Non-Assortative User Matching For Profit And Anti-Fun – Activision Patents Matching Players For Curbstompings In Cynical Cash-Grab
It's been a tough decade for gamers, even if you ignore "Gamergate." The fact is, though manufacturers like to claim otherwise, games continue to increase in price. The base game may still be $60, but season passes and downloadable content packs have made the average full-experience game priced closer to $120.
That's before you throw in the endless attempts to hook users on loot-boxes (gambling). These are truly a travesty that have normalized gambling for children that are only a year or two removed from being correctly referred to as toddlers.
For those unfamiliar with the lootbox phenomenon, many game companies have taken to selling treasure boxes with "random" items in them which require unlocking with the use of a key you must pay real money for. Technically, they have not been regulated as gambling, but they damn well should be. They are just as much gambling as a casino would be if they changed to a $1000 cover charge where you "might win some money" on the inside.
However, at least an argument can be made that those products are filling a free-market demand, even if that demand is often a bunch of 8 year-olds with access to a parent's credit card desperately trying to get that one cool sword with a 1/128 chance.
Unfortunately, Activision's newest ploy threatens to lower the bar even further, which is truly saying a lot for the company responsible for World of Warcraft and turning Diablo 3 into minimum wage employment with a real-money auction house.
Activision's new scheme is a matchmaking plan designed to specifically pair players who have bought all the optional extra content for real money (which makes you much more powerful) with players who have bought as little of it as possible. In other words, their goal is to create the poorest game experience possible by eliminating anything resembling competition.
The idea being, that after the players that have bought advantages and are more experienced finish utterly destroying their competition, that the defeated and demoralized competition will immediately run to the "cash shop" and buy that same extra content. They totally won't quit or play something that does not suck.
Gee, that sounds like a great entertainment product alright. Only a company who treats their customers like nothing more than a cash dispensing machine would consider such an audaciously offensive idea.
Imagine if the UFC was promoted by a producer of steroids who specifically matched up the Schwarzeneggers with the Gumbys, based on the hope that after Gumby gets his ass kicked, he'll pay more to shoot up. Also, imagine that somehow, the fighters rather than the viewers are the customer, too. That should put you in the ballpark.
Perhaps even more sinister is the likelihood that this will be used to simply funnel users back to the same random lootbox system, hoping to hook anyone with addictive tendencies to their little unlicensed gambling scheme. They even use the same terms we do on Steemit..."minnow, dolphin, and whales."
Though filed in 2015, this patent was only approved in late October of 2017. Activision claims they haven't used it, but we would not know if they had, and the patent was only just granted.
Now might be a great time to cancel your World of Warcraft subscription or limit your Overwatch budget to...$0.
If you have any additions or errata for this post, please let me know! I will see that they are voted to the top of the comments, and will make the appropriate edits (if possible).
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Sources: Jimquisition, Kotaku, US Patent Office, Rolling Stone
Copyright: Kotaku, Activision, South Park, id Software, Nintendo
It is so sad how those games have evolved - and this new patent seems to make it worse.
Another really bad thing are some youtube-"Stars" with their "Pack-Opening-Videos". They buy hundreds of packs and film when they draw a superhero like Cristiano Ronaldo in Fifa Ultimate Team. Of course they don't often show the 99 openings where they draw no star. This also makes the kids think they will draw a hero when they buy packs.
In my eyes this whole pay2win should just be completely banned on games which are made for under 18s as well.
Thats another thing I love about Age of Empires 2 HD - sure no pay2win there ;)
"Another really bad thing are some youtube-"Stars" with their "Pack-Opening-Videos". They buy hundreds of packs and film when they draw a superhero like Cristiano Ronaldo in Fifa Ultimate Team. Of course they don't often show the 99 openings where they draw no star. This also makes the kids think they will draw a hero when they buy packs."
Yes, I suspect you heard about the scandal of "pro" players promoting the CS skin gambling websites they themselves owned? To children?
Note, the following YouTuber is not always...appropriate.
Didn't hear about it - but it doesn't even surprise me :(
You describe every gambling establishments marketing scheme, yes, it may be perceived as unethical, but aren't a lot of the advertisements we see on T.V too? E.g; "Do you ever wake up tired in the mornings?" - many pharmaceutical brands, etc. Albeit it's a recognized standard for business in the "gaming" industry, which now incorporates more "entertainment-based" games, rather than purely monetary based ones. There's a massive influx of domestic regulations being enforced globally on the gambling industry, not so much the "gaming" industry per se. That is why those who have patented gambling software, applicable for both casino-based games and digital asset gambling are diversifying into the "gaming" industry.
