Sorry but I don't get the fomo discussions
People are going crazy and I don't understand why. The skins aren't going away for ever if that would be the case I would totally understand it but they are just gone till next year and that is a concept that for me at least is totally normal.
Every other game I play does this since forever. Blizz does that with overwatch and hots and even with stuff in wow you can only farm on that specific Holliday. Lol does it too and I always assumed that how it works. You can get the skin while the event lasts and then you have to wait till next year and I don't see how thats fomo because even if you miss out you just have to wait. They are coming back they aren't gone for good. The only thing bhvr should do that I think all the other games do is lower the price for the old skins next year
Comments
-
It's direct nerf to a store and direct nerf for all customers, even if it doesn't effect you.
You take all the old skins and make them suddenly exclusive... why?! Because give me your money under time pressure (so give me your money more!)
If it was new skins, I am not a fan but it's way less evil than taking away something that allready existed and making it suddenly exclusive.
10 -
Blizzard is REALLY not a good example, for really anything honestly
League, a game heavily influenced by Tencent, is shockingly also not a very good example for consumer friendliness.
9 -
People are big mad over clothes.
4 -
"I've been seeing a surprising number of posts defending this kind of practice, while not really grasping what is actually happening with it. FOMO causes an irrational shift in prioritization by directly manipulating the availability of a purchase. This shift is something that your average person is able to maintain a rational perspective regarding, such as "i don't need it that much" or "I can wait for another chance later." The people it is designed to affect, are those with any form of impaired impulse control, or poor budgeting skills. There have been notorious GDC lectures outlining very specifically how to take advantage of these people and try to get as much money as possible out of them, with FOMO being one of the key methods. It is a known business practice that very specifically targets a vulnerable demographic.
Lets say you are faced with this situation, and have other more important obligations and are unable to make the purchase. A typical mind will think "oh well" and go without, but an affected person will start trying to readjust their budget to make it work, they may borrow money or even forgo financial obligations altogether as the need to commit to the purchase or lose out on it entirely outweighs their otherwise rational budgeting and prioritization. Its actually part of gambling addictions as well, as "the next bet can be the win that offsets all my losses" even after going into debt. It is a very real and well documented psychological effect.
The worst part is that, again, it has very minimal impact on most people. For many its not about losing the ability to purchase something like an ingame cosmetic, and they may not even see that as financially reasonable as it is. The problem is that it so very specifically preys on those who are vulnerable to the tactic, who are treated as whales (individuals who spend more than the average consumer, to make up for a lack of sales elsewhere) in the process.
Its an absolute shame how much this kind of practice is not only accepted, but even defended in the industry. There can literally be people bypassing anything from holiday gifts for loved ones to financial responsibilities such as paying their bills just to sell a few more ugly sweater model meshes and textures."
People are being mad about manipulative tactics being used to increase sales, because surprise surprise, people don't like when you take away from them the ability to choose what to buy whenever they want.
5 -
The game is in a really bad state and looks like BHVR only cares about how they can make more money without actually imporving the game.
I think i'll take another break for the game until I see them start caring which wont happen,maybe if the playerbase gets hit hard,which wont happen either.
2 -
Nothing “evil” about it. Greedy, perhaps, but definitely not evil.
3 -
Combine this with the fact that December and January are notoriously the times that people struggle the absolute most with money and it's completely predatory on those with poor impulse control whilst also being exclusionary to those on tight budgets who can't just yet afford the new skin for real money (but have been saving shards, which doesn't matter now) and so will miss out for a year because we're in a cost of living, and general economic, crisis.
All the while this move makes absolutely zero microeconomic sense, because so far I've only ever seen one person explicitly say they like time gated cosmetics. Most are either "I don't care" or "This is disgusting" but not many have gone "YES! THIS IS BRILLIANT!"
There's nothing like punishing the poorest of your playerbase just for being poor, huh?
4 -
Yeah, and people saying "I don't care" should learn that if you don't care, you shouldn't be pushing against those who are saying "I don't like this"
Because if you really don't care, you have no reason to do so.
11 -
It's really surprising to see how you guys think about this.
For me it was always how that's worked so I didn't understand the fuzz but that's just my perception.
Sure it's bad for people with bad impulse control I know that my adhd literally kills my impulse control sometimes gues I'm lucky games don't affect me that much.
It's definitely a move to get more people to buy and I don't know how to feel about that since on one hand it's scummy but on the other hand a company needs to make money and technically you you could get everything here for free after buying the game except the license stuff if you wait long enough.
I think it's a difficult matter cause none of use really know what it takes to keep such a company running but now I can definitely see why people are upset especially since they also do this to the old cosmetics
0 -
Some things you couldn't. Some outfits were always limited to auric cells, which I was completely fine with. Then they announced that all original cosmetics would release auric cell only and become available with shards after 4 weeks which, great. Cool. Love that.
Didn't realise it would lead to time gated cosmetic sets, all of which are now also exempt from that 4 week rule.
Cool. Great. Love that.
Companies need to make money, and BHVR certainly seem to be able to do so without extorting the most vulnerable of the playerbase seeing as the company made CA$225 million in revenue during 2021- according to Grojo.com, it's estimated to be closer to CA$307 million for 2022 (I cannot comment on profits, because I don't know their costs, but if it was large enough to open another office in Toronto then they could've probably survived without pulling this).
2 -
I don't get it either tbh. I am just happy they keep trying to get their money through the optional stuff while leaving the actual gameplay addition the price of a single meal
This might be a bit of a controversial opinion but for me it isn't up to the company to fix people who have issues managing their money.
