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[GendoIkari]

Man, I know Goko did this too, but having a fake little currency that forces you to overspend on what you want to buy is a really garbage move on Making Fun's part. It's adding insult to the injury of doubling their prices while reducing the game quality.

As libertarian as I generally am, I might actually support regulations that makes virtual currencies illegal under the same reasoning as other scams and false advertisements are. People should have a right to a clear view of how much a product or service actually costs, without being forced to go through a system designed to hide what you're really spending.

You're not forced to do business with the company at all though.  You are free to walk away.  Capitalism is handling this issue on its own, Hearthstone lets you buy products for cash directly in an upfront manner and is meeting wild success.

Are you sure you're a libertarian?  If there's any dishonesty regarding the virtual currency, sure, that's an issue, but when a company tries to jerk you around and play games with you, you don't need the government, vote with your dollar.

The point of the "as libertarian as I am" opening is that I know that what followed was contrary to libertarian views. Like if I were to say "as conservative as I am, I voted democrat recently". And I did say "might". Yes I'd much rather see the market correct it, but it doesn't seem to be happening. Scams and false advertisements are already illegal, and this seems like a form of that.

[SCSN]

You're not forced to do business with the company at all though.  You are free to walk away.  Capitalism is handling this issue on its own, Hearthstone lets you buy products for cash directly in an upfront manner and is meeting wild success.

If by "handling this issue on its own" you mean replacing iso first by Goko and then by MF, then, yes, it's doing an excellent job.

[Awaclus]

As libertarian as I generally am, I might actually support regulations that makes virtual currencies illegal under the same reasoning as other scams and false advertisements are. People should have a right to a clear view of how much a product or service actually costs, without being forced to go through a system designed to hide what you're really spending.

But what about free-to-suck-at-it MMORPGs etc, where you can buy in-game currency with real money?

[Aleimon Thimble]

You're not forced to do business with the company at all though.  You are free to walk away.  Capitalism is handling this issue on its own, Hearthstone lets you buy products for cash directly in an upfront manner and is meeting wild success.

If by "handling this issue on its own" you mean replacing iso first by Goko and then by MF, then, yes, it's doing an excellent job.

Speaking of capitalism handling this issue on its own, I'm secretly hoping that someone with a lot of free time on their hands and ample coding skills steps up and creates another Dominion client for the old price.

Which is part of the reason why I haven't purchased any expansions lately (I have 2 from Goko).

[SCSN]

That would be more like anarchy taking control because MF holds the exclusive license for online Dominion.

[Awaclus]

Isn't there a Japanese one available for free? It only had Base and Intrigue the last time I tried it, though.

[GendoIkari]

You're not forced to do business with the company at all though.  You are free to walk away.  Capitalism is handling this issue on its own, Hearthstone lets you buy products for cash directly in an upfront manner and is meeting wild success.

If by "handling this issue on its own" you mean replacing iso first by Goko and then by MF, then, yes, it's doing an excellent job.

Speaking of capitalism handling this issue on its own, I'm secretly hoping that someone with a lot of free time on their hands and ample coding skills steps up and creates another Dominion client for the old price.

Which is part of the reason why I haven't purchased any expansions lately (I have 2 from Goko).

The only easy and moral thing to do is to hack Isotropic and steal the source code; then host it somewhere else.

[pacovf]

[Donald X.]

Man, I know Goko did this too, but having a fake little currency that forces you to overspend on what you want to buy is a really garbage move on Making Fun's part. It's adding insult to the injury of doubling their prices while reducing the game quality.

As libertarian as I generally am, I might actually support regulations that makes virtual currencies illegal under the same reasoning as other scams and false advertisements are. People should have a right to a clear view of how much a product or service actually costs, without being forced to go through a system designed to hide what you're really spending.

I agree that ducats or whatever are garbage, but virtual currencies, man, they're all virtual.

[GendoIkari]

Man, I know Goko did this too, but having a fake little currency that forces you to overspend on what you want to buy is a really garbage move on Making Fun's part. It's adding insult to the injury of doubling their prices while reducing the game quality.

As libertarian as I generally am, I might actually support regulations that makes virtual currencies illegal under the same reasoning as other scams and false advertisements are. People should have a right to a clear view of how much a product or service actually costs, without being forced to go through a system designed to hide what you're really spending.

I agree that ducats or whatever are garbage, but virtual currencies, man, they're all virtual.

I think I used the wrong terminology; I didn't mean virtual currency like in-game currency. Ban Coppers and Golds in Dominion! No, I meant when you have to purchase an in-between currency which does nothing but buy stuff that you should be able to just buy with real money instead.

