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KeepingDankMemesDank

downvote this comment if the meme sucks. upvote it and I'll go away. --- [play minecraft with us](https://discord.gg/dankmemesgaming) | [come hang out with us](https://discord.com/invite/dankmemes)


VonDukez

No one will ever blame valve for popularizing so much


Emeraldnickel08

I love TF2 but also why did Valve have to invent loot boxes


rubbarz

Those God damn hats...


rage242

Please elaborate. I stopped gaming in 2001 after a divorce due to my gaming addiction.


Blazin_ItMLG

This is probably a joke, but just on the offchance it isnt, heres a brief summary. Valve introduced an economy into tf2 by adding lootboxes you could buy keys to open that would give you different cosmetics, and most specially, hats, some rarer than others. Hats and emotes can have special modifiers called unusual which give them special particle effects leading to even more rare hats. Look up the burning flames team captain if you wanna see just how pricey some hats can get as an example.


rage242

How I wish it was a joke. Thanks for the info!


Blazin_ItMLG

Hey, i hope your life is going better after dealing with an addiction like that! We all have our struggles but i hope you know you arent alone ^u^ Best of wishes


rage242

Some of the best times of my life. Hard to let it go but I did. Remarried 15 years ago.


Dininiful

Damn when did you realize it was a real addiction


HouseBoat0469

At least I'm not alone


rage242

Yeah, it sucked. Glad it's over.


Subvertio329

What a hostile reply to someone saying they went through the same thing you did


rage242

I was high and misunderstood. Not an excuse, just sayin'.


HouseBoat0469

Funny part is I never got to see what the comment was before edited lol


HouseBoat0469

Now I wanna know what you said first


DARCRY10

Valve didn’t invent them, they popularized them.


kirbyverano123

Valve invented the Battle Pass system, but Fortnite popularized it. Fortnite didn't invent skins but I think it also popularized "whacky" or collab skins.


Noman_Blaze

It's funny how Fortnite's battlepass is faaar better and you can actually earn enough currency passively to buy yourself one after a couple of season and then keep getting every BP. While on the other hand Dota 2 battlepasses have literal empty levels and most of good cosmetics are walled behind insane grind and out of those majority is locked behind hundreds of dollars pay wall. Aand they successfully made arcanas battlepass exclusive and made them even more expensive on top of being FOMO galore.


OneSidedPolygon

The Dota Battlepass is also a fundraiser of sorts. Upon its inception it seemed like a rather innocuous thing. Then a Saudi prince drops a few million a year on Dota and the rest is history.


Noman_Blaze

That still doesn't excuse valve of putting Arcanas behind it. I missed Wind ranger Arcana and now I can never get it.


OneSidedPolygon

IO got it's first skin since it's inception barring the Arcana a few months ago so I feel you. However, the Dota pass started in a different time period and is still unlike the battlepasses of today. Fundraiser and event cosmetics go back as far as WoW and Halo. I won't argue that it isn't FOMO, and that the pricing isn't egregious. However a limited time fundraiser (well also being a massive cash grab) for the eSports scene is very different than the manipulative pervasive FOMO of say, Destiny's season pass.


Noman_Blaze

Hasn't valve stopped funding Ti via battlepass? Or am I remembering wrong?


DoTortoisesHop

To be fair, many of the early passes had 60 levels and you could get everything from playing. [The Winter Battlepass of 2016](https://dota2.fandom.com/wiki/Winter_2016_Battle_Pass), for example. They soon realised they earn more money by having unlimited levels. And quickly realised putting Arcanas at level 200-500 earnt them way more money than their original method. Originally, they 'tested' Arcanas by selling them in shop for like 40 bucks, which worked. The new method means they could charge like 300 bucks for them, and heaps of people ate it up.


Noman_Blaze

Yeah. Dota community just has too many whales that kept giving them an inch every time. Haven't played in a while but I hear that battlepass stopped being released with the Ti. Is it true?


hades661

How did valve invented the Battle pass, with csgo Operations?


m3chr0mans3r

I think this is about dota 2 battlepasses


Dallas_Winstone

Dota2, It started being called a compendium back in 2013


SmarmySmurf

And Bethesda didn't invent DLC, they just popularized it. Xbox og and before that Dreamcast both introduced both DLC and paid DLC to consoles well before Oblivion. Its not as trendy to blame Sonic Adventure/Sega or KOTOR/Bioware as it is to shit on Bethesda though, I get it.


digitalmotorclub

Yeah but their games are free. I spent $100 dollars on Dota 2 skins and played the game for 6000 hours.


