The Video Game Thread

[PleaseBlitz]

More video game business stuff.  Over half a BILLION in fines. 

 

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2022/12/245-million-ftc-settlement-alleges-fortnite-owner-epic-games-used-digital-dark-patterns-charge?utm_source=govdelivery

 

$245 million FTC settlement alleges Fortnite owner Epic Games used digital dark patterns to charge players for unwanted in-game purchases

 

Quote

The FTC’s $275 million proposed settlement with Epic Games, owner of Fortnite, alleges the company violated the law by collecting personal information from kids under 13 without parental consent and by enabling voice and text chat by default – an unfair practice that put kids and teens in risky contact with strangers. But to borrow a phrase from advertisers, “But wait! There’s more!” Much, much more in the form of a separate $245 million proposed settlement with Epic Games for using digital dark patterns to bill Fortnite players for unintentional in-game purchases.

 

How much money can a company take in by selling virtual costumes, dance moves, and piñatas shaped like llamas? It won’t surprise Fortnite fans to hear that the answer is billions, especially when, as the FTC alleges, Epic used a host of digital design tricks – dark patterns – to charge consumers for virtual merchandise without their express informed consent. What’s more, the FTC says when people disputed unauthorized charges with their credit card company, Epic locked their accounts, depriving them of access to content they had already paid for. The proposed FTC consent order is the agency’s largest administrative settlement to date. Continue reading for some insightful – and instructive – quotes from consumers and employees who didn’t hold back about their opinions of Epic’s tactics.

 

For the technological Rip Van Winkles among us, Fortnite is a hit video game with more than 400 million registered users, many of whom are kids. Although people can play the basic version for free, Epic charges for in-game purchases designed to enhance game play. The FTC alleges that with millions of consumers’ credit cards conveniently in hand, Epic failed to adequately explain its billing practices to customers and designed its interface in ways that led to unauthorized charges. You’ll want to read the complaint for details, but here are a few of the dark patterns the company allegedly used.

 

According to the complaint, Epic set up its payment system so that it saved by default the credit card that was associated with the account. That meant that kids could buy V-Bucks – the virtual currency necessary to make in-game purchases – with the simple press of a button. No separate cardholder consent was required. And although the currency was imaginary, the charges Epic packed on to Mom or Dad’s credit card were very real. What did parents and users have to say about Epic’s methods? Here are some examples:

 

“Hello Epic Games, The charges associated with this account were made without my authorization. This account is associated with my 10 year old son’s account and I am really disappointed that there is no check and balances that alerted me of these charges, and a 10 year old can purchase coins worth almost $500 so easily.”

“Epic Games is swindling parents with unauthorized game purchases, tricking young consumers & using shady practices for billing. I authorized a 1-time Epic Games purchase for my 11 yr-old son, only to discover EG did NOT erase my credit card info, & thus my son has been making unauthorized purchases, racking up $140 in less than 8 days after the initial authorized purchase.”

 

[Mr. Sinister]

Phew. NASTY work. The video game industry has needed an ass kicking in the Oversight dept for a long time.

[PokerPacker]

It's been 5 years since Mario Odyssey came out.  We're probably due for a new one soon.  What do y'all think, new Nintendo console announced after Zelda releases, and Mario will be a launch title?

[The Evil Genius]

Just in case anyone is still looking...PS5's are available directly from Playstation.

 

https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/ps5

[purbeast]

15 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

Just in case anyone is still looking...PS5's are available directly from Playstation.

 

https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/ps5

Just FYI, you can pretty much walk into any big box store and find these on shelves now a days.

[The Evil Genius]

Forgot to mention, digital version of Ragnarok is dropping.

 

CD keys has it for $49.99 right now. Eneba has it for $47 although I have only bought from CD keys before. 

 

Just in case someone wants to save $20 and doesn't care about physical.

 

9 minutes ago, purbeast said:

Just FYI, you can pretty much walk into any big box store and find these on shelves now a days.

 

Not out here in NorCal. Maybe back east it's easier though. 

Edited December 20, 2022 by The Evil Genius
Stupid autocorrect. 😆

[The Evil Genius]

 

[Mr. Sinister]

Anybody been playing Fallout 76 lately? Does it still suck monkey ass?

