#microtransactions are optional

[wp100]

only on twitter you can find people making stupid ass comments like this about world of warcraft

yup, i'm totally ruining world of warcraft by buying stuff from the shop. you can't stop me

[pale-opal]

Something that's been on my mind for a while is that a lot of artists have been struggling to find programs that work with their budgets. Adobe's prices are... infamous, to say the least, and there seems to be a sharp learning curve for the more affordable options. And if you're like me, you might not feel comfortable with pirating to get an art program that is out of your price range. So here's a list of free art/editing tools. Any options without links are either mobile apps or can only be downloaded on Macs: Options without ads or watermarks:

FireAlpaca (notes: while this is an art program at heart, it can also be used as basic photo editing software once you get the hang of it. There is also a blog dedicated to tutorials on how to use FA in case you get stuck)

Medibang (note: the aforementioned FireAlpaca blog has some information on this software as well)

Krita (note: also available as an app for android and Google devices)

Storyboarder (notes: not to be confused with "Storyboarder.AI". While this program does require your email address before downloading, it is safe to use as far as I know (but please use caution regardless))

Pixilart (notes: link leads to browser version, also available as a mobile app)

Audacity (notes: apparently, the company behind this software, Muse Group, have also created a separate, subscription-based AI-voice program. I am unsure if it uses AI in a way that is generally considered to be ethical, like SynthV does, or if it follows the trends typically expected of those kinds of applications. The reason that I include this information is that I want to give everyone the ability to make an informed decision about whether or not they want to use anything from Muse Group, as I know many users on this site are anti-AI. However, I also know that some of those users wouldn't mind using Audacity since downloading it wouldn't be giving Muse Group monetary support - hence why the program is staying on the list.)

Clipchamp (notes: there are also paid tiers for this program. It is also available in-browser and as an iOS app. Furthermore, please be aware that there are some optional features that use AI)

iMovie (note: also available as a mobile app on iOS devices)

DramaQueen (notes: this is a software used to write scripts for plays, movies, etc. While it does require you to fill out some information before downloading, as far as I am aware, it is safe to use (but as always, use your own discretion))

Options that do have ads, watermarks, or microtransactions

ibisPaint X

Sketchbook (notes: formerly known as "Autodesk Sketchbook". PC and Mac versions do exist, but you have to pay to download them)

Medibang Paint

Capcut (note: has optional AI tools).

Be sure to check what system requirements are necessary for each program, and be aware of their limitations before downloading (for example, many users report Clipchamp has a tendency to crash, while others seem to be able to use it fine). Also, please feel free to add on to this. I know I haven't even scratched the surface here, as I tried to stick to software that I've either heard of extensively or have used personally.

[softpine]

can everyone quit making games for children literally fuck them kids 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[vivalasthedas]

looking at the difference between the base game and the deluxe edition and wow. So not worth 20 extra quid. Here's a handful of cosmetics with nothing else. Enjoy.

[mx-mind]

I'm on that grind (unraveling items so I can get enough spools for Wanda)

[tpwrtrmnky]

options

[ID: Three panel comic with crudely drawn stick people.

Panel 1: A closeup view of the Avatar of Decay, a shrivelled stick person with fungi emerging from their body, surrounded by flies. They are standing at a podium.

Avatar: "The decay party is in principle opposed to the 'infinite genocide forever' policy of the overt neofascism party, as it goes against our principle of embracing stagnancy and letting the rot take us.

We are however committed to bipartisanship and compromise, and so our policy plan has provisions for up to half of an infinite genocide for half of forever.

I, the Avatar of Decay, promise that under my care our institutions will embrace sweet, sweet rot."

Panel 2: Closeup of a child with a propeller hat standing at an opposing podium.

From off-panel: "Neo-fascism party candidate Microtransactions Child, how do you respond?"

Microtransactions Child: "The Lockheed-Nestle person said I get ten power crystals for every drone strike while I am president so if I am elected we will do all the drone strikes always.

Also, the Avatar of Decay is a poop face communist farty poop."

Panel 3: A leaf green person and a lime green person are watching this unfold on TV from the comfort of their couch. The TV is showing a wider view, revealing that the microtransactions child is standing on a stool to be at the podium.

