According to various gaming news sites Activision Blizzard has reached a new low in the current trend to microtransact the hell out of their customers even for full price console/pc games , as it was granted a patent for a new system to encourage people to spend more money through microtransactions.

One way is to pair people in multiplayer matches in such a way, that people will be encouraged to make game-related purchases due to hugely different "skill" level - which ofcourse also means that those games must have some p2w mechanic, as purchases wouldn't result in higher player skill.

Even more perverted and straight from the patent:
"... if the player purchased a particular weapon, the microtransaction engine may match the player in a gameplay session in which the particular weapon is highly effective, giving the player an impression that the particular weapon was a good purchase. This may encourage the player to make future purchases to achieve similar gameplay results."

U.S.Patent

Article on eurogamer

kotaku


News like this really make me happy having lived through the gaming 80s and 90s as well as having the posibility to (re)play all those classics (either by fleamarket, gog or other sources) and having a huge indie scene fulfilling my gaming needs these days.

What the actual fuck...?

As if glorified gambling with loot crates wasn't bad enough, now they are using algorithms to make you feel good, then later make you feel even more ineffective so you'll spend more later on an even better item. Fuck that noise.

Damn..... I hope this is some very bad joke....*Tries to snap out of the "Gaming industry in 2017" nightmare,but realises it ain't a dream...*

god damn everything about this

Am I supposed to act surprised? Cause I have to tell you, I don't think I can pull it off.

What? A company focused on online multiplayer and microtransactions, producing the most soulles, designed-by-marketing-team games I've ever seen, has made the next logical step in exploiting their customers apparent willingness to buy any crap they put out and pay ridiculous amounts of money for virtual items and bragging rights? I am shocked!

No, no, told you I couldn't do it. Sorry.

What a bag of such and such.


The worst part about this news, however, is that people will probably lap it up and fork out big time when this monstrosity comes to market. Dumb as bricks. You reap what you sow. We've been spreading shit all over the field for years, and ignoring seeds.


Thank Cthulhu for kickstarted games and the indie scene, with multi-platform support and creative and innovative games. Without that, I'd simply stop playing games, and it's pretty close to that anyway.

You sound... what's the word? Hmmm... unsurprised.

Blizzard have been like that for a while, even diablo left as he couldn't stand the practices and into that void they chucked some abomination of a money leech monster.

methinks this patent is useless. See: Mobile Strike and clones. Hell, even SQUARE has a endorsed one (although TBH I would be embarassed by it)

Ah, isn't that cute... but it's wrong. These profit-maximizing SOBs from sales and marketing should really mind their own business and stay out of game development.

Can't say I'm surprised, but if you ask me they're writing their own obituary by doing this. Sure, some people are going to be OK with games that sweet talk them and squeeze them for money like the local loan shark, but come on...

We don't even can choose what poison we can drink, between loot box, microtransactions, intrusive drm and now matchmaking that force us to buy stuff... This is the golden age of gaming.

If you want to be rich, you've got to be a bitch.
Vote with your wallets.

Sadly, there are going to be some people - okay, a whole giant bunch of people - for whom gaming with microtransactions is the norm, and many of them will not blink twice. A lot of us old-ish farts here started gaming when online play was just a pipe dream and so we see what a travesty this appears to be, but there must be millions and millions introduced to gaming through casual / mobile / tablet games where entering a credit card number is a normal thing.

If they can put this mechanism into an actual good game, then there may be a crap-ton of money headed their way.. And it might signal a market-defining shift in gaming. Not a good shift, mind you, but a shift nonetheless.

I'm afraid I'm with Breja on this one. Some game companies are in the milking business, and every minute a new "cow" is born.

Tomorrow they will be pairing players in groups where they are the only one without a certain item, they will be feeling in disadvantage and will rush to catch-up with "the state of the game". I'm sure they have all sort of data from their A/B testing.