[The Evil Genius]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

Anybody been playing Fallout 76 lately? Does it still suck monkey ass?

 

I had read they had made a lot of improvements.  

 

Here's an article about it.

 

https://gamerant.com/fallout-76-worth-playing-buying-2022/

[Mr. Sinister]

Yeah, I've been meaning to jump back into that. The way things are going with every game taking forever now, probably won't see another Fallout for 6-10 years, so I've just been interested in trying something new and relatively decent

[Momma There Goes That Man]

Every game should have a photo mode. MF got cooked 

 

 

[ixcuincle]

Lot of good games on sale on PS store (and steam) including Miles Morales and NHL / Madden / FIFA. Splurge if need be

[Chew]

On 12/23/2022 at 9:01 AM, Mr. Sinister said:

Anybody been playing Fallout 76 lately? Does it still suck monkey ass?

 

It's so much better now.  I've been playing since launch over four years ago and it's a completely different game today.  

 

They've added seasons & scoreboards, improved a ton of quality of life issues, introduced several new end-game boss fights, and fixed most of the early glitches and bugs that frustrated a lot of folks. 

 

The reddit & Discord groups have all been saying that this current version of 76 is what Bethesda likely envisioned a multiplayer Fallout would be. It finally feels more like a traditional Fallout game, with several factions to choose from and critical decisions that impact your story.  

 

An article from earlier this week about Fallout 76's improvements:

 

https://www.gamesradar.com/after-a-horrible-launch-and-herculean-comeback-fallout-76-has-passed-135-million-total-players/

 

Quote

After a horrible launch and herculean comeback, Fallout 76 has passed 13.5 million total players.

 

Fallout 76 has become one of the higher-profile comeback stories of the past few years. It was meant to be a bold multiplayer direction for a storied single-player IP, but while it previewed fairly well, it launched and reviewed pretty terribly – our Fallout 76 review described it as worn as the post-apocalyptic world it depicts – and it took Bethesda years to scrub the resulting stain off. Some players would no-doubt argue that the game's still not up to par, but after years of triage, u-turns, massive overhauls, and regular content updates, Fallout 76 has clawed its way back and passed 13.5 million total players. 

 

The most important (and telling) update in Fallout 76's history was probably the Wastelanders expansion, which saw Bethesda bend on the game's multiplayer tone and add bespoke NPC storylines with full dialogue, bringing it slightly more in line with the likes of Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. Fallout 76 is still primarily driven by other players, but the presence of more factions and characters made the game more interesting to some fans of the single-player games.

 

[ixcuincle]

It's so sad how online games suck now. I used to be a big believer but everyone online just cheats, hacks, or glitches their way through any game, and the occasional games that don't have hackers just have dumb companies that limit what you do, or tone a game down (see BF2042 and the removal of "cross- team chat", you can only chat with the people in your own team, or the SBMM which removes the old clan servers everyone used to go to)

All I want is a game with 64 players that lets me play with the boys on a 32 v 32 team deathmatch. Nothing difficult. Just a basic simple game with TDM. They can't even make that anymore.

Then I hear all about these dumb indie studies. "f*** EA, support indie studios." f*** indie studios. These games I'm looking at suck ass.

[PleaseBlitz]

Would love some more info about Fallout 76.  Is it still an online game, meaning will I have to (1) interact with other human gamers and (2) buy a subscription to something?

 

Can someone try to describe the game as it exists now to someone as if they had never heard of the game (or any Fallout game) before?

 

Thanks. 

[turtle]

If you join the higher tiers of the PlayStation store, their game catalogs you can play for free make it worth it. i have played several games. u play 2 or 3 games and u basically pay for it.

[Simmsy]

I need to change my opinion of Elden Ring, I really like this game. Now, its a much better game when you just embrace the exploration and don't worry about whether you're going the right way or if you are a high enough level. I've also decided that instead of just straight up leveling up my character, I'll use my runes to buy equipment and spells to make the job easier and then level as need be. I bought a lot of games on sale, might have to write up some mini reviews.

