Does GameSparks integration imply micro transactions?

[P3rf3ctVZer0]

https://i.imgur.com/D4iRCQg.png

I avidly keep up with gaming news mobile and otherwise. Developers give me some proof that you don't plan on adding micro transactions you literally added an application designed to filter user data in a way that helps developers exploit certain behavior and play styles. Seriously I thought you were better than that. When is the "Evil Alliance" partnership? Is Bethesda going help with 7 days to die - Nuclear Fallout? Why would you do this when I had faith in you! If you give me the excuse that its optional I would like it to optionally never exist! Tell me it's for my enjoyment? I don't enjoy spending more money by force. The only way I will continue to have faith in fun pimps is if at no point players loose any content or feature due to micro transaction (no slow grinding premium currency does not count! As a way to keep current features.) So please answer this and note I will screenshot this post and make sure it can't just vanish.

[Laz Man]

19 minutes ago, P3rf3ctVZer0 said:

https://i.imgur.com/D4iRCQg.png

I avidly keep up with gaming news mobile and otherwise. Developers give me some proof that you don't plan on adding micro transactions you literally added an application designed to filter user data in a way that helps developers exploit certain behavior and play styles. Seriously I thought you were better than that. When is the "Evil Alliance" partnership? Is Bethesda going help with 7 days to die - Nuclear Fallout? Why would you do this when I had faith in you! If you give me the excuse that its optional I would like it to optionally never exist! Tell me it's for my enjoyment? I don't enjoy spending more money by force. The only way I will continue to have faith in fun pimps is if at no point players loose any content or feature due to micro transaction (no slow grinding premium currency does not count! As a way to keep current features.) So please answer this and note I will screenshot this post and make sure it can't just vanish.

Jumping the gun a bit?  Just because gamesparks "can" help with monetization it doesn't mean only micro-transcations.... Did you overlook the part below that states "...Making a game into a cross platform multiplayer game..." Rick in one of the dev streams stating that he would like one day to hopefully have cross platform multiplayer especially because there is such a large following on consoles....

 

and honestly what is the worse case scenario here?  Character skins for sale? DLC map pack?  7 Days to Die is pretty much almost complete so if micro transactions becomes a thing it would most likely be in their next title.

 

Take a few breaths and live in the present ...  you're going to give yourself a heart attack. 😎

 

EDIT: I find it EXTREMELY alarming that you are worried about this when your forum avatar is of a very popular gaming IP that is driven by micro transactions LOL......*facepalm*

[Crater Creator]

The purpose of GameSparks integration, as the developers have been transparent about, is to collect data on players for analytical purposes.  Knowing what players actually do and don't do in the game, with numbers, is an important tool for balancing the game.  For example, if nobody's crafting shotguns, and everyone's scrapping their shotgun parts or selling them to the trader, then there's probably an imbalance, and shotguns deserve a buff or at least a second look at the numbers.

 

The developers also hate the idea of pay to win, so I'm not worried on that front.  If there are plans for cosmetic DLC... well first, I'll be amazed if anything comes before the game goes gold.  Beyond that... I've gotten many hundreds of hours of entertainment for the one-time purchase I made for this game.  So it wouldn't seem entirely unreasonable.

[P3rf3ctVZer0]

I really appreciate as a user the transparency. I guess it was wrong to disbelief intentions. I tried looking for information based on devs responses and I cannot seem to find anything based on "game spark" so maybe if the devs would be so kind make a post specifically about it, I don't think I would have felt nearly as shaky at my core if using the forum search and typing "game spark" would have showed me some kind of official response. I am sorry if I seem high-strung I just don't want to start down the rabbit hole of micro transaction games. I bought this game because micro transactions didn't exist and it was a cool way to survive zombie games. Also, if fun pimps really do never use this for sinister purposes like piece-mealing their content than they will have been in the 0.000001 % of devs who used this application.

[Death2gnomes]

GS was talked about in the dev streams, Rick answered a couple questions.

 

[Liesel Weppen]

6 hours ago, Crater Creator said:

The purpose of GameSparks integration, as the developers have been transparent about, is to collect data on players for analytical purposes.  Knowing what players actually do and don't do in the game, with numbers, is an important tool for balancing the game.

Ahhh, than that is the reason why almost every game becomes more and more casualized, because they analyze data from every player and usually there are way more noob-players playing a game. So the balancing based on this data always tends to be more casual.

 

*SCNR*

[meganoth]

You might have more chances finding official replies when searching for "telemetry". Because it was always talked about what it will bring to the table (i.e. telemetry data) instead of who is providing the data (game spark).

 

 

27 minutes ago, Liesel Weppen said:

Ahhh, than that is the reason why almost every game becomes more and more casualized, because they analyze data from every player and usually there are way more noob-players playing a game. So the balancing based on this data always tends to be more casual.

