On this week’s episode of Vidjagame Apocalypse we find ourselves lost on the high seas of tangents. We swear this episode was supposed to be all about pirates.
Question of the Week
What are your thoughts on microtransactions in games? Do they ruin the experience or enhance it?
Support VGA and the Laser Time Network by shopping through our Amazon links!
This poll kinda depends on the hosts…if say Mikel, Chris, and Mike are on it, then of course i would prefer things on fly and flip of a coin. But if Henry and Tyler are there, then I’d rather have some researched debate…
I see merit in both of the options but I guess I’d just prefer flip of a coin, kinda keeps things fresh.
Ditto.
I think they should pick even sides and then flip to determine which team is arguing what. I don’t like when it three against four or, worse, four all on one side.
To be honest I’m not a huge fan of the debate segments.
I like the logo for VGA so much that I’d wear it on just about anything- tshirt, wristband, hat, ect.
I think T-shirt wise just a simple T with that logo would be nice.
60 minutes in there is a LOUDASS music and i cant hear what you guys are saying but it goes away in 4 minutes or so, wtf? This used to happen rarely in talkradar too, how does that happen anyway? Just wondering.
i still laugh every time i hear that song from mario party that chris set the audio way too high on, even if it’s playing at regular volume in another show.
chk tk tk tk, chk tk tk tk, chk tk tk tk, chk tk tk tk,
So there was an audio glitch in the break, with the “Pirates who don’t do anything” song. Ended up going over the first bit of the tomb raider discussion. Not a big deal, but just lettin’ you know!
Why yes guys, there IS a generic ripoff of the PotC movies!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_(2005_film)
It just happens to be awesome porn!
Hey folks, I am seeing that there was a glitch with the break music. I have ZERO idea what happened as my audacity file looks totally normal. I’ll try and ask Antista if he knows what went wrong but I’m sorry about the screw up.
Also Ahhhhh, I was keenly aware of an AC3 spoiler that Chris wouldn’t have known about yet being mentioned!
Awesome, but longstocking (Pippi Långstrump) is fucking Swedish not Hungarian. Let us have Pippi it’s kinda all we have!
If its a free game then i see no problem, the dev’s gotta make money some how but if its a full retail game then that just feels slimy, yeah its like dlc but dlc usually has substance, well the dlc i choose to get usually does.
Heck, why not another comment? PCs are great, but in the space of a console cycle, most PC games’ minimum settings will eventually require an upgrade to run well, or at all. Consoles are one system with no ability to change settings, but that means the games made for them are tailored to work on them with no tweaking or extra things bought. It’s never going to be as powerful, but even in the end of a console cycle, beautiful experiences can be wrung out of them by devs who have worked within the limitations and know how to push things.
If you make a PC with the exact specifications of the PS4, then in several years devs won’t be making new PC games that are designed to run well on it, unlike devs for the actual PS4. That’s the difference.
If you have the income, desire, know-how, and time to majorly update your PC every once in a while, it’s clearly the better system. But Consoles provide a less user and wallet-intensive option. Plus as machines almost entirely dedicated to gaming instead of most of the other stuff that PCs run simultaneously, and unique portions of their design that are created in-house, they can sometimes do more in practice than you might expect on paper.
Hmm both argument styles are good, we should argue about this either now or after I prepare.
Anne got rid of a lot of her weapons….and a lot of people.
-And yorkshire terriers are the best dog.
Microtransactions either ruin a game or have little effect either way. I have never had them enhance my experience but it has ruined some. When I love a game I don’t mind there being some bonus stuff I can buy to toss some cash at the makers (if any of it actually makes it to them). My biggest problem with “freemium” gaming is its usually a terrible deal for the consumer. I could pay X-dollars for Nintendogs or Infinity-dollars for a game that makes me buy their food to keep playing.
Regarding the debates I prefer the coin-flip. I don’t come here for deep reasoned debates. If your goal is to come out with a clear decision then some research would be well served but I find it better as a tool to instigate an entertaining discussion.
I’d prefer if you guys dropped the debate and just talked about the issues. There’s nothing worst than when somebody gets stuck with the side they don’t want. I’d rather you guys just talk about it and not have one side trying to win, sometimes it comes off as really forced.
With Arrow, Far Cry 3 and the TombRaider Reboot its cool again to be stranded on an island.
I wanted to thank you all for last week’s episode, especially the PS4 segment. I’d listened to most of IGN’s coverage of the event but you guys did a better, more succinct and critical discussion of the whole affair and I appreciate that.
QOTW: My only interaction with Micro-transactions is TF2 and I think it works great there. I can spend time to work up enough items to turn into metal to roll for an item or spend the money I earned with my time at work to buy it.
