Critics must rescore Dragon's Dogma 2 in light of microtransactions

Holy shit, micro transactions for fast travel? What the fuck

From a review:

The explorers camping kit is probably the most egregious of the "DLC" So to explain, as you and your pawns battle you take damage, take enough damage and there is a portion of your HP you can't recover with magic or items. So you'll either have to go rest at an inn or find a bonfire to set up camp. To make camp you'll need the camping supplies item, the ones I have found so far are very heavy in weight, which means your party won't have much space for loot. The explorers camping kit DLC will give you 1 camping supply and make the "explorers camping kit" available to purchase within the in-game shops, and it will be much lighter in weight than the normal camping supplies. Capcom have purposely made the experience far more tedious than it need be in their fully priced AAA game so we would spend the extra money on their quality of life DLC.

Fuck this game.
- This is literally "make the Battlefield player pay money to reload their gun."
- Wait a minute, hold up, this wasn't in the game unless you have that?
- The difference is literally nothing in weight. Honestly. This is the biggest non issue. A few potatoes you loot off the ground can weigh more than the difference between the camp you purchase for gold in the first town and the dlc.
  
  If you wanna complain about legitimate issues like frame rate or only one save, that's fine. But for anyone that's played the game, the dlc is beyond pointless and not worth this level of outrage.
- That kit is part of the Deluxe edition, or $2.99 if you want to buy just it without the other bonus items. I think calling it DLC is a stumble by CAPCOM, but this guy has made a whole lot of drama out of his entitlement over not getting items from another SKU with his FREE pre-release copy of the game he finished in advance of release.
  
  EDIT - Words are hard (spelling).
You can just use ingame items
- "You can just have a significantly worse experience"
  
  People paid $80 or more for this game, basic QoL improvements should not cost 42 real life dollars
- Or companies could stop fleecing basic gameplay features that have been a staple of games for many years behind a completely unnecessary pay wall. Somebody wants to use fast travel, give it to them. If they don't, keep the option available for those who want it.
- Bet those ingame items would be easier to get if there weren’t MTX.
- Its a full price game, it shouldnt have microtransactions

Y'all still preordering video games? I thought we had talked about this.

Worse. Not sure about micro transactions but the dlc was released on day 2 with no prior information or heads up. Truly scum of earth behaviour.
- The "DLC" was available before release day and is just the stuff from the deluxe version but separated out so you can buy just the stuff you want. It has been all right on the store page (not hidden) for everyone to read this whole time. This made up story is from a reviewer that upon completing the game on their advanced FREE copy noticed the dev didn't give them the version with the other camping kit and created this whole fake outrage.
I always remember cartman about pre-orders. All you get is a big dick on your mouth
Last game I pre-ordered was Diablo 3. You might know why that was the last time I did that.

Out of the 25 English language reviews of Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s PC version on Metacritic, only two mention the microtransactions.

What the fuck.

They got bait and switched is my understanding. The game they played included the content from the micro transactions without them being informed they weren't part of the base game.
- This kind of behavior should be enough for outlets to blacklist developers. But since they don’t/wont/can’t band together to do that, they have no say in how games are reviewed.
  
  Not mentioning micro transactions is equivalent to not mentioning the price. Why review a game if you don’t know if it will be $50 or $100 at launch?
  
  Capcom basically asked them to review a game that doesn’t even exist, they asked them to review a dev build.
- This is misinformation. No "bait and switch" occurred at all. You have to go out of your way to even find the micro-transactions, and then when you do they are useless if you have actually played your way through the game. Reviewers got all of this in detail with their review keys, but adding time into your review to talk about something that is basically an afterthought and has no affect on the actual game seems like a waste of time. These people are all rushing to release content as soon as the embargo is lifted. So putting extra time into a review to talk about something 99% of people will never see does not have a great return on effort.
thats part of the reason why i stopped trusting reviewers
- The whole thing is a scam. Their entire business model is dependent on receiving early access games so hype will drive some ad revenue. How many early access games will they get if they give bad reviews?
  
