EA Manipulates Your Gameplay to Make You Spend Money

This is all off a leaked EA Patent for a system that allows them to read your gaming data and then manipulate the games you play without you knowing it. They read your gameplay history like how likely you are to rage quit, how often or when you might purchase microtransactions, your skill levels at different game tasks even, and then they system might adjust the game to manipulate you.

Maybe your the sort who eventually caves and buys something to get you through a tough spot? The system might make things tougher to get you to do that. Or it could be used to do that.

Are you the sort who just can't time your jumps? You might quit and never come back? That's your pattern? Can't have you quitting ... you might not buy stuff, so the system might make that jump just a tad easier all of a sudden.

Think about it. There are all kinds of ways to keep your users around without them even knowing they've been manipulated into staying ... and buying with a system like this. They never have to know they're games have been adjusted and tweaked to make them behave in certain ways.

a reply to: ketsuko

I know that sometime's a STEAM game will crash and since I also have origin on the system when it CTD's I have a mysterious hanging Origin window that just sit's there for a bit then closes itself - as if Origin has crashed my steam game somehow, odd but given this snippet it makes a lot of sense, not constant enough to call it corporate sabotage of there competitor but it shows that the claim Origin is spyware is very valid.

Perhaps the EU's date commissioner need's a kick up the arse to check this out, sound's very much like something they could slap a very sizable fine on EA for doing.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Almost every time I decide to try to open and play one of my BioWare games, I have de-install/reinstall Origin to get into it.

And, yes, Origin and Steam are darn near incompatible to be running at the same time.

a reply to: ketsuko

EA are like car salesmen charging you extra for the steering wheel.

Cake remembers. Cake remembers when you bought a game, turn the console on, press start to play, end of f'in story. Now you have to sign in, patch this, download that,login to that...even some single player games need internet connectivity.

The future of gaming is bleak, which is why I've been stockpiling consoles and games, so when the time comes when it goes full digital, and the server's got clogged and cut out, I'll send out a message to those spoiled entitled brats trying to play fortnite or what ever

'whatz the matter, you babies can't play with your rattles? I have eight rattles. Enjoy your can't connect to server simulator f'kers'.

The Day gaming loses optical drives, I'm out.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: LABTECH767

Almost every time I decide to try to open and play one of my BioWare games, I have de-install/reinstall Origin to get into it.

And, yes, Origin and Steam are darn near incompatible to be running at the same time.

I have the same problem with both running at the same time. As much as I like the Steam overlay with BF I just can’t have it without my system going into crackhead mode.
Something is afoot here it would seem.

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

The market for physical copies will never dissipate. It will only change.

a reply to: ketsuko

Thank you for the heads up. I will now update my stock portfolio to include EA. After this fallout damages the stock, I'll BTFD. And when people forget this ever happened, and the stock goes up because of this tech being implemented, EA will reap enormous profits... and so will I.

There is one born every minute...

I have yet to ever pay for anything "a game" offers me. They can use all the Jedi mind tricks they want. It's free or I dont play. But I'm aware people are spending tons of money on stupid # like...if you pay hard cash, then you game character levels up...faster then without money.

Kids are vulnerable I know. That's why...credit card details will remain in my head.

originally posted by: ketsuko

Are you the sort who just can't time your jumps? You might quit and never come back? That's your pattern? Can't have you quitting ... you might not buy stuff, so the system might make that jump just a tad easier all of a sudden.

Think about it. There are all kinds of ways to keep your users around without them even knowing they've been manipulated into staying ... and buying with a system like this. They never have to know they're games have been adjusted and tweaked to make them behave in certain ways.

This isn't anything new. Game developers have been making the game easier without the player knowing long before micro transactions were a thing. I don't think there is really a problem with game developers wanting people to play their game more or wanting players to no become too frustrated with it. Unless they flip this and try to make things harder so you have to buy stuff....

Here is a good video from the game theorist on why and how Hard mode is a lie.

"You've probably been playing on easy mode your entire life without even realizing it"

a reply to: FauxMulder

The video I posted addressed that. He even says this can be a good thing if it's subtle and makes your experience more enjoyable by tailoring the challenge to you.

But, he walks you through the patent language which explicitly mentions money and spending numerous times. As EA is the king of lootboxes and pay to win games as service, it's naive to think this system they patented is being used to make your customer experience a better one and not in an effort to try to trick you into paying to win.

my buddy at Zynga told me that they have an AI that purposefully will set the difficulty to impossible when you have passed a certain amount of levels. This will then either drive you to spend money on upgrades to help you pass a level or you spend a certain amount of time just playing the game until the AI decides that you are not going to spend money to pass the level, and then allows you to pass it just to make it impossible a few levels down the road. Also to encourage you to spend money. Ever tried to beat a level for days or even weeks, just to find that one day you crush that level in seconds? Yup. Pay to play is a huge business now with companies like Bethesda producing video games that you buy for 70 bucks, only to find that everyone else is at a higher level than you and the only way to achieve that level, is by buying the next "season". And the next season, and the next....

I expect nothing less from Evil Arts.

How will it affect competitive gaming?

Much like social media, I don't think the small amount of protesting is going to help. A majority of people will throw money at these games and keep using social media sites that give away all your information.

There is a lot of backlash, but nothing really comes from it. Iv'e seen normal, hard-working people, with almost no vices, spend 1/4 to 1/2 of their paycheck every week on gambling. Gaming corporations and social media are getting better at triggering these types of people. It's not just people with that type of mentality, but also kids that are targeted. Which goes into another topic of youtube videos using kid psychology for view money.

Anyway, sorry to get a bit off topic there. Point is, I don't see anything seriously being done to stop the trend, or if there is anything that can be done. The big tech companies have already won.

I refuse to pay money to get past a roadblock in any game. I'll uninstall the game and find something else first.

Very insidious of EA, but it honestly doesn't surprise me in the least as finding ways to part gamers from their money has been a thing for a fairly long time. Watching the ex attempting to play one of EA's sports games on x-box and realizing just how incomplete the game was and how you could spend money to get some of the functionality that previous years of the game had as a base was sad. Even worse was watching the ex pour a great deal of RL money into buying athletes for custom leagues.