News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by Al-Khwarizmi on Sunday June 05, 2022 @12:38PM (#31632533)
Indeed. I'm personally not a victim of loot boxes and exploitative P2W tactics because I just don't buy them. But I just want to pay some amount once and have a good game in my Android phone, without ads and without constantly nagging me to spend more! I'll pay $60 also if the game is good, I just don't want to be put into a Skinner box constantly trying to milk my "engagement" and my pockets. Is that so much to ask?

Mind you, there are some games like that (my usual routine is to go to Google Play Games, navigate to the bottom, choose "no ads" and "no in-app purchases"), but it seems that they are like 1% of the total.

If you like a specific niche subgenre, a franchise, etc. it's very likely that all games you find will be of the exploitative variety.

It's sad that I have a pocket computer with an awesome screen in my hand the whole day, and other cool features like gyroscope, GPS, etc. that can be used for gaming; and I find myself going back to my good old PC (or lately, the Steam Deck) when I want to play.

Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by wincy on Sunday June 05, 2022 @01:36PM (#31633114)
It’s even worse on mobile as the app might forcefully update you to a new Free to Play version. I spent $8 on Galaxy On Fire 2 HD which was acquired by another company then suddenly dropped the price and added ads and in app purchases. Very frustrating.
Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by eyeownyde on Sunday June 05, 2022 @06:37PM (#31635488)
Similar experience for me. I bought the no ads version of plants vs zombies- “no ads” was even in the title. A few years later EA changed the app name and added ads.
Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by fomine3 on Sunday June 05, 2022 @08:35PM (#31636195)
This is really annoying. Possibly Apple Arcade blocks from this situation?
Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by sgjohnson on Monday June 06, 2022 @01:26AM (#31637457)
Yes. No ads and no in-app-purchases in Apple Arcade games.
Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by fomine3 on Monday June 06, 2022 @01:30AM (#31637475)
I wonder app developer could pull the app from Arcade and release "Free" version.
Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by sgjohnson on Monday June 06, 2022 @05:38AM (#31638603)
They can have an Apple Arcade version, and a "Free" pay-to-win version simulatenously. They don't even have to pull the Apple Arcade version.
Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by rapind on Sunday June 05, 2022 @12:57PM (#31632723)
It sucks that the model of pay once ($60) or subscription doesn’t gel with the in-app purchase or advertising models.

For example YouTube premium is a worse product than it could be because the entire platform has been designed with advertising and engagement in mind.

Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by MrDresden on Sunday June 05, 2022 @04:22PM (#31634492)
YT Premium is not the product it could be because it only needs to be better than what it is replacing, or normal YT.

Say this as someone who just subscribed this month.

Re:It costs $110k to fully gear up in Diablo Immortal by account42 on Thursday June 09, 2022 @06:08AM (#31679417)
> Indeed. I'm personally not a victim of loot boxes and exploitative P2W tactics because I just don't buy them.

You are still subject to the game design that is made to push you towareds paying instead of focusing on making the game fun.