Bob's Tall Tales Complaints - A Thread

[Kaprosuchus]

I know we've seen a few of them already and most of them are valid, but my specific beef with it, is that if you decide you don't want it, there is no way to just filter out content that has to do with it and i feel that was intentional to kind of bully you into buying it.  Every time i find an explorer note or a treasure map that tells me to make a purchase, or when i open my engram list and it's filled with essentially advertisements for this DLC it makes me want to dig in and not buy it more.  Trust me, i get it, they have a checkered past and a publisher that is terrible with money, and their mob boss nitrado shaking them down to pay their debts back, but come on.

It's already bad enough they are making us pay 30 dollars for a third of the content with a promise of the other 2/3rds later.. i have been playing this and ASE since launch i do not preorder anything from wildcard. It's just the principal of the matter at this point. they keep hitting us up for money every chance they can. it's starting to remind me of other AAA companies and their 50 dollar mounts and such. XD

tldr: stop "advertising" in my game for content i am not going to buy.

[arkark]

Yeah, we found one of those treasure map and I'm not even sure if thats even compatible with the regulation of some countries in regard of loot boxes in gaming. I.E. you cannot give a ticket for a prize which the user has to pay to open without knowing what exactly is going to be inside.

[CyberAngel67]

3 hours ago, arkark said:

Yeah, we found one of those treasure map and I'm not even sure if thats even compatible with the regulation of some countries in regard of loot boxes in gaming. I.E. you cannot give a ticket for a prize which the user has to pay to open without knowing what exactly is going to be inside.

You are not spending real money on this, and if I understand correctly these treasure maps are for player buried content.

[parazight]

10 hours ago, Kaprosuchus said:

bully you into buying it.

Bro.  You gotta stand up to these bullies.   Let them know you aint gonna buy that crap.  30 dollars per half-decade is all youre willing to spend.  And for good reason.  Screw capitalism.

[arkark]

7 hours ago, CyberAngel67 said:

You are not spending real money on this, and if I understand correctly these treasure maps are for player buried content.

You are spending real money, indeed it can only be bought with real money.

Imo to comply with regulations, users without the DLC shouldnt be receiving that treasure maps, or for users without DLC there should be an additional information line indicating what exactly the user is gonna recieve for buying and opening the loot crate, erm, the "treasure map".

[CyberAngel67]

15 minutes ago, arkark said:

You are spending real money, indeed it can only be bought with real money.

Imo to comply with regulations, users without the DLC shouldnt be receiving that treasure maps, or for users without DLC there should be an additional information line indicating what exactly the user is gonna recieve for buying and opening the loot crate, erm, the "treasure map".

He was talking about the chests that players put into the ground!

Edited April 5 by CyberAngel67

[TonyTempah]

(Looks at hours in game since ASE, looks at cost of ASE + Season Pass, calculates cost per hour compared to... inspects notes... all my other games, winds neck in)

[Elgar]

13 hours ago, Kaprosuchus said:

or when i open my engram list and it's filled with essentially advertisements for this DLC it makes me want to dig in and not buy it more.

For this specific case, just filter out the DLC engrams (last icon on the upper right corner, a human head), you won't see them anymore.

[arkark]

4 hours ago, CyberAngel67 said:

He was talking about the chests that players put into the ground!

Well, he said a "Treasure Map."

And I think he is referring to an item called: Treasure Cache Map
With description: Use to ping the location of buried treasures. Have this in your inventory when you dig.

I dont think it is to reveal some cache leaved by a player. Would have not much sense at least in PVE.

[CyberAngel67]

1 hour ago, arkark said:

Well, he said a "Treasure Map."

And I think he is referring to an item called: Treasure Cache Map
With description: Use to ping the location of buried treasures. Have this in your inventory when you dig.

I dont think it is to reveal some cache leaved by a player. Would have not much sense at least in PVE.

And is he paying for the maps each time with real currency? That is the issue a lot of countries have with loot boxes!

[arkark]

10 hours ago, CyberAngel67 said:

And is he paying for the maps each time with real currency? That is the issue a lot of countries have with loot boxes!

Paying for a map, or for extra content is normal in gaming, and as far as I know its allowed in every country.

Presenting prizes, IE Treasure Caches, with different rarity, that are gated by a payment, is imo designed to create a psychological response to increase player excitement and led the player to spend money, to gamble, to pay for a random prize. In this case, to do a single payment which also has to be done in few time, because tickets (Treasure caches) have expiration timer. What reaction do you think a kid (the game is rated +16) will have if they recieve an "Ascendant Treasure Cache" and if they dont have the DLC. Let me tell you, they are gonna be psychological influenced to make their parents buy the DLC in a hurry. To open a prize that they dont even know what can be.

This is explicity forbidden in some contries.

