Activision has patented social engineering of Microtransactions

[Spenser1337]

15 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

Just realised what they patented is the reason I own a CSGO knife...

 

I wonder how it will affect games already using this system

No, it's not.

you bought a cosmetic item because you decided you want a cosmetic item. 

[mr moose]

And some people on these forums still don't believe social science is a tangible thing.

[Juniho]

"emulate drug dealers to try and get gamers hooked on a games micro-transaction system to reap higher profits"...hmmm'

sounds lie anything ever...money is the root of all evil? nope....not having it is 

 

[S w a t s o n]

This is borderline evil. I was gonna give them their damn $60 USD for Destiny 2 but this getting to be a bit much. Unfortunately Activision-Blizzard is so big I'm not sure if it's even worth trying to boycott them. (Especially blizzard in my case)

 

Unpopular opinion: Ban social engineering in commercial products/services. Yes, ban via legislation or strict regulation with fines that aren't just a wrist slap. I consider this shit to be unconscious coercion.

 

Edit: I have decided I will not be purchasing Destiny 2, I encourage you all to rethink your purchasing decisions as well. Blizzard games may be next

Edited October 17, 2017 by Swatson
RIP Destiny 2

[Bcat00]

And they wonder why so many people are pirating games, lol.

The only AAA game i bought this year is ummmm, lemme think, does zelda on the switch count?

[LinusTech]

3 hours ago, WMGroomAK said:

I think I'm safe in saying that microtransactions are seriously becoming a cancer in the gaming community, however, Activision appears to have found a way to one up this in a recent patent it was granted.  The patent in question details the use of matchmaking and social engineering to encourage players to make more purchases, also titled as "System and method for driving microtransactions in multiplayer video games".

 

HardOCP Link (Originally saw this here): https://www.hardocp.com/news/2017/10/17/activision_uses_matchmaking_tricks_to_sell_ingame_items

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/news/how-activision-uses-matchmaking-tricks-to-sell-in-game-items-w509288

This just seems really horrible to me and kind of leaves me at a loss for words... Seriously, with each new microtransaction story, it's like the game companies are trying to emulate drug dealers to try and get gamers hooked on a games microtransaction system to reap higher profits.  

 

Patent: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/9789406

 

holy shit.

[Teddy07]

glad I lost interestest in gaming. So horrible

[Maslofski]

this is a good thing. this way noone else can do this. lets get a big company to pattent microtransactions in general, that way noone else does them

[Taf the Ghost]

So it's simply Match-making affected by Potential or Previous Purchases. While a form of social engineering, this also counts as "finding good matches for you".

 

 

[S w a t s o n]

1 hour ago, Taf the Ghost said:

So it's simply Match-making affected by Potential or Previous Purchases. While a form of social engineering, this also counts as "finding good matches for you".

Any proper matchmaking system counts as "finding good matches for you". In this case it's actually incentivized to make bad matches. They clearly state the idea of placing a junior player in a match with a senior player so the junior player sees his cool stuff and wants to buy it.

[Bananasplit_00]

at least they have a pattent on it i guess, its something? might keep other companies from doing it i guess? probably not. this is a really shitty development though. screw this shit

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

3 hours ago, WereCat said:

The micro-transaction model is getting out of control, we need to stop it NOW!

Oh that's easy enough.  Vote with your wallet.  If a game has micro-transactions, don't buy it.

[Lurick]

3 minutes ago, Captain Chaos said:

Oh that's easy enough.  Vote with your wallet.  If a game has micro-transactions, don't buy it.

While someone else who buys it will shell out tons of cash for the micro-transactions.

You'll need to convince all the brain dead people out there not to shell out their money too.

[Taf the Ghost]

1 minute ago, Swatson said:

Any proper matchmaking system counts as "finding good matches for you". In this case it's actually incentivized to make bad matches. They clearly state the idea of placing a junior player in a match with a senior player so the junior player sees his cool stuff and wants to buy it.

I'm about to do something I never thought I'd do: defend Activision.

 

Most online games operate by selling you cosmetics. Valve has revenue at possibly 1 Billion USD from CS:GO and Dota2 alone doing that. This is the nature of the Business Model. It works, people like it and keep coming back. However, there are multiple aspects to Gaming. The company is selling you an Experience, and you judge the quality of the Game by that Experience. This is the reason why the vague "Gameplay" is always most important to the consumer: was the experience of the Game worth the Cost?

 

The skill quality of an online match is important, but that's not what people remember. They remember how well they enjoyed the Experience. Tilting the match making to align people with the experiences they're more likely to appreciate doesn't degree the Game, unless it's severe. What it does is align the Experience more with what the Player is likely to appreciate.

 

Though the best bit? This means EA can't do it!

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Though the best bit? This means EA can't do it!

They already have shortcuts to sell all those who don't want to git gud with a plane or class. 

[2FA]

3 hours ago, The Benjamins said:

League flirts with Pay to Progress by allowing you to unlock champions but most people only will master a handful so its not a big deal.

I would be hard pressed to call that pay to progress, due to the nature of League. It's not really a progression game when it comes to playing different champions since theoretically they start at the same base (balancing obviously sways that as well as nerfs and buffs).

 

They probably have more skin purchases than anything though.

[Ryujin2003]

1 hour ago, LinusTech said:

holy shit.

That's some beautiful insight. Maybe more on Friday?

 

2 hours ago, mr moose said:

And some people on these forums still don't believe social science is a tangible thing.

Don't try to trick us with your witch craft. But seriously, people really don't seem to understand the subtle at of persuasion and peer pressure.

[Belgarathian]

On the positive side, now no one else can do it! 

 

On the negative - they own Blizzard

[WereCat]

1 hour ago, Captain Chaos said:

Oh that's easy enough.  Vote with your wallet.  If a game has micro-transactions, don't buy it.

As if I wasn't doing that... What about the other people that buy it? I have one online friend that spent over $2000 in League of Legends only (not to mention other games) yet he complains about his old PC which barely plays games.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

 

4 minutes ago, WereCat said:

What about the other people that buy it?

Educate them

[WereCat]

Just now, Captain Chaos said:

 

Educate them

Sure, it's that obvious!

I just realized thanks to you that we can also solve world hunger by feeding the starving people!

[Drak3]

1 hour ago, LinusTech said:

holy shit.

Satanic feces.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Just now, WereCat said:

we can also solve world hunger by feeding the starving people!

That would indeed work. 

[suicidalfranco]

3 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

that's why my main purchasing point is single player story. If it doesn't have that

shadow of war...

...

..

.

... assassin's creed origins...

[suicidalfranco]

1 hour ago, Captain Chaos said:

Oh that's easy enough.  Vote with your wallet.  If a game has micro-transactions, don't buy it.

ahahahahahah

you serious? have you seen the amount of idiots that play games? Shit, there's even a research that shows that gamers like to pay for season passes, paying in advance for content that doesn't exist, that you don't know if it will be good or bad, that you don't know how many hours it's going to add, that you don't know if it will ever come, that you don't know if it will even include all the DLCs released in that time frame!

Vote with your wallet? with these retards around?