-
Blissfulkill wrote on 2015-06-05 09:46
Dead, meaning other parts of Mabi that aren't fashion simulators or using the Gatcha to get rich instead of actually playing the game. I mean, anyone else gatcha spoiled from buying too many gatchas?
Dead as a game is what I meant. I feel like I wouldn't be able to recommend mabi except for its customization options.
-
M wrote on 2015-06-05 10:43
lol I was just talking to someone yesterday about how I felt one of these threads coming on soon.
To answer the question: I wouldn't really know. All I know is, in my opinion for general cases, as a micro-transactional game progresses in time, the quality of the game deteriorates as the target audience shifts from new players to addicted players in order to maintain profits. Thus, it's not entirely unforeseen that gacha's/reforges and the like end up becoming currency and in fact are all nexon really needs to keep mabinogi afloat.
It's all part of the business model.
-
Blissfulkill wrote on 2015-06-05 10:50
Quote from M;1277392:
lol I was just talking to someone yesterday about how I felt one of these threads coming on soon.
To answer the question: I wouldn't really know. All I know is, in my opinion for general cases, as a micro-transactional game progresses in time, the quality of the game deteriorates as the target audience shifts from new players to addicted players in order to maintain profits. Thus, it's not entirely unforeseen that gacha's/reforges and the like end up becoming currency and in fact are all nexon really needs to keep mabinogi afloat.
It's all part of the business model.
While I try not to judge other's way of playing as wrong, paying to make yourself feel good seems overly masturbatory. I could just as well go to a strip club, hire a prostitute, or go to nudeasiansdoingsexthings.com and buy a membership. Makes me want to point in laugh, then you come to the realization that "Hey, I'm one of those people" and then you go play DOA 5 or some other pervy game for some...
release...from your loser life. But hey, maybe Thompson was right (Can't believe I'm saying this.) Maybe video games are mental masturbation.
-
ironwoman wrote on 2015-06-05 10:52
Me? Not really dependent on those gachas, as with many more experienced players are.
Most of my profit will come from rarer goods, like Dragon Items, certain equipments, enchants, of which you won't be able to find in gacha (except dragon summon scrolls, but I won't count that).
There's a limit of what you can use from gacha, gacha won't provide you with all the end game stuff.
The majority of the population though? Probably much more dependent on it that I am.
-
M wrote on 2015-06-05 10:55
Quote from Blissfulkill;1277393:
While I try not to judge other's way of playing as wrong, paying to make yourself feel good seems overly masturbatory.
You could think of it as a form of gambling addiction. I find it most similar to this anyway. Casino's nowadays make it easy for you to win the first few slot machines (it's all computerized and it's not illegal to increase the chances of winning; as a result, you see modern casino's doing this). Mabinogi made it easy to get into the game (relatively) at the start of the game, thus hooking their target audience. As time progresses and you spend a dollar here and there, you became invested with money/time. This investment keeps you bound to the game, and shapes itself into a form of addiction (in my nonprofessional opinion).
I don't think the way of playing is wrong. I, from an ethical standpoint, think the way of business is wrong.
-
Blissfulkill wrote on 2015-06-05 11:01
Quote from ironwoman;1277394:
Me? Not really dependent on those gachas, as with many more experienced players are.
Most of my profit will come from rarer goods, like Dragon Items, certain equipments, enchants, of which you won't be able to find in gacha (except dragon summon scrolls, but I won't count that).
There's a limit of what you can use from gacha, gacha won't provide you with all the end game stuff.
The majority of the population though? Probably much more dependent on it that I am.
Yeah, ever since I broke my computer while dusting (My metaphorical or whatsit injury to my imaginary football career.) I got addicted to gatchas (Like alcohol might hook a former football player unable to play) .
-
M wrote on 2015-06-05 11:23
Micro-transactional games are good for one thing: maximizing profits over the medium-run duration of the business.
[SPOILER="wall of text explaination"]
- Short-term, these games will probably lose money as when they start they have to appeal to players by offering very limited pay-to-win (if a game starts with pay-to-win from launch, who wants to play?). During this period, the gameplay and legitimate enjoyment for players is probably at its highest point while game profits are minimal at best.
-
- Medium-term, addicted/committed players maximize the amount they can spend on the game while trying to balance their budget with real world; mabinogi used to potentially cost $50 a month just with service+rebirths for example. In essence, nexon was getting a full out-of-box new game purchase every month from every committed player. Additional things like gacha/reforges/dyes enabled players with even fatter wallets to spend more and receive even less benefit. The good thing for a game company is, they can effectively stretch out this medium-term profit margin (the highest point in their profits) by releasing favorable items whenever profits start declining (IE: exclusive wings, badass enchants on items they shouldn't be on). At this stage in the game, enjoyment has declined and profits are at their highest.
