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PAY2WIN: COD microtransactions keep getting worse - IW gives stat boosts to guns

Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck

Member
Steiner said:
You guys... Anyone calling this P2W is going a little overboard.
Are these perks going to enhance and empower those who are already good at the game? Yes. Are they going to magically take people who suck, or even those who are decent, to the top of the scoreboards? Hell no. CoD is still a skill-based shooter, and no amount of weapon perks, however "OP," can make you a better player. This is not P2W, so let's cut that out.

Listen. I don't have IW pre-ordered, so I'm not just defending this game to justify my spending money. I did have a blast playing the multiplayer beta, though, and I have no problem with the gun perks and how they're unlocked. People are going to play the SHIT out of this game, and for serious players, it's nice to have a long-term goal. Something hard to unlock that takes time. That's why Ubisoft has started adding in useless little trinkets and aesthetic unlocks to Siege that cost obscene amounts of renown. The serious players have more currency than they freaking know what to do with, and Ubi didn't see that coming.

The perks are neat, and even the "game-breaking" stuff like instant reloads for head shot kills with an SMG... Well, what can I say? That's a badass perk. But it's not going to help you get headshots.

The great players are going to be the ones with the best guns, that's true. But that's not a bad thing. The guns aren't going to make anyone a better or lesser player. And after about a month, matchmaking will take care of balance. The high level players with suites of perks all synnergizing with each other are going to be playing a totally different ball game than the people at lower ranks, with lower win counts, using more basic weapons.

*BUT,* as Drift0r admitted in his video, even a basic gun with no upgrades is still deadly in the hands of an experienced player. Put me in a room full of noobs all using Epic-tier guns, and give me a basic-but-accurate assault rifle, and I'll clean up. If you don't like microtransactions that's fine, but this is a lot of howling at the moon, here. Advanced players will love tweaking their play styles and basing their strategies around these end-game guns, and it gives them something to spend currency on for a long time.

Also, after the initial unloading of bonus scrap and keys when you boot up the beta, I was able in those two weekends to get an epic and legendary gun variant through supply drops. Awesome weapons will be much more common than people are implying in this thread... Trust me, it's not going to take you a hundred hours to get an epic weapon variant. (though it might for the specific gun you want)

EDIT: Absolutely go buy Titanfall 2, regardless. Freaking great game.
Click to expand...

I get what you are saying and all, but let's be honest, I expect this is just the tip of the iceberg that Activision has actually shown us, less we forget how the BO3 system started out and how that ended up.

I expect this system to be vastly different around January time.

Yes, good will or whatever BUT Activision do not deserve any good will where things like microtransactions are concerned as they've shown their hand the last two CoDs.

I'm happy to be proved wrong over this at the end of the IW "season", but previous games have made me VERY cynical of the cash grabs they put in place.
 
K

kuYuri

Member
excaliburps said:
What adds to the annoyance (at least for me) here is how some are defending it, even. Really? Activision wants to continue down this slippery slope and some people are defending it??

This is pay-to-win, or bordering on it, and if you think someone having the best weapons is OK, well, I honestly don't know what to say to you.

I only hope this BS affects review and talks about it. I can state now that our (PlayStation LifeStyle) Infinite Warfare review WILL take this into account. Yeah, I know some Activision people are browsing GAF and I wouldn't be surprised if I get an email about this post. But if you're a media outlet (a decent one, at least) and you don't even touch on this in reviews? Yeah, you're clearly not reviewing a game focused on multiplayer fairly.

Again, I loved BO3. I master prestiged it (first time I've done so in a Call of Duty game), but I stopped playing it the moment Treyach started putting in weapons in their Supply Drops.



Yes. For this, though, it's something they can tweak easily. Don't know what route they're taking, but at least it can be tweaked.
Click to expand...

It's already been tweaked.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Infinitewa...at_we_learned_from_the_call_of_duty_infinite/
 
K

kuYuri

Member
vwnut13 said:
How many "Salvage" do I get per Mountain Dew? Doritos?
Click to expand...

None, because that's all Titanfall 2 Double XP.

