Microtransactions are the Bane of my Existence.

Lately I have found that there are many games that I would love to purchase.  My Steam wishlist has a whopping 20 items on it!  This is a lot for me..I usually pick five or less that I am interested in and don't add many more than that.  Even with a packed wishlist I have found myself unwilling to start dropping the cash to start ticking some of these games off the list.  Why?  Microtransactions.  It feels like what should be a fun gaming experience is all too often being driven not by what gamers enjoy, but by shameless money grabbing.

Just this last week this article came out.  A former developer who worked for BioWare (who has made some of my favorite RPG's in the form of the Mass Effect trilogy....and, also, Andromeda--which I disliked) stated that developers are pushed to make larger open-world games and especially to make sure they have some sort of multiplayer aspect.  Because gamers love multiplayer?  No.  Because it's easier?  No.  Because they are listening to what gamers actually want?  No.  Because you can make more money.  Period.  Although this isn't earth shattering news, I find it refreshing that someone is actually copping to this.

A lot of Mass Effect fans were very irked by the fact that Mass Effect:  Andromeda wasn't going to include any singleplayer DLC.  The only updates and support it would receive would be in terms of adding more multiplayer options.  This was a extremely disappointing because there were many hanging storylines that many understood would be resolved in the form of additional DLC.  But, at least we know why--money.

Another new game that I was highly anticipating was Middle Earth:  Shadow of War.  I enjoyed sneaking around and stabbing orcs in Shadow of Mordor so I actually considered paying full price to pick up the next chapter (I usually wait for sales).  Unfortunately all the reviews revealed that once you get to a certain point in the game microtransactions in the form of loot crates are really pushed on players.  Reviews reveal that the end of the game seems to be a huge grind that is designed to bore players into buying additional items just to make it go by faster.  Other reviews revealed that players are required to sign up for some sort of WB account right from the start and that from the first minute that microtransactions are pushed.  A game that I was highly anticipating has turned into an instant 

"no."

Some Deus Ex:  Mankind Divided microtransactions.

Sadly, Shadow of War isn't my only example.  Deus Ex:  Mankind Divided was another that I was really looking forward to but decided not to buy.  The clear cut greed gets even worse in this case--players could buy Praxis kits (items that grant you skill points) but these were only single use items.  In a singleplayer game....seriously?  Reviews also stated that the main storyline ends and that the only way to see the story resolved is through purchasing a DLC.  A...freakin' DLC...just to finish the main storyline!  Absolutely ridiculous.

I could keep listing off examples, but I think you get my point.  It has become completely standard fare for the big dogs (EA, Activision, etc.) to use these anti-gamer, anti-consumer practices to simply inflate their ridiculous profits.  But maybe we're the ones to blame and not the companies.  They wouldn't use these practices if they didn't work and apparently, they REALLY work (that same article that I listed above mentions a specific example of someone dropping $15,000 on loot crate equivalents).

I personally try to avoid microtransactions and loot crates like they are the plague.  I don't want to pay more for something I've already paid for.  All too often the rewards we hope to gain don't happen.  I would encourage others to do the same thing as a way to discourage developers from using these anti-consumer practices.

As someone who really enjoys singleplayer RPGs this makes me concerned about the future of one of my favorite genres.  Is the push to make more cash going to make strong story and character based RPGs a thing of the past?  Are we doomed to a future of nothing but multiplayer games filled with thinly veiled forced purchasing schemes?  I really hope not.

ADDENDUM:  10/29/17
I stumbled across this gem of an article that came out just in the last couple of weeks.  It describes a patent filed by Activision (makers of Destiny and Overwatch) to use matchmaking as a scheme to influence players to purchase loot crates.  It sounds a little weird on the surface, but they are using psychology to influence people to buy crates.  Basically they pick a number of experienced players or players who have unlocked a lot of great items (through buying crates) and pair them up with newer players.  The idea is that the newer players will see how amazing the experienced/geared players look (and probably perform--due to skill or their uber-items) and will be influenced to want to buy crates so they can look just AS LEET!  Nice use of social psychology Activision...  I get a weird slimy feeling just writing about this.

