They asked for my monetization consultation, here's that.

[@User-Ryan135]

Similar argument for why Piracy became rampant from Gabe Newell "It's not a pricing issue, it's a servicing issue" if you make the service harder to access than the alternative route, people will take the path of least resistance. If you make it convenient and straight forward and easy to understand, you might not be able to scam as many people, but more people will be inclined to go for that route now because of the simplicity of it. the issue there is because it's now easy to understand it also has to be worth the price, and most things that use the tactics you describe aren't.

[@ellentheeducator]

I wonder if someone has done any studies on how much more someone is willing to pay for an easier way of paying. Gut instinct says somewhere around 10%?

[@TheYoutubeUser69]

​@@ellentheeducatorusually a fiver for me. If they offer it cheaper on the key website

[@blackhammer5035]

It’s why I continue to support Steam over Epic. Not just convenience of paying, but forums, guides, and workshop all make my gaming experience incredibly convenient. Easy to write and browse reviews. Easy to track dev news posts and read community responses to them. People natter about how Steam takes too big a cut, but both users and devs appreciate what they bring for that cut.

[@hoofhearted4]

Look at music. Pirating music used to be huge. Everyone did it because it was easier and cheaper (obviously). But now with Streaming services, even paid services. Its not free like piracy, but its legal, easy, safe and convenient.

[@atrane365]

​@@blackhammer5035 that argument, I think, is moot anyways. Most publishers take 30% as well

[@stevebohn4439]

"buying FFXIV is a mission." I can relate to that. I needed to consult help forms and submitted a help ticket. It was made doubly hard because I was trying to roll over my free account.

[@jimmymittens]

I feel this, I ended up making a second account because I couldn't figure out how to access the first after a year of not playing. When I went to re-sub I payed on the first account that I had no access to and still had to pay more money for the second account. Forget trying to get any kind of refund I gave up on that.

[@Wampa842]

I found a discord server that specialized in helping new players get started, including a channel dedicated to figuring out which edition to get.

[@dalrantbaret29]

become warrior of light has never been easy

[@n1kl051]

Personally I had much more of a problem with the authenticator stuff before I figured out it's just the playstore authenticator. But subbing itself is simple enough. ESO though can be pretty confusing especially on their own site

[@Somebody374-bv8cd]

Square enix's website is stuck in the 2000s era.

[@carlbutcher2268]

"If you have a product, sell it." JSH dropping serious business advice here. It's very telling that the morally correct option is the easy route here, and people choose to take a harder one.

[@cloudybrains]

1:21 The sad part is, your playerbase won't even hate you, because this stuff is so normalized every game does it and people are used to that now. There are some lines you can't cross, but for the most part, 90% of the dark patterns that exploit people's psychology to make more money are just seen as standard practice. Laws have to be put in place to limit how video games can exploit people.

[@AlbertoMartinez765]

Yep pretty much this. iTs like the Tobacco and Soft drink industries. Everybody Knows its bad for them they keep doing it. And that Actual Life and Death.

[@jishani1]

speak for yourself. i was looking at picking up rogue trader after playing through bg3 a few times and saw on the main steam page they have a "season pass bundle" that includes the first two dlcs. i went to their steam page ready to spend money on their game, and they lost a sale because they lead with dlc. it's only acceptable if you allow it to be. making excuses for it is kind of pathetic. sack up or don't but you get what you tolerate.

[@RAFMnBgaming]

Yeah, I suppose at the end of the day the people who would get angry over stuff like that being in your game just won't engage with your game in the first place.

[@waffleswafflson3076]

In teh early days of heroes of the storm, the cosmetics were in a cash shop for a direct retail price. It was one of the few blizzard games where its community did not actively hate blizzard. But that changed fast

[@srdjan455]

And HOTS ditching that system in favour of lootboxes was a change for the better.

[@waffleswafflson3076]

@@srdjan455 very funny, thats what I meant by it changed fast. They scummed out quickly

[@srdjan455]

@@waffleswafflson3076 Fast and fast, it stuck around for like two years I think

[@jishani1]

hots was a dumpster fire from the concept stage. they wanted to neuter the moba genre because "toxicity" and ended up just deciding league of legends wasn't a big enough dumbing down of dota and decided to add a wheelchair ramp to the already lowered bar and take any personal responsibility out of the game. would say it died immediately out of the gate but that would be giving it too much credit. when the company that rips off someone else's game decides they did a bad enough job on their rip off to turn the lights off and stop updating it you'd think people would realize it was a pile of shit.

