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The fun never ends. Clearly xbox is failing so they are trying their hardest to extract as much money as possible from whoever still hasnt sold their console yet
Sure. But a lot of the marketing is geared towards younger people unfamiliar with the service. I remember getting deluged with ads my freshman year of high school and again my freshman year of college, for instance.
They're banking on their unsubscribe process being so obnoxious that they'll lose fewer people than they gain, year to year. And given the steady growth of revenues for these programs, it appears to work over the long term.
Yeah, you're pissing people off. But when everyone operates this way, it just becomes the standard for accessing this form of entertainment. Like ad reels before a movie starts. "Well, I just won't go to the movies!" is a hollow protest in the midst of the crowds of people fighting to get into the theater.
Ok?
It's not sustainable. Tricking people faster than they wise up to your BS is not a business model that leads to a healthy, content, customer base. And if it's what EVERYONE does, you get an unhappy SOCIETY.
No-one will enjoy where that leads, and is already leading.
It's a ratcheting mechanism. Unless something about capitalism changes SIGNIFICANTLY the masses will simply grow more and more discontent.
In the same way that slot machines and roulette wheels aren't sustainable, sure. Once you figure out they're a scam, you stop playing them.
But you don't need to trick all the people all the time. You just need to trick enough people to turn a steady profit. Firms like Microsoft and EA have figured out a formula that's worked for a long time and now they're just running the playbook. Like any good bookie in Vegas, they make money off the suckers. And they reinvest a sizeable chunk of their profits into marketing to bring in new marks. And there's always new marks.
There will be a dozen senior executives in a VIP lounge absolutely enjoying where this goes in another five or ten years.
If your market is small enough.
You bring up gambling. Its de-regulation and consequent proliferation via online casinos has made the problems it causes more likely to be addressed than ever.
The bigger your market grows, the more aware the cultural zeitgeist becomes, the more likely you are be ousted entirely.
A bookie in Vegas, one city, could keep running their casino forever, because there didn't use to be a casino in every persons pocket, worldwide, that might've already taught every new mark to be wary.
You'd like to think so. But look at Robinhood. Five years ago, everyone was screaming about how it was a rigged game. Citadel Investments was manipulating the options markets. Fidelity was getting insider deals. Everything was rigged. People needed to protest. Close out your account. Yadda yadda yadda.
What happened after that? As far as I can tell, Robinhood is more popular than ever. They're certainly more profitable than ever. There was never any reform or regulation. Mostly, Reddit and similar big name social media firms just purged all the whinners and inflated the profiles of the shills and hacks.
DraftKings has been making money hand over fist. They're desperately trying to find new things for people to bet on. This isn't one bookie in one city, it's an international conglomerate that's expanded its market share around the globe. It is a worldwide bookie.
No shortage of marks. They all keep coming back.
Remember when gamers found out Suicide Squad, which at one time did have real hype behind it, would be live service BS?
And people literally just didn't play it.
People. Even entire demographics, can a do learn.
I honestly don't. Was never a SS head.
But I'll take your word for it
Well yeah. It was being developed by Rocksteady, beloved for the Arkham games.
But interest, despite the marketing, dropped off a cliff the second people smelled live service elements.
The game came out a died a quick death even more quietly than Concord.
Why are you trying to convince me my omptimism is futile?
What good does that do?
You're not wrong.
But all I'm doing here is saying "things can get better" and your replies are just you pointing out how bad things are right now, as if that proves the only way things can go, is to get worse.
The worse things get, the faster the number of people wanting to fix it will grow.
Am I wrong?
No shortage of marks you say?
Because optimism without realism is just a recipe for cynicism later on. The problem of systemic gambling won't just fix itself.
Advertising and other propaganda creates a great deal of countervailing pressure.
Dude. I'm not on my way to cynicism. I'm past it.
If I didn't believe change is possible, then I'd be part of the reason it isn't happening.
Looking for, and pushing in the places it might occur, is how you help it come about.
How is that not realistic? What am I missing?
Does the way you argue, not contribute to maintaining the status quo, even as you agree that it is not desirable?
Did I say it would?
That is a very verbose concession of a point.
Because they're miserable and they want everyone else to be miserable too