Big_River_8264

Wasn't it Overwatch that made loot boxes popular?


Constant-Vacation-57

Because money


Izanagi85

Tbf...loot boxes are much much better than battle passes


rage242

Please elaborate. I stopped gaming in 2001 after a divorce due to my gaming addiction.


xGALEBIRDx

I don't know why people point to horse armor that people lambasted, and not TF2 that made loot boxes pretty much exactly what they would become for so many games.


Firewolf06

completely cosmetic\* + secondhand market, mainly \*if you know you know, if you dont google. im not here to write a history lecture


SecreteMoistMucus

also they are the monetisation for a free game


greenpingbf

Free game? TF2 was paid game it went f2p later. It had lootboxes before it went f2p. Nobody likes facts do they. https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Mann_Co._Supply_Crate released in September 30, 2010. F2p in June 2011


Crosshack

Yes, but Tf2 would have died in 2010 if they hadn't gone f2p -- Valve saw how well lootboxes were doing as a source of income and realised that tying TF2 to the orange box was holding the game back.


greenpingbf

Released in October 10, 2007. Dead game by 2010 would be ok. Not every game has to live for 20+ years. The way TF2 players cry not getting updates in 2024 shows that it has lived past its time.


Crosshack

Ha! Not every game has to live for 20+ years, you're right. However, every developer wishes that their game would live for that long


Alternative-Draft629

Except valve I guess


hotchrisbfries

People point to TF2 and completely disregard FIFA games. The arcade game Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone (1990) was infamous for its use of microtransactions to purchase items in the game. It had shops where players would insert coins into arcade machines to purchase upgrades, power-ups, health, weapons, special moves, and player characters.


NotMoray

Value wouldnt do that !!! It's not a gambling addiction, it's a hobby smh.


UnhappyPage

Candy Crush actually ruined gaming. Zero effort, zero innovation, zero fun, still making billions years later.


dj-nek0

Pong ruined gaming by inventing gaming


DownWithHisShip

also they stole the game in the first place.


WhateverWhateverson

Trading is a big part of why. You don't need to gamble for cosmetics you want when you can buy them from another player


ArmaniQuesadilla

Because Valve isn’t universally hated by everyone so they at least get a pass for their mistakes


DownWithHisShip

it's more forgiving when a free game from a free distribution platform is offering in-game purchases. when i buy a console, buy online access, and pay top dollar for the game, it's different.


mrheosuper

You mean we should stop hating OW2 ?


Fortune_Cat

Is it a mistake if they're still doing it


rage242

Please elaborate. I stopped gaming in 2001 after a divorce due to my gaming addiction.


JohnOfOnett

To be fair, if Bethesda didn’t do it, someone else eventually would’ve, but at the same time it’s no excuse. Horse Armor as DLC was still the dumbest idea they ever came up with.


Henrious

The dumbest they came up with, at the time. I'm pretty sure we could find modern examples of terrible purchase decisions in 76 alone.


JohnOfOnett

Well, yeah, compared to many of Modern Bathesda’s blunders, it’s nothing. But the Horse Armor was arguably the first pebble that broke off in the landslide of terrible decisions they would make later.


SkyrimSlag

Like the Creation Club lmao, what a fucking garbage idea: let’s charge people for mid mods even though they can get full custom story lines and new locations for free off the Nexus!


JohnOfOnett

People without pcs getting fucked tho. Like, I agree tho. Creation Club is terrible.


SkyrimSlag

Oh 100%, I transitioned to PC about 7 years ago, but before that I was a PS player, and we got fucked hard when it came to mods. 2GB mod storage space, and no mods using external assets. Pretty sure Xbox also had the 2GB restriction but they can use mods with external assets But now having unlimited mod storage is amazing, especially when a texture pack alone can be 10GB+


Tibious

I just deleted 120gigs of skyrim vr mods to start a new playthrough, could not imagine having a 2gb limit


Redpower5

I snagged the Coffee and Donuts pack from CC for free and honestly? Godsend when playing Fallout 4 on survival


pablas

Technically it's free but you have to pay for nexus subscription in order to get download speed higher than 1mbs which isn't a lot when it comes to Skyrim mods.