H8n37SC.png
 
IISANDERII

IISANDERII

Member
Steiner said:
You guys... Anyone calling this P2W is going a little overboard.
Are these perks going to enhance and empower those who are already good at the game? Yes. Are they going to magically take people who suck, or even those who are decent, to the top of the scoreboards? Hell no. CoD is still a skill-based shooter, and no amount of weapon perks, however "OP," can make you a better player. This is not P2W, so let's cut that out.

Listen. I don't have IW pre-ordered, so I'm not just defending this game to justify my spending money. I did have a blast playing the multiplayer beta, though, and I have no problem with the gun perks and how they're unlocked. People are going to play the SHIT out of this game, and for serious players, it's nice to have a long-term goal. Something hard to unlock that takes time. That's why Ubisoft has started adding in useless little trinkets and aesthetic unlocks to Siege that cost obscene amounts of renown. The serious players have more currency than they freaking know what to do with, and Ubi didn't see that coming.

The perks are neat, and even the "game-breaking" stuff like instant reloads for head shot kills with an SMG... Well, what can I say? That's a badass perk. But it's not going to help you get headshots.

The great players are going to be the ones with the best guns, that's true. But that's not a bad thing. The guns aren't going to make anyone a better or lesser player. And after about a month, matchmaking will take care of balance. The high level players with suites of perks all synnergizing with each other are going to be playing a totally different ball game than the people at lower ranks, with lower win counts, using more basic weapons.

*BUT,* as Drift0r admitted in his video, even a basic gun with no upgrades is still deadly in the hands of an experienced player. Put me in a room full of noobs all using Epic-tier guns, and give me a basic-but-accurate assault rifle, and I'll clean up. If you don't like microtransactions that's fine, but this is a lot of howling at the moon, here. Advanced players will love tweaking their play styles and basing their strategies around these end-game guns, and it gives them something to spend currency on for a long time.

Also, after the initial unloading of bonus scrap and keys when you boot up the beta, I was able in those two weekends to get an epic and legendary gun variant through supply drops. Awesome weapons will be much more common than people are implying in this thread... Trust me, it's not going to take you a hundred hours to get an epic weapon variant. (though it might for the specific gun you want)

EDIT: Absolutely go buy Titanfall 2, regardless. Freaking great game.
Click to expand...
P2W has never been about a literal win button, at least not that I've ever seen. P2W has always been about paying to get an advantage over other players. Of course you still need to aim and fire correctly and so when the other player has done the same, you'll have the advantage.
 
L

Lebneney

Banned
IISANDERII said:
P2W has never been about a literal win button, at least not that I've ever seen. P2W has always been about paying to get an advantage over other players. Of course you still need to aim and fire correctly and so when the other player has done the same, you'll have the advantage.
Click to expand...

THIS EXACTLY.
 
P

PedroLumpy

Member
Fuck's sake, even the most trivial advantage is too much. Give it a couple years we'll probably be swiping our credit cards directly to deal damage.
 
E

etta

my hard graphic balls
PedroLumpy said:
Fuck's sake, even the most trivial advantage is too much. Give it a couple years we'll probably be swiping our credit cards directly to deal damage.
Click to expand...
I would hope the industry had imploded by then, that the bubble had burst.
We need a reset button.
 
A

Abhor

Member
Absolutely disgusting. This is only going to get worse in the future as people become desensitized to this garbage, eventually becoming some fucked up form of "normal".
 
Paasei

Paasei

Member
Gnome Scat said:
And this is why I got Titanfall 2 instead. Everyone else should do the same, especially since it has free DLC and no microtransactions at the moment.
Click to expand...

I am not really interested in both games. Original CoD4 was by far the best fast paced arcady FPS, and after that CoD was gone for me (mainly because I play on PC and it lost almost all of it's features and not being a good port since).

Didn't play much of the first Titan Fall, though, so I am in no position to judge that game. However sci-fi FPS games simply do not attract me very much.

Might try it one day, EA usually has trial versions anyway, so we'll see.
 
C

Chezzymann

Member
IISANDERII said:
P2W has never been about a literal win button, at least not that I've ever seen. P2W has always been about paying to get an advantage over other players. Of course you still need to aim and fire correctly and so when the other player has done the same, you'll have the advantage.
Click to expand...
Yup
 
I

Interficium

Banned
macfoshizzle said:
It looks like they're at a state of desperation now. Cod is coming to a end and they know it.
Click to expand...