Another part of this patent seems to be giving a certain unlockable item an advantage in certain matches.  Maybe a map pops up that rewards sniping--and before the match players are given the option to buy crates with the hope of unlocking a really good sniping weapon.  This would also put pressure on players to buy crates so that they could rack up more wins due to this advantage.

Activision vehemently denied that this is what they were trying to do.  They claim that they were just "testing out" the idea.  Sounds fishy to me.

From Nothing to Something

After having accomplished the tasks that I had originally set out to I felt that old familiar feeling of "what do I play now?"  Luckily for me that feeling was short lived and a couple of new opportunities fell squarely into my lap.  Oddly enough these two choices couldn't be any less like each other.

Back on the ol' slime ranch.
I didn't think I'd be playing the very enjoyable Slime Rancher anytime soon.  I had captured every possible type of slime, unlocked many (but not all!) of the hidden treasure pods, unlocked all the 7Zee fan club items, decorated my ranch into a stylish retreat, aaaand discovered all three of the hidden treasure vaults.  Fortunately a new update arrived this week and I now have a reason to be vacc-ing up plorts.

This week Ogden's Wild update introduced new content into the world of Slime Rancher.  So, what exactly is included in this update?

A feral tabby saber slime in the Wilds.

1.) A new zone--"The Wilds" which has a very ancient ruins/pre-historic slimes type of vibe.  The Wilds are populated by ferociously feral "saber slimes" who are on the prowl for the flesh of young slime ranchers.  All these nasty feral slimes are largos so there is no chance to capture the default saber slime and add it to your menagerie o' slimes.  You can collect saber plorts and sell them at the plort market.

Ogden's ranch exchange.  I'm working toward a ranch upgrade.

2.) New tasks.  Along with the new zone is a new ranch-like area that was owned by Ogden Ortiz.  Ogden tasks you with gathering a new type of fruit, the Kookadoba, which can only be found in The Wilds.  At Ogdens retreat there is a new ranch exchange board where you can deposit the kookadoba fruits that you gather.  For every three fruits Ogden will reward you with a spicy tofu, a type of slime food that you can feed to any slimes.  Spicy tofu will leave those slimes still hungry even after eating.  Extra plorts!

A new ranch area!  It's going to require a mountain of kookadobas to unlock.

Beside just getting some spicy tofu you can opt to grind out many kookadoba fruits for larger rewards.  After gathering 75 kookadobas you unlock an upgrade--the "miracle soil" upgrade allows you to add a special compound to your garden plots that keeps your fruits/veggies from rotting.  This is perfect for ranchers who want to spend some time away from the ranch exploring.  The rewards for gathering kookadoba don't end there though!  You can continue to gather the fruits and unlock a ranch upgrade (not really sure what exactly this is), and eventually you can unlock Ogden's retreat as a nice addition to your own ranch.  It's a little grindy, but hey, it's something to achieve.

3.) New treasure pods with brand new The Wilds themed decorative items.  I'm not really sure how many of these there are.  I think I've found four so far.

4.) New and improved interfaces for the plort market and the ranch exchange missions.  They both look much nicer and exchange missions now have a 24 hour timer on them rather than simply expiring at midnight each night.

Mysteriously enough....there are several blank spaces on the plort market interface.  Maybe this means some additional slimes in the future! 

5.) Bug fixes and minor gameplay changes.  Now your chickens don't get stuck under the stairs in the Overgrowth section of your ranch.  Depositing plorts into the hopper or the market makes a slightly different noise.  Vacs seem to suck things up faster...but that could just be my imagination.

Although Slime Rancher seems a little childish, it's actually a fun and cute little game.  If it has been awhile since you've played this update this might make it worth your time to re-enter the world of bouncing, happy slimes.

Totally worth getting carpal tunnel.
My Steam library is chocked full of gaming goodness and I have a tendency to miss major news about many of those games.  Apparently I missed some big news about Grim Dawn, a Diablo-esque ARPG. getting a brand, spankin' new expansion.  The Ashes of Malmouth expansion came out earlier this week and I've found myself back in the button mashing, carpal tunnel inducing world of Cairn.