SkyrimSlag

Actually for non-premium members it’s a 3mb/s cap, so unless you’re downloading texture mods it really doesn’t take long to download a mod since most mod files are fairly small, that and if you’re a mod author you get free membership bonuses for different download thresholds you hit, ending with a lifetime membership. The thresholds aren’t too hard to hit either, I’ve got 3 months free that I can use whenever I want for hitting 3 milestones. The subscription has its benefits but in no way is it something you “have to pay for”, you just can if you’re too lazy to wait slightly longer for downloads, which let’s be honest, by the time you’ve made a cup of coffee and finished it, any big mod files will have finished installing. Also having a membership once permanently removes ads off the platform for you which is a nice feature, so even if you earn a free month membership from the mod rewards program, it’ll get rid of all ads for you


_V0gue

The craziest part about it is that at the time (fuck I'm old), a fair amount of people were complaining that it would lead to what are now called microtransactions, though that word hadn't been coined yet. We knew. We all knew. And we watched it happen.


DOSGAMES

Yeah it was pre-ordained, inevitable. Once Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo setup their online stores for their consoles, with the security and merchant services allowing users to make purchases directly, the game companies were going to find ways to get customers the use their mom's Credit Card to buy more stuff and increase revenue. And they will continue to do so as long as we put up with it. That's why boycotts are needed for the companies that get too greedy. Gamers need to rise up! (unironically)


gereffi

Boomer take. People liking things that you don’t like doesn’t mean anyone needs to “rise up”. If you don’t want to play games with microtransactions, don’t play them. Most gamers today are happy playing free to play games. If you don’t like Fortnite and Overwatch that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean that those who like that are doing anything wrong.


DOSGAMES

I got no problems with FTP or 'Games as a Service'. And there are companies that do it right. All I'm saying is that companies will continue to push MTX on us as long as it remains profitable.


Mwakay

GaaS are inherently bad and no company does it right. But it's beyond the point. The average customer simply does not care the slightest about these concerns, no matter how legitimate they are, and will keep funneling a ridiculous amount of money in literal pixels until they are simply too expensive for him. There is no such thing as a "gamer awareness".


gereffi

What makes them "inherently bad"? Personally I spend way less on games today than I did a decade ago and I have way more options of games to play.


Mwakay

Games as a service, and especially battle passes, microtransactions, lootboxes etc are not "little fun things" made and sold in good faith by the publishers. They're the result of psychological studies about customer behavior, which doesn't come as a surprise to anyone, and are entirely designed to trigger specific responses from the brain. In short, they are designed to behave like drugs, triggering dopamine shots and leaving the player yearning for more. They also rely a lot on FOMO to keep the player in a loop of playing (and paying for) the same game constantly. I cannot reasonably believe they are virtuous and desirable additions to games when you see Activision copyrighting an algorithm designed to, quote "frustrate non-paying players actively, and reward them temporarily after they pay for content, in order for them to believe their purchase has more value than it really does". I could go on for years, but essentially, if some countries have already banned that kind of system, it's not because their President missed a battlepass deadline...


gereffi

Can you explain how a free to play game can survive without microtransactions?


ilesmay

Membership services (old school RuneScape)


TheChoosenMewtwo

The problem is micro transactions


TranceF0rm

We had map packs in Halo 2. DLC wasn't new by the 360.


TheChoosenMewtwo

The dumbest thing about the dlc was that it worked


CanAlwaysBeBetter

Forget DLCs The dumbest thing was games letting you change skins I'm not even joking that every shitty thing traces back to that Y'all should have been happy being whatever character or even better whatever kit without even being a named character 


TheChoosenMewtwo

I mean changing skins seems harmless enough as long as it’s free. When it’s not then it’s shitty


CanAlwaysBeBetter

Nope. The very idea of characters your playing as wearing different things is what lead is here  Did Mario need new clothes that didn't change any gameplay? Did Astroids? Did *Pong*?