-
- Long-term, the game ultimately will likely suffer. It's kind of hard to say when this happens because it's more theoretical than anything, but if a game caters to addicts what will inevitably become of it? The game is bound to revolve less around content updates and more around micro-transactions (normally a game would be motivated by the need to keep players attracted to the game, thus releasing new content; instead the game addicts their players to the transactions, not the content). This lack of content creates a sort of "slum" environment in the game, where after years of not playing a player might revisit the game to see that nothing good has changed. As the company continues to maximize profits from players (and sponsors), the game may become riddled with advertisements for products or complimentary companies (IE: crossovers) (internet graffiti so to speak). Enjoyment of the game has ultimately been lost for the majority, profits are at or above normal profit but not what they used to be.
-
*this is all just my opinion/observation, not fact
-
[SPOILER="Graphical example of what I'm talking about"]
[Image: http://puu.sh/idhyj/caa8a04491.png]
Made on paint so not very professional quality but you get the idea.
-
An important note is: as time passes and micro-transactions in this example are introduced, maximum profits remain high while enjoyment declines. If enjoyment declines, playerbase declines. If playerbase declines, then those profits are coming from fewer and fewer players each time; meaning instead of paying $50 a month on rebirths/service, you as an individual might wind up paying $100 for your monthly fix because the # of players has declined.[/SPOILER]
[/SPOILER]
I'm not saying mabinogi has reached it's inevitable doom or anything, it might still be chugging along in the middle somewhere or it might be in between somewhere. I really just find it disappointing that micro-transactional games are becoming the trend for online games. Even games which used to be subscription games are transforming into micro-trans games (IE: EVE online). Ultimately, this is just capitalism at work. I love and hate it.
-
Kaeporo wrote on 2015-06-05 13:12
There's not a whole lot going on. A lot of the best rewards are handed out by gachapon/events and you can power through at least 90% of this game's content by the time you hit like 2~4k.
Content updates are extremely petty and rarely amount to anything more than a some new skills or some disjointed mainstream quests with no replay value.
Mabinogi still has dreadful PVP systems and PVE mini-games. If only this game had Runescape's content, or Runescape had Mabinogi's combat system...
-
M wrote on 2015-06-05 13:55
Content updates are just not the priority of a company like this. Graphic designers are cheaper than programmers. Graphics and recycled scripts/codes are cheap. The aim of the game is profit maximization.
-
Rydian wrote on 2015-06-05 18:05
Just look at Starbound for a current example, cranking out far more graphical things and items than actual game mechanics by number... and not because of misplaced priorities, it's simply that graphic designers can make new things far faster than programmers can.
-
callback wrote on 2015-06-05 18:10
Quote from Rydian;1277407:
Just look at Starbound for a current example, cranking out far more graphical things and items than actual game mechanics by number... and not because of misplaced priorities, it's simply that graphic designers can make new things far faster than programmers can.
Why do you think so much DLC in games is cosmetic? The art team finishes early, and they're not just going to lay them all off. They give them the DLC as side projects to work on while everyone else finishes the game.
-
Zeo wrote on 2015-06-05 18:41
Oh boy... another thread about anti-fashionogi/anti-gachapon along with 'is mabi dying?!?!?".
I can tell you that game is more populated now than it was few years ago, and to be honest... I don't even see Mabinogi being close to dead... we're overpowered now, yes... but that happens when you put lot of works into your character. As for PvP... it's fun, but if you're going to force PvP to have some impacts on Mabinogi, it won't end up well...
The reason I love Mabinogi is because you basically can do anything in the game as you please, and Mabinogi are probably one of the few games with most customization options for your character.
As for content update, I assure you they're working on G20 right now, but they're trying to push out TON of filler updates in KR Mabi as of lately because they want to make G20 a big thing.
-
M wrote on 2015-06-05 19:58
Quote from callback;1277409:
The art team finishes early, and they're not just going to lay them all off.
They will if it isn't profitable. They have them do the DLC because it's more profitable to continue paying them rather than fire them and let programmers do their thing. Like I said, programming is more expensive than graphics design typically. It's cheaper to have a bunch of graphics designers working quick paced projects than it is to pay for the amount of programmers needed to compete with the same pace.
It just works out to where graphics are typically a better profit margin than programs. Games are heavily program oriented during development and then switch over to graphics oriented. Releasing new dungeons, weapons, items, pets, etc require so little program work to be done that it's cheap enough to just keep a few programmers around and a bunch of graphics designers to reskin pre-scripted mechanics.
-
Elleanior wrote on 2015-06-05 21:21
I won't love the game the same as I used to unless the devs can smarten the hell up and bring us back the old story layouts from the earlier generations, when there was an asshole of sidequests that were hidden and had to be deliberately looked for by curious people. Or how about a story rehash that actually fixes plot holes? That'd be lovely too.
-
Kapra wrote on 2015-06-05 21:44
Quote from Elleanior;1277423:
I won't love the game the same as I used to unless the devs can smarten the hell up and bring us back the old story layouts from the earlier generations, when there was an asshole of sidequests that were hidden and had to be deliberately looked for by curious people. Or how about a story rehash that actually fixes plot holes? That'd be lovely too.
By old format you mean in C1 where all we were given were keywords and we had to use the keywords on every NPC to try and figure out what we need to do and where we need to go?
I liked that format but I hated how we lost the keywords once it was used, I always got mad when I accidentally used the keyword on the right NPC before asking everyone else.