The expansion features two brand new classes, the necromancer (deja vu, no?) and the inquisitor, an increase in the level cap to 100, new factions, new items, and two new zones to explore.  All of this for just $17.99!  I didn't balk and added this new content to my library almost immediately.

My mismatched demolitionist.

So I've rolled a brand new character, a demolitionist, and am happily gunning down the undead.  I am liking the demolitionist more than my previous melee shaman.  The ability to attack from afar has been considerably easier than getting stomped into the ground by crowds of bad critters.

I'm looking forward to continuing my loot soaked march across the baddie infested world of Cairn.

Mission(s) Accomplished!

Last week I posted about some silly goals that I made up for myself in a couple of casual games.  I was much closer to completing those goals than I had initially thought.  After a little concentrated effort I managed to finish both of them.  It feels stupidly good to have finished something in a game.

Goal #1--Pimp out my slime ranch in Slime Rancher.
My slime ranch was full to bursting with every variety of slime to be found scattered across the many zones...and yet it still felt oddly empty and unfinished.  I worked on keeping my slimes producing plentiful plorts and managed to produce enough items to unlock the MKIII treasure cracker.  This meant I was free to search for and open the coveted dark purple treasure pods.  Some of the treasure pods contained some great decorative items and curios.  Others...just contained crafting items...which just isn't as exciting as getting a new type of tree.  After locating many of the purple pods I decided I had enough decorative items to finally start setting aside more plorts for those exact purposes.

Look at my beautiful trees!  Not to mention the gorgeous, golden slime lamp.

I hadn't really paid much attention to how many items you can plop down around the ranch...but there are a lot!  Feeding the science hopper became a high priority as I amassed the numerous different plorts required to make a wide array of grasses, trees, ruins, and other random decorations.  Now my ranch feels like a unique atmosphere and a fabulous place for a novice slime rancher to call home.

Special curios let you give your slimes costumes.  Look at my cute Pink Tabby Largos.

My efforts to beautify my ranch were almost quashed by disaster due to some unruly tarrs forming while I was off exploring.  I returned to my ranch to find ALL of my main ranch corrals completely empty.  I had to head back out and wrangle up some more slimes to re-fill my empty pens.  Luckily this was fairly simple due to my extensive system of teleporters.

Right now I feel satisfied with my Slime Rancher efforts.  The ranch is pretty; I've found and pillaged all three of Hobson's vaults...it just doesn't feel like there's much else to do.  I haven't found all the hidden treasure pods yet.  I guess that's something.

Goal #2--Make a sandbox prison that has 1,000 prisoners in Prison Architect.
My Prison Architect lady prison had slowly been creeping toward the coveted 1,000 prisoner mark since I initially started it up this summer.  I finally hit that mark earlier this week.  Getting to 1,000 wasn't easy and I definitely made some mistakes and learned some things along the way.

My stats when I hit 1,000 prisoners.  Nothing to brag about.

You'll notice from my grading that my security rating and health ratings are both on the low side.  I don't fully understand how the security rating works.  I know that I did have some issues with escapees early in the game (13 people escaped in one tunnel that my dog patrols kept missing).  My health rating was low because I completely failed at keeping my prisoners from obtaining contraband like drugs, alcohol, and cell phones.  Even with metal detectors and multiple dog patrols it seemed like I couldn't stem the tide of illicit items getting into my prison.

My worst stat is the sheer number of deaths that happened.  Almost every day someone was getting shanked to death.  My snitches had a low chance of surviving to their parole date.  Towards the end I finally decided that they would be safer in lockup rather than trying to safely work or attend reform sessions.  The number of deaths was reduced...but it still never failed that someone was where they weren't supposed to be and was killed.  I also made the mistake of making one large building to handle almost twenty parole hearings a day.  Then I didn't assign a guard to EACH parole room because I felt like that was excessive.  As a result of that bad decision a large number of parole lawyers met an untimely end at the hands of angry parole denied inmates.

My next prison is going to be for male prisoners.  I think I have some ideas about how to make my prison better.  We'll see if it actually pans out.