[@srdjan455]

@@jishani1 hey fuck you HOTS is the best MOBA out there

[@AzureRoxe]

The choice is simple. Either get more money NOW, at the cost getting less money later and the increasing dislike of the playerbase to the point that they're leaving. or Get LESS money now, but get more overall with the community actively on your side and WANTING to support you. Companies love to choose the former, milk everyone for all they're worth and then gaslight people into believing this didn't happen and, if it did, it was their fault, not the company's. Blizzard is one of the most obvious examples since they do this constantly in Overwatch 2.

[@Pwnopolis]

Blizzard does this with every game since wow's inception

[@kimandre5842]

a certain canvas bag, jacket, nuke cola etc etc comes to mind... NEVER FORGET!

[@alexanderdisput6822]

That is because there is an inherent risk to the 2nd choice. There is no guarantee that the playerbase will stay even if you create a great game. There will be many more great games that you are always competing with. Milking the cow right now will guarantee money, which investors like

[@AhamkaraMommy]

- Destiny 2 - Warframe - Rust - Fortnite - Elder scrolls Online - Diablo however many of them it was now - Even fuckin' Minecraft is doin' it now And that's just off of the top of my head.

[@archvaldor]

This is actually a concept in business: the intangible asset of goodwill. It is how companies like Disney and Google built up in the first place. If you generate a lot of it then it can make you billions for decades.

[@Wastingsometimehere]

There is a problem in reality. It's called investors. As customers, we want simple direct transactions. If you're small, you should keep it simple transactions. You need those base customers. Investors are a big reason why we don't get simple. If you boost your business by taking money from others, you need to do things to repay with interest. This is how gaming got to where it is now.

[@L1vv4n]

Problem is not in investors themselves. Nothing prevents existence of long-haul investors, who will be more interested in long-therm reputation and stability than immediate growth. Problem is that me crated an investment market that works as casino, so it's over-saturated with people and institution interested only in immediate double-digits percents of growth and tends to completely pull the money once the growth is not happening (market saturation) even if overall business is profitable and would be profitable for investors.

[@nom6758]

The problem is not stating how you want to run your business and having investors sign contracts so they KNOW what the development progression will be like. The problem are publishers like EA that force game companies to comply with THEIR investors.

[@ShakeyMac18]

Yes, until the parasitic investor class problem is dealt with, we're going to see this kind of corporate behavior everywhere. From "planned obsolescence" of devices to nickel-and-diming fees for basic transactions to the ever infamous completely-working MTX shops found in so many half-baked video games, some with the audacity to charge a full price on top of it all. Until Ford vs. Dodge Brothers is destroyed as a legal precedent things aren't going to get better.

[@histhoryk2648]

but who's your capital, the investors or customers? who's the beneficent of your product, investor? if you betray customer for the investors money, you loose capital since that customer will not come back

[@yggreuyri5822]

@@histhoryk2648 in the initial stages of the game, a gaming company's money tends to come from the investors. It'd be a different story if you're a solo dev/indie that's just doing a passion project for years so those kinds of devs don't really care about lack of profit/scaling

[@drewhalcro6082]

I think that monetization practice is why DRG is beloved by its community.

[@emosgowoof]

It's also insane how much value the seasonal events have, since they allow you to earn ALL of the previous event rewards, instead of screwing you over with fomo.

[@TheAkashicTraveller]

Whats DRG? Deep Rock Galactic?

[@brendoneverett5335]

Did I hear a Rock and Stone?

[@drewhalcro6082]

@@brendoneverett5335 For those about to rock and stone, we salute you!

[@drewhalcro6082]

@@TheAkashicTraveller Yes

[@RedHoodRubyRose]

Man, I remember how hard is was to subscribe to FF14 because the site would kick me out every time the page reloaded to next stage, then my credit card would be denied because it could not understand it was both visa/mastercard until I had to double check everything. Even buying items from the shop is a mission in itself.

[@shinoboblade]

Even to LOOK at the XIV store, you need to log in then put in your One Time Password if you have 2-factor authentication. Making it so hard to even view the store makes people less likely to even go on it.

[@Wampa842]

Every time a game tries to push monetization on me without me having initiated it, I go into that interaction with an attitude of "I wasn't going to spend money in the first place, so convince me". The only game that cound convince me so far is Warframe, with their supporter packs after big story updates.

[@scw55]

The random 75% discount on the premium currency is sinister in its FOMO.

[@skorpiongod]

​​@@scw55the 75% discount is actually awesome imo. The only time i spent money on warframe was when i got the discount for the first time. I was having such a blast playing the game, it was shaping up to be my favorite game at the time, that it just felt worth dropping 20 bucks. No regrets, the devs deserved it back then. I didnt feel pressured, i had no plans on spending money but the game was such a good experience that it was worth it. Thats the key, make the experience of your game amazing and people will want to support it.

