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| [Nov 24, 2012, 6:12 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
Cliffski's Blog - Kickstarting inequality.
Kickstarter is the absolute poster-child for inequality amongst gamers, based on income. Now I am definitely not a raging socialist, but I know a lot of gamers are, and I find it a bit weird that it doesn’t bug them that when these kickstarter games ship, not only will gamers with more money that them be swanning around with better outfits and weapons, (This already happens in F2P games), but some of the NPC’s will have the names of the ‘wealthy’ backers. Some will even have their digitized faces in the game. Elite is actually naming PLANETS after people who back the game with a lot of money.
Gamers say they hate in-game product placement and advertising. It compromises the game design for the sake of money. I agree. So why are we deciding that the best way to name our planets or design the appearance of our NPC’s is to put that part of game design up for auction? Why should gamers who are wealthy get more influence over a game that those who flip burgers for a living? The cold hard economic reality of the real world is bad enough without shoehorning it into games too.
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Re: Op Ed |
Nov 25, 2012, 08:16 |
Bhruic |
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Equating advertising with naming planets is just odd. The reason people don't like ads in games is because the ads are trying to sell us something. When playing games for entertainment, we don't want to be sold at - we get enough of that everywhere else. Having a planet named after someone isn't trying to sell us anything.
Really, the idea that it "compromises" the game design in any sense is something I don't understand. How is the look of an NPC or the name of a planet anything to do with the actual design of the game? It's nothing but an aesthetics choice.
As for getting better weapons/outfits, yes, I dislike taking that approach. There's nothing wrong with giving people cosmetic bonuses, but when they start getting practical ones, that can be annoying - especially in games with multiplayer. It's not a trend that I'd like to see continue.
What will be interesting is if corporations start taking advantage of some of these offers. For example, if you get the option to name a planet in Elite, why couldn't we end up with planet Intel, thanks to a $5,000 pledge? That'd be the point where I'd start to have a problem, as it would be blurring the line with advertisement. |
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