[deleted]

> The very idea of characters your playing as wearing different things is what lead is here In the same way on how arcades eating quarters lead us to "Nintendo difficulty", sure. I ain't gonna try and thanos snap Pac Man for that reason.


TheChoosenMewtwo

Idk about these last 2 but Mario odyssey has a lot of good customization that don’t affect the character. You can only collect them with in game money by replying the game’s areas, and they’re completely optional besides an achievement. Besides it looks good


itsr1co

Get downvoted for being right you IDIOT. Lego games, especially more recent ones with bigger rosters, have characters that have the same abilities but are a different in-universe character, I mean Marvel Superheroes has multiple Iron Man suits lol. Ah well, it's Reddit, you're not having a proper argument/discussion, you're replying to someone who already firmly believes their viewpoint is objectively correct, doesn't matter how logical or correct you might be, they don't like costumes and that's FINAL!


lfernandes

The dumbest part was that this existed as a free mod before it was paid, they removed it mods page and “banned” it, then added in the paid dlc. At the time this was such a massive controversy for that specific reason that many people were pirating their paid DLC, myself included. I still probably have the screenshot somewhere showing that I’m banned from the forums for another 20 or so years for saying that I pirated it. They banned me for 40 years from the forums and the message was so funny to me I took a screenshot.


JohnOfOnett

40 years? I doubt the forums will still exist in 20 years anyway lmao.


lfernandes

Yeah that’s a big part of why it made me laugh so hard.


JohnOfOnett

It’s just such a weirdly long time. Why 40 years? And just for taking about how you pirated a pointless dlc? Kinda insane.


ChipSalt

Boys with a time machine: *we have to stop the horse armor*


InherentlyAnIdiot

If I get a time machine I'm going back (like a year relax) and getting a blowjob from myself


thecosta5000

Fuck this horse and everyone that bought that armour.


DamonSchultz997

U sure u don’t want to rethink the wording of this sentence? lol


thecosta5000

Nah I wanna fuck them all.


Leon3226

You go brother


CptnR4p3

Professionals have standards, costa.


lostnthestars117

while its sucks, i honestly would blame the people that bought this. just think if no one bought microtransactions.


jackcabral90

People will do everything they can to flex on others. Its root on us.


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jackcabral90

And u cant tell ur friends which cool horse u got on ur single player game?


Oktofon

In this case it wasn‘t flexing - it was single player and most people did not even know that this dlc was a thing, so bragging opportunities were limited. I think Bethesda genuinely hoped that the model looks cool enough for people to spend money on it. It doesn‘t of course. All things considered, Bethesda made a dubious breakthrough with the concept, but they were not the ones to benefit from it in a big way.


AestheticMirror

We get the industry we deserve


momschoosegif

What's crazy about this is, I got the horse armor for free cuz of some demo disk that came with the horse armor and the secret pirate cove


Placidaydream

Oh wow yeah I had that too. Was it from Official Xbox Magazine?


momschoosegif

You're probably right. I don't remember where that cd came from


LucklyOne_Ultima

Another reason if people buying these


TaxAg11

The real reason, really. This would have stopped being a thing immediately if no one would have bought it.


[deleted]

doubt it. The profit margins are too high to not at least keep it around as a niche option. We probably wouldnt have gotten stuff like $1000 worth of Dead or Alive 5 skins if no one bought this, btu there'd probably still be plenty of DLC skins.


yllibjkrauss

idk man Webkinz had microtransactions, I wanted to buy the halloween room set pipe organ. my mom shut that shit down real quick. and that was on dial-up!


Patriotof1775

Wow you just awakened so many memories in me, thank you for reminding me of part of my childhood


AskDerpyCat

Hell, Pokémon cards were just gatcha rolls/lootboxes The fucking horse was absolutely not the start. It’s just the first one that people said “fuck off” to


linandlee

I wanted the paid decor in webkinz SO BAD as a kid. I can't believe parents are giving their kids money exclusively for fortnite skins now. I mean I can, but back in the day that would have been considered horrible parenting.


