this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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Virtual currencies are ‘fictions’, Take-Two argues in microtransaction theft lawsuit (www.videogameschronicle.com)
submitted 9 months ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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[–] Xideta@ani.social 27 points 9 months ago

God, Take-Two is probably the scummiest, dumbest, and greediest game publishing company around. I know that most companies of this type are appalling, like Activision/Blizzard, Ubisoft, or EA, but I feel that they've fallen to the point where it's expected to be bad. Take-Two has been, in my opinion, just as shitty in forever, but the success of GTA and RDR2 makes them slip people's minds completely.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 17 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Ban this entire business model.

Nothing inside a video game should cost real money. It's a scam. Games make you value arbitrary nonsense - that is what makes them games. Attaching a dollar value to that manipulation is instantly unethical.

This exploitation started in "free" mobile trash and is now in full-price flagship titles. It's in subscription MMOs. It's in single-player games. Publishers can shove it in after-the-fact, at little cost and less risk. You were never going to shop your way out of it. It is the dominant strategy.

If we allow this to continue, there will be nothing else. Only legislation will fix this.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Replies so far:

'Why'd you say it's in every game ever?' Didn't. 'But why are you lying though?'

'Just don't buy it!' It's a scam. 'Just don't get scammed!'

This topic invites the dumbest bickering. People hear "game" and "law" and lose their damn minds. Guys: bus-i-ness mo-del. The games themselves will be fine. The problem is the business. They take your money wrong.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

Since nobody else can see princess whats-her-face:

It's a scam when you get nothing, but think you got something. Consent doesn't matter if the whole thing is a trick. And it is a trick: that's what games do. That's what games are for. They trick you into valuing arbitrary worthless crap. Points, hits, lives, goals - they're not real. They are achievable fictions for making your brain squirt the happy juice.

Your brain is not great at separating forms of value. That's why points and crap feel good. It's also why swapping that made-up value for USD is an exploitation of predictable irrationality.

(And for fuck's sake, 'just sell games' doesn't double-secret-reverse mean 'don't sell games.' Buying games is the ideal. Nothing inside a video game should cost real money. That is the scam.)

Even if you want to bicker about how actually receiving a made-up thing counts, somehow, you will never convince me some fake hat is worth the price of an entire goddamn game. But that shit's all over this industry, now. There's imaginary objects that expect hundreds of dollars. Whole-ass AAA games do not cost hundreds of dollars. Anyone getting manipulated into paying that kind of money, for one thing inside a much larger game, is a victim. As surely as if they'd agreed to pay $5000 for a PS5 because you told them Sony stopped making it. They got exactly what you offered - at a price that's fucking robbery, because you lied to them about everything else.

[–] Syntha@sh.itjust.works 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Just don't buy them lol

There are so many games without microtransactions you could only play games that were released prior to 2024 and you'd be occupied your whole life.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

So what if new movies need an anal probe? There's lots of old movies.

This is a scam.

This is an abuse, for money. For a lot of money. It's so profitable that "just don't buy it!" was never going to work. This is the dominant strategy - it is infecting everything. Nothing inside a video game should ever cost real money, but every game that matters is liable to demand thousands of your actual dollars. 'Just play Tetris lawl' is an aggressive denial of a global problem.

[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Most currency is fiction. A dollar bill only has the value we prescribe for it. Game currency should be treated no differently.

[–] fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Currency is a promise. It's a fiction we all agree to be a part of.
The constant argument by game lawyers that digital goods have value and therefore cloning them is theft, should reinforce this idea that, well, if your DLC and your games have value, then surely those virtual coins also have value. And we can precisely calculate that value, too. How can they argue in good faith that digital goods have value, then the opposite is true when they would have to shell out actual money?

Or can banks suddenly do that, too? Can you imagine if banks decide that no, actually, we are closing those branches and since your money was tied to them, you're out of luck, too bad. But we are opening new ones, don't worry, come again!

I think customers are fucking idiots for spending any amount thinking they ain't getting fucked, mind you. But clearly there is some serious fuckery going on. I hope Europe take the lead on that crap, sooner rather than later, since we seem to be tackling lootboxes...

[–] PrincessEli@reddthat.com -1 points 9 months ago

Do you believe that every game that uses a central server should be required to compensate players when eventually those online services are shut down? Because I would say that games shutting down is a completely reasonable part of how these things work, and a reasonable expectation by the players when they buy into that system. You're paying for access to content for the lifespan of the game, not an eternal entitlement to active servers until the heat death of the universe.