Avatar of Decay: "This is soil, not poop, actually!"

Microtranscations Child: "poop face poop face poop face"

Leaf green: "Wow, I'm so glad we've got ranked choice voting here and these are just fringe weirdoes rather than the only two options."

End ID.]

Start - Previous - Next

[rivercityrabbitsbro]

Since I just watched it and found it interesting: Ginny Di on youtube just posted an interview she got with a WotC exec in which she had complete control over the interview. She was very cognizant of the fact that companies do these things as PR to launder their reputation, which is always good for an interviewer to know and disclose.

I think she got as much not-corporately-pre-approved, from-the-horse's-mouth answers on camera as we might get (though she does mention they'd reached out to some other d&d content creators as well to offer interviews) and it feels like a cathartic watch as far as "I didn't come away with 'we'll have to wait to find out' like a lot of the other videos discussing this stuff:

Basically she comes away with this with:

- How they responded to the backlash was pretty objectively good (releasing to the creative commons) and the explanation for their delayed response made sense;

- He admitted they're doing microtransactions and seems to have no issue with them if done "correctly" (tho he implies it'll be mainly aesthetic-based, which I doubt - a lot of microtransaction critique is about pay-to-win which you can't do here, so they might feel as tho they're not like other microtransaction games/companies and therefore immune to the criticism)

- The biggest takeaway is that this only happened because the fans responded as harshly as they did and stopped giving them money, and we should remember that.

She ends it by saying essentially that if the end goal of your boycott was for them to undo these changes, then yeah they did that. If the end goal was to feel like you can trust them: never trust them, they're a company. And if you took this boycott as an opportunity to try different game systems, definitely still pursue that because it's a good goal.

So, let’s go over everything Wizards of the Coast is trying to do this coming year.

>Erasing everything that made DnD fun

>Sanitizing everything to appease a minority of leftist puritans

>Making anyone who wants to play DnD pay microtransactions

>Making anyone who makes anything based off of DnD pay royalties to Wizards of the Coast

I hope the company fucking crashes and burns, Hasbro failed to claim TSR as their own now we just need it all to crash and burn so TSR can make a big comeback.

[felassan]

"BioWare Details How Previous Choices Will be Imported Into Dragon Age: The Veilguard"

"Good news, you'll be able to recreate your Inquisitor. Here's how."

--

"Yes, you will be able to carry over your decisions from previous Dragon Age games into The Veilguard — it'll just work a little differently this time. In an interview with IGN, Dragon Age: The Veilguard Game Director Corinne Busche says the ability to import your choices is "fully integrated into the character creator this time around." What's more, Busche confirmed that you'll be able to customize your Inquisitor if you want to remake your protagonist from Dragon Age: Inquisition. "What's not lost on us is that it's been 10 years since existing players have played. They might not remember [what they did in previous games]," Busche explains. "They might need that refresher and we don't want new players to feel like they're missing out on those decisions. So in the character creator, I like to call it last time on Dragon Age, but you can go into your past adventures and it, actually through tarot cards, tells you what the context was and what decision you want to make." When pressed further about if all the previous characters would be woven into The Veilguard, like Hawke, Busch says, "I won't say everybody, but yes, some of them." What it sounds like is that BioWare may be abandoning Dragon Age Keep, which would allow you to export your world state from previous Dragon Age games into Inquisition through your save files. When asked if The Veilguard would read saves from Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age II, or Dragon Age: Inquisition, Busche confirmed that it wouldn't. "The technology is so different and we wanted it to be in the client," she says. Indeed, Busche also confirms that The Veilguard players won't have to link to their accounts for this option, as you'll be able to play the game fully offline. And, yes, it's a single-player game and has no microtransactions."

[source]

[adventures-in-a-world-of-fiction]

I've seen a couple of comments from someone around paying Tumblr for stuff that I want to address. I'm not going to mention the person who made these comments because I'm not trying to pick a fight, but I think they're worth talking about. The comments in question are: "you think user money is anything compared to advertisers" and in a pinned post they tell people to not give money to Tumblr.

