The new mobile game Blizzard has caused great interest among fans. Diablo immortal has already been downloaded 10 million times, the game is very popular, but more and more people are shocked by the aggressive micropayments lurking in their wallets.
Unclear definition of pay to win
Until a few years ago, the term "pay to win" was quite clear and clear. Mobile games were full of production, which allowed you to buy additional experience or better items. In this way, we achieved the goal set for us by the game faster and by making payments, we were able to get ahead of players who did not decide to spend any money on the game. So we paid to win.
In recent years, more and more free titles have started to enter the western market and pay to win has taken on different meanings. The creators began to bend the definitions and as a result of various ways of monetizing the community created new terms. In this way, for example, the term "pay to skip" was created, the best example of which is Warframe. The creation of new characters and weapons sometimes takes up to weeks, and if we do not want to wait that long, we can speed up the whole process with the help of premium currency.
Another type of monetization is the so-called "pay to convenience", which in theory is best shown by the example of path of exile. For real money we can buy there different bookmarks for our warehouse. These are micropayments that affect only the comfort of using certain mechanics, and not directly on the strength of our character.
Is Diablo immortal's pay to win?
The short answer is yes. he does not even try for a moment to pretend to be what he is and automatically opens our store at every possible opportunity. Right after the first announcement of the game, however, there were voices that it will be a project created with NetEase, which is famous for the production of pay to win. Many players expected such a turn of events and few expected competition for Diablo 3 or path of exile. Despite the low expectations, the greed with which Blizzard approached the monetization of Diablo immortal is still staggering.
Pay to win can manifest itself in many different forms. Some offer a monthly subscription, which in the long run becomes almost required for regular play, titles from the genre of gatcha throw dozens of loot boxes into the game, and some allow you to sell items bought in the store to other players. The problem with Diablo immortal is that this game uses every popular mechanic.
In July 2020, Ian bouscher published an article about five tricks that mobile game developers use to monetize their productions. Blizzard uses every trick and adds a few more, which Josh Strife Hayes explains perfectly in his extensive material.
In addition to tons of cosmetic items that look very good and don't qualify as pay-to-win mechanics, we basically have three different battle passes, dozens of upgrade kits, and reward items that free-to-play players will work on for months.
A very good example of Blizzard's approach to this game is boon of Plenty, one of the "tempting" offers available in the store. We can pay $ 10 and increase the number of prizes earned for daily login. Normally, this is just one small thing, but after buying boon of Plenty, which is stacked up to three times, the rewards grow significantly. After pressing a special button, however, we find out that if we miss any day of registration, we lose the purchased prize. So we're potentially paying Blizzard $ 30 to continue logging into this game every day and making sure we don't lose a single dollar of the money we spend.
However, the quintessence of greed available in the game systems are gems, which were clearly created solely to extract even more money from the players. Legendary gems are the basis of each character in the final phase of the game, and we can get them only with legendary crestoms, items that increase rewards from Elder rifts. Free to play players, in addition to the occasional rewards from events, have access to one Legendary crest per month. Players spending money can buy them without restrictions ($25 for ten pieces).
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However, the problem starts when it turns out that legendary gems have their rarity levels and places for other legendary gems. To get the best possible item we need to get a gem at the highest rarity level with the maximum number of places for the remaining gems. The chance of such a drop is ok. 0,05%. Players free to play their luck in this matter can try once a month.
Pay to win ruins the experience of "free" players
In general, in mechniki pay to win there is nothing wrong. Diablo immortal is, of course, a higher level of absurdity, a game stuffed with loot boxes, trying to prey on gamblers. However, free games are becoming more and more popular and each of them must somehow earn for further development, salaries of developers and maintenance of servers. Some people decide to earn more by using pay to win mechanics and they have every right to do so.
We have also seen several monetizations of this type, which did not discourage players and are very popular. Well solved it for example Lost Ark. It is still, of course, a game with a ton of pay-to-win mechanics, but Smilegate allows you to exchange silver, the primary currency in the game, for premium currency. In this way, free to play players can keep up with Lost Ark fans spending money and have access to many cosmetic items, which in many games require players to pull out their wallet.
In Diablo immortal most sad as a result of the fact that the game at its core is very good. Until a certain point, we don't even have to worry about micropayments and pop-up offers in the store. The passage of the campaign does not require any payment from us, and in the acquisition of armor and weapons money is not able to help us in any way. Only when it comes time to Conquer Challenge Rifts, PvP and direct competition with other players, it turns out that for a few thousand dollars you can get a level of equipment that some free to play players may never see.
Diablo immortal is without a doubt one of the most greedy and disturbing games created by a well-known and respected video game publisher. There is a lot of this type of production on mobile devices, which, by the way of regular payments, still force us to watch ads and do not hide their intentions. The fact that this type of game comes out from under the wings of Blizzard and becomes an integral part of the Diablo universe does not give great hopes for a great return to the glory days of Blizzard.