The last call of duty game to come out was the best-selling game in 2015.

Basing your worldview off of things other than angry posts in video game forums will really help you to become a less ignorant person.
 
G

Gator86

Member
Interficium said:
The last call of duty game to come out was the best-selling game in 2015.

Basing your worldview off of things other than angry posts in video game forums will really help you to become a less ignorant person.
Click to expand...

Yup. Infinite Warfare is going to wreck shit, especially now that MWR is included. The fact that people here mostly hate it because it's trash means less than nothing. People frequently forget that Gaf couldn't matter less in the grand scheme of things. Hell, even Ghosts laid waste to everything.
 
D

Drillary Clinton

Banned
Saty said:
Doesn't change the fact Blizzard is exploiting players who do like the cosmetics and wish to get some but are refused to do so. Blizzard will only accept your good money if you buy random blind loot boxes because you'll have to buy them again and again to hopefully get what you want.

Blizzard doesn't offer trading, doesn't offer direct item purchase, doesn't offer purchase of the currency because they'd rather bleed the players dry and direct them towards only buying random boxes. Blizzard chose greed over a fair business model.
Click to expand...

To even compare Blizzard's loot box's to IWs pay to win scheme is extremely disingenuous. The loot box's have literally zero effect on actual gameplay. You also get them fairly often via simply leveling up. Could it be better? Absolutely. Is it nearly as terrible as you're making it out to be? Absolutely not.
 
C

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
pompidu said:
Couldn't disagree with you more. One of the worst iterations of any COD ever. What a horrible game. And this new one looks to be even worse with even more shittier microtransactions than blops3
Click to expand...

Eh, even if you think it's P2W, I still rate it better than Black Ops 3's system. Black Ops 3 featured a slow slog towards a single very slim chance at getting a new gun. And that was the only way to get them. Unless you were very lucky, or very very very rich, you weren't going to get all of the new guns. Ever.

This has that slog too, but you can also grind out for the specific stuff you want. And it (the grind) is not as bad as the OP says, OP isn't factoring in a lot of salvage gain methods that were in the beta. And IW said yesterday that they're increasing the rate of salvage gain in the full game (not including daily bonuses), not making it slower.

Makes it more of an extended unlock system not too different from ranking up normally. Paying will grant you a chance to get something early, but it is only a chance.
 
Petrae

Petrae

Member
KahooTs said:
People voted for this, with their wallets, so meh I'm not mad at them for giving people what they want.
Click to expand...

Pretty much this. Until consumers stop donating their cash for MTX, publishers are going to keep accepting those donations and testing the limits on what consumers will accept and pay for. The majority of GAF may bitch and moan about it, but GAF isn't really representative the average video game consumer.
 
Y

Yagharek

Member
This and other scams like Fifa Ultimate Team don't and will never appeal to me but by fuck do I hope the contagion never spreads from those games (and mobile) to stuff I like.

If people want to piss away their money on pay to win bullshit then good luck to them. To every publisher planning to test this out: fuck right off.
 
Bumblebeetuna

Bumblebeetuna

Member
At least CoD is so big, there's very little chance of this coming to other, smaller shooters. Just look at DLC, lots of other shooters either have free DLC, or reasonably priced DLC. CoD might have $15 map packs, but others don't. CoD might get away with pay2win mechanics in MP because it sells way too much with most of the buyers not giving a shit, but that doesn't mean other franchises would follow.

I'll never play a round of IW MP though. Half a game in the beta was enough.
 
B

blue_phazon

Member
It's too bad they tied MWR to this game. Even in this thread there's a ton of "oh well good thing I'll just play MWR!"

The only message they're gonna get is that people don't care because of all the legacy edition sales :(
 
K

Kitsune86

Neo Member
This is why I chose to buy TitanFall 2 on PC today even if the population won't be as high as COD on PC initially or as on PS4. These microtransactions look horrible :/
 
Spukc

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Well i would be fine with it if the game was free and all.

Keep that shit on the mobile platform thank you.
 
geordiemp

geordiemp

Member
pompidu said:
Couldn't disagree with you more. One of the worst iterations of any COD ever. What a horrible game. And this new one looks to be even worse with even more shittier microtransactions than blops3
Click to expand...

