Tipping for a game like Elden Ring? In this economy?
  • HuddaBudda@kbin.social
    39·
    9 months ago

    “I’ve often thought ‘I wish I could give these folks another $10 or $20 because it was worth more than my initial $70 and they didn’t try to nickel and dime me every second,’”

    You know what, I could agree with that opinion if the irony wasn’t lost to folks

    No. One. Would tip for a blizzard game.

    1. Blizzard DOES nickel and dime you at every second. Literally.

    2. Blizzard has not produced a good game since Overwatch 2.

    3. Blizzard made 8.71 Billion in 2023. They can afford to pay their developers without relying on public donations.

    • jsomae@lemmy.ml
      4·
      9 months ago

      I don’t think he’s saying to tip for a Blizzard game. He’s not at Blizzard anymore (probably still has stock though).

      I basically agree, I mean, I’d tip for a game I really like. Actually I do, indirectly. I buy other things from companies like FromSoft. I would go further than you and admit I agree with him despite the irony.

  • Skasi@lemmy.world
    111·
    9 months ago

    I think the concept of “Pay what you want.” is a very friendly approach to this. It already exists on platforms like itch.io and some free to play games financed through donations, like Dwarf Fortress, also became extremely popular. Humble Bundles are also pretty famous for this. And of course kickstarters do something a bit similar to this.

    Personally I’d love to see donation buttons/infos especially for all the free music and games that exist out there. But I want to make sure my donations reach the people who actually worked on it, so I dislike products like paypal or patreon where a portion of the money goes to men in the middle and their managers/owners, etc. A bank account number or something along those lines where I can transfer money a bit more directly would be nice, but some creators only provide paypal buttons, so I won’t donate.

    • HRDS_654@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      9 months ago

      He’s not talking about donations though, he’s talking about paying full price THEN tipping. It’s a blatant excuse to pay developers less while placing financial guilt on the people paying for the product. It’s the same way tipping at a restaurant works.

      • jsomae@lemmy.ml
        2·
        9 months ago

        The dorf fort devs made like $3k-6k per month throughout the 2010s. They did end up going commercial to get more. But it was hardly “not even an little profitable.” I mean, I’d take that deal to do what I love too.

  • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
    11·
    9 months ago

    I would be totally ok with even the bigger developers just having tip jars on their websites. It took me so long to get money to the relevant peoples after a few years as a teen of pirating stuff and then eventually reforming and feeling bad after. But I also wouldn’t mind if games were cheaper as a whole, but you could tip the ones you enjoyed. Gives incentive for games to be worth it when you have finished them, rather than before you start them.