The thing is, user money can definitely be something compared to advertisers. There are multiple ways that an online company (in general, not just Tumblr) can make money, but let's break them down into three categories:

A. From the users - selling merchandise, subscriptions, premium packages, asking for donations, etc.

B. From advertisers - selling views and space on the platform to companies that use it to try and sell stuff to the users

C. From data - selling information about the user base to other companies that might use it in a whole bunch of dodgy and malicious ways, or just try to find better ways to sell stuff to us

All three of these are viable ways for a company to make money, and many companies use some combination of the above. What matters is what the company sees as their PRIMARY method of making money, because that is what drives their corporate decisions.

If none of the methods are making money, the company will shut down, and I don't want Tumblr to shut down - I like this hellsite. If option B is what makes them the most money, then they will make business decisions that make the platform look better to advertisers and this is likely to drive everything in a more algorithm-centric direction and give users fewer options to curate their own experience. If option C is what makes them the most money, then they will focus on features that enable privacy invasion and data harvesting. If option A is what makes them the most money, then they have to think about how to keep the users spending that money. Now, option A doesn't always lead to good outcomes - in mobile/online games it can end up as loot box gambling add-ins and pay-to-win options, but thankfully Tumblr isn't the sort of site where loot box mechanics would make a lot of sense. Which makes it more likely they'll go the other option: delivering the features that users want to keep them coming back and paying for subscriptions. 

I would much rather Tumblr goes for option A than options B or C because it means that Tumblr is more likely to put the user base first when making decisions instead of advertisers. We just need to show them that it's a viable option.

Tumblr is trying what online games have done for years - crabs and checkmarks are the equivalent of horse armour DLCs and cosmetics. They're trying to make the business work through microtransactions. If enough people spend a small amount, it can add up to a large amount of money. The point of crab day is to send a message to Tumblr that option A is viable so that they make the choice to focus on that. If everyone goes, "No, don't spend money on Tumblr, you're nothing compared to advertisers," then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and Tumblr will have to go with options B or C if they want to keep making money.

I'm not giving Tumblr money out of naivety or because I think they're somehow deserving - I'm giving them my money because I would much rather they make money directly from me and give them an incentive to provide features I like, than by making the site worse so that they can exploit me.

[artificial-transmutations]

Going Green

"Microtransactions!"

Charles looked around the board members.

"Micro. Transactions. Have you ever heard of that? Anyone?"

Slowly, heads nodded.

"Oh, good! So, you *have* heard of them. Does anyone care to explain to me then why our games barely have any? In fact, I have yet to see *any* microtransaction revenue from our latest release."

"But Sir, 'Orcs and Morcs' is a single player game - and not for a mobile platform, too. It doesn't even have an online connection. It would be highly unusual."

Charles M. Anderson cut the engineer up with a gesture. He didn't even know the other man's name, which wasn't too unusual. Even though he was the CEO of GreenGames for six months now, he didn't bother to learn his subordinates names until they proved useful. And this unnamed engineer could be happy if he still had a job after this meeting.

"I don't care about your techno-babble. Microtransactions is where the money is, so I want them in our products. *All* our products. And make sure to make them mandatory for any progress, too."

Charles usually talked about "Releases" and "Products". To him, video games were just a product like any other. Of course *he* didn't play any of those silly games, games were for children and losers. He only cared for the numbers, the graphs and revenues.

"What about the backlash? I mean, I understand that you want to generate more revenue, but GreenGames is known for providing high quality games that *don't* try to rip their customers off."

"So?"

"So, this could be bad publicity for us. Really bad."

Charles looked around the table and noticed most of the other board members nodding.

"Listen up, everyone. I think there is some misunderstanding here. You think that I care about our customers. I really don't, as long as they continue to buy our products. There is no such thing as bad publicity. So, I don't tell you how to draw your silly ogres and you don't try to meddle in the business aspect of the company, okay?"

Even though the inflection suggested a question, it was perfectly clear that it was neither a question nor a request. Again, heads nodded and tried to avoid eye contact. Good. Respect was very important for a leader.

One woman spoke up. Charles suspected her to be some lead writer or something.

"It's orcs, Sir."

Charles blinked. "What are you trying to say?"

"You said ogres, but our games are about orcs. That is our thing, we make games about orcs."

"There is no difference between orcs, ogres, unicorns and all that whimsy stuff. Leave me alone with your fantasy crap."

"But there is another thing. You are responsible for the story of our products?"