Bo3 was great and cosmetic only at the start / no benefits from COD points until about March ~ 6 months from release the good guns started dropping.

Acti delayed the real shit until people got into Bo3, looks like they could not wait this time to screw us.

Not to worry, lost my custom this year.

I bet EA and Titanfall2 / BF1 are loving this, they will get defectors like me this year.
 
C

Chû Totoro

Member
Really hard decision to take here..

Don't want to support tied purchase but most of my friends are purchasing the game to play MW online (for once we're like 8 to be on the same system)
Don't want to support P2W but won't even play IW more than a few hours so won't spend a cent in micro transactions for sure

I'm almost certain like many here that MW will be available separately in a few months but I don't want to miss the big online multiplayer fiesta that all my friends will do while playing MW again :/

I managed to find the pack for 65€... maybe it's ok even if I'll almost play only MW.
 
V

Victrix

*beard*
I skipped AW because of crate guns. Picked up BO3 and they slow-rolled the childhood gambling weapon crates on me.

At least they're being honest about it this time :|

(Friendly reminder that all TF2 maps and gameplay dlc is free, no season pass or community splitting map pack bullshit)
 
E

enemy2k

Member
Ew, this is pretty foul. Black Ops 3 will be my last CoD purchase for a very long time. I am satisfied with BF1, GoW4 and soon Titanfall 2 for my FPS fixes.
 
D

Dipper145

Member
Micro transactions help to keep the cost of games at the relatively stable price they have been for the past 20 years. I don't want to be paying an extra 30$ per game because micro transactions are removed. Not to mention the increasingly common occurance of additional benefit of map-packs that are now free instead of requireing payment due to the increase in microtransaction features.

Although there are obviously better ways to do microtransactions, like just allowing the purchasing of skins. But people get upset about that too, so I don't really know what the solution to this is from a game developer/publisher standpoint.

What would be a better solution to microtransactions that both allow the (or any really) game to continue to generate money, while not upsetting players? Genuinely interested for peoples points of view for possible solutions to this problem.
 
M

Magnetic_North

Member
Jasbasse said:
Thank god I'm just getting this for Modern Warfare Remastered. I'm not even gonna touch IW now.
Click to expand...

But that's still bad you're basically saying it's okay for this sort of thing to happen cuz you're just gonna play MWR

You're still giving them money for this type of thing infact you're giving them more money cuz the special edition costs even more than the regular edition
 
Bolivar687

Bolivar687

Banned
The backlash was huge on Advanced Warfare and then went to another level with Black Ops 3. I'm surprised they're determined to take it one step further with IW and weren't more careful about this.
 
R

Risette

A Good Citizen
Dipper145 said:
Micro transactions help to keep the cost of games at the relatively stable price they have been for the past 20 years. I don't want to be paying an extra 30$ per game because micro transactions are removed. Not to mention the increasingly common occurance of additional benefit of map-packs that are now free instead of requireing payment due to the increase in microtransaction features.

Although there are obviously better ways to do microtransactions, like just allowing the purchasing of skins. But people get upset about that too, so I don't really know what the solution to this is from a game developer/publisher standpoint.

What would be a better solution to microtransactions that both allow the (or any really) game to continue to generate money, while not upsetting players? Genuinely interested for peoples points of view for possible solutions to this problem.
Click to expand...
I would be okay with CoD microtransactions if the maps were free tbh

I just see the current CoD model as the worst of both worlds. Kinda offputting.
 
C

CHC

Member
IISANDERII said:
P2W has never been about a literal win button, at least not that I've ever seen. P2W has always been about paying to get an advantage over other players. Of course you still need to aim and fire correctly and so when the other player has done the same, you'll have the advantage.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I mean if you're going to go off the logic that "stuff only providing a marginal advantage means that it doesn't really matter," then you could apply that to almost any case of an uneven playing field.

Like doping in athletics.... sure if you take an average man off of his couch and pump him full of PEDs, he wouldn't beat a clean athlete, but when you have two people competing with equal training and skill, the one with the 5% advantage is obviously going to come out ahead.

The problem with pay to win mechanics isn't that they make bad players good, it's that they prevent players from reaching their peak without paying.
 
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