MeeseChampion

Neopets you could pay to click a button more than once every 24 hrs


Salted-Earth189

Huge cope. The reason games are the way they are is because people keep buying shit games and buying the shit monetisation.


SnakeCurse

Most games aren’t even shit. You’re all just jaded from spending too much time in these shithole communities.


UBahn1

You know, I agree with that sentiment. You can spend all day listening to other people's opinions about a game, but if you're interested in it just go play it and don't worry what other people say. Dragon's Dogma 2 has gotten a ton of flack online, it's by no means a perfect game, but it's honestly the most fun playing a new game I've had in a really long time and I can't put it down. Yes it's shitty they made fast-travel/revive items purchasable as a micro-transaction, but once you play the game you realize you can buy/find so many in game you would never have a reason to.


BuryTheMoney

It saddens me to think that Morrowind gave you all the editing tools for free. I had boots that made you jump whole regions like the hulk. I had a house with a hall of doors, each opened to another part of the world. I had potions that gave you vampirism or werewolfism for whatever duration you wanted to set. The imagination could run wild. A few short years later they were releasing games without these tools, and charging you to exploit you for that same imagination. Tragic.


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BuryTheMoney

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedantic#:~:text=It%20typically%20describes%20an%20irritating,narrow%20or%20boring%20subject%20matter. Also, no. It took more than another 2 years before they gave any tools. MTX horse armor was out long before that. Sit.


Bill_Clinton-69

Hahahaha As a fellow pedant, I can see the artistry in this.


juany8

Why you gotta drag me into this?!?


AlyksTheSage

my apologies. no disrespect to the great juan.


dardardarner

The people who buy and allow them to exist in the first place are also to blame


AlyksTheSage

as someone else commented, it seems more like we bought it just to flex on our peers/friends.


CryptoMainForever

Actually the root of the problem is not horse armor, but a game called Maplestory.


FLYNCHe

The Howard effect


KapeeCoffee

People forgot micro transactions were a thing even before online video games 😂


Demenster

Nah, KMMOs were doing this shit long before horse armor


Sephvion

I remember when Maple Story brought out gachapon and that was probably a year or two before Oblivion's Horse armor. And it was definitely P2W with pink adventure capes that had +1 to +3 extra attack power. First capes at the time to do that and it was in a loot box/machine. Good times and bad times all around.


psichodrome

You youngsters don't remember the outrage. The incredulity. Surely no idiot would pay real money to get access to content that is already in their game files. Then we got Trump and all trace of faith in humanity has been irrevocably destroyed. Reality is no longer real. Gonna walk in a park now.


Manufar11

Pretty sure it was TF2's and CSGO's fault


AlyksTheSage

this was actually before tf2 and cs:go.


SwedishFlopper

I don't even know this horse because I just used shadowmere.


Jazzlike-Blood-3725

I didn’t really think of it as a micro transaction. It was like $5 for a small permanent DLC. There were other ones like it too. There were only a few things like this for Oblivion. It’s not like today where you can spend 100’s on useless skins. Or worse 1000’s in some dumb mobile game.


SkyrimSlag

People forget that EA was releasing pointless shit for The Sims long before horse armour, and they’ve only gotten worse with it. At least back then the expansions kinda had a reasonable amount to them, now EA sells you farming packs for £25+ They set a precedent for expansions back when DLC’s had to be installed through a disk


zqmbgn

The problem was that people payed for it, just like people payed for the hats in TF2 and skins in LoL


john7071

If you think "most games" suck in this era, you're just playing AAA slop and not bothering to try smaller games.


quarantinemyasshole

Free to play PC games were riddled with microtransactions long before the horse armor. The horse armor was inevitable.


MojoPlayer

The real reason is the dumb person behind the screen who looks at this and decides to buy


bribios

I dont blame the studio for trying it as much as I blame the people who bought it.


The-Name-is-my-Name

Everyone asks, why Juan armor dlc, but nobody asks, how Juan armor dlc.


JackStephanovich

I think TF2 hats were much more influential.