[@gabor6200]

@@scw55 I would agree but you literally get them constantly

[@skylarsimes8]

​@@scw55As the discounts can be FOMO warframe is also one of the only games I've played where prem currency has its own player market and you can trade things for it with other players and never spend a dime

[@Purplemen101]

@@gabor6200 Man I haven't had one in over a year and a half. I get 50%s all the time, but I'm waiting for a 75%. Come on DE, just throw it at me, it's free money.

[@sev00177]

GW2 Complete Edition (I think it's been renamed to Dragon Saga after SoTO release) is an example of not knowing exactly what you pay for. It includes the first 3 expansions plus 4000 gems, slightly more than enough to buy all the Living World content. People think the 4000 gems are a bonus, spend it, then realize there's additional story content to purchase in-game that is vital to understanding the greater story. There's probably a thread on the forums every other week about it.

[@LMD263]

Never played at GW2 since the launch in 2012 do you think it is worth to purchase the game in 2024 ?

[@androsh9039]

Josh lives the humble life and is happy with it.

[@mofire5674]

We can all hope one day to make great use of our talents and aspirations so that we can successfully live the humble life.

[@henryboyer6425]

Something I always hated is how gamers can see shitty monetization exists, hate the company for doing shitty monetization, and give the company money through the shitty monetization completely validating all of the greed. I really wish microtransictions and things like skins were seen by society more as a thing you are buying to give to the company than something to make yourself happy.

[@ARockRaider]

it's probably not the same subset of gamers. like no "i hate bad monetization" gamer has ever been a wale for a game with bad monetization.

[@martinszymanski2607]

​@@ARockRaideroh no, i've met a couple. cod community's riddled with people who are ready to talk shit about the franchise all day but have also spent hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars on p2w skins and whatnot. it's probably the stupidest community i've interacted with personally

[@ARockRaider]

@@martinszymanski2607 interesting, i guess there would have to be some people like that from time to time. not played it myself but the cod franchise does seem to be like the kind of place that would have it.

[@OneBiasedOpinion]

Fully agree. This is a two-way street, and as long as gamers continue to fall for these schemes, corporations have zero incentive to stop employing them.

[@RAFMnBgaming]

I remember when they were, around I think when Dead Space 3 happened but I think eventually everyone just sorta gave up and accepted their "fate".

[@MrFluffytheTurtle]

4:53 Those Gunther Steiner shirts sold like hot cakes

[@royceblack6752]

I've been always drinking water but a while back I stopped drinking coke and so on as well going along with some changes to what I eat and I'm feeling pretty good. Combined with doing sports about 3 times a week I got way healthier even though I just cut out on the stuff that doesn't taste good enough for me to be worth eating due to sugar and so on. That means I still eat sweets and more but way less frequently and not like cake or something that gives me like 3000kcal

[@Mediados]

What companies don't realize is that in the long run, they make FAR more money by building trust and a positive public perception rather than gain as much money as possible now. Look at Critical Role, they have no history of any dirty business tactic whatsoever, but when they simply asked for money for a future project that they had no evidence of, the people flooded them with support. Trust brings you much further than any psychological marketing scheme ever could.

[@tomblet9359]

The kickstarter for their TV show ending up only on Amazon was pretty shady. It was originally implied if you backed it you'd be able to watch it without paying a subscription. I'd say that was one time they cashed out some of my goodwill for them but they built so much I'd still support them

[@skorne7682]

The problem is it doesn't actually work like that. Blizzard have been screwing over their fans with monetization for a decade yet DIablo 4 still sold like hotcakes. Loot goblin Kotick leaving as one of the most successful CEOs ever in terms of profts. People in general are dumb and love to have their wallet repeatedly raped for $20 reskins apparently. Now a game like BG3 is completely fairly priced, won game of the year, sold really well and Larian is beloved by gamers... a big success yet it won't make nearly as much money as selling Fortnite skins to kids or Waifus in Genshin.

[@Mediados]

​@@tomblet9359 No offense, but only if you don't know much about show development. Once they go into official production it was totally clear that they need a publisher and streaming service, and a streamer won't just give you a show for free. Besides, the original Kickstarter was for one special episode on YT which would have been free. But with all this support they were able to make it a full show.

[@Mediados]

@@skorne7682The old legacy studios like Blizzard and Bungie are interesting exceptions. Because they don't bank on current trust, but nostalgia trust. They remind people of how good they used to be so they don't think about the way they are now. For many people this works, and they keep buying their products simply because they always have. It has become a habit.

[@Nathan_Moor]

@@skorne7682 I remember hearing when Elden Ring was released that it made less money than the new season in Fifa (which works by lootboxing new player cards as the old ones don't work in the new season if I remember correctly).