The woman agreed with a careful: "Yes, Sir?"

Charles looked her straight in the eye. "It has come to my attention that there are certain woke elements in our products. As a story writer, I expect you to take care of that."

"What... do you mean by woke? And by taking care of that?"

Charles sighed. Why was everyone so incompetent?

"Apparently, there is same-sex smut in our products, some even have pronouns. That crap needs to disappear asap. It is 'go woke go broke', after all."

The writer woman looked at Charles incredulously. "But Sir! Same-Sex romances are a well-accepted part of the industry for *decades* now. And it's not like the player has to engage in that, too. It's just an option - an option we actually received much praise for in the past. And about the pronouns... It's just a setting that influences some dialogues on how the player character is referred to. Again, it is perfectly possible to play as a straight green cis male if that's what you want to do."

Charles shook his head, his voice now dangerously low. "One more word of that, miss, and you can start looking for a new job. 84% of our customer base is male, and male customers want to see boobs, that's a fact. I won't tolerate wasting company resources on pacifying some noisy minority and alienating our main audience."

"But sir!" the writer woman objected.

Charles' look silenced her.

"One more word and you're out. We'll find another writer. Someone who does the job and keeps their mouth shut. This meeting is over. I expect results end of next week."

Nobody dared to speak up when everybody left the meeting room, and Charles returned to his office. What a productive meeting.

Just as he turned to his computer to check today's KPIs, he noticed a new email.

From: Employee Council

To: Charles M. Anderson

Subject: Going Green

Body:

Dear Mr. Anderson,

we here at GreenGames would like to take the opportunity to point out some concerns about your leadership role.

We have noticed a disturbing development since your takeover and would like to remind you of the values we stand for at GreenGames. We like creating games, and we identify with the work we do. Our players are important to us, and we strife to be open and accessible for everyone. Just like the protagonists in our games, we have honor and use our strengths to better the world. You in particular should be the living embodiment of this ideal. Please take this chance to re-think your methods and decisions and "go green" for real.

Sincerely,

The Employee Council.

Charles was outraged. How dared those subordinates criticizing him? He reached for his phone, ready to phone his secretary to find out who this "Employee Council" was but was interrupted by a ripping sound.

The right arm of his expensive suit jacket had ripped at the shoulder, which was unusual. He would have to have a stern talk with the tailor. Charles stood up and took off his jacket - or at least, he tried to. It was like the piece of clothing was way too small all of a sudden. He finally managed to get out of it, but only with several more rips in the fabric. Charles loosened his tie. He was sweating like mad, and when he looked down on himself, he was in utter disarray. His shirt looked like it was several numbers too small and as he was watching, one button after the other flew off with an audible "pling", exposing his torso underneath.

But was it really his torso? Not only was it *bigger*, it also looked way *hairier*. Charles had never been a man with much body hair, but now, he looked down on a stomach that was showing visible abs covered with a dense treasure trail of dark hairs. They continued upwards where they met with a true forest of curly dark hair that covered the slabs of pecs that were still growing as Charles watched.

He had to loosen his tie again before taking it off entirely. All of his clothes felt constricting, so, he peeled himself out of his shirt, too. His expensive watch was interrupting his growth painfully, but Charles was too occupied to notice, let alone care. With a dull cracking noise, the leather strap broke, and the watch flew across the room, hitting the opposite wall.

As Charles continued to grow, the chair underneath him creaked, but, again, he had other things to worry about. His lower body was still covered by his dress pants and shoes, but that was getting tight, too. His shoes especially were getting painful, and it was a relief when the front broke, exposing large muscular feet and toes. His pants were filled to the brim with heavy, muscled legs now, but there was another region where the capacity had been reached. His groin formed an obscene bulge. That alone would have probably fit - barely - but it was accompanied by an unusual feeling. Charles didn't *mind* his extreme change. In fact, the hyper masculine body turned him on, even. He watched as a dick print became clearly visible outlined against his groin, as his cock grew hard. It pulsed, once, and Charles felt a spurt of precum soak into his boxer shorts. A wet patch became apparent as the liquid seeped through his pants - all from a single spurt. His dick pulsed again, and Charles' head began to swim. The air in the room was thick with sweat and testosterone by now, and Charles groaned from arousal. Man, what would he give for a nice firm manly ass right now, giving him a lap dance.

