Post: Bungie is taking advantage of innate human gambling addictions
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10-19-2014, 03:54 PM
#1
JesseBropez
Little One
Originally posted by another user
After a lot of thought, I've stumbled across the answer to why Destiny continues to have 3.2 million players every day, despite the rage and frustration over the broken loot system, and other RNG mechanics.
I thought to myself: why do people continue to play despite being trolled by the loot system? Why do people continue to come back to Xûr every week, or beat the raid every week for their shot at loot, only to be disappointed by the endless wave of shards and sunbreakers? Why do legendary and exotic engrams drop armor for random classes? Why are rewards never tailored to your character? Why are they making everything a dice throw? The answer is now plain as day, and actually quite simple.
Bungie is taking advantage of innate human gambling addictions.
There are reasons why Bungie continues to make everything RNG-based, despite the obvious rage coming from the community:
This artificially extends the life of the game. There is not enough endgame content to keep players busy from launch until December, when the DLC (disc-locked content) unlocks. If players work hard enough to obtain the loot through a reliable method, they're afraid they won't stick around until the DLC. Why continue to play when you've got everything you've had your sights on, right? Creating three characters still won't last if there are reliable ways of obtaining a certain piece of gear for those who are incredibly dedicated.
Moving on to engram rates, they create exotic engrams to drop for random classes because A: they want to encourage people to start new characters (artificial lifespan), and B: they want to keep people coming back to Xûr. Didn't get the weapon/armor you want? Ahh, he might have it next week. But to get the materials to buy it, you've gotta play a bunch before you can buy it, when you have a 5/6 chance of not getting the armor you want. They are capitalizing on the fact that people have innate gambling addictions, and this is precisely what keeps people coming back.
The RNG in Atheon's teleportation is designed to artificially increase the difficulty of the raid. Instead of creating mechanics that are difficult at first to figure out, they create a mechanic that destroys all forms of strategy and role-filling, as it should be.
The RNG in the Crucible keeps players playing for a shot at loot drops, which is why it's possible to get exotics as rewards, even for the player who goes 1-35 in Clash. Destiny does not reward performance at all. It simply rewards you for being present at the end of an activity. There is no incentive to perform well.
See what I'm talking about? Everywhere there's RNG in the game, there's another example of Bungie capitalizing on the innate addiction to gambling. It's all a slot machine, people, and guess what?
They own you.
They own everyone who hasn't realized this yet. They own each and every person who continues to check Xûr every week, hoping that their desired Exotic will be for sale. And this is exactly why the loot system will never, ever, ever be fixed. There's not enough real content in the game for people to come back to, so they make the entire meta-game a slot machine so that they can rope people into playing their gutted, half-assed, disappointing excuse for what we were promised was going to be a truly engaging experience.
I'm on to you, Bungie. I'll be keeping tabs on the development of this game, but you have been exposed now. First it was the Disc Locked Content, then it was the unneeded nerfs, and then it was the RNG mechanics in the Vault of Glass. You may have everyone else fooled, but I smell bullshit. And I smell it strong. It seems nobody cares about making a truly good game anymore.
Not even you.
I thought to myself: why do people continue to play despite being trolled by the loot system? Why do people continue to come back to Xûr every week, or beat the raid every week for their shot at loot, only to be disappointed by the endless wave of shards and sunbreakers? Why do legendary and exotic engrams drop armor for random classes? Why are rewards never tailored to your character? Why are they making everything a dice throw? The answer is now plain as day, and actually quite simple.
Bungie is taking advantage of innate human gambling addictions.
There are reasons why Bungie continues to make everything RNG-based, despite the obvious rage coming from the community:
This artificially extends the life of the game. There is not enough endgame content to keep players busy from launch until December, when the DLC (disc-locked content) unlocks. If players work hard enough to obtain the loot through a reliable method, they're afraid they won't stick around until the DLC. Why continue to play when you've got everything you've had your sights on, right? Creating three characters still won't last if there are reliable ways of obtaining a certain piece of gear for those who are incredibly dedicated.
Moving on to engram rates, they create exotic engrams to drop for random classes because A: they want to encourage people to start new characters (artificial lifespan), and B: they want to keep people coming back to Xûr. Didn't get the weapon/armor you want? Ahh, he might have it next week. But to get the materials to buy it, you've gotta play a bunch before you can buy it, when you have a 5/6 chance of not getting the armor you want. They are capitalizing on the fact that people have innate gambling addictions, and this is precisely what keeps people coming back.
The RNG in Atheon's teleportation is designed to artificially increase the difficulty of the raid. Instead of creating mechanics that are difficult at first to figure out, they create a mechanic that destroys all forms of strategy and role-filling, as it should be.
The RNG in the Crucible keeps players playing for a shot at loot drops, which is why it's possible to get exotics as rewards, even for the player who goes 1-35 in Clash. Destiny does not reward performance at all. It simply rewards you for being present at the end of an activity. There is no incentive to perform well.
See what I'm talking about? Everywhere there's RNG in the game, there's another example of Bungie capitalizing on the innate addiction to gambling. It's all a slot machine, people, and guess what?
They own you.
They own everyone who hasn't realized this yet. They own each and every person who continues to check Xûr every week, hoping that their desired Exotic will be for sale. And this is exactly why the loot system will never, ever, ever be fixed. There's not enough real content in the game for people to come back to, so they make the entire meta-game a slot machine so that they can rope people into playing their gutted, half-assed, disappointing excuse for what we were promised was going to be a truly engaging experience.
I'm on to you, Bungie. I'll be keeping tabs on the development of this game, but you have been exposed now. First it was the Disc Locked Content, then it was the unneeded nerfs, and then it was the RNG mechanics in the Vault of Glass. You may have everyone else fooled, but I smell bullshit. And I smell it strong. It seems nobody cares about making a truly good game anymore.
Not even you.
Quote from the forum of Bungie.net
10-20-2014, 12:59 AM
#3
Inaudax
Bounty hunter
The game sucks, which I agree, but as for the "gambling addiction" thing, that I don't agree with. You open a chest, you either get a crappy or exotic item at free of charge - same thing with monsters' loot. If you keep playing just because you want a "certain weapon" based on RNG, then that's an addiction.
Have you ever played free-to-play games? Such as Maplestory? That game is one of the true king RNG games; you have to pay and pray that you get whatever you want. If you didn't get what you want, pay again. If players do that a lot, then that's classified as "gambling addiction".
Game addiction and gambling addiction are two different things.
Have you ever played free-to-play games? Such as Maplestory? That game is one of the true king RNG games; you have to pay and pray that you get whatever you want. If you didn't get what you want, pay again. If players do that a lot, then that's classified as "gambling addiction".
Game addiction and gambling addiction are two different things.
10-20-2014, 01:13 AM
#4
JesseBropez
Little One
Originally posted by Mauzey
The people who use the Bungie.net forums are Toxic as fuck... siding with them is one of the worst things you can do regarding your opinion on Bungie and their games.
This post is likely from someone who is getting no enjoyment out of the game, and envies those who are.
This post is likely from someone who is getting no enjoyment out of the game, and envies those who are.
I agree with him to a certain degree. I just posted it to share an idea I found interesting.
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