[@hmmmooops]

The other day someone is Stormwind was asking how to buy Dragonflight without The War Within. I had a bit of trouble finding it as well, almost though they stopped selling it in favor of the bundle. Blizzard has dropped the Dragonflight purchase, their current expansion, down in the smaller thumbnail section of the shop with the cosmetics and services. From anyone else I'd have thought that it was a mistake, but it's Blizzard so 100% they did it on purpose.

[@urielgrey]

Still absolutely love his jumper! It's so epic!

[@Yithiru]

Today I learned that a classic yugioh pullover is even sexier than the shirt + vest combo. Oh and yeah, brng back the Lewis Monster please. And the ginger one, my absolute favourite.

[@marrlethefirst]

Josh is one of those people that makes the clothes look sexy instead of the other way around

[@quietman3473]

I really hecken do enjoy your content. Just a random appreciation post.

[@Speak2Soon]

alright 4:38 what you said about monster is the craziest analogy for purchasing and playing games ever It is so deep 😳

[@evdomos]

Josh could easily have a gamersups partnership flavor, "Worst Drink Mix Ever."

[@stonerhino83]

It would probably be called "Josh Strife Slays"

[@alfwich2286]

Just needs to eat the cricket bars! 🤮

[@PhoenicopterusR]

If he gets a waifu cup, it better just be the vest

[@drunksupportcharacter]

This is apparent in my life today, in england for those who dont know its exceptionally rare to have a "Same day delivery" for the impatent, so its always the day after, probably in the afternoon on the single day off you have waiting for a delivery that you need to sit at the window as the delivery driver wont even knock and "leaving it outside / safespace" isnt a thing in england, it will be gone in less than 10 minutes no matter what depending if the driver was bored that day launching your package somewhere in the forest of your garden not leaving a delivery slip of any means. So like, for these reasons, if i cant get it myself, why buy it? saving myself a bit of money this way.

[@SeiphersZone]

I don't know if Josh see's these comment, but a game conmpany called Shiny Shoe did something which i greatly respect. In their early access game they had a paid battle pass and paid currency to buy cosmetics, recently they made the option to remove the paid battle pass / currency from the game and instead made a seperate dlc called supporters pack for those that wanted to purchase unique cosmetics for the game . and instead they added a season progression to the main game which is free and gives you free unlockable cosmetics and in game currecy to collect to additionally unlock other skins in the game which can also be unlocked from completing quests.

[@danielmikula1375]

Another fan of the taste of Monster! I'm right there with you, I like the sourness in it, could do without so much caffeine.

[@TheUglyGoblin]

What a surprisingly wholesome video :3

[@spamuel98]

The gamersupps flavors can be pretty good. I love the canister I got of a flavor called Grandpa's Ashes, it turns the whole drink pitch black, like full on licorice and tar black, and tastes like fresh raspberries. Not that gross saturated fake raspberry like in blue jolly ranchers, but actual fresh raspberries.

[@skylarsimes8]

Guacamole Gamer Fart 9000 and Blowhole Blast are also really good

[@matthewturpin6429]

@@skylarsimes8 Brand Risk is my latest favorite. And I'm amused that someone in his chat brought up "They should just make vitamin water stuff with no caffeine" Like, gamer, GS already does that!

[@Ninjagato465]

Solid advice as alawys! 😻😻😻

[@Krokodilius]

it's weird to me how many people think ads are bad...they'd rather rely on donations from people than the bottomless pockets of corporations.

[@esmolol4091]

You can't be respected by the playerbase AND have predatory monetization at the same time.

[@Zwiebel4]

Epic Games: "You can. If you exploit minors."

[@ultimaxkom8728]

Unfortunately, that is not true. Just try join Gacha fanbases, mobile games, and facebook games to look for prime counterexamples. Or audience-wise, look at kids and "moms".

[@esmolol4091]

@@ultimaxkom8728 Mobile and facebook games... trash by definition for the most part. Gacha games... The last time I checked Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail etc. was received really well, because the gameplay is phantastic, if you can cool your urge to gamble. You will have a very good experience even without spending extra money. With other games, you don't even get the full experience gameplay wise WITHOUT spending extra beforehand. Oh and Genshin etc. is F2P anyway. The gacha mechanics don't force your hand if you know how to be patient.

[@NaudVanDalen]

5:32 I like how when he's drinking water, there's Empyrean Thirst on the middle of the screen.

[@MrTripleM3]

I am looking forward to be drinking "Vest Smell" taste from my Josh Strife Says waifucup which just Vipaza in a vest.

[@deBaghras]

Imagine Josh makes a waifu cup and it's just a normal picture of him in the yugioh sweater.

[@gawainthedane3314]

5:33 I'm not sure I've ever seen a more cursed method of opening a water bottle

[@AlphaSquadZero]

The term Josh is looking for a 'good will'. If companies abuse the player base's good will then at some point the player base will just plummet.