  To stop this, gamers would basically have to union up and full boycott any developer who did not give early access to their union's reviewers. I don't see that happening any time soon.
- I always wait until the Steam reviews about a week after. Has kept me from making a few mistakes.
  
  I still have Starfield a try since it is included in Xbox Gamepass and holy hell, if I paid $10 for that game it would have been a rip off. It was about as exciting as watching shampoo commercials after taking three tabs of Xanax.

I refunded it because it ran like shit. This just makes me even sadder.

how did we end up in a reality where people are actively defending a 70$ release priced game that is single player AND has micro-transactions. A game like this should be thrown into the garbage and everyone should be unified on that. Like it being single player ALONE should make it so it doesn't have MT's but it has both SP and a 70$ price point?

Because enough people shell out money for things we used to get just by purchasing the game.

I'd wager half the current buyers of games nowadays don't even remember a time before dlc was ever even a thing. So to them this is just what gaming is.
Cause the micro transactions are literally pointless. The only people complaining are the people who haven't played the game enough to know that NOTHING in the dlc is worth paying for. If you played the game for the first few hours, you'd earn more RC just by killing shit then the highest dlc package offers. Ferrystone are loot or gold. Barber shop costs gold too. Nothing is even that expensive.

The game is LITERALLY exactly like the first game except more content. The micro transactions might as well be called donations.
- If you are ok with this, you are naive and not thinking about what will happen next. They will obviously push this bar higher with next game if they feel like it's acceptable because people didn't protest enough. Next game you might find yourself having to buy map access because they will say it's more realistic to play the game without the map, and then add micro transaction for it. Defending and accepting practices like this is basically destroying our gaming future. That's exactly how we ended up with games like Diablo 4 Micro transactions + 70 euro + paid expansions + battlepass in one game and there are still people defending it.
- I'm sorry but the whole point is the principle of it, I a consumer, and spending $70 ( which may I add is still at least $10 more MSRP than your typical game) which is single player, which pointlessly requires an internet connection(at least to start the game), has an anti-cheat(well technically an Anti-Tamper) and has microtransactions. The only thing this is missing is a battle pass and you have every aspect that the majority of the game Community hates.
  
  This game is literally the embodiment of corporate greed and people buying the game regardless of that and saying "oh the microtransactions are able to be obtained in game anyway" are just eating the corporate "shit-pie".

How and why companies do this, I don't understand. Way to kill what would've been a great game

Money. Even if 5 people scream and get a refund or don't buy it there will be 100 that don't care and just pay. It's the same with every bad thing like preorder, dlc after dlc, microtransactions for cosmetics more expensive than an full title indie game or pay to win in a full price triple a game (like star wars battlefront 2). In the end the group of people just buying is bigger.
- Mostly negative is a terrible ad by itself. I am buying only games with either very positive or overwhelmingly positive ratings. Those reviews are tanking their sales I am sure.

It is shocking how many people there are in this thread that try to downplay this. And the sad thing is, most if not all of them arent getting paid a dime to shill.

Not really normal people though, it's a PR team.

Yarrrrr. There be no such troubles on the high seas

Is there a cracked version floating around yet?
- Denuvo, so no

Currently, the shill /u/TimLovesTech@BadAtBeing.social makes up 22 of the 116 comments in this thread and all are baselessly defending this game

If you have an opinion, /u/TimLovesTech@BadAtBeing.social doesn't want to hear it and will tell you you're wrong

I just have a problem with people spreading misinformation like a parrot with something they "heard somewhere". You are basically spreading lies, and when confronted have doubled down on them. Does speaking truth to lies make me the enemy now? Bragging about being uninformed and spreading misinformation does not seem like a great hill to die on personally, but to each their own. You are free to speak your lies, but I will continue to call them out as such.