If people see limited availability as a reason that they have to buy that product no matter what then those people should be given classes to not fall in that pit.
Attacking bhvr won't solve anything, even if they change their oppinion the people who are struggling are just going to fall victim to the next person
Teach a man to fish and all that
0 -
Im against it because I dont like anyone making profit by using tactics exploiting the many weakness of the human mind like poor impulse control also in the videogame industry it has the added problem it targets underage people, you cant sell tobacco and alcohol to kids and they cant enter casinos but you can put lootboxes, timed exclusive things and gacha on videogames without much control.
I believe all this monetary schemes are going to become a problem on future generations, gacha adicts are already starting to be a concern in East Asia, just wait until it catches up with us since we started a bit later the problem is still incubating.
3 -
Impulse control isn't exactly something you can teach someone to have control over there are people with impulse control that know about the practice of fomo and still get affected by it
It is like a mental illness that can be triggered very easily some people have better control on their impulses than others and some can go oh eh I don't like or I don't need it so I don't care but people with poor control will go into debt if their impulses get triggered
It is why loot boxes are a big problem for a lot of people tie that in with exclusive timed items and you will cause a person with bad impulse control or gambling addiction to lose money just to get those items even if they are simple cosmetics
3 -
This is ofcourse speaking purely from my own experience but i know somebody who had impulsive spending issues
He spend close to 1000 bucks on mobile games a month, often skipping meals to be able to pay for it
He took a class and completely recovered from it and is doing totaly fine now
I ofcourse can't tell if he's the exception or the rule but i do know it's possible
Problem is most people don't know classes like this exist and/or don't bother with it
Not to mention that it's something they have to pay for with their own money instead of being provided from support like it should
0 -
I don't get it either for the most part. Sure you could argue it is a dirty tactic to sell you crap but if you are cheap like me and refuse to buy cosmetics (mostly, I have bought them before) then it really does not matter.
The transaction is entirely voluntary and if you don't like it then vote with your wallet
0 -
You can take classes to help curb the trigger but it will still be there and a lot of people these classes don't help at all I am glad your friend is doing much better and their trigger isn't being pushed
The thing is every person on the planet has a different mind and different issues some people it can help while others it will cause more harm than help
Just like therapy can help millions of people there are those it will not help
Those who will take therapy sessions and see no improvements and give up on it and some it will worsen the affects of the reason for the therapy
it can also depend on the therapist you get or classes you take because every therapist is different and not every class is taught the same way
1 -
Cosmestics are so unecessary - you can just play the game with normal outfits.
BHVR is doing nothing wrong at all. People need to learn self control and to take responsibility.
Now back to the real world and real world problems..
0 -
Tactics that prey on people's triggers is a real world problem and telling people to get self control and take responsibility isn't helping people who have these issues
If you don't care about cosmetics that is fine but telling people who have issues with control that in most cases can't be fixed to magically fix their issues is being ignorant and abusive
2 -
The problem is, that this line of argument completly takes any responsibility for their own behaviour from the persion itself.
They just cant help themself, so its not their fault, its everyone elses fault.
It is actually the same reasoning that was used in ######### cases 40-50 years ago. The man had poor impulse controll, and the girl a short skirt. We all know whose fault that was, right?
I perfectly agree that you should call out (and probably boycott) companys that target this vulnerable persons, but taking any responsibility away from them is something i highly disagree with.
I would boycott, but actually i havent bought anything since patch 6.1, and i play next to no matches at the moment anyway, so there is not much for me to stop doing to send a sign. Maybe stop reading the forum.
1 -
I agree that a form of responsibility should be taken into account but it also isn't entirely the person fault in some cases (not saying the cause you brought up isn't of fault) and yes that person was at fault and using that as an excuse to be a horrible person but when it isn't about something that can be used an excuse to be horrible it can also be the fault of others because there are people who need help and can't get it because of the poor systems in the world in place that forces people to be unable to help themselves and feeding off those triggers just makes it worse and is scummy when companies do it especially when companies do it when they are not hurting in profits
0 -
Thats a bit different because altough both what you cite and what this thread is about are related to poor impulse control, FOMO, gacha and lootboxes are more related to adictions (especially gambling) and the rush people feel when playing games of chance where there is a BIG PRIZE!! the other is more related to issues like anger, delusions of power, domination and sadism.
Both are consequences of poor impulse control but differ on the source for such conducts, in other words, the trigger is the same (poor impulse control) the reasons are completely different.
1 -
Eh, my only gripe is the terminology used.
Why say LIMITED TIME AVAILABILITY.
When you could just say SEASONAL AVAILABILITY.
The terminology for "LIMITED TIME" provokes a greater sense FOMO, as it doesn't hold the connotation of reoccurrence, which "SEASONAL" does.
0 -
True, but the point was that the argument in defense was taking away any responsibility the individual has because of poor impulse control, and that is an argument used in both cases, which i disagree with. It was just because i see that argument as flawed.
1 -
More the exception than the rule. With a lot of things, the poor impulse control is never going to go away--it's just a matter of teaching strategies and mechanisms to try and put a brake in, but that's not perfect. And even if you can learn that, constant 'look at our time-limited offer!' notifications and events do not help.
BHVR has not yet, I think, graduated quite to "Look at our time-limited cosmetics we're selling!" and putting a big glitzy visual add every time you log in, but this isn't much better (because then it's attacking the same point every time someone tries to play, and really hammering in 'look how close this is to going!')
0 -
Yep, there is a reason why you should never offer alcohol or even drink it in front of a former alcoholic, even if he hasnt had a drink for 30 years.
1