Wait, what? Manly ass?

But it was true! Every time, Charles tried to think about sexy girls, but all that came to mind were men. Burly, hairy men, twinkish shaved men, green-skinned ogre-man. No, not ogres, he corrected himself. Orcs.

As he thought this word, his dick pulsed again and made Charles almost cry out from arousal. He couldn't restrain himself anymore. He *ripped* apart his dress pants and lowered his boxer shorts that looked like a pair of briefs on his massive body now, releasing a gigantic stiff rod and a matching set of heavy balls - along with a whole cloud of manly, musky smell that made Charles even hornier than before.

He closed his gigantic hand around his shaft and moved it up and down, in a slow, barely constrained motion. He had almost come by that one stroke, so horny was his mind. Fascinatedly, he watched as his cock and balls took on a deep, green color. It looked almost like a cucumber, or the penis of the incredible hulk. Or... an orc. As he moved his strong hand up and down again, the green started to spread in all directions.

Yes! There was no doubt: He was becoming a big, strong, sexy orc! Charles let all restraints fall away and started pumping in earnest now. With each stroke, the green spread, until his entire torso was of a rich green color. His head felt a pressure as his facial structure reformed, and his ears grew long and pointy. His hair lost darkened and grew out into a wild mohawk-like hairstyle. At the same time, a black beard sprouted around his entire jaw, underlining his masculinity.

Meanwhile, the green had swept across his arms and legs, quickly eliminating any leftover pink spots. The green color looked incredibly hot under the coat of dense, manly hair, and Charles felt himself getting closer. He grunted with each stroke like an animal and where his muscular green body touched the furniture or his executive chair, it left a film of manly sweat. Finally, he felt a short bit of pain on his ears and nipples, as small metal piercings appeared there: Short studs in his ears and small rings in his nipples.

That sent him over the edge. With a final bellow, he came, mightily. His large green balls contracted and his massive cock spew cum everywhere: All over his stomach, his chest, his furniture, even his face!

Charr panted in the afterglow of his orgasm. He was the epitome of virility and although he had just cummed all over his office, his mind kept creeping back to sexy guys again. He would be able to go again, soon - but that had to wait a bit. He used the remains of his suit to clean up a bit (although it was still clearly visible and smellable what happened here), stuffed his mighty tool into the cum-stained underwear and reached for the phone.

"Please send the board to my office, I want to issue an honorable apology, and announce our new strategy." He rumbled with his new, low voice. After a moment of consideration, he added: "And please send someone to install our games on my PC."

He rubbed his hands. This would usher in a whole new era for GreenGames - with the greenest possible CEO.

I have the feeling that a lot of companies could benefit greatly from a bit of a greener leadership!

[jentrevellan]

VEILGUARD IS OFFLINE WITH NO MICRO TRANSACTIONS!!!

"Indeed, Busche also confirms that The Veilguard players won't have to link to their accounts for this option, as you'll be able to play the game fully offline. And, yes, it's a single-player game and has no microtransactions."

Source

[melverie]

Last post on the entire date ticket thing and then I will forever shut up about it, but I feel like most people arguing in favor of the price tag are just….missing the point on why people are so angry about the date ticket being $30

I think the one thing we can all agree on right from the get go is that everyone in the staff deserve to and should be compensated fairly for their work. And that obviously includes certain features and items having to cost actual money considering the game itself is free

But the thing is, that $30 price tag doesn't just exist in a vacuum

First off, we can all agree that charging something like $3 would have made the ticket sell far better, right? Several people have already pointed out that they can buy a week's worth of groceries with $30 and depending on how much you earn, the date ticket isn't exactly something anyone can just buy on a whim. Again, $3 would have been far more affordable for most people, and I'm sure many more people (myself included) would have been far more willing to spend $3 just to see what the date ticket is like, and maybe also buy the tickets of multiple other characters. But $30 for a single date ticket is a luxury a lot of people just cannot afford, or would rather put into something else. Even if they lowered the price, they'd surely break even and make profit with how many players there are

