Comments on: Entitlement

By: Terra_Cide

Terra_Cide — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:31:27 +0000

The only bright side is that the mindset of the forum, as much as they’d loathe to admit it, is not the mindset of the majority of Home users. The downside is that this mindset is very much like a bad virus, and can be seen in virtually any topic about Home that comes up.

By: gary160974

gary160974 — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:01:50 +0000

Id beta test for nothing, but i wouldn’t drop my principles or integrity to do it. These are the sort of peoples that would kiss a developer’s rear end to beta test say how great the game is, then as soon as the developer does something that’s within they rights to do, it’s all don’t like them they don’t care about us users. Virtual items have no wealth attached to them. The only wealth in any virtual community is the person you become, and what you add while in that community. Next reward offered to some of these people should be, Delete 10 friends and get a gold framed mirror wall item with look at yourself engraved in it. Wonder how many would get it.

By: MsLiZa

MsLiZa — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:21:01 +0000

After reading that thread, I didn’t have a great feeling about the state of the Home community. The whole attitude was disappointing and I was surprised to see a number of people take the OP’s side.

Feeling entitled to win rewards through a game is one thing. These people are not complaining that they didn’t receive anything. They’re upset that others get to have the same item and it somehow diminishes the value of their item. Unbelievable, really. The only reason that they have the item in the first place is dumb luck for receiving a random email.

And this whole argument about payback for having their levels reset during beta-testing?!? You’d think that the opportunity to participate in the beta would be a reward in itself. Guess not.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 10:45:38 +0000

That is a great example of the kind of thing I was talking about. Here we are given the ability to play a great game and have fun and have a direct chance to help and form a game within Home, yet people seem to think that this privilege we were given is making them “special”. I actually went to Lockwood’s site quite awhile ago and suggested they sell these portals as a way to make some money, the fact that they are giving them away shows what kind of generosity the company displays. I think they are awesome for doing this.

By: Gary160974

Gary160974 — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 03:15:36 +0000

Wow people have forgotten we are the consumers here and lockwood are the sellers. They are a business they have to make money, and if by giving out a virtual item they made, to more people, to bring more people to mercia, to ultimately make them more money, so they can bring out more content. Its up to them. can it be though, all this developers part of the community thing has that clouded it for people. shows community spirit, get invited to beta test and expect to be paid

By: MsLiZa

MsLiZa — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:22:59 +0000

Here’s some entitlement talk for you…

http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-Home/Lockwood-please-don-t-give-out-the-portals/m-p/38256905#U38256905

By: Dr_Do-Little

Dr_Do-Little — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:48:59 +0000

I dont think this is limited to home or online gaming. It’s all over the internet. For some obscure reason lot’s of people think. “If it’s on the net, it should be free”. The music industry was the first to be hit with the movie following close by. Now we are bombarded by publicity on the net and still no respect for intellectual property.

By: Krinedawg

Krinedawg — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:36:56 +0000

This post has:
1 like
As for the shirt, I’ll put a good word in at Lock’N’Dreams’Original, and see if they can start your production line.
I still would like the leaf blower though! I have all these free trees with falling leaves I need to clean up!

By: FEMAELSTROM

FEMAELSTROM — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:57:48 +0000

Krine…can I ‘like’ this statement, and where do I get my “Fema logged in shirt”, after all cogito ergo gimme!

By: FEMAELSTROM

FEMAELSTROM — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:51:57 +0000

Burbie, I totally agree with you. The freebie barking is a sad sign of the way some people are here on home. Yes, the developers have been more than generous with us the users. Mercia (Lockwood) gave out some extraordinary freebies and all I had to do was play. I don’t get anything from the local 7-11 just for walking in. Jugernaut (probably spelled that wrong, sorry guys) gave out a whole arena space just for walking up to the kiosk. I walked on a Chevy lot and did not get a car for free. Let’s face it, the people on Home that gripe when they don’t get ahything are plain out bad attitude people that should just leave this great place to those that deserve it because we appreciate the effort that the developers put into it. In and article I wrote about the Bacon companion coming out from Lockwood, I vowed to buy that little guy, because Lockwood honored the voices of the masses enough to make it at the request of the fans. We, all of us, anybody that logs on to Home should stop and take a moment of quiet gratitude to thank the people that make this an environment that anyone can walk in with out spending a dime, and still have free, fun, cool stuf to enjoy. Oh yeah and great article Burbie, now I will get off my soapbox.