For instance in Japon, Korea, the developer MUST list all the items in the loot caches with the exact % of drop. Still, thats a relaxed regulation that doesnt ban the random loot behind a pay wall.
In Belgium and Netherland the regulations are much more severe. Games that do any kind of gambling are forbidden. There are games like CSGO, that had to create a specific version for these countries completely removing the loot boxes from the game. They do to protect the young ppl from gambling.

Add to that I've read multiple times in the chat of my official server how people is looting this treasure maps and they dont have the DLC and they comment they werent planing on buying the DLC but with that treasure map they have the curiosity of know whats inside so they buy it. So, imo, clearly, the system to influence users to buy the DLC just to claim the prize is working as intended. And imo this should be put in the knowledge of countries that do regulate gambling in game for evaluation.

 

Edited April 6 by arkark

[CyberAngel67]

3 hours ago, arkark said:

Paying for a map, or for extra content is normal in gaming, and as far as I know its allowed in every country.

Presenting prizes, IE Treasure Caches, with different rarity, that are gated by a payment, is imo designed to create a psychological response to increase player excitement and led the player to spend money, to gamble, to pay for a random prize. In this case, to do a single payment which also has to be done in few time, because tickets (Treasure caches) have expiration timer. What reaction do you think a kid (the game is rated +16) will have if they recieve an "Ascendant Treasure Cache" and if they dont have the DLC. Let me tell you, they are gonna be psychological influenced to make their parents buy the DLC in a hurry. To open a prize that they dont even know what can be.

This is explicity forbidden in some contries.

For instance in Japon, Korea, the developer MUST list all the items in the loot caches with the exact % of drop. Still, thats a relaxed regulation that doesnt ban the random loot behind a pay wall.
In Belgium and Netherland the regulations are much more severe. Games that do any kind of gambling are forbidden. There are games like CSGO, that had to create a specific version for these countries completely removing the loot boxes from the game. They do to protect the young ppl from gambling.

Add to that I've read multiple times in the chat of my official server how people is looting this treasure maps and they dont have the DLC and they comment they werent planing on buying the DLC but with that treasure map they have the curiosity of know whats inside so they buy it. So, imo, clearly, the system to influence users to buy the DLC just to claim the prize is working as intended. And imo this should be put in the knowledge of countries that do regulate gambling in game for evaluation.

 

I think your confusing me with something or someone else.

The OC quoted countries and their laws on Loot Boxes, not me!!!

If you want to go down this rant, I would suggest you look into the comment I replied to!

I am very well aware how the system works with Loot Boxes, and the laws that have been introduced in some countries, and what other law makers had tied to do.

It does not change my initial comment.

Edited April 6 by CyberAngel67

[arkark]

10 hours ago, CyberAngel67 said:

I think your confusing me with something or someone else.

The OC quoted countries and their laws on Loot Boxes, not me!!!

If you want to go down this rant, I would suggest you look into the comment I replied to!

I am very well aware how the system works with Loot Boxes, and the laws that have been introduced in some countries, and what other law makers had tied to do.

It does not change my initial comment.

I dont want to argue with you, but your first quote of my comment was absolutely wrong and I was trying to explain to you:

On 4/5/2024 at 7:54 AM, CyberAngel67 said:

You are not spending real money on this, and if I understand correctly these treasure maps are for player buried content.

You are spending real money, and can only buy it through paying with real money.

And also in the second part the treasure maps have nothing to do with player buried content. One friend on my server bough the DLC cause he got a good quality Treasure Cache Map, and got like 5 ascend items, including one 124 carcha bp. Thats not content buried by players.

From that, you were arguin to me with other things that I think are not accurate.

Anyway, I left my point clear here in the discussion about what I consider are loot boxes gated by a pay, and are very dangerous for our young ppl.

I understand that because of cultural factors, some ppl may see this as normal, or as "cool" or something because gambling is historically normal in their cultures. I understand that and I wouldnt want to change that. I just said, this kind of things are probably prone to be banned in some contries.
 

Edited April 6 by arkark

[CyberAngel67]

13 hours ago, arkark said:

I dont want to argue with you, but your first quote of my comment was absolutely wrong and I was trying to explain to you:

You are spending real money, and can only buy it through paying with real money.

And also in the second part the treasure maps have nothing to do with player buried content. One friend on my server bough the DLC cause he got a good quality Treasure Cache Map, and got like 5 ascend items, including one 124 carcha bp. Thats not content buried by players.

From that, you were arguin to me with other things that I think are not accurate.

Anyway, I left my point clear here in the discussion about what I consider are loot boxes gated by a pay, and are very dangerous for our young ppl.

I understand that because of cultural factors, some ppl may see this as normal, or as "cool" or something because gambling is historically normal in their cultures. I understand that and I wouldnt want to change that. I just said, this kind of things are probably prone to be banned in some contries.
 

But you are not paying money for each map!!!

The maps are just part of the DLC!!!