[@friggasring]

Conan Exiles is guilty of this. They went from a straight DLC model which most packs revolving around a different civilization to "premium currency" to buy smaller packs that rotate weekly in addition to season battle passes. And the currency is only sold in bundles that are higher than the cost of the item to be purchased. It's everything that's wrong with microtransactions except for pay-to-win.

[@MedievalGenie]

"I'm drinking water right now" (instead of premium products). That commenter is performing a Pro Gamer move right there.

[@Rivent90]

Never thought I'd miss the old DLC model. Something as simple as a 7.99 costume bundle these days would be separated and sold for 300 gemcoins each for a limited time only.

[@holyknightthatpwns]

Easy to miss neither, just buy neither. If the selling practice is designed to screw you out of your money, it's never worth what you're paying

[@SetaDragon]

Just want to point out when he is talking about drinking water and being hydro homies, the item on the ground was the Empyrean Thirst. Good timing =P

[@skylerbailey2675]

Josh, as a fan of GamerSupps and a fan of you, maybe you could revive the tea flavor (Guiltea Pleasure) I would buy the heck out of that, especially if it has your smug mug holding a smug mug on it.

[@Dingleberrycrunch36]

I cant think of another entertainment medium that tries to get away with this. This is like book publishers only selling you half a book, then you have to pay for the rest of the chapters separately, and they might not even finish the book: AC Valhalla, Destiny 2, so on

[@TheBlacklightkiller]

No frfr the "lewis Hamilton" Monster is one of the best!! :) Monster "Gold" is also insane !!

[@Kylav1996]

It's nice when a guy makes enough money to be comfortable and refuses to sell out, he gets more than enough in his mind and doesn't feel the need to make every shred of money possible

[@Couscous77]

I wanted to try the FF mmo but i just could not figure out how to pay for it. So I gave up and never tried it out. Couldn't agree more, Josh.

[@aberwood]

Hitman was one of the hardest games to just buy and play in recent memory. Even today there is still no 'buy everything' button for core content. I got the World of Assassination bundle at it just randomly didn't have 2 maps from Hitman 2. Its a shame because its a truly brilliant game.

[@Dwarfurious]

Your model really only works as a job if you already have an existing playerbase, if you're starting from nothing it wont work but if you already have a massive playerbase/fanbase you could survive off donations alone like some modding projects have or something like dwarf fortress did for its years

[@XxTaiMTxX]

It honestly depends on the product. If your game is good, people will donate money to it because they liked it. It might not be a lot, but it will exist. Likewise, they will recommend the product to friends and family. Here's where this gets fun: If you say, "my game is completely free. Pass it around. If you enjoy it, drop $5 into my account", you don't need a lot of people to actually donate to you, to make a significant profit. Especially if you're honest about what you'll be spending that money on. You could charge $20 per game and get MAYBE 10 people who buy it, but never pass it around because "it wasn't worth $20". But, a business model of donations takes advantage of "word of mouth" for advertising. You might make $200 through donations, but how many people tried your game and passed it around? That's what happened with games like ADOM and Dwarf Fortress. "It is completely free". You can STILL find the free versions of those games on the internet. But, how many people BOUGHT those games when they released on Steam? As a result of that word of mouth advertising? Despite those games still being free? I, personally, would rather pay for a product than not pay for it, but if you give me an "optional model", then I'll decide if I had fun and want to keep playing it... and if I do, I'll drop you some cash. I think a lot of people feel that way. A donation model is forgoing an up front price for FREE ADVERTISING of their product. That's how a lot of radio works, if you didn't know. PLay their free music whenever they want and whatever rotation they want... but if you like the song and want it... now you gotta go buy it and pay for it. Right? Besides, you don't need to get 20,000 people to pay $25 in order to make half a million. You just need to get 500,000 people to donate you $1 a piece.

[@kylewavey6206]

If a game is good people will want to pay money for bonus goodies. The bonus stuff shouldn't be necessary to enjoy the game though. That's technically the best way to do it if you respect your players. But if you want to make money the best way is coerce them to spend money by tricking them into thinking you're doing them a favor, thereby sending them down a rabbit hole of obtuse in game currency mechanics

[@Pwnopolis]

All those bonus goodies use to come with the game at release and get this. They were earned not paid for. If you are paying money after you buy the product, you are being scammed. Justify it all you want. Anything beyond initial purchase is a designed scam.