[ixcuincle]

14 minutes ago, Simmsy said:

I need to change my opinion of Elden Ring, I really like this game. Now, its a much better game when you just embrace the exploration and don't worry about whether you're going the right way or if you are a high enough level. I've also decided that instead of just straight up leveling up my character, I'll use my runes to buy equipment and spells to make the job easier and then level as need be. I bought a lot of games on sale, might have to write up some mini reviews.

It's On sale I'll look into it 

[Simmsy]

15 minutes ago, ixcuincle said:

It's On sale I'll look into it 

 

Everyone said that if you don't like souls like games, you would still like Elden Ring, so I bought it. I was playing it like a souls like game, which made me hate it. You've really gotta embrace the open world aspect of the game. It isn't used as a prop like so many other open world games usually operate.

[purbeast]

Elden Ring is also best played if you don't look anything up about the game.  

 

And yes, the exploration part is like the best part of the game.  I'm not an open world game fan in general, there are very few that I enjoy, but god damn that game was so fantastic and I loved everything about it, especially just "doing nothing" and going to new areas I hadn't been before.

 

I still remember the first time I got to Nokron I was like HOLY ****!

[Simmsy]

1 hour ago, purbeast said:

Elden Ring is also best played if you don't look anything up about the game.  

 

And yes, the exploration part is like the best part of the game.  I'm not an open world game fan in general, there are very few that I enjoy, but god damn that game was so fantastic and I loved everything about it, especially just "doing nothing" and going to new areas I hadn't been before.

 

I still remember the first time I got to Nokron I was like HOLY ****!

 

I don't look up where to go, but I do look up what some of these things mean because I would never figure it out myself. I had to look up attribute scaling and ashe of war quality to understand what I was even attempting to do.

[FootballZombie]

Got thru the "Xtra" bosses in elden ring. That area after you beat the game is such a massive power spike in over world enemies. I was getting rocked by Rune Bears all over again.

 

Then I played thru Stray. Novel experience and a cool little game. It was adorbs and I was happy to support it.

 

Now I'm a few hours into Ragnarok on "Give me GoW" difficulty. Fun bit of challenge and brutally punishing. Everything can kill you in like 3 hits so everything is a threat. It also demands long periods of stellar play vs bosses. I had an encounter w/ a Dreki where I just got in his grill and parry'd every move he made pushing him from one side of the arena to the other while sprinkling in attacks of my own. It couldn't even get a move in for like 15 secs. I felt like a dang God.

 

Also the bits about Atreus' beard coming in and wondering when he gets a bod like Kratos had me dying. Can't wait for more between-character banter.

[purbeast]

4 minutes ago, FootballZombie said:

Got thru the "Xtra" bosses in elden ring. That area after you beat the game is such a massive power spike in over world enemies. I was getting rocked by Rune Bears all over again.

 

Then I played thru Stray. Novel experience and a cool little game. It was adorbs and I was happy to support it.

 

Now I'm a few hours into Ragnarok on "Give me GoW" difficulty. Fun bit of challenge and brutally punishing. Everything can kill you in like 3 hits so everything is a threat. It also demands long periods of stellar play vs bosses. I had an encounter w/ a Dreki where I just got in his grill and parry'd every move he made pushing him from one side of the arena to the other while sprinkling in attacks of my own. It couldn't even get a move in for like 15 secs. I felt like a dang God.

 

Also the bits about Atreus' beard coming in and wondering when he gets a bod like Kratos had me dying. Can't wait for more between-character banter.

What extra area/bosses area are you referring to in Elden Ring?

 

And ... "ummmmm...." at the bold.  You do know what game you are playing right lol? 

[FootballZombie]

@purbeast

 

Consecrated Snowfield. Those Bears hit hard.

 

M Blade of M

Placidusax. I knew he was out there somewhere but had to look up how to find him. Almost wrote an angry letter to FromSoft. (I play offline so no markers)

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by FootballZombie

[purbeast]

2 minutes ago, FootballZombie said:

@purbeast

 

Consecrated Snowfield. Those Bears hit hard.

 

M Blade of M

Placidusax. I knew he was out there somewhere but had to look up how to find him. Almost wrote an angry letter to FromSoft.

 

Gotcha.  Yeah I did all of the snow stuff prior to beating the game.  Same with defeating Melania.

 

I did not find the Placidusax though.  After I beat it I looked up what I missed and I believe that was the only "major" boss that I missed.