This is why I subscribed to YouTube Red, in addition to never having to see/hear ads again. Maybe it’s a bit lazy to just pay for something I could theoretically set up and troubleshoot if I took the time to, but...eh it works perfectly and sometimes I just can’t be bothered ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That’s kind of where I’m at. I’ve seen existing IP’s thrown through the ringer so many times that I just can’t get attached anymore. If I did, I wouldn’t want to play Bloodstained because it wasn’t “actually” Castlevaina. That’s not the case though, I’m more attached to the design philosophy that went behind the games…

Well fair enough, if we’re talking degrees of creativity you can argue that fan-art and “-sonas” and such isn’t as creative as a wholly original design. But it also seems like you’re also making the assumption that these artists are not creating otherwise original works outside of their fan-art, which this article…

By pointing out that creativity can also exist in looking at existing ideas in new ways and building off of them. You can poo-poo the fact that they didn’t just come up with completely new characters themselves, but that’d make me sad because I believe that if something can trigger someone’s creativity it’s generally…

It’s in the game, it affect my playing of the game, it affect gameplay.

I get what you’re saying, you’re focusing ONLY on the mechnical aspects of the moment-to-moment gameplay. But the “it’s just cosmetics” excuse isn’t enough. For many people, cosmetics are part of the game; I like engaging with character…

How’d you get a lack of creativity from this?

But I get what you’re saying about recognition. I guess I’d rather promote good, new IP’s rather than trying to get existing IP’s into indie hands. IP’s are expensive because they’re part of a contract, and that usually means influence from the owner. These IP’s get into “creative hands” all the time, but they’re…

Fair enough, but what I’m getting at is your perception of indie games being “novelty” and that any other than a few exceptions need an existing IP to gain some level of legitimacy is more of a personal metric on your end, and that there are TONS of indies with unique IP’s that most people would say stand fine on…

Okay, maybe I’m just not good at my reading comprehension but this seems pretty clear:

That’s the thing, loot boxes are inherently insidious. At least in terms of setting industry trends. They kept sneaking them in to more and more games, making them more and more manipulative and cynical each time, and now Battlefield 2's progression is tied to them. Oh, they’re insidious all right.

A share of the blame, sure, but “only” themselves? No no no, the publishers and those that buy into the microtransaction economies themselves shoulder blame as well.

I get where you’re coming from, but why such a focus on getting indies to use existing IP’s? Koji Igarashi doesn’t have the rights to Castlevania, but his game “Bloodstained” looks to be just as good as his games under that IP if not better. It just doesn’t seem like a solution to any of this cynical corporate…

Cosmetics in any game are a part of the experience I enjoy engaging with, and it drags the game down in my opinion to feel that cynical manipulation via microtransactions and loot boxes to the point that I don’t want to play the game. It’s annoying and if I had my way they’d go the way of the dodo.

I can acknowledge…

Your comment made me sad-happy. Kudos :D

Just to be clear, I wasn’t talking specifically about Destiny 2, just that this in theory could work for cosmetics and such. I’m never playing Destiny 2 because it has micro transactions (cosmetics work on me, people can discount my game experience or say to ignore it, idgaf) but honestly it doesn’t seem as bad as…

Nope. Why do you ask?

If I had a nickel for the number of times I’ve heard “just ignore it, you don’t need to buy them, they literally don’t affect the game at all” :\

This could easily apply to skins as well, the details and algorythms might be different but you could easily set up scenarios where players are matched to increase the exposure to rare skins and such.

I’m linking to this article the next time someone tries to tell me to ignore loot boxes in Shadow of War because “you don’t need to buy them and you can get the currency by playing and because of that it literally doesn’t affect the game at all.”

Here’s a company completely changing a game’s direction because of…

Nice! I played the heck out of this on PC and it was a blast. Combat is easy to pick up and the “lore” is a lot deeper and weirder than I expected. Definitely recommend!