 

*SCNR*

Yes, the danger of false interpretation of the data is huge. Hopefully they don't fall into that trap

 

[Laz Man]

[Roland]

Speaking of micro transactions, I have tinfoil hats for sale at a great price. I asked Rick if he would add a link for my online store to Trader Rekt’s dialogue tree but he said, “Hell, no!” 
 

I think it’s probably because they have something planned along those lines for themselves.

 

(I don’t only sell them, I wear them too.)

2 hours ago, Liesel Weppen said:

Ahhh, than that is the reason why almost every game becomes more and more casualized, because they analyze data from every player and usually there are way more noob-players playing a game. So the balancing based on this data always tends to be more casual.

 

*SCNR*

Not only that, but additionally their whole approach to this game from the start has been moddability. They know they can make the base game more appealing to the wider market and let modders handle making the game more hardcore— especially when the hardcore consumers are also the most likely group to be willing to use mods as well. 
 

 

[madmole]

Wow, Idle hands are the devils workshop my dad always said. The things people dream up amazes me.

We simply want to know how many people are using clubs vs stun batons so we can make stun batons better if 9 out 10 players choose the club instead... or should add more shows to the in game television? OH wait 4 people out of 10 million use the television, so maybe we should just delete it instead, or find out why nobody is watching it.

Basically we want to balance the game, we have no plans for microtransactions at this time, nor do we collect any personal data.

[Hockallz]

4 minutes ago, madmole said:

Wow, Idle hands are the devils workshop my dad always said. The things people dream up amazes me.

We simply want to know how many people are using clubs vs stun batons so we can make stun batons better if 9 out 10 players choose the club instead... or should add more shows to the in game television? OH wait 4 people out of 10 million use the television, so maybe we should just delete it instead, or find out why nobody is watching it.

Basically we want to balance the game, we have no plans for microtransactions at this time, nor do we collect any personal data.

Good to know, but as a side note... Never use the stun baton. I'll take a bone knife over a stun baton any day.

[madmole]

10 minutes ago, Hockallz said:

Good to know, but as a side note... Never use the stun baton. I'll take a bone knife over a stun baton any day.

That is what gamesparks is for, so we don't have to rely on anecdotal evidence like this, we will have actual stats to see the percentage (not even who) of people who are using clubs vs bone shivs vs batons, etc.

[Roland]

47 minutes ago, madmole said:

no plans for microtransactions at this time

Nice! This phrase should make my hats fly off the shelves!!
 

Operators are standing by....

[Laz Man]

2 hours ago, Roland said:

Nice! This phrase should make my hats fly off the shelves!!
 

Operators are standing by....

Rolland...stop casting your level 5 summon troll spell....😂

[P3rf3ctVZer0]

@madmole Thank you for being direct I am a bit too used to allowing game devs to skate by with crummy practices but if you really don't plan on breaking your reputation I will enable game spark since I tend to play this game a lot. I am a well known beta tester in the Minecraft scene and others I also always report any bugs. I will continue to have full faith in "Fun Pimps" I hope you and your team have a wonderful future.

[Mahnogard]

3 hours ago, madmole said:

That is what gamesparks is for, so we don't have to rely on anecdotal evidence like this, we will have actual stats to see the percentage (not even who) of people who are using clubs vs bone shivs vs batons, etc.

I have a question. In the forum on the Steam threads, one of the mods said that GS would disregard modded games. Does this include only those with actual mods installed in the mods folder, or does it also include those categorized as "modded" due to using non-vanilla game options (from the options screens, not manual XML edits)? I ask because I'm happy to have my data sent but I almost never use vanilla options when setting up a new game.

[P3rf3ctVZer0]

3 minutes ago, Mahnogard said:

I have a question. In the forum on the Steam threads, one of the mods said that GS would disregard modded games. Does this include only those with actual mods installed in the mods folder, or does it also include those categorized as "modded" due to using non-vanilla game options (from the options screens, not manual XML edits)? I ask because I'm happy to have my data sent but I almost never use vanilla options when setting up a new game.

I, too, am now curious how this would be handled.

[Kosmic Kerman]

I’m just going to drop this here. If you are unable to detect people using modded maps like (Nitrogen) be very careful on how you interpret players’ inventories.  In A18 at least, Nitrogen maps had a ton of gas stations on them. This meant you were way more likely to encounter garage loot boxes. And so you would tend to have way more of the items that spawn in those boxes (repair kits, vehicle parts, etc) on a Nitrogen map compared to vanilla. Nitrogen maps also tended to be more densely packed leading to more things to loot. 

[SylenThunder]

4 hours ago, Roland said:

Nice! This phrase should make my hats fly off the shelves!!
 

Operators are standing by....

It is interesting though.  I recall a discussion a couple of years ago in one of the dev diaries where they were very against the idea of micro-transactions.

