I think Blizzard have had the luxury of being the top dogs with no competition for too long. They have started to take for granted that their games will sell and arn’t putting in as much effort to change, update and produce quality as they could.
So yes, I kick in the right direction to force them to step up their game is a good thing for everyone involved.
Numbers just tell me it’s popular, that’s it.
Do you think the game would’ve been as big without its EA keeping people invested in it? If it was announced in 2019, fell off for about 4 years and came out, would it have been as big? Also this game was on the front page of Steam for a long time, getting eyes on it over the years. Plus there was the whole bear incident that went viral.
I didn’t say they paid for the advertising. I just said that it had a lot of it.
Baldur’s gate is not going to change things because the primary responsibility of a company is to increase the value of the company to shareholders, and if nickel and diming people increases that value even if it burns out all good will, it will continue on. Companies will continue to hire psychologists to devise ways to manipulate people into buying things and spending more.
A couple. A companion that got added into the deluxe edition, and the 15$ DLC. That’s not as much as other games, but it also doesn’t clear the bar of having no DLC.
It’s possible that Larian will hold to no DLC in BG3 and I could be wrong though, but I doubt it. I think Larian will be better about the DLC than other companies are because they do have a good track record with it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there were adventure modules in future.
I am trying to understand why it has connection.
Yes, if you buy the game you add to their profits, I don’t think you should do that if a game has microtransactions… especially not single player titles. I am more lenient when it comes to online games that provides servers, because you kinda have to pay to keep servers running.
We are two very different minds on the concept of ‘being spiteful’. I don’t really consider it spiteful, it would require more care on my end, it would require more anger as far as I am concerned. The worst I do is tell you the effects of microtransactions, I know people won’t listen, and I usually go on about my day not giving you another thought.
I do like discussing the subject though when someone wants to.
Well, too bad. I don’t care if you play the game for free, I don’t care if you obtain it for free, hell, I don’t care if you buy it despite me not thinking you should and if you ignore my reasons as to why I do not think you should buy it.
What do you think I am doing in my life after that? Eating my breakfast while still thinking about that one dude who bought that microtransaction game, every spoonfull of cereal reminding me of that one dude, making me all angry and sour throughout the day. No… I don’t care. I don’t think you should do it, but if you do, well crap… why should I care more?
They would!
I have my opinion on the matter, they have their own.
The devs get their money regardless.
Or atleast i hope they get a salary while they develop a game, otherwise I would suggest never going into the industry at all.
I do.
You continued to push the matter, I responded. I care enough about the industry to argue against buying games filled with microtransactions, yes… but beyond that? No, then I don’t care more. You can buy the game after arguing with me, you can tell me about it and I would just shrug my shoulders and not care further. I gave my two cent, I either convinced you or I did not.
Nope.
Oh hell no.
I think you should buy multiple copies of Hogwarts Legacy.
Mostly because it is also not a game filled with various microtransactions.
Also, I kinda dislike the whole hyperbole of: “If you buy or stream this game you support the oppression of us”
That actually made me a little mad, tbh.
Piracy, Used games and having it be free on Epic games store even, has a direct impact to their profits, and in effect, it does the same exact thing as not buying it. The difference being, they (the players) are still playing it.
Why would Larian Studios do that? Now I am thinking about them… I should look up what games they make… They must be trending, I should get a Larian Studios t-shirt, I see they make Baldur’s gate 3, I heard of that. Is my t-shirt here yet?
I mean… you’re putting an awful lot of words into the other person’s mouth. You clearly care more about their laissez-faire attitude than they do about whether or not some anonymous random stranger buys or steals a video game, or just ignores it completely.
I see muck has swapped to flaming Blizzard endlessly after his Blizzard shilling threads started getting less attention
“Gamers” are generally just loud and obnoxious.
Most people couldn’t care less about micro transactions unless game content is hidden behind them.
CRPG that pulls that kind of numbers*
850.000+ is abnormal for a CRPG of all things.
I doubt it. The game thrived on the good word of people who played early access.
