Of course they’re pissing off their customers, it’s a gip, and we know it, and they know we know it, and they know we know they know we know it, but there’s too damn much money in it to stop.
That’s completely silly logic. If they sold 100,000+ horse armors to people who wanted to buy them - who is getting gip’d exactly?
As far as I can tell, there is absolutely nothing you can interact with in the room other than the button that gives you your bonus power spell. I see no reason to believe dropping an item in the Orrey would be any different from dropping an item in any other room in the game. (It’s not your Orrey – you just helped “rebuild” it for the mage’s guild with your fetch quest, and are presumably allowed access because of this (although this is not explained in-game).)
I’m fairly certain you can’t fast travel to it – it’s located in the entrance lobby for the mage’s guild (you have to open a couple of doors to get there).
People who were looking forward to good content, only to find that the legions willing to buy crappy fantasy ringtone-type content don’t make it worth Bethesda’s time to do anything good?
I think people need to realise the difference here. With the horse armor mod, you knew what you were getting. With the Orrey, you didn’t. The former is ok, the latter is not.
I’d say it’s more a matter of trust. I don’t want to know every little in and out of everything I download, I just want to be able to think ‘that sounds cool, and I trust Bethesda to have done it properly for my money’.
For instance, rebuilding the Orrery sounded like a proper quest. Not FedEx and a button.
Well first of all, we’re all getting “gyped” by you when you keep posting flamebait crap.
Second, it’s OrreRy not Orrey everybody.
This thread has awful spelling.
Well first of all, we’re all getting “gyped” by you when you keep posting flamebait crap.
I didn’t start the thread, I’m simply posting an opinion. That’s allowed, isn’t it?
Willing customers are purchasing an available product. Yet somehow someone is getting gip’d. How?
You’re wrong. It’s a simple fetch-these-items quest, with the one line explanation - provided in that pops-in-your-inventory note - that the reason you’re fetching is because the items are needed to rebuild the Orrery*. After you fetch, you press a button.
A “proper quest” has one or more of the following: an interesting backstory, unexpected twists, multiple paths, compelling character interaction, etc, etc. There are many examples of such quests in Oblivion. And when I’m paying for premium content, I expect to be getting the best Oblivion has to offer. Instead, I get what is probably the single least interesting quest I’ve done so far in the game. People should expect more from Bethesda, and more for their money.
See: Blizzard - Diablo 1.10 patch.
What percentage of WoW’s 6 million sales were influenced by the Diablo 1.10 patch?
1% ? .5%?
The number can get really small and still be cost effective.
This is why Blizzard rules. As do other companies that give away content for free. I’m pretty sure Bioware did it with both BG1/2 and NWN.
And it is also why Bethesda definitely does NOT rule.
Value is subjective. I wouldn’t pay $10 for a stick of gum, even though I like gum and $10 is an insignificant amount of money to me. I simply don’t feel a stick of gum is worth it, and I imagine that most would agree with me.
I would really be interested in the statistics comparing xbox and PC sales. My guess would be that well over 95% of sales were on xbox live. Paying 150 “microsoft points” is very different than pulling out the creditcard and charging $1.89 in a secure web transaction.
It’s all very anti-consumer but because it’s brand new and MS paid for tons of marketing everybody kinda ignores the pink elephant. Almost nobody is saying “Holy shit, MS actually got people to pay $2 for a Kameo wallpaper on their gaming console?! What a horrible ripoff!” Instead, they say “Wow, xbox live has Kameo wallpapers for a couple of microsoft points. Isn’t that clever and innovative! Welcome to the HD generation!”
Right, because Bethesda just gave away a free editor for creating content.
No. You’re not allowed to post opinions unless they’re epic. Otherwise it’s false advertising. And stop spelling gyped wrong.
No, no, no. He works at Epic. He’s not allowed to post opinions unless he adds lots of colored lights to one that someone at id posted first.
I think the outrage really comes from the fact that with Morrowind, the type of content being sold (horse armour and Orrery) were just given away as extra goodies for download after the game was released. Let’s compare. The horse armour mod is comparable to the the area of effects arrows mod. And based on the description of what one gets for the Orrery mod, the Siege at Firemoth plug-in has it beat hands down.
But I suppose there is a large enough market for crap that Bethesda is able to sell it. Likening this to ringtones is dead on. It’s proof that people are willing to throw small amounts of money away on trivial crap.
I have a wait and see attitude. I am not going to buy content ala carte. I don’t care to spend any money on the individual horse armor or Orreary, cough, content nor any of the other announced items/content. I would guessing that a little further down the road they will release these things bundled for $9.99 and then I will take another look. I am sure at that point all the folks who paid a ridiculous premium for mods a nickel at a time are going get upset as they start to bray. I have felt like a fool after a compulsive purchase before and I am not anxious to go there again. Fool me once and all that.
I love playing Oblivion and while I have some criticisms, I have no major complaints. But, it is obvious they did not rigorously play test the main quest. I cannot believe that they would rigorously test horse armor or a room with a button. This release strategy is making them mad money that is probably turning the heads of even the MMO set.
I expect that the trend to sell gaming accessories is going to spread like wildfire now that the console based infrastructure has been built. I think it is the gaming equivalent of the impulse buy area at every retail checkout stand. Manufacturers pay a premium for that space and those areas sell well for the retailers.
The ringtone analogy is a good one. Ringtones are good for savvy consumers like us because the unwashed masses buy them, make cellular telephony a more profitable enterprise, new companies enter the market, and the competition drives down prices for those of who never buy ringtones.
Similarly, if you like Oblivion and want to play more games like it in the future, you should be begging people to buy the stupid mods. Like I said in the other mod thread: big open-ended RPGs are costly and risky. It was not pre-ordained that Oblivion would release (roughly) on schedule or be a hit. Having Oblivion and the add-ons be super-profitable will encourage development of similar games in the future. Enjoy the game, skip the ringtones.
Huh? I said it SOUNDED like a proper quest from the original description, not that the final thing was a proper quest. My point is that I shouldn’t have to get a line-by-line breakdown of everything that comes out to feel confident about that purchase - I should have faith in Bethesda to produce something that lives up to the concept. For instance, there’s no chance I’m going to buy a dungeon on spec from them after these opening launches, but in the event that they do release a good one, hearing why I should buy it (“Oh, then XYZ happens and it’s cool!”) will utterly kills the chance to experience it properly.
The ringtone analogy is a good one. Ringtones are good for savvy consumers like us because the unwashed masses buy them, make cellular telephony a more profitable enterprise, new companies enter the market, and the competition drives down prices for those of who never buy ringtones.
It’s an analogy in terms of content, where that doesn’t really apply - more that there’s no incentive for companies do anything more ambitious than ringtones and other basic shit because there’s enough of a market in that kind of easy stuff not to have to bother with anything harder. Which is very, very bad for savvy consumers who want to do more with their phones than play lame-ass Java games and watch the latest Crazy Frog adventure.
I think you and I are getting gip’d. We have a game with hours and hours of content, many quest lines, and tons of places to explore. So, clearly, we are pissed because they release a tower/horse for people that think it’s cool.
SpoofyChop and CheesyPoof shouldn’t post in the same thread.
You can talk to people on your phone, and you can play a role-playing game with Oblivion. Like everyone else I hope they start selling meatier mods, but even if they don’t – cell phones are constantly benefiting from competition and innovation, and I’d like the same to happen to RPGs. FORGET the content-free add-ons and let the people who are duped into buying them help fund/incentivize the next great RPG that you’ll be enjoying.