I feel sad that you are so willing to call yourself a "Whale" (The derogative term made by the Triple A industry to call the people who spend a lot of money on a game). Get some dignity back, man!
However, I do agree that the monetization tactics that are being used and implemented seem to be much more orientated towards trying to squeeze money out of people.
I remember a time when cosmetic items were unlocks that you got through playing the game. Nowadays, this seems much more of a foreign concept. Now it's all about those live services and lootboxes and ***.
And the worst part is, people are perfectly okay with this.
Lol, you made a chart.
I agree with your points though. The aggressive monetization of this game is going too far. They really would do more with less.
I feel sad that you are so willing to call yourself a "Whale" (The derogative term made by the Triple A industry to call the people who spend a lot of money on a game). Get some dignity back, man!
However, I do agree that the monetization tactics that are being used and implemented seem to be much more orientated towards trying to squeeze money out of people.
I remember a time when cosmetic items were unlocks that you got through playing the game. Nowadays, this seems much more of a foreign concept. Now it's all about those live services and lootboxes and ***.
And the worst part is, people are perfectly okay with this.
Dude, did you even look at your chart?
Your spending has doubled every year.
And while this year you've spent less than last year... you have still spent more than the first 2 years.
Even if you end up spending less this year, that'd be understandable; you can't expect people to keep spending 2000€/year on the game... or even more.
2k euros are pocket change for some.
What annoys is not 2k-4k but the fact that if you really, REALLY want something, you still won't have it because of RNG + time limits they impose.
What happens is that if a collector starts missing 2-3 items, he's not feeling being a collector any more. Thus he drops the whole operation and hops to another game where he CAN purchase ALL.
Lol, you made a chart.
I agree with your points though. The aggressive monetization of this game is going too far. They really would do more with less.
"whale" is a derogatory term? i guess that explains something: one time i wrote a long, thoughtful post explaining why a big spender would be comfortable doing so in this game. the only feedback i got was an image macro featuring a whale, and i couldn't figure out why that guy got a dozen Awesomes with 3 words, while my post was otherwise ignored. he was making fun of me in a way i guess people thought was clever? i didn't know it was mean-spirited; it looked like he was showing off that he knew a word.
i also don't know why that would be derogatory, though. if i'm happy to subsidize some of the players whose budgets are too tight to support the game beyond purchase, i would think a community would welcome that. keep the servers running and all that... except i know that there is a vocal subset of players who insist that players should pressure content producers through attrition. but a city never increased food production while under seige, so that seems misguided.
by the way, the term "whale" being used to describe people who spend far more than the average on a service was in use at least as early as the 1960s in the casino industry, so i doubt the gaming industry made it up unless they're much more clever than i'm giving them credit for
I guess you aren't wrong to think that people who spend money to "Sustain a game" would be great, but the only thing they are good for is showing developers what they can get away with. Those people tend to not really care the ecosystem that they are playing in, and would shower money on a developer in any way shape or form.
And the people trying to do a push-back on this, saying they aren't spending any more money than they have to? Well, those people pretty much are trying to cause a bit of a change in things. I sure know that Battlefront 2 EA suffered the backlash that it did, when it pushed lootboxes past the breaking point for a majority of people.
I wonder what will be the breaking point for people in ESO. When Crown Crates start dropping Motifs instead of full style books? I wonder...
I know it was brought to life (Or at least popularized in the gaming industry) around the early 2k's or 2010's, when there was some kind of expo for developers on how to sustain verility and how to attract whales (You can thank Jim Sterling for that one), and as time went on, the term "Whale" evolved in to a derogative term in spirit, for someone who spends heaps of money on a monetized videogame.
I guess you aren't wrong to think that people who spend money to "Sustain a game" would be great, but the only thing they are good for is showing developers what they can get away with. Those people tend to not really care the ecosystem that they are playing in, and would shower money on a developer in any way shape or form.
And the people trying to do a push-back on this, saying they aren't spending any more money than they have to? Well, those people pretty much are trying to cause a bit of a change in things. I sure know that Battlefront 2 EA suffered the backlash that it did, when it pushed lootboxes past the breaking point for a majority of people.
I wonder what will be the breaking point for people in ESO. When Crown Crates start dropping Motifs instead of full style books? I wonder...
you are the problem, not ZOS!I have to admit I’m a whale when it comes to cash shops in games. In most MMO’s I play I spend good amounts of euro’s to get those nice cosmetics. Furthermore I’m a collector and due to that whenever I see something I need to get it. [...]