[Voltaire]

No, I think Donald knew what you meant. He was pointing out that the concept of money, any money, is virtual and oh god what is reality and suddenly the meaning of life oh no!

[werothegreat]

No, I think Donald knew what you meant. He was pointing out that the concept of money, any money, is virtual and oh god what is reality and suddenly the meaning of life oh no!

You mean dollars aren't standard units of measure like meters and grams?  WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING WITH MY LIFE

[pacovf]

They were, in a sense. At least for the duration of the Bretton-Woods monetary system.

[Cave-o-sapien]

Man, I know Goko did this too, but having a fake little currency that forces you to overspend on what you want to buy is a really garbage move on Making Fun's part. It's adding insult to the injury of doubling their prices while reducing the game quality.

As libertarian as I generally am, I might actually support regulations that makes virtual currencies illegal under the same reasoning as other scams and false advertisements are. People should have a right to a clear view of how much a product or service actually costs, without being forced to go through a system designed to hide what you're really spending.

I agree that ducats or whatever are garbage, but virtual currencies, man, they're all virtual.

I think I used the wrong terminology; I didn't mean virtual currency like in-game currency. Ban Coppers and Golds in Dominion! No, I meant when you have to purchase an in-between currency which does nothing but buy stuff that you should be able to just buy with real money instead.

I think it's worth pointing out that Microsoft (after much criticism) did away with their virtual currency two years ago.

I think it makes sense in settings where you can earn "in-game money" through game play OR by simply buying it with real money. But if there's no way to earn in-game currency short of spending real money then it's kind of pointless.

[UmbrageOfSnow]

It's not pointless.  It's great for wringing a bit more money out of your customers that some of them don't realize they are spending and others of them are annoyed by!

[SCSN]

It's not pointless.  It's great for wringing a bit more money out of your customers that some of them don't realize they are spending and others of them are annoyed by!

The next step in their banking aspiration will be to periodically charge our credit cards for the service of keeping our unused Ducats readily available and safe.

[UmbrageOfSnow]

It's not pointless.  It's great for wringing a bit more money out of your customers that some of them don't realize they are spending and others of them are annoyed by!

The next step in their banking aspiration will be to periodically charge our credit cards for the service of keeping our unused Ducats readily available and safe.

Storing those Ducat numbers takes up space!  And they probably have to send it back and forth a bunch of times every time you do anything.  You expect them to provide the valuable service of tracking your leftover Ducat change for free?

[Mic Qsenoch]

It's not pointless.  It's great for wringing a bit more money out of your customers that some of them don't realize they are spending and others of them are annoyed by!

The next step in their banking aspiration will be to periodically charge our credit cards for the service of keeping our unused Ducats readily available and safe.

Storing those Ducat numbers takes up space!  And they probably have to send it back and forth a bunch of times every time you do anything.  You expect them to provide the valuable service of tracking your leftover Ducat change for free?

Not to mention the full set of sparkly Ducat animations.

[Chris is me]

Man, I know Goko did this too, but having a fake little currency that forces you to overspend on what you want to buy is a really garbage move on Making Fun's part. It's adding insult to the injury of doubling their prices while reducing the game quality.

Just realized I missed this earlier:

Goko was actually *better* than this - 1 Gokoin always cost ten cents regardless of how many you bought at once. MF's price model is more exploitative.

[GendoIkari]

Man, I know Goko did this too, but having a fake little currency that forces you to overspend on what you want to buy is a really garbage move on Making Fun's part. It's adding insult to the injury of doubling their prices while reducing the game quality.

Just realized I missed this earlier:

Goko was actually *better* than this - 1 Gokoin always cost ten cents regardless of how many you bought at once. MF's price model is more exploitative.

Well Goko also made sets cost different amounts of Gokoins based on how you bundled them together. They may have fixed it at some point, but at one point, in order to pay the least possible for all sets combined, you had to purchase some specific bundles and some specific individual sets; because it cost more to just buy the "everything" bundle.

[Voltaire]

They did fix that later after everyone complained, fyi.

[GendoIkari]

But didn't they fix it by making individual sets more expensive so that the cheapest option was the all-in-one?

[Voltaire]

But didn't they fix it by making individual sets more expensive so that the cheapest option was the all-in-one?

Possibly, but that's not what we're talking about - that's just old-fashioned raising prices, which is different from hiding/shady prices.

Look, you'll get no disagreement from me that Goko sucked, I just want to be precise about why and how they sucked. 

[Awaclus]

I think the idea behind the all sets bundle was that it also came with a ton of useless crap (like Zaps or something I think), so you also had to pay for that.

[drsteelhammer]

I bought the sets this year from Goko and it did not include anything besides the actual sets anymore (no zaps etc)