 

Personally I don't really see a good way to integrate it into the game, and still keep the same focus on what the game is supposed to be.

[Liesel Weppen]

7 hours ago, Roland said:

Not only that, but additionally their whole approach to this game from the start has been moddability. They know they can make the base game more appealing to the wider market and let modders handle making the game more hardcore— especially when the hardcore consumers are also the most likely group to be willing to use mods as well.

Yeah, nice attitude... So basically i could also use unity to "mod" my own game.

For me vanilla is still a full game, and it should be somehow complete as a full game. It's a game, not just a construction kit to make a game.

Imho some total conversion mods did enhance the game much more than vanilla did. Adding mechanics, even graphical overhauls.

To be honest, i'd rather pay for darkness falls as a new game then paying anything for A19. Yeah, i know, i don't have to pay for any of them again, but what some modders did to the game is much more advanced that what TFP is doing atm.

Of course there is progress and not everybody likes every change, but basically 7d2d would have been worth selling every new major alpha for 20 bucks every year. But A19 then would be a version where i finally would say: I could have skipped this one.

[Laz Man]

15 minutes ago, Liesel Weppen said:

Yeah, nice attitude... So basically i could also use unity to "mod" my own game.

For me vanilla is still a full game, and it should be somehow complete as a full game. It's a game, not just a construction kit to make a game.

Imho some total conversion mods did enhance the game much more than vanilla did. Adding mechanics, even graphical overhauls.

To be honest, i'd rather pay for darkness falls as a new game then paying anything for A19. Yeah, i know, i don't have to pay for any of them again, but what some modders did to the game is much more advanced that what TFP is doing atm.

Of course there is progress and not everybody likes every change, but basically 7d2d would have been worth selling every new major alpha for 20 bucks every year. But A19 then would be a version where i finally would say: I could have skipped this one.

You do realize darkness falls will continue to get better because the game continues to develop?  I get you like it more then Vanilla A19 but try to show alittle respect...

[Liesel Weppen]

12 minutes ago, Laz Man said:

You do realize darkness falls will continue to get better because the game continues to develop?  I get you like it more then Vanilla A19 but try to show alittle respect...

You got me wrong. And it is not disrespect but more like disappointment.

Darkness Falls added a lot more to the game then every update since... A16? Which inherent means, it was already possible with what the base game provided, but vanilla didn't. And Darkness Falls is just an example.

 

From what i got, even TFP stated, polishing comes last, what makes absolutely sense in case of softwaredevelopment. What did they do with A19... polish graphics, but almost nothing to advance the gameplay. And to be honest, seeing just HALF of the zombies graphically overhauled looks like something half done half not done... even if it is "just" alpha.

[Roland]

34 minutes ago, Liesel Weppen said:

Yeah, nice attitude... So basically i could also use unity to "mod" my own game.

For me vanilla is still a full game, and it should be somehow complete as a full game. It's a game, not just a construction kit to make a game.

Imho some total conversion mods did enhance the game much more than vanilla did. Adding mechanics, even graphical overhauls.

To be honest, i'd rather pay for darkness falls as a new game then paying anything for A19. Yeah, i know, i don't have to pay for any of them again, but what some modders did to the game is much more advanced that what TFP is doing atm.

Of course there is progress and not everybody likes every change, but basically 7d2d would have been worth selling every new major alpha for 20 bucks every year. But A19 then would be a version where i finally would say: I could have skipped this one.

How did you ever come to the conclusion that I was saying TFP would stop before making the complete game? I guess we need to know your definition of "complete". They can make the game complete and yet approachable and playable by a wide range of gamers. Your original statement was that the game might be casualized by the use of analytics-- not left incomplete. Don't go changing the goal posts in the middle of the conversation you started. If the game is complete with all goals implemented but somewhat too casual for you there is nothing wrong with downloading a mod that makes it more of a hardcore survival simulation type of experience. There is also nothing wrong with the attitude of TFP finishing their game and making it 100% complete but in a way that appeals to the wider market while at the same time giving us the means to change it into something that fits our niche set of preferences.

 

I just don't understand people who look at the moddability of the game and instead of feeling excitement and gratitude for the possibilities granted, they feel disappointment and anger.

[madmole]

3 hours ago, Mahnogard said:

I have a question. In the forum on the Steam threads, one of the mods said that GS would disregard modded games. Does this include only those with actual mods installed in the mods folder, or does it also include those categorized as "modded" due to using non-vanilla game options (from the options screens, not manual XML edits)? I ask because I'm happy to have my data sent but I almost never use vanilla options when setting up a new game.

I believe if you change certain settings it doesn't gather any data. I'm not sure which ones though.

[P3rf3ctVZer0]

Can someone please rename the thread to read "Game Spark Concerns and Discussion" since that is the way the post went?