The future of video game marketing

Mr.Blob

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jun 12, 2009
573
249
I need to vent on this.

For those of you who do pay attention to tf2, you'll probably know that a few days back this got posted.

http://tf2.com/post.php?id=4608&p=1

It's pretty much a plug for a game by Telltale, and they're all buddy buddy with valve or something, which is entirely fine. If they like the game, and maybe they do, who knows. However, if you read the post you'll notice it's definitely not just a plug. It's a blatant advertisement, and your motivation to buy this game is more tf2 items.

telltalepoker.png


And you know what? It worked, flawlessly.

ugh.jpg


Before the blog post I saw maybe one or two people purchase this, and surprise surprise, the same night I fire up tf2 and play with some buddies, only to see others already sporting their atrocious new hat.

The real kicker though, is that this looks more and more like a quick game thrown together.

In fact, if the steam store page, and Telltale store page are any indication, the game brings absolutely nothing new to the age old game of poker.

Prepare for a different kind of poker night in a very different kind of club. In Poker Night at the Inventory, you'll deal with Penny Arcade's clever, cunning Tycho, Team Fortress 2's hulking Heavy, Homestar Runner's self-proclaimed "awesome icon" Strong Bad and the hyperkinetic "rabbity-thing" from Sam & Max. These characters come together in ways some never thought possible, in a setting few would have predicted.
Prepare for a different kind of poker night in a very different kind of club. In Poker Night at the Inventory, you'll deal with Penny Arcade's clever, cunning Tycho, Team Fortress 2's hulking Heavy, Homestar Runner's self-proclaimed "awesome icon" Strong Bad and the hyperkinetic "rabbity-thing" from Sam & Max. These characters come together in ways some never thought possible, in a setting few would have predicted. You'll experience a new style of poker, particularly when hands don't go the way of the other fiery competitors at the table.
Forgive my ignorance, but I don't see anything different about this. In fact, the game is not even comparable to say, online poker (yo king whatup) as it lacks multiplayer entirely. So now it's on par with Windows Poker (Which comes for free with Windows Vista Ultimate)

pokernightdetails.jpg


So really all they're advertising here is playing computer poker, with random "Icons" of something or another. Personally, aside from the heavy, I have no fucking clue who any of these characters are.

We've seen this before, and it's nothing new.

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=3045

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=3698

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=4441&p=1

Valve butchering the art style of one of their flagship games with more useless cosmetics which violate the art style in ways I'd really rather not even talk about (it's just that gross).
For those of you who play the game you'll also know that recently the polypack update was also shipped.

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=4410&p=1

This added an ingame store, which is fueled on micro transactions, where players can buy weapons, and hats (for a ridiculous price), along with, and this is absolutely brilliant, what is effectively a lottery, where players have a chance of finding an "Unusual" hat. Which is just a stock hat if they purchase a key from the store, with an irritating and distracting particle effect.

The Mann co Store was a humongous success.

http://www.igameradio.com/2010/10/22/mann-co-store-pays-big-bucks-to-tf2-community/

(Kotaku source too)

http://kotaku.com/5669981/making-team-fortress-2-hats-turns-out-to-be-very-profitable

Five community members created items for the first round of content creation and entered them into the store. Valve announced that those community members — Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern, and Shaylyn Hamm — have all walked away with royalties between $39,000 to $47,000 per person after merely two weeks of sales.
So after 2 weeks of sales, these people who got 25% of the profits walked away with an amazing amount of cash. A big part of the polypack sets is that they incorporate "Set Bonuses" if they're all worn by the player at once. Almost all of which make absolutely no sense in the game (Health leaching rocket launcher \ Milk that gives people who hit soaked enemies 75% of the damage they do back as health, etc), a lot of which are blatantly overpowered too. This adds up to roughly 150K USD per set going to valve. These weapons, no matter all the flawed arguments being thrown around, are pay to win, or at least, pay for an advantage. People who try to justify this with people being able to craft them, and get them through item drops seem to be missing out on the fact that these are not instant, and in fact take a pretty long time.

