membran  (E-Mail nur eingeloggt Sichtbar) am 20.10.2015 10:54 Uhr
Thema: Halo 5: The Gathering
[http://www.thejimquisition.com/2015/10/the-bullshit-roundup-microtransactions-in-tomb-raider-and-halo-5-star-wars-battlefronts-50-season-pass/]

Halo 5: Guardians will be jumping aboard the bloodsucking train with some microtransactions of its own. As with all of these psychologically manipulative little schemes, the freemium elements can be earned in-game, making them nominally “optional” even though there’s no such thing as an optional fee-to-pay experience.

Microtransactions aren’t optional – they are always designed to be bought because no business creates a product it doesn’t want to sell. Hence, gameplay is always affected somehow, even if you never buy them. Something is done to try and tempt you, because that’s how freemium elements work.

Say it with me – even if you never make a single microtransactions, its presence in the game is never optional.

Halo 5 will sell “REQ” packs to its users. The REQ system is a series of rewards that players can unlock and use in online matches, but of course you can give Microsoft some cash in exchange for earlier unlocks. The silver REQ pack costs $2, while the gold one costs $3.

Kevin Franklin from 343 Industries defended the scheme in an interview with GameSpot, stressing the “optional” nature of the microtransactions. ([http://www.gamespot.com/articles/halo-5-dev-talks-free-dlc-attracting-new-players-a/1100-6431247/])

“There’s no crazy special items that are only going to be reserved for people who spend a lot more money,” he claimed. “Also, you get a lot of rewards whether you’re playing Arena or Warzone, so you’re always going to have a ton of stuff that you’ll be able to use. The biggest thing for us the moment we started even talking about this system was that the game has to be balanced. At the end of the day, it’s a multiplayer game. It’s not a spend-more-to-win game. We wanted to make sure that if you spend a whole ton of money, and you thought you could get five Scorpions just because you spent more money, it’s not going to work. You’re still going to have to earn the right to call these Scorpions into the battlefield.”

We’ve heard this song-and-dance before, and it always undermines the very notion of fee-to-pay games. If your big selling point, your major justification, for using microtransactions is, “You don’t have to buy them,” then why the FUCK are you selling it? No company ever gets around to telling us why these microtransactions are GOOD. They always have to DEFEND them.

It says a lot that “no in-game purchases” has become a selling point in a lot of modern games.

If you’re constantly defending something every time you do it, without ever proving the merit of it, maybe you’ve done something fucking indefensible.

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[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/halo-5-guardians-req-system-introduction]

We’re excited to share more detail about the REQ system but before we dive in, let’s brush up on some terms:

Requisition (REQ):  A REQ is an unlockable item that comes in the form of weapons and armors, skins, assassination animations, and more.

REQ Points: Players will earn REQ Points after each match in Arena or Warzone matchmaking, which can then be redeedmed for REQ Packs containing a variety of Requisition Cards (REQ Cards) in the form of unlockable weapons, armors, vehicles, and more.

REQ Cards: Varying in type and rarity, REQ Cards offer a massive variety of items including single use items and permanent items. We’ll take a look at a few cards today.

REQ Packs: REQ Packs contain REQ Cards, and come in multiple varieties – more on that later. Each pack contains a wide array of items. REQ Packs can be purchased with REQ Points earned for free in-game, or with real-world money. A portion of each REQ Pack purchased with real-world money will directly contribute to the Halo World Championship prize pool. As a reminder, while players will earn REQ Packs across both Arena and Warzone, only cosmetic items can be used in Arena Multiplayer.

REQ Store: Players can easily access the REQ Store from the Spartan Hub, which will allow them to acquire REQ Packs. It’s worth noting that aside from a few select exclusive items, everything in REQ System can be acquired through the regular course of play by earning REQ Points and redeeming them for REQ Packs.

REQ Collection: The REQ Collection allows players to view the full suite of available REQ Cards. By filtering through the list, players can see not only the REQs they own, but also examine those they’ve yet to unlock. Additionally, players may manage their collection by selling individual single use REQs back into the system for REQ Points they can then use to unlock additional REQ Packs.

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Verwirrt?  Gut, dann weiter im Programm:

[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/halo-5-guardians-building-your-req-collection-part-1]

[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/halo-5-guardians-building-your-req-collection-part-2]

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Langt noch nicht? Hier eine Übersicht der Promotionial Packs! Easy Peasy.

[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/6e35355aecdf4fd0acdaee3cc4156fd4/topics/promotional-req-packs-a-hopefully-complete-list/2efe19cc-c76e-4577-ada9-8154f1e40f4c/posts]

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Es wird einen Day 1 Patch über knapp 9 Gigabyte geben und Forge kommt, wenn auch derbe aufgeblasen ([https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/building-the-biggest-forge-yet]) erst zu Weihnachten, nicht zu Release. Klassisches Big Team Battle kommt auch erst später, um den Warzone Microtransaction 12v12 Modus nicht zu gefährden. Von der mageren Playlist-Auswahl und deren fragwürdigen Modi in der Arena Liste fange ich gar nicht erst an. Es gibt nur noch Dedicated Server, es hat keinerlei P2P Support mehr und der Multiplayer funktioniert also nur, wenn Xbox Live erreichbar ist (oder generell noch existiert) und jeder eine Gold Mitgliedschaft hat. Es hat keinen LAN Modus und keinen Splitscreen, dafür angeblich die meiste Zeit 60fps, die bei entsprechender Last über eine skalierende Auflösung erkauft werden (bis eta 820px in der Breite runter und dann wieder auf 1920px aufgeblasen, wird gemunkelt), aber das soll in der Action nicht auffallen (rofl). Es hat Clan Support und gibt den Leuten eine eigene Website mit geschlossenem Forum & Stats an die Hand, nennt Clans aber nicht so, sondern Spartan Companies, weil das genauso bescheuert klingt wie Clans, fair ist fair.

Dank der Microtransactions, die völlig optional und absolut fair bepreist sind, wollen sie sämtliche zukünftige Maps umsonst raushauen. Sie wissen sogar jetzt genau schon, wieviele das sein werden: achtzehn Maps. Die ganz bestimmt nicht jetzt schon irgendwie fast fertig sind. Das nennt man wohl kühl kalkuliert, wenn sie heute schon wissen, wie sich das rechnet. Ist denn schon der 21. Oktober?

Vermutlich wird es auch eine Kampagne geben, habe mich dahingehend nicht informiert.

Das Review Embargo fällt am Tag vorm Release, auch wenn es überall schon Gameplay Videos en masse gibt. Die SuperDuper Legendary Edition kostet 250 EUR und hat nicht mal eine Disc mit dabei, nur einen Downloadcode, dafür aber ganz viel Mist, den keine Sau braucht. Ob Englisch auf der deutschen Retaildisc mit drauf ist, weiß ich nicht. Ich weiß aber auch nicht, ob das in Zeiten von BluRay noch überhaupt ein Problem ist, gehe aber mal pauschal davon aus, dass es noch eins ist.

Ab Samstag schaue ich mich im örtlichen Media Markt um, auch wenn das Spiel erst am Dienstag rauskommen soll. Danke für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit.
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