I believe that the exploitation of children, through incentivizing rewards, is a major detriment that all the gaming industry has to take partial responsibility for. I grew up "gambling" thousands on Runescape as a teen, I use gambling loosely as it consisted of more than just staking via PvP, a common method of gambling on the popular MMO. I ran private servers, flipped profits by purchasing from botnets and trading onward to legitimate players, which I truly believe is subjectively* justified. When you run a game server, you see the economy develop on its own, and I can promise you, what most players are seeking, is the capability to risk their digital assets. People want more than just pixels for their time... and they deserve it!
Some game developers opt for closed-source market control, polls show this may be a preferred system for some players. However punishing players harshly if they attempt to convert digital/tangible assets is looked at with an extreme indifference by those who choose to trade things other than their time for game progression. Additionally, some companies have flexible policies where they claim to only punish large-scale abuse of digital asset trading, botnets etc. I applaud these companies if integrity stands true and they only target bots, but it risks major corruption. Until a game integrates a system where bots benefit other players, in a decentralized meshnet fashion, we will see botnets abusing digital asset farming, and the gambling industry of each game's "rare items" will flourish.
Unfortunately this puts a large responsibility on game officials to make a moral, fair decision as to whether or not digital asset trading is allowed, and MANY companies believe it shouldn't be, and they have the right to think so! They are the developers, they are the share holders of the incorporation, but more importantly, they are the game's community... Sadly this is a major factor where many companies fail, when they make the moral decision IN-HOUSE, without consulting their player-base first, however, generally you'll not please everyone, it's best to opt for the majority.
*I believe, as a "legitimate" (non bot-associated I.P, etc) third-party reseller, I both empowered the economy by reducing rare item hoarding on botnets, likely providing opportunities for market price manipulation, also I reduced the risk of the legitimate player being banned.
"You describe every gambling establishments marketing scheme"
Casinos don't patent means of seating you next to poker professionals without your knowledge in order to force you to buy special casino advantages with more money to try and compete.
I like the rest of what you posted. Great stuff. I agree with most of your thoughts on digital assets.
They don't do that in order to get you to buy overpowered stuff. However I have heard stories where players where hired by the casino to fill up tables and play aggressive in order to create a lot of rake for the casino. And of course the players often would be winning-players due to a more professional approach of the game.
I was going to comment about how I never understood why people pay so much money for video games. They're really super expensive!! I can get lots of other things for $60!
But then I read the part where poor players get matched with rich players to entice them into spending more money... Wow, it's worse than I thought! I'm not too aware of what's going on with games but this really sounds rather sinister. Didn't know the gaming industry was that ruthless too
"They're really super expensive!! I can get lots of other things for $60!"
It depends on your perspective. There are certain games well know for requiring 40 or more hours of play to complete. If you compare that to the cost of 20 movies, well...that's more like $160, assuming a cheapish $8 ticket.
Unfortunately, and also like movies, the vast majority of those made are at the very best mediocre. Many of the good ones are infested with the type of nonsense in this post.
But movie tickets are insanely expensive too! Especially when you consider all the crappy stuff you have to deal with in the theater.
Yep, I agree. Unfortunately, it remains a common source of comparison.
Looked at concert and comedy tickets lately? Or even mini-golf prices?
Everything is getting insanely expensive.
Yeah, you're right, concert tickets are way crazy too sometimes. I don't get that at all either.. And when you say midget golf, I can totally see that costing a bunch too. They probably make you rent the clubs seperately and maybe even force you to wear special shoes, etc. Then there's one ice cream stand that charges $5 for one scoop, etc.
But yes it is all getting insanely expensive. And hardly anybody seems to notice or even mind! I moved to a different city, so I had to find a new hairdresser.. I had to look really hard and long to find one that didn't charge me upward to €100 (euros, not dollars) for getting my hair cut and dyed. I had to settle for one that costs €70 and it's driving me crazy: That's a damn lot of money to be spending on my hair every two-three months.. and this is the cheap package too 😕
I do seem to remember that about 10 years ago or so, I was paying more in the range of €50 and there wasn't even a premium or cheap choice to make; it was just 20 bucks for cutting and 30 for dyeing or so.
I need to make friends who are hairstylists, yes, I know :(
This is why cryptocurrency has to skyrocket. Otherwise I can't keep up with my hair-costs and concert ticket prices!!!
That must be due to the economy doing so well, i.e. everyone has all of that extra money they're earning at their 28 hour/week jobs and the net result is that competition for goods and services is causing an increase in price. ;-)
That damned "capitalism".