I kind of hope “predetermined sides” doesn’t mean you just flip the coin earlier in the week, really I don’t even care about research, it’s just the random side taking, I’d still totally support off the cuff discussions.
Also if his lack of mutilation bothers you, you might be interested to know that Vyse dies horribly in the Valkyria Chronicles anime. You know, if that makes you feel better…
Cannot WAIT till “Gun-Death”!!! Weapon-Apocalypse is gonna be legit!!
Yay! Small Snafu with the sound aside, pretty enjoyable show ^^
Kinda wondering if you guys will review or mention the latest (and possibly last) story DLC for Mass Effect 3: The citadel.
Also, per your request, I’d happily answer the question of the week on the forums… but I don’t see a thread for it yet >>;
This is my new favorite podcast. You guys rock.
The episode’s break has been fixed! If you want to download it again so you can hear the break music in all its correctly placed glory, well… We certainly won’t complain.
Basically my take on the debates: please keep them random and improvised, but please KEEP THE SIDES EQUAL. If you’ve got 4 people always let it be 2v2, and if 3 make sure the person who’s most passionate about a side should take it by themselves. Otherwise you get the disaster in the previous episode where you just shouted down poor Henry at the beginning.
what is all this nonsense about people not liking the debate format?
i like the segments
they’re maybe not as mad cap and wacky as one would think coming from you guys, but they’re still pretty interesting.
i think you guys should pull from an even set of numbers 1 and 2 so that its not all one sided like the coin flips tend to turn out.
other than that, i like it. it’s silly, off the cuff, but also pretty interesting and different as far as segments on video game casts go.
;3
In answer to the QotW I am all for micro transactions staying around as I will generally just ignore them unless I really like the game and want to see more games like it. If they are implemented badly it is easy enough to find out from twitter and reviews and just skip the game or wait for a price drop.
Regarding the debate I am with Smars just use some playing cards or something to keep the sides even numbered if possible.
Wow, I haven’t thought of Rogue Galaxy in a while should beat that one of these days, fantastic game.
SO glad you guys talked about Armada Of The Damned. Cannot put into words how much I wanted that game. Still so bummed that it’s gone. Looked like Fable in a pirate format.
On the topic of board games:
1. Was the game Chris was talking about (the one where you spend all of your money) Last Will?
2. There is a Gears of War board game already. It’s a cooperative game, and is a lot of fun.
Totally all for the current debate format, much more entertaining, especially if the person completely disagrees with their assigned side.
As for Micro Transactions.
In single player: No
Multiplayer: Just do it like TF2
Another great podcast. Thanks guys. Nice to hear Chris talking games again.
For the debate of the debate segment. Please do whatever will spur on some good conversation. That’s why we are all listening. I would prefer if the peeps would just speak what they feel on the subject at hand. But if you guys are going to end up doing that anyways then flipping a coin for some comic relief seems cool with me.
QOTW: Micro transactions, DLC, whatever you would like to call it can suck sometimes. I often will ignore it if I feel the game that I paid for is worth the price of admission. I played through Dead Space 3 just fine without buying any of that nonsense. Did I find it tacky that it was in the game? Sure. Did it stop me from playing it? No.
That being said I have soured on, and stopped playing some games due to microtransation/DLC. Once recent example would be SF X Tekken with its locked character on disc DLC.
Its just another business model that a developer can employ. If it is used smartly it can benefit both the creator and consumer. If used poorly it can piss off the consumer and it wont sell.
Debates: I like the freestyle format. Maybe a good idea would be have a few pre-written questions to guide the discussion. Maybe there should be a designated moderator to keep things on track and stir the pot. Maybe randomly deciding sides doesn’t matter, because the moderator would play devil’s advocate when the discussion is unbalanced.
Please for gods sake fix the audio, I’m not talking about the gaps in the audio I’m talking about how when anyone shouts (which seems like a lot in this show compared to the others) the sound is really really loud compared to when people are just talking, same for music. When listening with headphones it hurts my ears when you just randomly play a clip from something and its about 3 times louder than when people talk.
If you don’t sort it out I’m going to stop listening. Also I find the debates kind of uninteresting and would rather you just didn’t do them. I wish Chris was a main host in all of the shows too as he adds a lot of energy and has interesting stuff to say.
Yeah! What happened with that pirates who don’t do anything song? Did someone not listen to the podcast before uploading it?
That should be fixed if you re-download it. There was an issue with the original upload.