I have yet to get all the polypack items, let alone the hats, through random drops.

If this doesn't strike you as foul then I don't know what will. (If you want to play blind man, go walk with the shepherd)

Every time I pick up tf2, there's always someone trading, someone begging for items, or hats. It's not fun, it resembles an MMO, which is a genre I don't find particularly appealing either.

Fun facts :

About 1/5th of tf2 servers with players in them at time of posting are idle servers. So a significant chunk of the player base is playing the game, by not playing it.

The Black box is a disgusting looking weapon, and is the only addition that I feel actually has a worse visual impact than it does on gameplay.

Flawed arguments :

People seem to claim to me, and others I see on various forums that this constant trading is just a fad, or that the game would have gone stale if it hadn't received these kinds of updates.

First off, hats and item drops were added over a year ago, and they have yet to become any less of an obsession. Don't believe me? Go play the game, go look at SPUF, or any other big tf2 community, and try to not find a trading thread, or thread about items.
 
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lana

Currently On: ?????
aa
Sep 28, 2009
3,075
2,778
But I was going to get it anyway.

EDIT:

Whoever bullied you (Selentic) really needs to understand that he can't use the art style argument when he fought tooth and nail to defend a train that went entirely against said art style. Also Fatony.
 
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REEJ

L420: High Member
Aug 26, 2010
437
176
So far Valve treats tf2 as a playground for trying out any good ideas they come up with.
It might set a standard in near future for all games though.

PC gaming heads in direction of crap, which is F2P model, sadly most profitable.
F2P, where marketing and psychology plays bigger role than the game itself.
So far it's all disgusting but with time it might mature into more fair model with hopefully set code of conduct.
 
Apr 19, 2009
4,460
1,722
Blob entered chat.
1:41 PM - Blob: http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?p=204596#post204596
1:41 PM - Blob: :)
1:41 PM - tpg: oh god dam it blob
1:41 PM - tpg: ugh
1:42 PM - Blob: He bullied be
1:42 PM - Blob: :C
1:42 PM - Blob: He was like: "I'll never make you models again"
1:43 PM - Blob: "I'll remove you if you don't"
1:43 PM - Blob: :(
1:43 PM - Blob: btw
1:43 PM - Blob: I don't agree with any of it.
1:43 PM - Blob: haha
1:43 PM - Yarr! Phill: then why would you post it? :\
Tech the Creeper disconnected.
1:43 PM - Blob: ^
1:43 PM - nrd: Also Selentic is culturally challenged
1:44 PM - nrd: And why's Selentic talking about TF2's art style?
1:44 PM - Yarr! Phill goes to find a cliff since he agrees with what Selentic said
1:45 PM - tpg: and thats fine!
1:45 PM - tpg: beacuse you don't go off and attack people for not agreeing with you
1:45 PM - Blob: Really?
1:45 PM - Blob: What?
1:45 PM - void o' lantern: hole in wood floor #3 completed
1:45 PM - tpg: ugh
1:46 PM - Blob: 18:44 - tpg: beacuse you don't go off and attack people for not agreeing with you
1:46 PM - Blob: That is America?
1:46 PM - Blob: I mean, they nuke people for doing that.
1:46 PM - Blob: :D
1:46 PM - tpg: :|
1:47 PM - Blob: Nah, I havn't read the article
1:47 PM - Blob: But Sel wanted me to post it.

Sel = Selentic
 

gamemaster1996

L13: Stunning Member
Sep 30, 2009
1,064
134
Well i wouldn't say that it's entirely bad.
It's still peoples choice whether they buy it and infact i think it's nice that games are interlinking :)
 
Mar 23, 2010
1,872
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I'm with Sel sorta. rather than nerf/fix natashca and heavy, they release more hats and basically sell items. not to mention pay/trade/etc.. to win with the polycount hat set bonuses.

edit: USA nuked people for not agreeing with democracy?
 
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PL-7764

L6: Sharp Member
Aug 4, 2009
376
84
Product tie-ins have existed forever. The fact that Valve does them should be no surprise.
 

