment.
Ever consider that you don’t represent the target audience of the game, anymore?
I’d buy your argument, if we were talking about GoW pre-3.0. Ever since then, starting with the UI changes, the game has gradually shifted its target audience from the original audience of the game (aka “the veterans”) to a newer audience. You’re right, you don’t owe GoW anything. Nor does it owe anything to you, me, or anyone, no matter how long we’ve played this game.
Wait… what??
You’re playing other F2P games and yet you are unfamiliar with how F2P gacha/lootbox monetization plans work? You outright wrote the methodology behind gacha/lootbox monetization games. Under the “old model”, GoW generally made its money from volunteer subscription services, with a few direct purchases here and there (hi there, Deathknight Armor). They are still there, and haven’t changed in a long, long, time.
The “new model” targeting the new audience for this game relies on instant direct purchases of desired currencies or resources, sometimes under distressed circumstances.
Remember when any sort of promotion on gems was unheard of? That was the “old model”. The “new model” relies on flash calendars with daily gem + bonus offers that rely on impulse purchasing by players for coveted resources. Selling Orbs of Power for $50 USD (or equivalent in other countries) is what the new audience of the game desires. How many players do you believe that chase Orbs of Power on leaderboards spent that kind of money, only to fail in their chase. Yet, along comes a guaranteed offer, perhaps for an intentionally high price. I bet quite a few players took a long, hard look at that offer last week.
As long as the impulse purchases of players average out to more than what a subscription model would generate on a per player basis, that’s what businesses will do. Given the prevalence of gacha/lootbox games worldwide, the industry has spoken on the matter quite clearly.
Pokemon isn’t a gacha-based game… yet. So, that’s not a fair comparison. That said, there are fewer and fewer AAA games coming out these days that aren’t gacha-based, where $50-60 is spent to buy the base copy of the game to even be able to spend hundreds of dollars more in that game’s gacha. Unless you’re Pokemon and can guarantee selling 5+ million copies of the game at full retail price (which is practically no one), you’re likely pursuing the gacha model with your AAA game.
Looking forward to the future of GoW, the monetization of the game will continue to increase over time, further and further away from the “old model” and embracing the “new model” more and more. It is likely that in the mid-term future, that GoW will have moved so far away from the “old model” for which the original design of the game was based around as to be completely unrecognizable to veteran players. At that point approaches, veterans will have to come to terms if they still want to play this game. Each update will be more and more controversial to veteran players until they decided to either accept what GoW is becoming and embrace the changes, or end up leaving the game.
But, at the end of the day, that’s ok. GoW doesn’t owe players anything, nor is anyone obligated to keep playing GoW.
When it’s time for me to go someday, either through the game ending service or me deciding to walk away, I’ve a got an epic backlog of PS3 and PS4 games to keep me occupied for a long, long time.
… I mean, she’s clearly a human …
