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Comment by redroyal | Hacker News Reader

I don’t agree this is incredibly strange. These people are upset that they are unable to drive virtual sports cars in an online world. Why? It doesn’t transport them anywhere so they’re paying money for no real world utility. What difference does it make what pretend car they’re driving in a video game? Why would they even want a choice of hundreds of different pretend cars? Why would anyone take their hard earned money and purchase the sprite of a car and drive it around a video game?

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You don't get it, that is fine, you don't have to. I would like to correct you though, it's not real money. It's currency you earn in game by doing missions. You can supplement in game money with real money, but most people will be annoyed because in game currency represents time they spent doing missions, time they were hoping to trade for the cars. I can't help you understand why people enjoy it, but just like any hobby, it's enough that they do.

Though just a hobby, gaming is the biggest media industry on the planet, and GTA Online is one of the biggest single money makers in the industry. To the tune of billions of dollars, so it's not exactly a silly little niche, this change will likely shift the needle for them by millions of dollars, in which direction I don't know.

You are conveniently ignoring the part where a person gets happy over their character. Are you saying being happy has no real world utility?

“gets happy over their character”?

You mean their virtual character becomes happy because of the virtual sports car they now drive?

Tricking people to confuse their selves, possessions and lives with a simulation is some genius marketing. How did they pull this off?

The same way they “tricked” you to be happy about that book, movie, t-shirt, blog post, concert, hobby or any other form of entertainment you consume that “means nothing”

But you don’t even consume this. You can’t even give the experience to someone else to enjoy. They made up a fake person and gave a pretend product to them, and billed your bank account in real dollars. This doesn’t make a bit of sense to me

Why are you pretending not to understand this? In gaming you control an abstraction of a person and it's entertainment to you, the real world person. In passive drama you likewise watch events happen to imaginary people. Why do we have to explain this to you?

Because I want to see how you rationalize throwing the money you need to survive away on a fantasy

They don't need the money to survive, perhaps they have excess or they have deemed other things more important and allocated their resources accordingly.

You don't need to understand it, you don't even need to accept it for it to happen. You're discussing in bad faith.

Step back once more, look at your life and you’ll realise that you can apply the same logic to any status symbol you own.

How did they pull it off? It’s human nature…

It's a pretty short-lived happiness.

The game have been out for 10 years. If people are still passionate about it, that’s longer than most things people do in life.

It's an addiction like other MMOs. You grind sufficiently to where you don't feel much from gaining more (xp/money/whatever) but feel awful if you lose anything, or if you simply stop playing and let it go "to waste." These games are deliberately designed this way. You can spend 10 years on it without anywhere near a proportional amount of fun, and you won't gain anything lasting. Like, you wouldn't say a 10-year alcoholic is simply passionate about alcohol.

These games are deliberately designed this way

Which design elements can one add/remove to such game to make a difference? Asking because it feels like a stretch to make an argument and also just how all things naturally are (opposed to designed deliberately).

Some people will sink 15 hours a week into an MMO or other addictive game, and that's not even the extreme case (that's like 50h). It's hard to make that actually fun, so just focus on keeping the player coming back. If there's a genuinely fun part of the game, make sure it's slightly more fun when you grind for hours first. Ensure there's some kind of never-ending progress, often in the form of rare collectibles that are added over time to ensure nobody "beats" the game even if they've done everything that's fun in it. Along with customizations, this will make players feel like they lose something if they quit. Also make it seem like they're doing something productive with their time. Some games have a "daily tasks" checklist that makes it feel like a job. Or the simple version is a button you press once a day for free loot, just to get people to log in.

And most video games aren't like this. You'll see a contrast in how addictive games are monetized compared to others. The tactics have been well-known for a while (World of Warcraft pioneered many of them in 2004-06), and in the past decade it's become a lot more common. GTA Online isn't totally an addictive game, but it seems to have a bit of that with the ingame assets.

why would you drive cars in video games ?

I have little interrest in real life cars.

Real cars pollute much more, cost a lot, you have to take care of them, pay attention not to crash them, and you can kill innocent families with them

I don't habe the budget for a Lambo and modding a street car is illegal. And even if I could, I wouldn't have the interrest to spend a decade to build a racing car that I could just crash at any time.

I don't want a miata because I have bicycles and friends.

The plot around driving your own car is terrible. At least video games have a scenario

I can see myself doing a heist to have fun with friends in GTA, but not in real life

>Why would anyone take their hard earned money and purchase the sprite of a car and drive it around a video game

More like why would anyone take their hard earned money and burn it at the petrol station, on sets of tires, and on endless mechaniscs.

A video game is 60$, a Miata is 20.000$

And I already cycle around, so I won't just pollute and waste money for the track day

You’re still missing the point entirely. The purpose of a car is to take you from a to b. If you don’t need that service, you don’t need a car at all, and if you don’t need a car it’s doubly true you don’t need a virtual car even if it is cheaper. It’s not real they’re selling a fantasy. You’re trading a real burger for a photo of a burger. You can’t eat that.

The real world utility is spending time in pleasant manner. Virtual cars provide that exactly the same way as virtual anything.

> The purpose of a car is to take you from a to b. If you don’t need that service, you don’t need a car at all

It would take like 2 hours to walk across the GTA V map on foot north to south.

> and if you don’t need a car it’s doubly true you don’t need a virtual car even if it is cheaper

Wait, are you saying if I don't need a car in reality, I don't need a car in a game? I'm not the Hero of Time, so I guess I don't need any weapons when playing Zelda. I'm not a soldier, so I don't need guns in Battlefield.

You make an excellent point. Why are you playing video games at all?

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.

how dare you ?

>If you don’t need that service, you don’t need a car at all

You're repeating Marx's "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"

that's socialism

> It’s not real they’re selling a fantasy.

and yes, that's capitalism

let me live in the 21st century of mass media and video games. I want that.

I want to fill my existential void with consumption and video games. They're fun.

Fantasy is a popular product for many reasons, especially for those who have inner fantasy response. Too bad you seem to completely lack one. Personally I’d fall into a heavy depression if the only thing I could enjoy about X was its physical property.

Have you ever played video games once?

Clearly not.

I've played plenty of video games, but these MMO ones have always seemed like more work than game. Especially if people are getting upset over it.

> Why? It doesn’t transport them anywhere so they’re paying money for no real world utility.

As a person who doesn't like to travel and drive I see virtually no utility in getting transported from one place to another in real world either.

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