[@kylewavey6206]

@@Pwnopolis I'm not justifying it. Only explaining. Free to Play is here to stay. The only thing we can do is ask for fairer business models. Many people refuse to buy a game at full price unless it's blockbuster game these days. Demanding full price games become the standard again is wishful thinking

[@wafflingmean4477]

Something I feel also has to change in the conversation is that people always say games either make a game to make a good game, or to make money. But here's the fact, these are businesses, they ALL make games to make money. What this needs to shift to, is asking devs and publishers "Do you want to make a lot of money right now, at the cost of destroying your brand and burning the chance to make more, or do you want to slowly build up way, way more money while still retaining customer goodwill, guaranteeing a consistent flow of high income? All games exist to make money. But depending on the fanbase, you stand to make way more money if you just make a good game. For example, BG3. Larian did not have the brand strength to nickle and dime players like Call of Duty. Now they're industry darlings. However, you can't just take the slow burn approach and THEN go for the quick nickle and dime approach, because you will simply run out of trust between you and the customer, and barely be making ends meet, like Ubisoft. And, even the best brand recognition can be destroyed, such as comparing CDPR right after Witcher 3 to right after Cyberpunk. If you want consistent high income, monetisation needs to be light. If you are willing to accept that your stock price and possibly your entire studio will be destroyed after you've cashed in on your short term higher payout, then go ahead I guess? Unless you're FIFA or Call of Duty. Then you can do whatever you want and never suffer any financial consequences.

[@wafflingmean4477]

@@CassianoAlanCanossa Bruh if you think BG3 was a fluke given how much is in that game and how Larian effectively used its testing period to modify the game accordingly and actually gave its devs the time needed to create the complete product they envisioned rather than rushing out the door, then you have a lot to learn lol. A fluke would be if it had nothing different from the rest of the crowd and blew up anyway.

[@wafflingmean4477]

@@CassianoAlanCanossa Wow you really haven't played a beta in a long time huh. Betas are not to test the game. They should be, that's what they were originally, but no, you could not be more wrong. Standard practice for a beta now is literally just a marketing ploy a couple of months before launch to soften the blow of what will be an unfinished game and incentivise preorders. Or it's a permanent grift to justify a game NEVER being finished. Therefore BG3 deliberately actually using their early access as a testing ground was not a fluke. It was a specific decision that was completely against standard AAA practice. Dude, you know absolutely nothing about what you're talking about, and have some vendetta against BG3 or D&D that is warping every aspect of this conversation, and your general ignorance isn't helping. Please do not participate in any conversation about gaming until you have at least 5% of the knowledge that you should have picked up from the last decade of the gaming industry. And make sure your mum tucks you in by 7pm.

[@HenryHarcsa]

Damn right, Chug water fellas but if you chug energy drinks at least go for sugar free and I'm glad that you still hold strong to your principles Josh

[@CB-lw7ty]

3:00 this is the situation with Destiny 2 right now, soo many different DLCs, season passes, collection editions, bundle packs that just finding the answer to a simple question like "What content is currently relevant" is a nightmare to work out and the alternative is purchasing everything for something crazy like £300 and that's before you get to the spam menu adverts for everything in game and the shop.

[@GeoGyf]

Ahh Destiny 2. The truth is that most expansions do become relevant even if only for small moments. Other than that, the most relevant thing is the current Season. IMO the problem of Destiny is multifold, but for the most part is the unwillingness of the Bungie elite caste to lose mid-term profits for early-term profits. Essentially they trade goodwill/stability for time. For instance, a feature that would bring back a lot of returning players would be an easy, free way to upgrade your gear/weapons to current light. Long-term profits are hard to achieve right now because it requires a fundamental change in Destiny philosophy & how to deal with the various player groups (casual playerbase, solo player, hardcore pvpers, hardcore pvers). As a former hardcore pver (not as hardcore as the streamers, but still top 30% raider) Bungie should cater to the more casual playerbase, but not in the way they do it now (early-term profits).

[@kimandre5842]

hard to give someone money... yeah i tried once to pay for anime... but i wasent able to see the anime i knew existed that i wanted to see... yarr yarr and a bottle of rum!

[@MauricioOsuna-et8et]

"rotating cash shop that creates fake scarcity" This man has played Warframe.

[@nylaan_ps6161]

Your character is a walking loading screen. If that is meta for a build I could never play it because I would constantly be triggered.

[@Linkefer]

I own a gym and i got some of those gamer supps and they're pretty good.

[@DavidSmith-ot3hs]

I'll worry about drinking water if and when I'm stranded in a desert somewhere

[@MasterOfBaiter]

You are correct in all your points but I have an issue with the framing. This notion of "sacrificing quality for financial gain" kinda shoves the problem on individual bad actors rather than very real material forces at play. To run a thing as expensive as an mmo you require constant infrastructure such as servers with constant expenses such as energy salaries for new updates and so on. Even if it's a passion project you have to sustain it somehow and that financial pressure to cover costs and escape economic anxieties is in part why these concerns around monetization exist. Even if you want to shove the blame on CEOs fixated on shareholder returns they only got there cause the company went public to begin with which happens cause company need investment to operate. Again you are correct on all points but the mean thing is that even the most ethical game development studio will be eventually confronted with the question: predation or bankruptcy

[@Kekzmann]

Recently needed a new oven installed. Had to mail 7 different people before i could finally give them my money. Worst experience ever.