Edited April 7 by CyberAngel67

[arkark]

9 hours ago, CyberAngel67 said:

But you are not paying money for each map!!!

The maps are just part of the DLC!!!

DILO The maps are being given to players WITHOUT THE DLC.

[Kaprosuchus]

I appreciate everyone's response. the aspect i was upset about was indeed the perceived psychological manipulation. I do not want bob's tall tales which in itself is my right. i just felt annoyed by all of the signs of marketing manipulation because normally i steer wide of any game using this.  It is wierd to see it in a game that traditionally never tried to make me feel FOMO before. It is just another negative experience to add onto a growing pile of negative experiences.  I do not like purchasing the "promise" of future content from a designer who has such a bad history of delivering it to me long after i forgot it even existed.

[WCpromoteslaziness]

On 4/7/2024 at 8:35 PM, arkark said:

DILO The maps are being given to players WITHOUT THE DLC.

I can guarantee you now there WILL be DLC maps the fact they are even pushing PAID DLC in any way or form is beyond a joke at £30 seriously they are taking the piss they make us pay for the same ark twice over and still expect money from DLCs proves how thick the Ark community is that they will happily pay it

[Joebl0w13]

29 minutes ago, WCpromoteslaziness said:

I can guarantee you now there WILL be DLC maps

We already know there will be because they told us, over a year ago, there would be at least one DLC map released for ASA. No news there. 

Edited April 9 by Joebl0w13

[WCpromoteslaziness]

49 minutes ago, Joebl0w13 said:

We already know there will be because they told us, over a year ago, there would be at least one DLC map released for ASA. No news there. 

Didn't say it was news. 

 

I find it hilarious that even these DLC cost more than the old ark DLC for poop taken from abandoned games such as atlas like the treasure map system!

[arkark]

3 hours ago, WCpromoteslaziness said:

I can guarantee you now there WILL be DLC maps the fact they are even pushing PAID DLC in any way or form is beyond a joke at £30 seriously they are taking the piss they make us pay for the same ark twice over and still expect money from DLCs proves how thick the Ark community is that they will happily pay it

I was talking about the "Treasure Cache Map", not the map itself. I see there is a bit of confusion.

"Treasure Cache Map" is an item that every player can randomly loot (even those players without the Frontier pack DLC can), which let you dig for pretty good rewards but its gated by payment wall (buying the DLC) and also has a timer on it to influence players to hurry in paying for the unknown price.

I know all previous canon maps plus the others created by the community are included in ASA, and also I know that there is gonna be a new cannon map which is expected to be between Extinction and Gen1. I know that this gonna be a sepparate DLC, and I'm ok with it. All my posts here are strictly referring to the item called "Treasure Cache Map".

Edited April 9 by arkark

[Aylah]

I completely agree with OP on this. I don't mind seeing DLC on the splash page, but I don't want to see any of that while I'm in game. I've gotten the treasure maps and found boxes that I can't open without the DLC. Even the advert to buy it in the inventory menu is annoying.

[Mysfytt]

I Agree. Its an optional Mod - why are the engrams locked into my engram list if don't have it installed? Why am I getting items that the so called Mod is supposed to add to the game if i don't have the Mod installed? Other Mods do not show up in your game when you have not downloaded them, such as the gigaraptor saddle etc - so why is this one? Because its not actually a Mod - its a money grab by the game to bully and force you into paying for the map through content that probably should be standard issue anyway.

If you are going to call it a Mod then let it behave as one - sure, advertise for people to buy it - but don't bully and force us to have it yet make it unplayable until we pay to break the money-wall (which is a huge amount for those of us in other countries where the exchange rate is a thing).

 

It's disgusting behaviour.

[St1ckyBandit]

10 hours ago, Mysfytt said:

I Agree. Its an optional Mod - why are the engrams locked into my engram list if don't have it installed? Why am I getting items that the so called Mod is supposed to add to the game if i don't have the Mod installed? Other Mods do not show up in your game when you have not downloaded them, such as the gigaraptor saddle etc - so why is this one? Because its not actually a Mod - its a money grab by the game to bully and force you into paying for the map through content that probably should be standard issue anyway.

If you are going to call it a Mod then let it behave as one - sure, advertise for people to buy it - but don't bully and force us to have it yet make it unplayable until we pay to break the money-wall (which is a huge amount for those of us in other countries where the exchange rate is a thing).

 

It's disgusting behaviour.

The oasisaur should absolutely be standard content. Probably the shovel too. This expansion was originally marketed as a cosmetic pack. It's absolutely not.

The shovel, train, cart, and oasisaur all introduce new gameplay mechanics that in some cases drastically alter what you are capable of in-game (like bringing tames back to life).

Plenty of games like Rust and Warzone offer true cosmetic packs and rake in tons of revenue. Just another lie and predatory practice from snail/wc.