Goals

Oddly enough I've firmly entrenched myself in a circular rut involving two games--Slime Rancher and Prison Architect.  The main reason why I've found myself switching back and forth between the two is because I have made my own mental long term goals.  One of them is actually mildly achievement based and the other is purely for my own sense of achievement.  I've been spending what little time I usually have to play switching back and forth between the two and chipping tiny little pieces of rock away with the hope of completing my masterpiece.

Lately I have found myself pulled back into the grindiness of Slime Rancher.  I've discovered all the zones, wrangled all the slimes, finished the "adventure mode" that leads to the final credits...but I'm still not satisfied.  My ranch is a flat, boring collection of corrals and fields.  There is an entire list of purely cosmetic item which I could use to make my slime ranch into something beautiful.  My ultimate goal is to pimp out my ranch and make it into something genuinely awesome.  This has become quite time consuming because of my own weird self-imposed strategy--items which I consider vital are the first priority while cosmetic items should be the absolutely last priority.  All they do is make things look pretty...they don't contribute anything else.

A shiny slime lamp and my one awesome tree.

I also found that after I had completed the adventure mode that three hidden "vaults" were scattered across the world.  I've managed to find two but am lacking the slime keys to open them.  Oh, and I don't have the treasure cracker that is required to open the numerous treasure pods that are piled up in these vaults.  The vaults are on hold right now while I grind out the necessary plorts to build the one hundred items required to unlock the mega-treasure cracker.  I think I'm getting close, but really have no idea.

For now, I'm content just running around my ranch trying to keep my slimes fed and producing.  I have amassed a network of teleporters that are saving much time and effort in running around.  I even managed to place a few cosmetic items (slime lamps and one tree...one measly tree!).  It's a work in progress, but I am determined.

Another of my self-imposed mental grinds is taking place in my long running women's prison in Prison Architect.  My little sandbox prison has grown into a sprawling complex of almost 900 prisoners.  I've purchased land and attempted to work through the hiccups that come with managing a large number of prisoners.  These hiccups include the following enjoyably frustrating scenarios:

--Daily shankings.  I still haven't figured out a good way to keep my snitches safe.  They have their own wing that is located away from the rest of the prison population.  Most of the deaths seem to occur when they are travelling to different locations around the prison for work or reform programs.  The best solution would be to put all protective custody prisoners on lockdown.  I've been hesitant to do so because I want them to have the opportunity to attend reform programs.  I suppose having to be cooped up in a cell is a better alternative to getting stabbed to death while trying to make it to the alcoholics anonymous meeting.

--This yard ain't big enough!  As my population has burgeoned my small normal security yard just wasn't doing it any more.  I attempted to create a new, larger yard on a piece of land I purchased toward the upper corner of my prison.  The main problem--its location is too far away from almost anywhere that prisoners were coming from--they spent the one hour a day that I designated for yard time simply trying to get to the yard.  I had to move some things around (a big pain in the buttocks) but now I have one large yard and one smaller yard conveniently located near larger cell blocks.

Look at all these slacker cooks who are doing nothing!

--Why aren't the cooks cooking?!!!!  Another major struggle has been trying to keep my kitchens cranking out enough food to feed a prison population of almost 900.  I've built additional canteens but have run into a weird possible bug.  For a brief amount of time I watched as the army of cooks that I had hired milled around...not cooking...in the kitchen that prepares food for a large number of prisoners.  I checked the kitchen distribution logistics and everything looked fine.  After a few days of my prisoners getting maybe one meal a day (and getting volatile in the process) I finally decided to try de-zoning the room and re-zoning it.  That seemed to mostly do the trick.  Recently I built another kitchen/canteen to facilitate a new set of cell blocks and I am seeing almost the same thing.  Cooks are standing around...not cooking, not washing dishes...I don't really know what is going on.  One aspect of the game that I wish could be improved is the ability to assign cooks to specific kitchens.  I'm seeing a bunch of cooks standing around in one kitchen while I can barely get any to report to a different kitchen!  It's frustrating.

I don't know if anyone else makes weird mental goals like this, but I am bound and determined to see mine out until the gory end.