Pc_Madness

L4: Comfortable Member
Aug 31, 2009
164
51
While I feel dirty for this, I have to agree with Selentic. I think I said this is chat a few days ago, but that poker game doesn't appear to offer anything new, not even multiplayer support? Its more of a "We've got these characters that will make us a shit tonne of money, now what game can they appear in?", 10 minutes later and bam, a Poker game is born. The only thing that surprises me really is they're only charging $5 for it, I expected it to be much higher since they could probably get away with it, and since it appears that they're trying to screw people over...

It's all kinda making me lose faith in Valve really.. I always saw them as a company that was focused on making great games for gamers, rather than just making money. I would have expected them to stand up and say "No thanks, we don't want to be associated with this"...but then I also would have expected them to realise that exploiting users by including tf2 items with other games as being a bad idea as well.

I mean if you look at TF2 these days its not about the game any more, its about items, and Valve are quite eager for it to continue due to all the money they're making. I would have thought Robin at least would have realised he was sending his baby down a dark path. :\ Looking back now I wish Valve had just released a few maps and then left it be, I certainly didn't expect TF2 to end up like this I bought it.

The funny thing is though that I think its on the verge of blowing up in Valve's face. I keep an eye on the Steam Forums and theres always one or two threads on there where someone bags out the latest update and how its ruining TF2, but theres been lots of them this time around, and lots of people agreeing in the threads as well.

And aside from that, a lot of the hats ruin the TF2 artstyle. Yes I'm looking at you Mr Indian Hat!!

In my opinion!
 

Bermuda Cake

L9: Fashionable Member
Feb 20, 2009
679
480
this is not necessarily a bad thing, but yes, some of the new hats are a bit meh. I guess this is the flipside to constant free support through updates.
Also, there are far worse ways VALVe could have introduced adverts, for something that doesn't really matter when there are nicer, rarer hats available, not only do I not really mind about the hats but I would support them.

That's not to say I'm going to buy it though :p
 

Mr.Blob

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jun 12, 2009
573
249
Yep! - I'm with you on this Bermuda Cake!

Very well put!
 

Nitram

L2: Junior Member
Jul 3, 2010
91
32
I don't really see the problem, buy this get a free hat, it's your own choice if you decide to buy it. The people that complains about it, do they buy the game? I don't know, but since they complain about it they probably didn't buy it, so what are you complaining about? That people get other hats than you? That just proves that you're obsessed with hats , cause you can't stand the fact that people get items you don't get.

Also, this is a way to support other developers, as well as trying stuff out. Valve said themselves that they're using tf2 to try stuff, and I guess this is working out for them, which probably means they'll continue to support, and try out stuff with tf2 in the future.

As for me, I already had it when they posted this, I reckon this is a fun little game, a cool way for of learning poker. To bad it's not multiplayer though...
 

Ida

deer
aa
Jan 6, 2008
2,289
1,372
Every time I pick up tf2, there's always someone trading, someone begging for items, or hats. It's not fun, it resembles an MMO, which is a genre I don't find particularly appealing either.
Fuck off.

EDIT: Sorry drp D:

FYI I'm just tired of people making the old MMO accusation. Nothing personal.
 
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Okrag

Wall Staples
aa
Jun 10, 2009
1,029
655
I don't get why people always use the mmo accusation. Cosmetic items and player driven economies are not what makes most mmos bad.
 
Nov 14, 2009
1,257
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I agree Selentic that TF2 has become about items, and less about the game. In fact, I hardly play any more, since thats all its about. Its all people talk about, all they think about when playing. I want a game to be a game, not a hat simulator. Valve used to joke about it becoming that, and now it really is. Its not just one single hat, or a weapon I dont like, its that so many have converged to a pinacle of unrealism, atleast in the game world.

I can no longer suspend my disbelief in TF2, when I see items from other games, or real life. Valve had a fantastic universe going, but they had to go ruin it.

To me, its like George Lopez making a cameo appearance in HL2. Lolwut.

Anyways, I enjoy mapping, so thats all that keeps me playing, even if I only play once a week or so.