The "problem" is that there are so many people who probably would even pay double the price that it really doesn't matter. Maybe they would sell like 10% more if it the price would be way cheaper. But that would not be profitable.
If I really like a game, I use the same approach. For example I will definitely buy the Age of Empires Definite Editions of I and II and the new IV. It won't make much of a difference if its 30$ or 50$ for one of them.
I had thought to make a post on this the other day, but you beat me to it. Damn my mortal body for getting behind on my required posting! lol
This is the kind of bullshit that is going to ruin the game industry. It won't kill it, because people will begrudgingly buy games even with all of the nonsense attached (just like people go to mediocre movies), but it is going to negatively impact gaming to a severe degree. There are so many different methods of trying to fleece customers that games are little more than glorified cash grabs. Destiny comes to mind, which by any reasonable account was an incomplete game that required you buying the expansions and add-ons to even have a reasonably complete game.
EA is, as expected, the worst offender, but Activision has knocked it out of the park with their matchmaking patent. It's awful. Truly, truly awful.
"because people will begrudgingly buy games even with all of the nonsense attached"
This is how I convince myself this rant is not totally pointless.
"EA is, as expected, the worst offender, but Activision has knocked it out of the park with their matchmaking patent."
Konami is also awful, relegating franchises to pachinko machines. Ubisoft has been as bad as EA recently. Nintendo is practically colluding with scalpers to drive up the price of their shitty plastic overpriced emulator boxes. Sony and Microsoft have almost nothing to offer over a PC/Nintendo combination.
It's a pretty grim market. "Voylent Green".
sneakers, jackets, computer games.. it seems the whole high street of shops just wants to take as much as it can.. cheers for the great writing.. your comments with your pictures are stellar! .... full up√one via cnts ;]
Thank you for the kind words!
Manipulation of gameplay to make it easier for players who make a real money transaction is over my line in the sand. If investigative journalists could do some digging to find which (if any) games this applies to, that'd be great.
It's extremely difficult to determine this type of data. Many of these companies hide this information from their readers.
For example, I remember when Everquest stopped showing the live players on each server because they were afraid of "giving proprietary information to the competition."
It's also very easy for them to fake the data if not externally audited. This is a tough task for journalists.
Agreed. Imagine the fallout if a journalist managed to expose games that are using this kind of thing. It'd be a glorious shitstorm of denial and backpedaling.
Not only is it a shitty idea....but who grants a patent on this? Seriously, is this what passes for innovation and intellectual property these days?
I do enjoy Overwatch but the second it becomes "pay to win" with any kind of advantage gained from payment I'll be dropping it like a stone. I was always a bit of a Blizzard fanboy in my younger years....
"...I used to sell WoW accounts on Ebay while playing poker"
Sounds like you had a good little side-hussle going there for a while :)
"but who grants a patent on this? Seriously, is this what passes for innovation and intellectual property these days?"
I stopped asking these kind of questions of the legal system some time ago.
"Sounds like you had a good little side-hussle going there for a while :)"
I did, but these things tend to have very limited windows of profitability before they get automated or arbitraged away rapidly...
This is why I never bought accounts. Some sort of stubborn gene makes me wanna get the gear myself. I remember staying up for days at a time to get the anniversary gear in Evercrack.
Good Lord! Your comments are infested with what appear to be bots. You should flag those type of comments from now on =/
"This is why I never bought accounts. Some sort of stubborn gene makes me wanna get the gear myself."
I know exactly what you mean. I just have a hard time paying real money for digital game stuff. I have, however, made a killing on the other side of that trade so I am thankful for those who choose to do so.
It is an unfotunate, negative testament to any game when people want to pay to play less of it. As a fellow EQ'er, you must understand that. Not paying $5 for a res would just be stupid once you reached a certain point, unless you value your time at $1 an hour.
The unfortunate result of being in trending the last few days, I suspect. (They aren't people from SteemFollower...)
Interesting, i know some friends who pay a lot money playing FIFA PS4 and buying players for real money.
Upvoted.
Games on the smartphones are the worst. Our phones are attached to us 24/7, these little games are money making machines. Kinda why i think gaming and crypto can be a huuuge market cos youre paying real money for ingame currency already in many of these ios games.
There are definitely (potentially terrifying) synergies to be had, there.
Great work buddy @lexiconical
I was never aware about that this is really happening in games.this is such a crap thing 60$+ for a lootbox phenomenon.
Where we get only a random chance ,this is surly not going to be worth.
May your matching system work and it's prevent to give a mismatch.
By the way great post
Thank you for the compliment!
My pleasure