With the speed at which news comes out in the gaming industry we sometimes miss important or news worthy things. Some of these things we want to talk about in a way that is both easy for you guys and allows us to get all the facts together as some of these stories develop quickly. Sometimes we also just cover topics that we find interesting and want to discuss.
2K Says Its Loot Boxes Aren’t Against Belgium Law
Trust Reviews recently spoke with NBA 2K19 producer Rob Jones about changes coming to NBA 2K19 this year set to release on September 11th 2018. One of the topics covered is VC or in game currency used to upgrade your players. We spoke last year about how microtransactions had made their way into NBA 2k18 and how it affected the core progression and enjoyment of the game. Here we are almost a year later having a similar but slightly more disbursing discussion yet again. You would think they would have fully backtracked off with the response from fans last year, yet here we are. Trust Reviews article brings up some of the thought process behind the inclusion of microtransactions in NBA 2k19. Jones says “VC is an unfortunate reality of modern gaming”. Meaning this isn’t a discussion of keeping them in or taking them out, it’s a discussion of swaying public opinion that they are needed. This loops back to the statement they released in an attempt to get the community to petition the Belgium government to allow it to keep its loot box system in the game. I’ll get to my thoughts on that shortly but I wanted to make sure to cover all of what Jones said in the interview because as a consumer it’s important to know the type of company running your game. Jones continues by saying, and I’ll just quote this in its entirety because it’s important to see his thought process; “We know nowadays that most people don’t have the patience to work their way to the top. They just wanna be there right away. So, you know, we look at it as, oh it’s an opportunity for us to allow you to skip the grind, but then if the grind is too long, like some people felt last year, they’re gonna sit there and they’re gonna go ‘well, you knew the grind was too long to begin with.”” He insinuates they built the system in a way that would frustrate players and get them to spend money. He also suggests that players are lazy and just want instant rewards, both rather concerning statements.
Source: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/07-09-2018-nba-2k19-tips-and-tricks-guide/offense-controls-guide
Source: https://www.2k.com/myteaminfo/be/
Wiggin’s thoughts on the subject: I think I’ll start this with the statement 2K released regarding asking its fans and consumers to petition the Belgium government so that they don’t have to make changes to their game and can keep in their micotransactions in the game. This is utterly astounding to me, a company is so headstrong with its money making scheme it’s asking consumers to “help” them. Why would they not change their product to fit within the law? I frankly don’t have any sympathy for 2k in this situation, they need make sure their game they are making does not break any laws where they are planning on selling it, it’s really simple. Now let’s tackle the more concerning part to me in the sense it’s more long term detrimental to the franchise, the works of producer Rob Jones. To me sound like they want to make a game that you don’t play, you just pay to skip playing. I don’t think a single basketball fan would complain about working for something in the MyPlayer mode, I do think they would complain about grinding unnecessarily to avoid spending more money to get what they want. For me this is a hugely off-putting and if this was in a baseball game I’d be quite upset and it may affect my purchase. Nobody in their right mind would want to feel pressured into buying microtransactions. Couple this with 2K wanting to not have to remove the microtranscations from their game in Belgium and you get the feeling that player experience and progression is heavily tied to VC and loot boxes. I’m disappointed with 2K and hope that this behavior from publisher is extremely scrutinized and consumers take notice. They need to stop forcing the VC and loot boxes on their players and create a fun and engaging game on its own merits. I can’t imagine players continuing to put up with this year after year and really hope 2K takes proper note, even if that is unlikely.
Elite Dangerous upsets players, starting with an accidental post
For those of you who don’t play, I’ll sum up what’s happened so far. Aliens called Thargoids are attacking. Humanity is fighting back but not flawlessly. Ships, fleets, and stations are being attacked, thousands of people are dying as they’ve advanced into the bubble (area of space solely inhabited by humans) and are system by system ever so slowly, putting simply, kicking our ass. The player group “Canonn” has a capital ship (non-controllable) the “Gnosis,” (pronounced “No-Sis”) and they wanted to jump the ship to a locked off sector as they felt that something could be discovered in this sector. Since capital ships (called Megaships in game) aren’t controllable, any “movement” the ship does has to be at the request of the group to the developers. Frontier Developments approved of the jumps the ship was doing and agreed to advertise its journey by way of the ingame news, GalNet. The Gnosis roamed around outside the human bubble, the player group and ingame news advertising about their jump into the ‘unknown’ locked sector, with reportedly 11,000 commanders docking with the Gnosis to jump into the alien sector. On the day the ship was to jump, the ingame news reported that the Gnosis had been attacked by Thargoids, hours BEFORE the ship actually jumped. While the ship was suppose to jump 100+ light years into the locked sector and stay there for a month, after the attack it jumped 12 lights years, stranded, unable to jump out and is under constant attack. Adding to the confusion, the Gnosis considered any fighting near it a violation and blew up any ship that fired its weapon, adding to the upset of players.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com
Ozzy’s thoughts: That was a (longish) summary of what happened as of recently. Players were annoyed they knew about what was going to happen, along with the fact that all the hype leading up to this moment was shot down. The bugs (which were quickly fixed the day of the jump) didn’t help as trying to defend the megaship ended with that ship firing and killing you. All this disappointment has stemmed from the overall story of the game so far. The Thargoids are attacking, we’re trying to fight but we’re loosing and it doesn’t seem to be changing. Yes new weapons and ships come along to help in the fight, making combat with them (which I personally feel is the best PVE combat in the game and extremely fun) easier but the story is still “we’re loosing.” Nothing about that has changed for months and the community seems to be getting bored with “we’re all gonna die, it is business as usual.” I was hoping the Gnosis jumping would be the turning point of the war. Even if the war turned into a stalemate it would change the monotony of the ongoing story. More engaging the community with “aliens bad, fight them” would be nice instead of just “hey they exist, go do something completely unrelated to them.”