[@williamgreen7415]

Another idea might be to enable the "Super Thanks" so I don't have to hand my information out to yet another web site?

[@Lau_wings]

The amount of times when I have wanted to buy something, only to stop because there were a couple more steps than I was willing to do is insane.

[@Icy_Sparks]

josh needs a waifu mug and of course she would be wearing a vest. since the waifu is just a pretty png, naturally the vest would be as well, which makes the whole joke even more meta.

[@DblBarrelShogun]

Husbando Josh mug

[@Icy_Sparks]

@@DblBarrelShogun fine...I'd take that one too.

[@RAFMnBgaming]

I don't have a lot of money to split between all the creators I watch but I probably would buy a mug. I mean I bought a spoon off of stuart ashen and that turned out pretty useful so kitchen utensil merch is really a win win situation as far as I'm concerned.

[@NoTimeAllTime]

Blame investment banking, ROI, and short term investments for existing and then again for the fact that most investment banks and firms see video games as products very must in the short term investment category.

[@BigGomer]

With gamersups I ordered a cup and I was never shipped I didn't try super hard to get it since I had to deal with th boarder later

[@TheFinagle]

My Opinion is that the BEST way to monetize is put up a Patreon or similar and let your audience decide if what your offering is worth enough to pay for. The problem is that only works if what your offering is something of quality that enough people will feel is worth paying for voluntarily.

[@OzixiThrill]

For something made by the small team, that is viable. For anything larger than a dozen people, that becomes rapidly non-viable.

[@Dragoonsoul7878]

@@OzixiThrill On what grounds? A bigger group reaches more people, it gets more payers, it continually gets more profitable. It should only be worse if you're making mistakes such as hiring too many people.

[@OzixiThrill]

@@Dragoonsoul7878 "On what grounds? A bigger group reaches more people, it gets more payers, it continually gets more profitable." Not in any appreciable way. And that's assuming that your entire "larger" team all have at least the most basic understanding of how not to munch on their boots. The only thing that a bigger team could do is get to the limits of people willing to pay you for your game faster; All the while each of them add an extra mouth your project would have to feed. "It should only be worse if you're making mistakes such as hiring too many people." Even a dozen tends to be way too many for a crowdfunded game. It is the exceptional minority when a larger team manages to fund their game with more people. And we're not talking about simply funding the game, but keeping it alive through extended periods of time.

[@TheFinagle]

@@OzixiThrill Thats where the "something of quality people want" part become that much more important. Thats why it fails with corporate scale projects. The moment your project needs a bookkeeper everything becomes "how to maximize earnings as fast as possible." And high quality suddenly has a price tag.

[@ProjectBarcodeError]

'They milked lewis hamilton' is a sentence i wish there was mind bleach so i can forget it.

[@mathgeniuszach]

A gamer vitamin and minerals drink that's all natural sounds epic

[@juanhurtado7244]

Bro that yugioh sweater slays.

[@DenethorDurrandir]

Josh needs a mug cup fr.

[@GoufinAround_]

The sketchy thing about artificial sweeteners, that needs to be studied more, is that they can fuck up your stomach. I was drinking a ton of no sugar drinks, while also drinking a fair amount of water as well, in the middle of the lockdowns and after like a year of it, I had such bad stomach issues that I had to see a gastroenterologist to work on fixing issues I was having. To this day, having more than one diet drink within a span of a few days fucks my stomach up. I mean like one 20-ounce coke zero/diet coke btw. Shit is still really bad for you, just not in the way people yell about with the debunked claims of them causing cancer and what not.

[@snowpoint720]

I just need something to make sure my second monitor is working.

[@AliceinEntropy]

Don't forget I think things like games especially indie games could do with things like patreon too. Extra revenue and little can support you past the cost of your game.

[@turtlearmyjess6147]

Super off topic, I love your YuGiOh sweater

[@leeuwengames315]

what are you playing during this video?

[@Keln02]

Fairness of pricing is also important. For example I'm playing darktide, irrelevant of the fact that they've just re-released the same items for 3 times the price... Those items are now worth as much as the entire game's base price. I'm sorry, this is just not honest from a time worked on the product standpoint. Additionally this is just printing money as no good has to be physically produced from taht point.

[@theThaly]

War Thunder is such a hell for this. You got market place where buying the currency seems almost imposible, you got golden eagles, you got premium accounts, there's like 6 currencies each leading to pretty much the same thing, new vehicle for you to play. Just why

[@BloodyArchangelus]

You need just golden eagles for everything.. wtf.