And judging by its contents, I think it's fair to say that the date itself is not worth $30. And I feel like Solmare themselves know this because why else would they have bundled it with 300 DP? The only reason is to justify this price tag because "look at how much DP we're getting with it tho!!" when that's not the point. It doesn't matter whether the DP are included, because there is a lack of choice here. We have other options to earn and buy DP, but we don't have a choice when it comes to the date ticket itself. Either you pay $30, or you miss out on a feature that many of us have wanted for a while now. And since it's the DP raising the price tag,what you are essentially paying for is 300 DP with a date ticket as your purchase bonus, even though it should be the other way round

And honestly? Considering the price, the only two times it would make sense to buy this bundle is if you were already considering buying DP anyway, or if you are financially well enough off that the current price doesn't matter to you. You won't convince most casual spenders, and you most definitely will not convince a f2p player to pay for this feature

The other thing is that we had no idea what the date ticket actually entailed because we weren't given any information on it. Thanks to people in the community buying and reviewing this feature for others we now know that the date consists of one phone call, a ~10 minute long, partially voiced date story-line and a Majolish background. Except, those are things that Solmare themselves should have told us right as they announced this feature, ESPECIALLY considering the price point. If you don't, you can't complain if people are accusing your company of trying to rip its player base off and of being greedier than the Avatar of Greed himself. But also, that's the thing!

We shouldn't have people in the fandom be the ones to go out of their way to give us basic info on new features, or to even explain certain business decisions in the first place. That's the company's job. Yes, certain explanations should be a given (such as microtransactions existing so that the staff can be paid the money they obviously deserve), but there are other things that should have been explained by Solmare themselves

Open communication with the player base is the key phrase here, and imo Solmare has been doing worse and worse on that front as of late, resulting in several unexplained choices that just seem questionable at best and scummy at worst, as well as a player base that grows more and more disgruntled by the day. And that frustration within the player base shows in the amount of people dropping the game, as well as in the amount of money it's making

People are willing to put their time and money into something they deem a good, quality product with a justified price considering the content. If your player base isn't putting in the money you are expecting, then maybe you should listen to their feedback and re-examine your product instead of overcharging a feature because "look at this thing you're getting extra that no one asked to be included in the bundle in the first place"

Literally part of the reason LaDS has grown to be so successful in such a short amount of time is because they keep making adjustments based on player feedback, even on some minor things. I mean they literally pushed out an update to correct the color of one of the character's tongue in the newest card because people were complaining, like hello!! Imagine Solmare listening to complains as minor as this

Anyway, whether intentional or not, this entire thing just feels scummy, and that's the problem. The choice we have is either "pay 30 bucks per character or miss out on this feature entirely", the price is artificially inflated with the inclusion of DP that we have other ways of getting, romance is slowly fazed out of the story only to now be put behind a heft paywall, we weren't told what we are even paying for exactly in the first place, and there has been a severe lack of proper communication from Solmare that have soured the relationship to the game's fanbase and, most importantly in this context, their customers

No, companies aren't our friends. Yes, they need to make money. Yes, they should pay their employees fairly. And no, we as consumers shouldn't expect nor are we entitled to everything about the game being free because again, the people working on this game deserve to get paid fairly for all the work they put into it

However, people are still allowed to be critical of a company and its decisions, especially when they feel like they are getting ripped off. The 300 DP might soften the blow, but that doesn't stop everything that has happened before from being a slap in the face. That's why people are pissed right now, and honestly it's been a long time coming

[madeby-meru]

I have always seen the argument of "If you don't like it then stop playing" flying around since I have been in gaming communities and I have been thinking on writing a more detailed post on why I personally think that this statement doesn't truly fit in many of the complains about MCL NG.

Just as a heads up, I am not directing this to anyone in specific, honestly I can't even remember who has said this cause I have seen this comment across multiple social medias and various forums. So, to make things clear: I am only discussing the concept behind the argument, that's it.

Leaving it under the cut.

Now,

why do I think this response doesn't apply to (many of) New Gen critiques?

Lets use another free game with microtransactions as an example that I think will make things pretty obvious: the new Nikki game

If I came into that fandom and began complaining about the concept of style battles, of how focused it is on dressup, the storyline being about fashion... That is a me problem, that is my issue alone. I am complaining about the core of the game, about the purpose of it and about what makes the game what it is. I am not the target audience. I should, therefore, simply stop playing cause the game does not align with my taste and I am not gonna enjoy it.