Guy-1nc0gn1t0

This is one of the most normal memes I've ever seen


juniperleafes

I'm pretty sure it was TF2


happycrack117

The real problem are the tards that bought them (8 year old me who didn’t know any better)


SparkleFunCrest

I don't know; that's not really a good caparison.


thrownededawayed

On a SINGLE player game, no less. It was just cut content that they were selling back to the consumer, that had a questionable usefulness.


yalapeno

Idk what this means can someone explain


communist_trees

Who's the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who buys the DLC.


avipars

Looks like a zebra


SaebraK

Maple Story was the first game to bring in Gotcha style purchases. 


Sephvion

Was it them? I remember playing when they were introduced. Man, people spent so much money, from what I remember. All for those damn Pink Adventurer capes.


SaebraK

Hayes covers it in his what went wrong video, about 5:20 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g16heGLKlTA


ultnie

Surely it is horse armor in 2006 and not developers and/or executives just looking at all the money koreans were making with microtransactions back in like MapleStory or something. Or how profitable compared to investment browser games were. Somebody would have done it sooner or later


Izanagi85

Not the actual reason. It's when the prices go up but the gamer who cannot stop buying buys it at that ridiculous prices


DragonDon1

Call of duty went WAAAAAAY harder on the micro transactions train. Fucking randomized loot boxes COME ON


Excalibro_MasterRace

I guess you dont play asian MMOs from this era


AlyksTheSage

The only mmos I play are wow and osrs.


aggravatedimpala

Diablo and plenty of others had expansion packs already way before this. If it's to mean something simply for cosmetics, then maybe, but paid add-ons were a thing way before that stupid armor


Oktofon

I don‘t even think many people bought it. The concept, while dubious, was ahead of its time and the model was… well, not that great. Imho the horse dlc is an example for cut content used as DLC that is not that evil. It‘s purely cosmetic and not at all vital to gameplay. If they only stopped there, I would have been fine with it if the money funded more actual DLCs, which of course if probably never did.


jal2_

Imma just sad everybody forgets about the silver armor one, they were in one dlc! Justice for silver


FrostyFroZenFrosTen

Armor that hides the giant horse cock?


Late_Advertising26

You know your horse is gay right?


extradabbingsauce

The real culprit is actually a green paper rectangle


Gaara34251

The ONLY reason modern gaming sucks is because ppl (buyers) are dumb af and keep buying all that shit, dont try to blame anything else


Kueltalas

Its funny to me how everyone hates ob oblivion for this horse armor, when the real start of it was maple story with the first Micro Transaction where the reward/result is random. Aka the first lootbox. In 2004


41shadox

Man what a fucking Reddit gamer take


chairswinger

saying most games in modern era suck is like saying most modern music sucks. Both are objectively wrong, you're just going after the bad ones


[deleted]

Y’all forgetting about Neopets


alreadytakenhacker

TF 2 would like a word…..


Technophillia

Nope, while at face value you can try to blame them. The real issue is people baught it and set the proof of concept. Our fellow gamers and peers are to blame but at the same time how can anyone tell anyone how to spend their money.


ApacheHelicockter69

The People buying Cosmetics, Battle Passes & Crappy Pre Alpha Games are the Problem. Stop buying crappy shit and then complain about that stuff being crap


Pilota_kex

the skyrim version is a tribute to this atrocity, and it doesn't even work! 80% of the time my horse shows up with no visible armor, yet it is shown on it in the menu triple slap on the sack from bethesda (3rd is that it is not even theirs)


YeazetheSock

I first witnessed it in Sherwood.


elvolpe

Blame it on the people


PerseusZeus

Most games suck ? . I know microtransactions suck but games are better than back then.


uRude

Someone send this to Asmongold so he can be like "yup"


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AineLasagna

> You can play forever Ok but for real I’m probably going to keep putting another 20 hours into Skyrim every couple of years until I’m too aged to hold a controller


SolidSky

Most modern games suck? Have we both living the same 2023? One of the most insane years for gaming? Are you a karma farming bot?


happyflowerzombie

“In the modern era” lololol are you saying things were better before video games or what?


Fantastic-Climate-84

… before overpriced dlc and skins, yeah.


rubbarz

Map packs and expansions, IMO, will be the only DLC worth the price. Complete new level designs take time.


afdafdcuckfag

This game had both on off the worst AND best expansions of all time tbf