Mods, is this community about spreading misinformation?? If so I'm more than happy to leave the community, and ban it as such from my instance.
- speaking truth to lies
  
  Whoa buddy, don't come in here acting like you're the gaming prophet or something
  
  "I think" or "I heard" cannot be lies unless you don't think or didn't hear (respectively) said thing
  
  You are telling people their opinions are wrong and you are telling people they didn't hear something. Your actions are counterproductive to what you're trying to do. Almost nothing gets people to refuse to change their mind better than calling them liars and telling them that their opinions are wrong. Root issues and facts, fine. Opinions, not fine

I don't care if they're for stuff that easily obtainable, I don't care that all of the other capcom games have been doing it too, I don't care that its a fun game. $70 and having ANY MTX is bullshit.

Honest question since you have clearly played the game for a number of hours. How did the micro-transactions that you needed to go out of your way to even find, and are worthless after having actually played through the game, effect your game play? Was it because nothing in game is affected by them? Or was it that CAPCOM does nothing to push you towards them?

It was the fact that apparently nobody even knew they were their until somebody went out of their way to discover them that has affected my game play so much! How dare they put these useless items available for real dollars that only a fool would buy, and then after doing so only to find out they are useless. It has basically ruined my whole world, I may never game again! The horror! /s
- I'll take the obvious bait here. The issue is that paying for a full game should give you a full game. For now the MTXs are like you said, for small items and not game changing. For now.
  
  If the gaming community accepts this, who knows what the next step will be? Maybe they'll be kept small, but maybe they won't.
  
  Remember this is the the same industry selling horse armor, selling over 2k dollars of dlc in the Sims 4, shipping unfinished games after millionaire pre-orders, and selling dlc that fix day one problems that shouldn't even be there. And they do this because the community never questioned when they were small enough problems.
- Do you even understand the point of microtransactions in these situations? When used for items in the game that you can just get by playing the game, did you even consider what involves getting these items? Like does it become tedious? Takes too long to find? Takes up I ventory space? You can only sometimes find them at a vendor?I mean CAPCOM could've made them easily accessible for you. Fast travel kits have no weight, buy them at any store. Customize your character? Sure just setup camp or go to a mirror to do it for free. But no, they created a system that is so subtle that it completely goes over your sheep brain and you either choose to ignore it or cope with the tediousness of getting these items and even if you don't buy the MTX the fact that there are some poor schmucks our there who will probably buy them because of the shitty system setup in DD2 is fucked up enough to be pissed about it, especially for a $70 game. CAPCOM didn't just do this to do this, actually think for a second. They obviously chose these items strategically to get those few people who say "eh I'll just buy this item real quick since it's only 0.50 and convenient". It should be convenient in the fucking $70 single player game itself!!
- that you needed to go out of your way to even find
  
  CAPCOM does nothing to push you towards them
  
  Hey Tim, go ahead and open up the game's page on any storefront and try to find the system requirements before you see the DLC.
  
  People aren't saying that the items are useful. It would be even worse if they were. The decision to sell microtransactions in a single player RPG, regardless of how useful the things you get for them are, is inherently scummy. It's worth calling it out regardless of how useless the items are.
- The full list of all available dlc is easily seen on the steam store page before you even buy it. The rest was covered well by another poster.

I am a FIRM believer that a quality product will net you more sales than any cheap tricks will and if you really come out with a banger then you always have the option to add a MEANINGFUL DLC addition down the line, instead of content you made at the same time you made the base game and just decided to wall off and "release" later.

How many hours do you have in game? Had you played you would know that nothing available is "walled off". It is actually the opposite, and the stuff is basically useless to buy since you can acquire all of it through a normal play through of the game. No place in the game do you even feel like "oh man, I really need to buy that DLC or else this part is going to be impossible/different/less than/etc.".

And it's clear the people getting everyone all riled up about this stuff did not play the game either (or are acting in bad faith).