I believe this is not what is happening with New Gen.

The most common critiques I have seen about it are: - The AP system (merging AP and Gold, expensive dialogue choices) - The style contest (unfair competition) - The price of packs (they are not simply cosmetics, they are means of earning more in-game currency, so they create an imbalance in the playerbase between those that can afford them and those that cannot) - The lack of transparency and communication with the company (announcements coming too late, not letting the players know what they will need to spend in events) - The timing of events (the pack event timings, overlapping) - The quality of the writing (inconsistencies, lack of a linear storyline, characters feeling OOC, nonsensical plots)

These complains are not a matter of taste, these complains are a matter of unfair treatment and poor quality (despite the cost of the game).

In this specific case, those of us that complain about these things are the target audience. We have a history of nostalgia, we like the personalization and dressup aspect, we like the adult setting and characters, we like the style of otome, we like the free option to play. And most importantly, I feel like most of us that complain so vehemently want to keep playing. We are still here for a reason, there is still something that keeps us logging in every day. We don't want the bad things to overpower the good ones.

"Don't play the game" feels like a dismissive argument here, it casts aside complains that should be made. You should complain about the poor quality of a product (specially if you have invested money and time in it), you should complain about the poor treatment you are receiving (feeling pushed to make purchases, feeling unlistened, feeling like you are not treated the same as other plaeyers, etc). These types of comments are necessary and beneficial. A critique that is well worded and based helps the game be better, a company should hope to receive those and not simply compliments. A company should what to fix what is wrong.

I think that the negative sentiment many players share its completely understandable and it should not be labelled as simply being hateful for no reason.

Of course I am not including hate for the sake of hate here. That may help vent when you're frustrated (valid) but it does not add anything or help in any way. Obviously, it's very easy to get wrapped up in the negative mindset and not allow yourself to enjoy the parts of the game that you do like and that you can find fun and engaging. It is important to take a step back every now and then and see when you may be being unfair (specially to other players, its unfortunately easy to get heated in a discussion and hurt someone else). And if you feel like the critiques towards the game and company are affecting you in any way, please step away from them. Mute, block, silence, keep your peace in your online experience and cater it to yourself <3

[tabletop-rpgs]

Some people are pushing the wrong way to boycott…

It’s not “End your current D&D game!” WotC doesn’t give a shit if you play a thing you’ve already bought… they have your money for that stuff already.

It’s “Stop giving WotC/Hasbro money!” Share, pirate, copy, buy second hand… just don’t give them reason to think you’re okay with the coming changes.

While you don’t HAVE to do anything, paying them tells Hasbro you’re onboard with their plans for D&D

I’m not okay with Chris Cao’s Zynga mobile games approach to monetising the game

I am opposed to them carving up D&D so that more and more things are gated behind microtransactions

It’s not ok for them to kill the VTT’s that kept D&D going during the pandemic and no-one was leaving the house

It’s not cool that they tried to strong-arm creators with a shitty OGL then lie and say it was a draft.

Now they are trying to get us to be cool with a new draft that doesn’t stop them from bringing back the stuff that was in the old one

Competition is good for us, the consumers, it keeps them innovating and encourages them to keep the players happy so they win our cash. If they eliminate the competition we have to put up with whatever they decide to do because they’re the only option. Corporations are not your friend and brand loyalty is a scam. They want to extract as much from us for as little as possible, it’s what they do, but we can leverage buying power to make it so that the “little as possible” is them delivering a quality product in a way that we like. This is the war you are always in when a big business, especially one that doesn’t understand the thing they just bought, tries to shift the course of something you love.

It is great to broaden your RPG horizons, try new games, throw some money to the competition but you don’t have to give up your weekly D&D game.

Just try to keep playing it without giving them money. If Chris Cao has his way they’ll be killing DnDBeyond anyway.

Edit: This isn’t me imploring you to stick with D&D, this is me saying that if thinking you had to give up your weekly game was your reason for not joining the boycott, you don’t.