To anyone who doesn’t like the debate format: Go listen to the numerous videogame podcasts based around serious, well researched debate and LEAVE OUR FUN PODCAST BE
For the t-shirt, I’d want the Vidjagame Apocalypse logo with green letters and skull cartridge outline. Or the one you see when downloading the cast with the D-pad and “A” and “B” buttons crashing like meteors.
#QOTY #microtransactions
If it meant you no longer had to deal with DLC, micro-transactions, tacked-on multiplayer, or anything else that dilutes the core game, would you play on a console with always-on DRM?
The cost of making games has gone up. The way I see it, games today aren’t $60…they’re more like $70 or $80. The difference is that the price increase has been hidden in DLC and micro-transactions to avoid scaring the consumers away with $80 price tags on the box.
The other problem is that the used-game market saps away much of the money the developer/publisher would make, so they need invent “incentives” to keep players from reselling their game, which leads to half-baked multiplayer, and online features that have no business being there.
As much as DRM sucks, at least it leaves the gameplay alone; you pass through a gate that asks “did you, or did you not, pay for this game?” and, if the answer is “yes”, you go play the game. The developer/publisher gets paid and has no reason to put abstract stuff in the game to lock you down, which ideally leaves you with a purer, more focused, gameplay experience.
I know, at least as far as the publisher is concerned, they’ll probably continue to want to make money any way they can. But at least their backs won’t be against the wall, and developers will have more leverage to argue against putting anything in the game other than what would genuinely make it more fun. Eventually, if DRM is done correctly, we may see things like microtransactions and DRM decline, and may even see the prices of games, themselves, fall.
How about you just pick the side you’re fucking interested in?
With microtransactions I think you were all interested in both sides of that. People end up playing devil’s advocate just forom the natural will to make the podcast sound good, you don’t have to make a gimmick out of it.
If you really wanted to keep a corny “segment” structure in it, you could call that section of the podcast “devil’s advocate”, and give everyone a point whenever they counter the last person’s point with anything realistic or meaningful.
Like a free-for-all improv game of “Yes and”, except it’d be “Yes but”.
That way you could still talk from the perspective you believe in, but are encouraged to keep up the momentum of the conversation until everyone runs out of things to say.
i think it would be cool if they had a segment call devil’s advocate and the loser of the argument goes straight to hell and has to blow the devil for the rest of forever
you can pick which side you’re on though
the argument, not which end of the devil’s penis that’s set in stone
I like this “Yes but” idea.
Micro transactions, it’s just another way to charge the consumers to sustain these overkill game budgets.
It might seems like a good idea now but who knows what it will lead to, remember how DLC began, with game content being created after the fact and sold at a reasonable price and offered substantial content.
Now it is planned before the game is even finished, most of the time its just maps and is sold at a high price. So really when you buy the game you are only purchasing half the product.
It seems more DLC of the future will probably just be paid cheats pretty much. Unlockable, unlimited, addition of content for the buying consumer. Agree micro transactions, if done right, can sustain a game. The reason I think the ME3 micro-transactions system works so well is not only you can gain packs by playing the game but also the fact that it’s not in a competitive setting.
HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS check this out: http://church-of-illumination.com/halo-promotes-violence
I want to know why Anne and Mikel felt the need to tell such blatant lies about the PC. Nearly everything they said is 100%, categorically false, and someone would have to be unfathomably stupid to believe any of it.
The video card in my PC is over three years old at this point, and I still peg every setting in nearly every game. I’m just getting to the point where I might have to start thinking about turning settings down in the next year or so. I was actually, somewhat surprised when I bothered to look and realized I’d bought the card in 2009.
The PS4, and whatever the next Xbox is, will be outdated before they even come out, just like the last generation and the one before that. That how technology works. I absolutely guaranty you can build a sub $1000 PC today that will pound the PS4 into the dirt, and it will only get cheaper to do so. PC gaming is not remotely expensive or difficult.
For the record I have no problem with consoles or anyone who uses them. I have a problem with people who purport such blatant falsities as truth. If you have absolutely no knowledge about the subject, and you clearly don’t, then don’t speak as though you do.
What’s wrong with Android? I’ve had a Droid 3 for about a year now and I’ve been gaming on it all along. I have a 3DS, I agree with Chris about the actual buttons functionality, for mobile as well but other than waiting a bit for the game to transition from the app store to the play store I’ve been perfectly content. Also was surprised that the Nvidia Project Shield wasn’t brought up. PCs are too much overhead but I still play on a media focused laptop from time to time (enjoying SCII, GW2 and Torchlight 2 atm). I looked at how much money I would have to spend on my old rig to upgrade and at the time it was the same $400 the Xbox 360 would cost so I decided I’d go that route as my main gaming system.