Tbh, I kinda get both sides here. The precedent thats unfolding, not even being set, since this isnt the first game to do so, is bad enough to stain the game and be worth being pissed about. But also, since the entire game can be enjoyed ignoring the DLC even exists, its a fun enough game in a slightly more niche category that its also worth ignoring the precedent

edit: Aside from the nuance part of things. I personally am not super bothered by the precedent because I've sworn off AAA games for at least a decade now. The precedent that games of that investment level are going to use any shitty psychological trick to drain as much of that investment back from you has long been already set. An AAA game now has to prove its worth buying to me at this point, and my gaming experience has actually improved because we are currently in a golden era of Indie games anyways.

In the interest of clearing up this continuing deluge of misinformation, I think cowboy at the end of his stream today said it better than I did earlier today. Plus he is likely to know more than anyone here as he had completed both endings before release with his advanced copy.

FightingCowboy

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FightingCowboy

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I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

It's pretty clear that many people here have not even looked at the Steam store page, and are instead falling for the bait for clicks and drama from a reviewer that didn't read, and is big sad he only got to complete the standard version pre-launch. This whole thing is manufactured drama over something that was right on the Steam page since day one. You want the stuff the guy cried about in the article, buy the Deluxe addition. Is $10 to much extra, OK, then buy the individual pieces of the deluxe addition extras you want and stop with this fake outrage for a game you most likely didn't even buy/play anyway.

This is all much to do about nothing. It's all stuff you get in the deluxe addition and right underneath says - "Items in this set can also be purchased separately. Please be aware of duplicate purchases." This sounds like people trying to find a problem where none exists.

The Deluxe Edition includes the base game and the add-on "A Boon for Adventurers - New Journey Pack".

A Boon for Adventurers - New Journey Pack:

Explorer's Camping Kit - Camping Gear
Dragon's Dogma Music & Sound Collection - Custom Sounds
Harpysnare Smoke Beacons - Harpy Lure Item
Heartfelt Pendant - A Thoughtful Gift
Ambivalent Rift Incense - Change Pawn Inclinations
Makeshift Gaol Key - Escape from gaol!
Art of Metamorphosis - Character Editor
Wakestone - Restore the dead to life! (A)
1500 Rift Crystals - Points to Spend Beyond the Rift (A)

Why does a single player game have mtx at all? I just don't get the point of it.
- To distract from the shitty anti-cheat they have installed.
- It's the stuff that comes with the deluxe edition, only they let you buy each piece individually if you want, which I think is reasonable. This is all manufactured drama by some reviewer that got the game for free and didn't read anything about it apparently. It's right there on steam, not hidden in small print in a footnote or something. If people can't read I think it says more about them than the devs.
You don't have a problem with the game having purchasable fast travel and locking a character editor behind the pay wall?
- It isn't locked behind a paywall, it costs 500 RC which you can get by literally not playing the game and having your pawn get hired by somebody. You get a fuckton of it just by playing. I'm mad because of how not only is the mtx clearly done by higher ups rather than the devs but they're utterly useless and only give people false impressions about the game, which was a passion project by the director.
Missing a /s?
Maybe I'm missing the obvious sarcasm, but why in the hell does a deluxe versions exist? You done screwed up your game if the game play is so tedious I want to pay for in game credits (rift crystals) instead of earn them. Hey they put in time sucks so bad your going to want to pay to make them go away instead of play the game.
- You're 🤦‍♂️
- Why does any game have a deluxe addition? It usually includes more stuff up front. Did nobody read what they were paying for? It's in plain English right on the store page.
  
  Also seems like a bunch of people who didn't even buy the game getting all fired up over some manufactured drama from a reviewer who didn't read what he was getting for FREE. And now he's all worked up because he didn't get the deluxe addition for free and needs to pay $2.99 for the dumb camp kit or to buy a portcrystal or rift crystals or whatever.