Comment on To buy no longer means anything
TwilightVulpine@kbin.social 9 months agoMinecraft has both a single player mode and multiplayer which can be either hosted by the player themselves or by Microsoft. I wouldn't deny that Minecraft Realms, Microsoft's server subscription, is a service. But Minecraft, the game, has no reason to be considered a service.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 9 months ago
Even “games as a service” aren’t very service forward. No real reason they couldn’t be hosted locally for the game part other than the developer does not give the user access to the server software to host your own games.
TwilightVulpine@kbin.social 9 months ago
Absolutely true. The reason why so many games have cut down on standalonge games and player hosting options is that it allows them to control and sell microtransactions better. Who would buy skins if there's modding? Who would buy lootboxes if you can use a couple commands to have all the abilities and the best equipment in the game? They need to restrict player control so that only they can sell extras and power-ups.
Our ownership is undermined so that we can be fleeced on top of that.
The utter meaninglessness of "buying", or even worse, "gambling" for a single instance of an in-game item that is stored in a server we have no control over really appalls me. They managed to completely mix up the players' perception of value to the point they can't tell apart what is additional content from what is an insignificant fictional gameplay element. Say, producing infinite gold coins costs nothing for the developers.