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1. Annah (maiyannah@community.highlandarrow.com)'s status on Sunday, 14-Oct-2018 12:32:50 EDT Annah
   @verius Jim Sterling coined the term "fee to pay" to describe these games (a play on "free to play") which I rather like.
   1. Verius (verius@community.highlandarrow.com)'s status on Sunday, 14-Oct-2018 12:49:37 EDT Verius

      in reply to
      @maiyannah Yeah, but most fee to pay games are more subtle and, frankly, honest than straight after logging in for the first time popping up a screen "here's the main features we advertise, if you want them you'll have to donate". Granted, they're probably that way because company run projects tend to involve more lawyers who care a lot about tricky people into spending money the /right/ way.
      1. Annah (maiyannah@community.highlandarrow.com)'s status on Sunday, 14-Oct-2018 12:58:02 EDT Annah

         in reply to
         @verius
         > Expecting the games industry to be subtle
         
         I mean, I will generally concede the point about indie games being less adept about their psychological manipulation, but I'll also remind you we have stuff like 2K Games's NBA series where you literally have to pay, to level up your basketball players.
         1. Verius (verius@community.highlandarrow.com)'s status on Sunday, 14-Oct-2018 12:59:18 EDT Verius

            in reply to
            @maiyannah 2K? Please tell me EA was at least the first to do that or my worldview will be in shambles. ;P
            1. Annah (maiyannah@community.highlandarrow.com)'s status on Sunday, 14-Oct-2018 13:00:57 EDT Annah

               in reply to
               @verius No, actually.  It could be argued that EA's Battlefront 2 got video game companies much more brazen about in-game currencies and I'd accept that, since for all the controversy it still sold like hotcakes and that's all these companies actually care about, but even EA didn't charge you in-game currency to *level up*.  That's firmly on 2K Games.
               1. Verius (verius@community.highlandarrow.com)'s status on Sunday, 14-Oct-2018 13:05:31 EDT Verius

                  in reply to
                  @maiyannah Gotta wonder what they'll think of next though. Multiplayer combat where the one who gives the most money wins? But we pretty much already have that in lots of games so it's not really a new invention. Selling an incomplete game and forcing people to pay for the parts cut out? Done to death since the dawn of DLC. Maybe they could make a hardcore MMORPG where if your character dies you can resurrect for $$$ if you don't want to lose the character. But even that sounds too obvious not to have been done already.
                  1. Annah (maiyannah@community.highlandarrow.com)'s status on Sunday, 14-Oct-2018 13:06:40 EDT Annah

                     in reply to
                     @verius Actually, we literally have this in Call of Duty.
                     
                     Activision literally has a patent on matchmaking non-paying players with paying characters so they feel a pressure to invest in microtransactions.
                     
                     (Of course, they say they haven't actually used it.  Which is the lying lie of a liar.)