I guess we had two different minds on ‘advertisement’. Yeah, you could say that people talking good about the game is advertisement. I just call it ‘making a good product’.
Primary hope is that it changes peoples views on what video games should be, and as a result change the industry. But you are probably right.
One DLC with a companion, and one with digital maps and what not, and one with official soundtrack. Yeah, that is what I can see on GOG atleast.
I hope there will be some kind of DLC, preferably a larger one with an additional story. They have said it is not entirely off the table, they may push extra story content that pushes the level cap once every time.
But that is only due to the fact that D&D mechanics and spell starts getting wild and even wilder as you progress through the levels over level 10. And their goal with Baldur’s Gate 3 is to stick as close to 5e as possible. If not for that goal, it would obviously be easy to neuter many spells and abilities, but they don’t want to do that.
Harh, true… it is still engagement if you somehow receive it for free and engagement can likewise lead to profits. But I still don’t really care beyond having given my 2 cent on the matter of microtransactions.
When you buy a car do you seriously expect Chevrolet to give you the engine and transmission on the day you pick it up? This is not the standard from AAA car makers. You get the car and then maybe 3 or 4 years down the road an engine can be brought to you…
The thing is, Larian Studios isn’t some hotshot company. Their biggest claim to fame is making Divinity Original Sin which was a kickstarter project for a game that actually delivered in spades. As far as most people are concerned they came out of the woodwork, the same thing happened with Bethesda too just before Skyrim. Elder Scrolls was known of but not like super popular until Skyrim… Now it’s a company everyone knows.
Major companies have been releasing flop after flop after flop for the last decade or so and when we look at the metrics their excuse is that players are beating through the games too fast these days and there’s no feasible way with 3 to 5 years making games that they can stand to not lose half of their players in the first two weeks of release.
Microtransactions are largely pushed on this too with the excuse that because games don’t have the longevity they used to that they still need to be profitable.
Larian is quite literally showing the world if you don’t think at all about how to monetize a game, and just make a fulfilling experience for players they will play it endlessly and it will spread through word of mouth. That’s was Divinity was.
The fact friggen Baldur’s Gate fell into their lap though is just perfect. That game is a crowning jewel of the RPG genre and it’s so glad to see an old franchise like that come back and kick the bar up a few notches. The company that formally made it, Bioware would have shattered the legacy of the franchise. Look at what they did from Dragon Age Origins to Dragon Age 2, my God. If they made Baldur’s Gate 3 the whole turnbased element wouldn’t exist and it would have some flashy boring combat that plays itself for you and they’d blame gamers having too high of standards.
Bye
I call lies on that. Because otherwise, you wouldn’t have told me you wouldn’t want people playing, which that implies, playing for free.
We wouldn’t even be talking about this if you don’t care. 
You, clearly, do.
From the people who buy it, yes. But from the people who pirate it, buy it used or get it free? no.
Then you don’t have a problem with people pirating games.
Then you have no problem with people buying games.
…Then where the heck you actually stand in this matter then? Do you have a problem against people buying the game, people pirating or buying used games, or just being spiteful and petty?
Ehhhhhhhhhh… Tbh, It’s kind of Mid. Granted, it’s the best Harry Potter game in a while, but … As a game itself, it’s not wholly different from how Ubisoft, The witcher 3, and so on.
Yes, i know it’s now called, “Wizarding World”, but in terms of games from this franchise, this is the best.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooh, i get it now…
You’re just praising any game for not having microtransactions and feature filled… Hmm. Right.
As much i appericate that mentality, Let me Clue you into something with that game…
That game was unfinished with a ton of features missing or should be expected of an open world RPG, even basic ones like a wanted system and morality system, because… as it is right now, you can cast Avada Kodava on people, and nobody would honestly care. Should i mention the PS exclusive quests and potions? How the Open world outside of Hogwarts isn’t that exciting and kind of does what Ubisoft does? Or how the Treasure vaults just literally lets you walk up to them and yoink the treasure, and i do mean literally? (Even Ubisoft makes you put in work to get treasure) Or how it handles it’s XP and collectibles? (Again, why Ubisoft is doing much better then this…?)