[hoesoflamentation]

depressed about obey me at 2pm on a workday, bc all i keep thinking is how while the fans are screaming that solmare abandoned us, the same fans genuinely abandoned obey me long before they announced no new updates…

‼️ by failing to appreciate all the detail paid to the art & music & rhythm gameplay in nightbringer, simply because it wasn’t obey me og and we didn’t want anything new (seriously, go back and play og if you don’t believe me… the audio is crunchy, the animations aren’t nearly as fluid, the art isn’t rendered half as well)

‼️ by complaining about the price of vip subs, when those of us who played og from the beginning remember the days when there was no sub option and your only choice to beat the events was to play every level and hope your cards; your only way to get that ur card was to pay microtransaction after microtransaction, close your eyes, and pray. in og, i could never finish an event bc i couldn’t level up my cards enough. in nb, i have ranked in the top 500-1000 without a single microtransaction. not to mention how HARD it used to be to level up your cards in og… to this fucking day i still don’t have a single devil flower on a ur card in og. not a single one.

‼️ by moaning that they would have to pay for fully-voiced dates after the devs released 2 full seasons of anime, monthly events, cards with special voiced dialogue, FOR YEARS all for free. like, do we realize how much creative work goes into all of this? do we realize how good we had it? the gameplay system awards so much ap that you could easily play for 2 hours straight as a f2p player. idk how many om! fans play other gacha/otome games but do you know how rare that is? no waiting for tickets or story keys. and never needing to pay “diamonds” for a choice in the main story. we had it so good, and yet the fandom never stopped complaining abt it.

when you look at it this way, it’s no wonder the company rushed the holiday events and is bolting the doors asap. forgive them if they don’t feel bad for those of us crying about obey me after we’ve spent the last 1.5yrs since nb came out doing nothing but talking shit about how bad it was compared to the og, when that WASN’T EVEN TRUE. the way i see it, the fandom has been dying a slow death since nb not because they tanked the franchise, but bc so much of the fandom started to become entitled and whiny at that point.

nb was never actually a bad product. it just wasn’t og. so many ppl resisted the change for the sake of it, meanwhile the gameplay experience, the graphics, the audio, the f2p experience, even the vip experience was so much better in nb than in om. if you’re out here calling it a cash grab, i can only assume you don’t believe in paying artists for their work or paying for the media you consume. i have been here since 2020. i have seen this fandom in all its iterations, gone from 1000 likes on every fic i write to 50-100 likes on a good day.

now that the love we used to have in this fandom is gone for so many of you, we can only HOPE that solmare DOES see the financial value in om and wants to keep making money off us enough to keep the franchise around. at this point, i am dying for them to release another limited edition plushie or some other kind of merch as a cash grab; at least then i’d believe this fandom wasn’t dying.

if you wanted them to keep going simply for the love of the game, any hope of that ended the minute we became an ungrateful and toxic fandom... tumblr is one of the only pure places left for om fans and even here i see the toxicity. i am so fed up with the twitter and reddit bitching & whining of it all, truly. i never missed om og but every day i miss the way the fandom used to be before nb.

[hooved]

i was wondering when tower unite would go on sale again so i can convince more people to get it and play it with me and then a few minutes later i got a notification saying that it's currently part of a humble bundle! so if you've been interested in tower unite, you can get it (for a minimum of $16) and these 6 other games at a discount

also i should say for those who don't know, "multiple minigames supporting up to 16 players online" is only one of many features and a huge understatement of the amount of things you can do in it. it's a social, arcade, and sandbox game all in one, with tons of customization options for your condos (including the option to upload or use workshop furniture. you even get a nice free starter condo!), avatar (you can upload or use any model on the game's workshop and equip accessories to it), and even the ability to build custom maps for any of its game modes!

and speaking of accessories, the halloween event starts in just a few days and the accessories are my personal favorite part of that (tho there'll also be lots of activities and things to collect in the plaza), so if you like avatar customization, you won't wanna miss out on those anyway. get tower unite. i've been a regular player for years and i love it, and there's also no microtransactions, every item in it is bought with in-game currency you earn by just playing games, earning achievements, ranking up in games or hangout areas (which you can do even just by spending enough time in those, skill is not an issue), and some items are unlockable by meeting EXP milestones so come goof around and play minigames with me and i can give you a tour and maybe show you some stuff i made lmao