Yes, I did mention before that I wasn’t going to be posting much about gaming anymore. However, the above (which goes back to the NEXON Maplestory fiasco) ties greatly into one of the core reasons why I’m moving away from games in general as a hobby. This wasn’t something that I just suddenly had an epiphany about. It’s been brewing for a while (which is why I wrote this back in 2022 where even at that time, this came from feelings from years prior).
IMHO, you have to be pretty naive to think that this isn’t how most development studios do their backend systems now when it comes to things like loot drop RNG, loot boxes, etc. The overall actions of the gaming industry have spoken volumes for years now; greed.
When Force talks about location-based drop rate changes, he is sort of on a different footing (since he is referring to in-game location loot changes which is par for the course). I interpret it differently though; I read it as real-world location-based drop rate changes. This is sort of obvious when looking at just KMMO’s because there is that PC bang aspect (where you have those gray area agreements between them, these dev studios, and publishers/portals). Major systems in KMMO’s are designed around this where the cash shop mechanic is purchasing back things like QoL, increased EXP, increased drop rates, etc. This is why there is that PC bang buff, “hot” time rewards, and the ubiquitous “play time” rewards (which encourages players to play for that amount of time daily, weekly, and sometimes, monthly. But as far as PC bang location-based drop rates go, if players get better drop rates at specific PC bangs, it’s a huge retention factor (and benefits everyone).
Let’s take this a whole step further. Remember that meme about “streamer buff”? You would also have to be naive to think that such a thing doesn’t exist (especially for valued partners). It’s a marketing avenue for those companies since it generates hype. Naturally (given the hours that many streamers tend to play), there is plausible deniability that it’s partially because of that. But I do not doubt for a second there is this dynamic rate tweaking going on behind the scenes.
As I noted many times before, the gaming industry has never been good at self-regulating itself. Transparency would be a joke because why would I bother trusting them when they pull these sort of stunts in the first place. So I see nothing changing (because even with the MapleStory fiasco, the punishment that NEXON received is a joke that will not discourage them or other companies from continually engaging in such shenanigans). This is why I am literally voting with my wallet by stepping away from gaming as a hobby that I spend money on.
