Pokémon Unite: Disgusting But Inevitable (The Jimquisition)

In neverwinter, you could refine 15k gems a day but collect hundreds of thousands of them. But you could buy gems if you wanted. You could find a few keys in the wild but you got so many loot boxes. Keys were only a few dollars. They are all the same.

Benedict Holland

If you think of the egg as a box and the incubator as a key it becomes obvious that it's a lootbox. You cannot get rid of lower quality eggs, you must hatch them. And you only have one default incubator, but you can pay to have multiple or faster ones. It's not out of the goodness of their hearts that they decided to start displaying the odds of which pokemon might hatch out of each egg. It's because the EU starting looking into the eggs mechanics.

Aimelle

On mobile, I'd totally agree, but this is a Switch release. Nintendo have 100% control over what is allowed on the Switch, and this got full official Nintendo blessing. This is a sad, sad day :(

Gibberstein

But Steph! Think of the billionaires. How will they afford food if we don't allow predatory gambling targeted at kids in our casinos? Sorry. Video games?

Benedict Holland

Can you pay money to hatch eggs faster and can you only have a limited number hatching at any one moment? How do you hatch them? Can you pay to avoid doing that action? Are there limited timed events where only certain eggs can have certain items? Can you bank new eggs if all of your egg slots are filled up? These practices are never "you must pay for the game!". It is always one level removed. In the latest case, two or three levels removed. In the egg case, Laura did a long conversation about how you can pay to skip the grind. They build the grind. They could allow you to skip it. They want you to pay. Here, do you want to win? We will match you with people using an algorithm that is a giant black box. If you lose, maybe pay a bit to skip the grind. Never winter had an item that would guarantee a gem merge with a 1% probability of the merge happening without it. They locked content behind gear score and gems were included in that score. Did they lock content behind money? Not at all. It was right there. You needed between 60 and 140 pairs of gems to get an upgrade. There are 4 upgrade tiers each requiring two gems. Did the game force you to pay?

Benedict Holland

This wasn’t about Pokémon Go, though, this was about Pokémon Unite, a completely different and vastly more insidious game.

Pete Spicer

You keep ragging on the wrong parts of Go, sib. The random eggs have been there from the start, and are literally unable to be bought. There's no point in the game where any sort of monetization allows you to get eggs. You can get them by going to a pokestop, or from a friend. Rag on the pay-only events, on the shit you can buy to spawn pokemon faster, the ever changing cosmetic items, on all the other parts of the game that money can touch, but FFS, the eggs are I think the only dang part of that game that you cannot pay money for in any way. It's frustrating to hear that point be gotten wrong over and over because it weakens all the legit arguments being made and gives deniers a strong point to discredit the entire thing.

Fran B

I hate how genuinely fun Pokemon Unite looks. And then you play it and it's... complete shit. But it's addictive shit!

DitisEmile

Not defending Nintendo AT ALL but it is “The Pokémon Company” ultimately calling the shots, of which Nintendo only has a minority stake in, so there are others responsible that also deserve scrutiny.

Snizzbut

I'm following you for years now mostly silent. But DAMN! I have to say it! Since your coming out, you look RADIANT! You look happier, healthier and I'm just so happy for you. You need that power for the good fight! Keep it up and thank you so much

Pokémoney: gotta take it all.

Pete Spicer

Ugh. First Mario Cart Tour and Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, now THIS. Nintendo has really let itself go... Since when did Nintendo, famous for not following the crowd even to the point of self-detriment, look at Ubisoft, Activision, and EA and say "I wanna do what they're doing."

Cyberweasel89