Or how Ranlok was honestly a boring villain? I mean no offense to anybody who likes the guy as a villian but… Sestabian just straight up outclasses this guy, and this kid is basically Anakin Skywalker, but with a wand and… somehow less violent. Infact, why can’t He be the main villian of Ranlok?.. But i digress.
I don’t hate the game… infact, it’s my favorite game of 2023 and it’s rare to see a game made with passion and not just to be a cashgrab, and it’s better then it’s previous games. But objectively speaking, this is a pretty mid game with a lot of promise, only surface level filled.
Even if HL doesn’t have MTX and is technically feature complete, it doesn’t mean the quality of the game is better, it just means it doesn’t have those things.
If your entire argument is profits and how bad it is, then it’s only logical to assume you’re fine with people pirating it. Simple logic.
…If you actually believe them saying “I don’t care”, then you would fall for anything, like somebody selling you a bridge. Just saying.
Saying “I don’t care” is a lie in itself, because, if the person truely doesn’t care… you wouldn’t even know if they did or not.
Okay, that makes some sense.
Actually, no, how do devs/publishers even track something like that if they don’t even know who pirate/got them for free, or etc to count it as engagement?
…What counts as engagement in this case?
I am pretty sure I only said that I do not think people should be buying. But I have probably used ‘playing’ at some point, but I do not think so.
But if people do buy it anyway, despite my arguments against it, I do not care.
Nope.
You seem to want me to care, but I don’t have the time or mood to care.
I don’t.
I just won’t tell you to do it.
No.
But I think it is a bad idea, and you should not do it.
In terms of games with microtransactions?
I don’t think you should buy it.
But I won’t really care if you do.
What do you want me to do? Handcuff people? Grab a big club and start smacking sallies if they go against what I think they should not do?
But no microtransactions.
I can support that.
Eh, to an extend. Game would atleast have to be mediocre.
People playing props up numbers. Steam atleast is able to track player numbers.
Don’t know about GOG or Epic Games… Epic Games is kinda gross.
I don’t think you understand the concept of logic in this context. Saying that you don’t feel something is worth its cost is not the same as saying it should just be stolen.
What I can’t understand is why you are so fixated on waging this ridiculous argument.
I’ll bite though. Hogwarts Legacy there is a fair argument one could make about not putting too much resources into it because of, and as expected, the uhh, immense spectrum related outcry about not the game, but the author as if we’re expected to care.
A lot of companies with the whole virtue signaling to sell a product probably made strong notes to not engage with JK Rowling or Harry Potter due to these exact people, except this game was underway well before she went from hero to antichrist to the more “awakened” among us. Yeah, that was crazy to me and still is. One minute I’m being reminded of who she is because of some play and her saying she always envisioned Hermione as black. The next I’m told to hate her because she disagrees with labeling cisgendered women and transwomen as just simply both women which as a transwoman I personally agree with anyway?
That’s how I saw it anyway, it has a lot of promise and the game shows for a trial that if they just iterated and expanded they’re playing with some real magic no pun intended. I think the fact it succeeded in spite of one of the most pathetic but very vocal and whiny boycotts in human history will embolden the company to double down.
Literally never thought I’d like to see the day when the far left and evangelical right would unify in their hatred of JK Rowling just over very different reasons but both obsessing over moral purity at the end of the day. The evangelists see her as morally impure because she glorifies witchcraft. The far left see her as morally impure because she holds opinions they don’t agree with.
5e is amazing from a mechanics standpoint; whole thing is easy enough to get, gives players some freedom and choices and GM’s get enough freedom for rules interpretation/implemanetation that they can make rulings suitable for their group 
Yeah I think people decided after SL to not buy into it. It’s a shame because while DF has some flaws, it’s been enjoyable.
This particular situation was about the shutdown in China which was about the Netease deal falling through. But it’s undeniable the impact outside of China as well. The playerbase has decreased for years. DF was the first expac to not sell as much as the previous one since MoP. I wonder also if the controversies had an impact. Blizz’s overall reputation has taken quite the fall.