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Jimquisition: Monetizing Whales for the Retention of Virality

How to reduce backlash

???

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Banging my head against the desk.

It's like we really are considered cattle.
 

Karu

Member
As far as we know, the Reduce the Backlash panel could just have been a panel that basically deals with the thought that making a better game and serving the customer does just that. But well...
 

turnbuckle

Member
Hell of a way to finish the video, Jim.

This fucking industry...goddamn it. Great episode as always, albeit depressing.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
Wow, I had no idea about this? Was there a thread I missed, surely not; this is stuff rife for controversy and rightly so. Jesus.
 

Marcel

Member
I've seen comments defending that using the Term "whales" is fine because it came from another industry, as if emulating the gambling and casino industry is a positive thing.

It's a positive if you are a greedy and cynical suit who wants to make a lot of money at no real risk.
 

noobasuar

Banned
I like how this industry is filled with people worse than gambling degenerates since we're not actually winning real money.

Nice.
 
Even in the shady world of gambling, the Casino owners know not to publically use the term 'whales' and instead talk about high rollers.
 
I don't think lots of these developers actually expect traditional gamers to be their source of income, I think they expect kids and boomers to be their cash cow. What I'm most uncomfortable with is how traditional gaming and F2P stuff is getting lumped together.
 

Marcel

Member
Even in the shady world of gambling, the Casino owners know not to publically use the term 'whales' and instead talk about high rollers.

At least it's possible to get a comped hotel room or a meal in Vegas for high rolling. You don't get jackshit for making big IAPs except for maybe some good old shame and guilt.
 
"How to reduce backlash"

What the literal fuck is that!? Just make good games!!! God damn.

"How to reduce backlash" can be translated as "when customers realize that we've taken shitloads of cash from them before they know it and aren't happy about it, how do we deal with it?"
 

shuri

Banned
Why is this guy getting individual GAF plugs everyday? There should be a Jimquisition Megathread just like the Angry VideoGames Nerd megathead; people would react and post links to every new vid the AVGN would make and etc.

Could a mod shime on this? An official statement would be interesting. Why is this guy getting some sort of special treatement on NeoGaf?
 
At least it's possible to get a comped hotel room or a meal in Vegas for high rolling. You don't get jackshit for making big IAPs except for maybe some good old shame and guilt.

Yep. High rollers get treated well, even if behind the scenes they're being laughed at and called whales.
 

Trey

Member
Why is this guy getting individual GAF plugs everyday? There should be a Jimquisition Megathread just like the Angry VideoGames Nerd megathead; people would react and post links to every new vid the AVGN would make and etc.

Could a mod shime on this? An official statement would be interesting. Why is this guy getting some sort of special treatement on NeoGaf?

New news, new thread. Each topic is distinct and engenders conversation.
 

mattp

Member
New news, new thread. Each topic is distinct and engenders conversation.

yup, this

if they were just game reviews that'd be one thing(no more fucking angry joe threads for every review) but these are almost always news topics, so i like having new threads for discussion
 
Why is this guy getting individual GAF plugs everyday? There should be a Jimquisition Megathread just like the Angry VideoGames Nerd megathead; people would react and post links to every new vid the AVGN would make and etc.

Could a mod shime on this? An official statement would be interesting. Why is this guy getting some sort of special treatement on NeoGaf?

If you love Jim so much, send him a PM
 

ValeYard

Member
Wow, hopefully these monetization models don't become mainstream, although the Xbox One was off to a bad start with Forza. Jim has been very angry and highly succinct recently, hope someone listens. Businesses will do business though. It would be nice if games were about making people happy primarily. Here's to whales though hey?

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Jb

Member
New news, new thread. Each topic is distinct and engenders conversation.

And every new video on AVGN/Giantbomb also engenders different discussions when they're released within their own thread.
I don't see why this should be any exception.
 
Referring to customers as "whales" is just awful...is this a common term in marketing in general, or is it generally just used in the gaming scene? Anybody know?

This is not a marketing thing, it's more a sales term. Monetization and all that shit is sales, not marketing, though there is crossover.
 

kick51

Banned
yeah, that's every industry, nobody actually cares about you personally. they condition you with rewards and breadcrumbs and attempt to spend as little as possible while getting away with as much as possible.
 
I loath business folk that seek to exploit a trend just to bleed people dry. They are con-men, plain and simple. If they were around in the early 20th century, they'd be peddling their wagons around, selling bottles of colored water as "Cure-All" tonics to "simple folk" who put their trust in them, only to vamoose by the next morning.

And there are a lot of business people(both in business and business majors, I've seen here and other gaming message boards like GameFAQs, ...) that defend these sorts of practices because they are within the law(and these cheats are within their rights because they step around laws and use loopholes to their advantage). Yeah, just because they aren't doing anything illegal doesn't mean it's right. If you ask ANY person in the exploitation business, legal or illegal, I'm sure none feel they aren't wrong in doing what they do. The law gives people a lot of rights, but that includes the right to fuck people over!

And Mr. Sterling, you are a god among men! Keep up the good work!!
 

inky

Member
I've seen comments defending that using the Term "whales" is fine because it came from another industry, as if emulating the gambling and casino industry is a positive thing.

Yup. I've had people tell me in some threads that I should be super thankful of the practice because abusing some keeps the game free for me. I should be thankful that game designers think of me on those terms, and abuse psychological trickery to squeeze as much money as they can from people (some with a serious addiction problem even) because I get to not pay a single fee for a game, instead, I get to see that game broken into many small chunks each of which added together cost much, much more than what the game should realistically command.

The fact that they know it is wrong and they keep doing it and abusing it is pretty terrible and why I wouldn't mind if someone stepped in with some regulations and shat all over their games. These practices are utterly disrespectful to the audience.
 

Griss

Member
The thing is that if you sat the average game dev for the app store down to watch that video, I can guess exactly what their response would be.

'I'm not trying to make good games, I'm trying to make money.'

That's what it comes down to. A lot of these guys aren't the kinds of passionate gamers you find in PC and console development, and they also know that they're not selling to people who care much, if at all, about the quality of their games.

If the only criteria the average phone gamer has is 'how much does it cost?' then I'm not sure I feel too bad about the average phone dev asking only 'how much can we take?' Reminds me of the bootleg GBA Mario Kart for the app store. One review said 'It's fake, it's not really functional, and it's probably illegal, but it was only one dollar so I give it 5 stars.'

The entire thing is a cesspit.
 
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