I’m all for legislation to fix scummy practices in areas where something is essential, i.e. transport, connectivity, food, etc. Or to counter predatory practices like gambling or lootboxes that prey on addicts or children. But in this case I feel like it’d be a bit too much. Nobody needs WoW, nor is it really (in my opinion) preying on addicts in the same way as gambling or lootboxes. If enough people are willing to pay such a ridiculous amount of money, then apparently this is really the value.
On the one hand, you could make the argument that WoW is predatory in that the core gameplay loop is set up like one of those mobile game daily login bonuses that resets if you miss a day. Except instead of resetting your bonus, you miss out on the daily quests that power up your gear, which could get you locked out of raiding when the raids are relevant, and therefore those 3 days of early access means 3 extra days of gear score that could permanently put some people ahead of everybody else for the entirety of the expansion’s life. This is one of those games where raiders make a second character to actually read quest dialogue on so they can hit max level ASAP and start grinding those end-game daily quests to get ready for raiding, and people do log in every day even if they don’t otherwise play the game, simply to do those 15 minutes of daily chores.
So you could argue that the 3 days of early access is Blizzard basically saying, “Pony up $30 extra or get left behind.”
I’m all for legislation to fix scummy practices in areas where something is essential, i.e. transport, connectivity, food, etc. Or to counter predatory practices like gambling or lootboxes that prey on addicts or children. But in this case I feel like it’d be a bit too much. Nobody needs WoW, nor is it really (in my opinion) preying on addicts in the same way as gambling or lootboxes. If enough people are willing to pay such a ridiculous amount of money, then apparently this is really the value.
‘Exploiting people over nothing important is better, actually’ is a weird take.
‘If it sells it can’t be wrong’ is just fucking awful.
On the one hand, you could make the argument that WoW is predatory in that the core gameplay loop is set up like one of those mobile game daily login bonuses that resets if you miss a day. Except instead of resetting your bonus, you miss out on the daily quests that power up your gear, which could get you locked out of raiding when the raids are relevant, and therefore those 3 days of early access means 3 extra days of gear score that could permanently put some people ahead of everybody else for the entirety of the expansion’s life. This is one of those games where raiders make a second character to actually read quest dialogue on so they can hit max level ASAP and start grinding those end-game daily quests to get ready for raiding, and people do log in every day even if they don’t otherwise play the game, simply to do those 15 minutes of daily chores.
So you could argue that the 3 days of early access is Blizzard basically saying, “Pony up $30 extra or get left behind.”