[DaveSapien]

There will be, for sure, lives ruined because of this game's predatory practices. It really sickens me.

To quote myself from a previous thread:

"If you could hear the contempt that "some" game devs have for their customers, you might never buy a game ever again. It really is quite shocking...and the contempt exists from top to bottom, its everywhere. That isn't to say there's not a vast number of of honourable people in the industry, not at all. It's only to say that we as a whole are allowing the demons run amok.

I have seen the damage that compulsive behaviour can do to our most vulnerable in society. Lives ruined, homelessness, suicide, familial dissolution, the list goes on. Children, people with mental dysfunctions, suffers of brain injuries, even people with Parkinson's disease (on l-dopa for example)"

[maccard]

Are "game devs" any different to any other category of product developers? You can say the same about tech, design, fashion, really any industry. There's assholes in every industry, you don't tar an entire industry by its worst offenders.

[DaveSapien]

Yes. No, each industry has its special flavour of abhorrent behaviour.

I'm not 'taring' the entire industry at all. Indeed I said, "vast number of honourable people in the industry", what I am concerned with is just how wide spread the contempt is for customers that play these games. And what the contempt does in allowing utterly contemptible business practices.

[ModernMech]

> There will be, for sure, lives ruined because of this game's predatory practices. It really sickens me.

What else is new from Blizzard?

My roommate in college was addicted to WOW. He'd lock himself in his room for days, failed his classes, and eventually dropped out of school. He finished it later, but only after getting over the WOW addiction. Back then (circa 2005) I remember reading stories about how Blizzard was hiring psychologists to make players more addicted ahem I mean "engaged" to WOW. Really, I guess that was just the start of it.

Blizzard has a long and sick history of hijacking human psychology for profit. Really glad I stopped buying games from them after Warcraft III.

[DaveSapien]

That has been my impression of the company's games, but only an impression as I don't play their games.

I might check out this new mobile game for study though.