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Oh fuck you Ubisoft... FUCK ... YOU
9 years ago
General
With the advent of AAA games sliding down the scale to resemble the 5 hour 10$ bargain bin games with multiplayer and 100000000000000000000 unlockable skills, skins and hats (Hats sold separately, see Steam Marketplace for prices [.01-400$]) Ubisoft has yet to have an aneurysm when squeezing out the latest turd of an idea.
Rainbow 6 Siege: Year Two season pass...
So now instead of 1 pass, that doesn't include much of anything these days, there are 2... This sets a dangerous precedence for the games industry. For publishers to not only rip content from the game and resell it in a season pass or DLC, now they get to have 2, TWO seasons passes... With the proliferation of Micro-transactions in single player already happening, it won't be long before we need a credit card to play each match (cough cough Hearthstone cough cough)
So it's not enough we pay 60$ for the game
Not enough to have skin packs, 28 of them for roughly 5$ a piece
And they are selling the characters, 'Operators', if you don't want to grind EXP to get them for roughly 5$ each...
NOW a season 2 pass for 30$....
Fuck
You
This is absolutely ridiculous. Imagine if I sold my product like that
60$ for showing up
300$ for replacing the timing belt
30$ for part removal
50$ for part reinstall
20$ for gasket removal
15$ for gasket replacement
70$ for completion check
120$ and I'll put the fuse back in for your ECM so it will run.
And then I will tell you that I need to tighten everything to specifications, after it's all back together. Time to take everything apart again... for a cost
Broken down to itemize individual parts and maximize profits, and in the end I rush and cut corners.
I'd never find a job if I did that...
Why is this acceptable?
Why do we have to now pay an egregious amount for what used to come in a game for the base price?
I don't know anymore...
Also, Fuck loot crates...
Rainbow 6 Siege: Year Two season pass...
So now instead of 1 pass, that doesn't include much of anything these days, there are 2... This sets a dangerous precedence for the games industry. For publishers to not only rip content from the game and resell it in a season pass or DLC, now they get to have 2, TWO seasons passes... With the proliferation of Micro-transactions in single player already happening, it won't be long before we need a credit card to play each match (cough cough Hearthstone cough cough)
So it's not enough we pay 60$ for the game
Not enough to have skin packs, 28 of them for roughly 5$ a piece
And they are selling the characters, 'Operators', if you don't want to grind EXP to get them for roughly 5$ each...
NOW a season 2 pass for 30$....
Fuck
You
This is absolutely ridiculous. Imagine if I sold my product like that
60$ for showing up
300$ for replacing the timing belt
30$ for part removal
50$ for part reinstall
20$ for gasket removal
15$ for gasket replacement
70$ for completion check
120$ and I'll put the fuse back in for your ECM so it will run.
And then I will tell you that I need to tighten everything to specifications, after it's all back together. Time to take everything apart again... for a cost
Broken down to itemize individual parts and maximize profits, and in the end I rush and cut corners.
I'd never find a job if I did that...
Why is this acceptable?
Why do we have to now pay an egregious amount for what used to come in a game for the base price?
I don't know anymore...
Also, Fuck loot crates...
Why do we have to now pay an egregious amount for what used to come in a game for the base price?
Because we pay it. Plain and simple. If it didn't make any money, nobody would be doing it.
And you couldn't do that, because somebody would undercut you. But with entertainment, there is no alternate suppliers. The competitors are selling a different product. So if you want to play the latest Call of Cashgrab, you have to buy Call of Cashgrab, and we're apparently incapable of not buying it and just have to have it.
Also an older version of Minecraft with a ginormous community-created modpack. (Friend of mine is running a server of the Space Astronomy pack, centered around Galacticraft. No, I don't have a spaceship yet--but you can bet I'm shooting for airless environments ASAP! >:3)
Right now Rainbow Six is getting 4 new operator sets throughout the year, and season pass or not, you get access to them anyway, the only thing Season Pass gives you is a new outfit for them, and access to them a week early. Not significant or terrible, and if you play the game enough to really be concerned about it, you'll long have the Renown [in-game currency, earned through playing] built up to purchase them, since getting everything else besides the DLC operators is a pittance, unless you've blown all your renown on skins.
I have my complaints about Ubisoft, but really their season pass model is more of a 'give us money to support our game' than a 'pay this to get access to the content'. Access to the characters is only minimally delayed [1 week] and patch adjustments and map access are not limited in the least. The last game to really pull a 'Season 2' season pass was Evolve 1.0, and their version WOULD actually require a real cash payment to get access to newer characters. Ubi's season pass model is really more just an opportunity to donate to the continuation of the game, and get something cosmetic to show you did.
I don't disagree that microtransactions can really ruin games, but I really feel like Rainbow Six is much better about those than a lot of other games. And no loot crates in that one, to boot.
PS: The Season Pass gun skin is supposed to be obsidian, but really looks like crappy shiny asphalt. :P
Game development is a lot more expensive now than it used to be, but the price of games is still ~$60, just like it was back when we were buying games for the SNES and Genesis.
The content from the season pass, at least as far as Rainbow Six goes, is not content that was stripped from the game at launch but stuff that has been developed since the launch of the game, alongside balance patches and things of that nature. The cost is to help fund the continuing support of the game, instead of it just being abandoned and all the problems with it remaining with no attention given to it, like a lot of games.
All operators are available, which you did touch on, if you get the in-game currency to buy them. Same goes for a lot of the skins and cosmetic items. The maps are available regardless of purchase of the season pass or operators free of charge to everyone who plays the game.
There have definitely been very poor uses of microtransactions and DLC in the past, looking at Evolve for an example of when it was so poorly handled it killed the game, and yes, most of it was content that was available at the launch of the game.
I don't usually buy a season pass unless I know exactly what I'm getting from it, a lot of the time at launch there is a vague 'Plus all future DLC' promise attached to the season passes, but with Rainbow Six, we do at least know what's coming down the line, and it my $30 helps keep a game I really enjoy playing going instead of the developers being forced to move on to other projects, then I'd say it's $30 well spent.
To stop Ubisoft from doing this crap is to not buy there shit. Get a large population (more then half of the gaming pop.) and boycott. A great example is Kelloggs (the cereal brand) losing stock values because they back stabbed breitbart and told there viewers to boycott them (kelloggs) there stock is now plummeting fast. Well that's my two cents anyway -_- but yeah stuffs out of control.
Also... we don't.
At least, i don't, indeed i don't have a single Ubisoft game in my library (minus a Beyond good and evil a friend gifted me) nor any that promoted season passes and similars, and while i was used to try and get a key or two in TF2, now in Overwatch i never bought anything beside the main game.
We don't have to give them our money, however there is also a minority of people that have so much money to waste that makes us pay too in a certain sense, and this, for example, includes youtubers and gaming VIPs making "100 lootcrates" videos when it's mathematically impossible that they grinded so many a few hours after theyr release, which screams "Yes ! We love lootcrates ! Give us more of this BS ! Take my money for it !" (and yes, i did some lootbox vids too myself but mine were all purely grinded playing the game and nothing else, just look at how many i open and the player level when i was opening them).
So if Ubisoft wants to keep up with this DLC shit, short games, and bagging on "entitled" fans, I say let them dig their own grave.
As for Ubisoft look at it this way, it's probably the only thing keeping them afloat. I mean their games are known for being backward, bug riddled, micro-transaction having, unfinished messes that overuse the word "iconic" so they've already alienated a large portion of their potential market.