[@KinshinReaper]

I usually have water and some other drink cuz I don't always want to refill my drink, but any time I drink water it dries my mouth out and makes me more thirsty to the point I will drink to much water trying to not be thirsty lol

[@Briansgate]

Who's the guy not wearing a vest?

[@RexZShadow]

I agree with the statement at the end lol. If I want a drink i want a drink that taste good its a treat. If I want to be healthy i just stick to drinking water.

[@Guanjyn]

Remember when Evolve came out and they had all those different versions, and none of the versions had everything?

[@innieplays]

What game are you playing here Josh?

[@dWoj0]

Does he know what the gamer supps guy (Jschlatt) did to his queen?

[@watchdoge6464]

We already pay real money for a single item and they still feel the need to rotate the regular stock of the cash shop to trick us into thinking the item is limited and is going away. And then they come back later. Don't even need a seasonal event for that anymore. Just regular, plain cash shop items pretending they are scarce. This is one of the most disgusting practices ever made

[@zarddin]

Water and tea and beer are the best drinks.

[@niwoh]

"My monetization advice? Drink water."

[@robertmahiques6218]

Josh Strife Hayes is under-monetized. He needs to sell branded vests.

[@ion1984]

ill take sugar over artificial sweeteners any day. at least sugar is something your body understands and can tolerate if you use it responsibly. absolutely random chemicals like acesulfame potassium, aspartame, and sucralose especially are no go's. Stevia seems to be the only one that's actually a real ingredient. This idea that artificially sweetened drinks have "nothing in them" just kind of triggers me. Nothing but awesome chemicals made Conagra and Dupont. Nothing to see here folks.

[@inkromancer_studios]

At some point game publishers and developers forgot the simple reality of the world that if a product is good, and people know about it, it will be bought.

[@_Royalfool_]

Fake sugars are generally worse than real sugars, slightly worse or equal to fructose

[@katiegrayx3637]

Hitman World of Assassination is another good example of a game that's fucking impossible to buy. Before they re-did their sales method on steam we used to have to follow a flowchart to see which pieces of the game we had to buy lmao

[@fartloudYT]

its still a mess, there are several versions of deluxes, upgrades and whatnot and you can still end up not having certain mission packs.

[@timokampwerth1996]

The Hammilton still is a good flavour. It's not discontinued

[@jaysonkleinfelder2920]

Embers Adrift: $30 box price and a $10 opt-in monthly sub fee (with no cash shop). It's essentially the first patreon funded micro-MMO. A real fun game that respects their players, just nobody plays the damn game lol.

[@raventhorX]

i lost it at the hydro homies part.

[@Bongwater47]

Man that sweater is sick.

[@evdomos]

I hate caffeine and I don't know why it's legal, it just happens to be that the stuff I'm addicted to has caffeine in it. I don't want the caffeine, I just want the drink. It's impossible to find a caffeine-free diet Mountain Dew or Coke Zero at the grocery store. Maybe once in a thousand years you'll find it but the fact that it's not permanently available is insane.

[@fartloudYT]

you just need to convince enough people. you can make anything be legal if you have the numbers.

[@chelvo56]

Coke zero doesn't have a caffeine free version, coke light does. Though it's pretty rarely sold

[@absolutefolly2011]

JOSH SUGAR FREE DRINKS ARE WORSE FOR YOU THAN JUST HAVING SUGAR AND MANAGING IT WITHIN YOUR DIET. PLEASE FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH AND LONGEVITY AND TO NOT GET CANCER, LOOK INTO IT AT LEAST.

[@SitSnacks]

The problem is that, with all games with "monetization", it's an unavoidable truth that the vast, VAST, bulk of the money will be as a result of whales. Devs need not care for the majority of their playerbase, they can screw us normies over however much they like because we're just a tiny fraction of their profits in comparison to the handful of big spenders.

[@demonicsquid7217]

I always used to say to people who asked, "If you want to make more money from your product then make a better product." Trying to weasel more money out of a poor product will just reduce the lifespan of it and cost you more in the long-term. Josh is correct in that simplifying the transaction is the best thing you can do for the long term health of a product. The more obfuscated a transaction is the more it is trying to hide.

[@LG1ikLx]

What game is this??

[@MrPecco]

PoE

[@GeoShock]

Path of Exile

[@GenrsisH01]

Path of exile

[@LG1ikLx]

​@@MrPeccothank you

[@LG1ikLx]

​@@GeoShockthank you

[@galacticfunk42]

Did he just rip the top off of that water bottle instead of unscrewing it?

[@AndrewWilson-Anotherrose]

The difficulty in buying the "correct" stuff to play Destiny 2 in the current year is a crime