By: Krinedawg

Krinedawg — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:31:14 +0000

I know where the entitlement comes from! I’ll use my daughter to explain.
Two years ago I signed her up for soccer, her team placed third for the year. They were going to give her a trophy, I was shocked. I asked before she got it, why is she getting the trophy, was it for her performance? Was she the best player on her team? I was told No, the whole team gets one so they don’t feel left out.
I said no, the team who won gets the trophy, everyone else get’s to try harder next year. I asked what kind of work ethic are you trying to portray to these kids? The winners trophies mean nothing because everyone got one. So where’s the incentive to work harder next year? When all they have to do is show up.
Do you think when my daughter is older and applies to a job she will get one just because she applied? No, she has to work for it, gain the knowledge in school and be the best she can be, not hugged and pampered and given a trophy until she feels better about loosing. It only creates the entitlement beast we are seeing now.
As for the Home rewards, I love them. I think I should get one just for logging in. It should be exclusive to me, perhaps a shirt that says Krinedawg logged into Home today, and every day it’s a different style and color. That way everyone know’s that I’m special. I mean I did pay for the PS3 and the Internet service to get there right?
In reality, I like to see other peoples rewards that I can no longer get, I like to have rewards that others can’t anymore. It’s almost like a years of patronage reward. The way I game is this. If I like the game, I will pay for the “special items to support the devs. I will play the game until I have mastered it. The rewards I get for playing the game are a bonus to me, I feel they didn’t have too, but thanks for saying good job you made it this far.
I like having the satisfaction of knowing I beat the game nothing more. If I don’t like the game I most likely won’t play or pay even though you could get a gold encrusted 750 double pumper Elderbrock high rise intake with an 1.8 multi-port chip leaf blower. I’m just glad I get to hang out with friends and relax, that’s reward enough. (does it come with sprinkles?)

By: McJorneil

McJorneil — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:32:13 +0000

Definitely been seeing some people slamming Mercia over the bugs it has. I also saw what you’re referring to in the beta. I experienced the same problems everybody else had, but never felt a need to moan and groan about it. Sure the rewards are awesome, but it was also the sense of discovery and wanting to know what lay beyond that next door that kept me playing. I’ve been stuck at level 18 since Mercia went public, but I know Lockwood’s working on a fix for the major bugs, so I don’t mind waiting. It’s a shame others aren’t so patient.

I see the same problem with the Tekken x Street Fighter game space. I’ve been frequenting that place not because of the great rewards it gives but because I enjoy the game (I think it’s freaking genius) and strived to master it (#7 on the leaderboard woot). It annoys me to no end though when players will quit during a match all because they are trying to complete the 5 Wins Challenge for a reward. Sometimes I find myself having to offer people the chance to beat me 5 times in a row just so in return they will give me a serious fight without exiting the game if they lose. The recent Home update took TxSF off the featured games list, replacing it with Cutthroats, which saddens me because now even less people visit the space.

I tried out Cutthroats and I think it’s pretty cool what they’ve done. All the different types of weapons and things you can do really make it a great game. I can kind of understand why some people aren’t satisfied with the level cap not being raised as many gamers like to have a sense of progression (like what you see in RPGs), but complaining just because no extra rewards were added is silly. I know Norse Gamer mentioned there are future additions being planned, and I’m looking forward to what those might be. Dear god if it was a sword fighting mini game and it played like the Tekken x SF game I would go crazy and dominate everyone! FEAR MY INNER PIRATE! lol

I suppose the complaints may drop once the major bugs are eliminated. Something I cannot wait to launch in NA is the Peakvox Ninja game. I think it may very well be what Norse Gamer called Home’s “It” Game, although it has me slightly worried for Lockwood’s newly announced Uproar, as I can almost guarantee PVN will be a big hit.

By: deuce_for2

deuce_for2 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 20:28:39 +0000

From the developer point of view: It is hard to know what the sales of an item or the play rate of a game is going to be. Even if we had great numbers for another game, our game is not the same game and our game is coming out at a different time.

My belief is that free rewards are there to beef up the value (aka the confidence level of the developer) so it will sell well. Sometimes it makes complete sense. Other times it just seems like they are doing it because others do it.

My experience is that the memorable rewards always marked some effort. Having had discussion with other developers, some think that the effort will make the reward something people never get. You will see this difference reflected in how rewards are given out.

My goal as a developer is to always reward people with something worthy of the effort. And to always make people feel like they are getting more than they paid for.

Does the fact that some people are only in it for the rewards play into our design? Absolutely. Will that make people think we are giving people more than they deserve? I hope so. Will people complain? Undoubtedly.

The goal is not to please everyone. The goal is to create the tools that make it so people can have the most fun. Then find monetization points that will make sure we are making enough that we get to do it again.

The thing to remember is that the age range for Home is 13-?. And the income level is $0-$?. And some number over 90% tend to never pay for anything. I believe Farmville only had 1.7% of their players actually spend money. I am sure Home’s rate is higher, but have no hard numbers.

So the developers are like the birds jumping out of the nest for the first time hoping we can fly. And rewards are the thing we use to increase the the chances in our minds.

Burbie52 -- Great article! I hope we hear from more people on this issue.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 17:15:32 +0000

I never said that this was a majority Karen. It is really a minority of people who are like this I think. There are many people in Home who come to just have fun and converse with friends and the rewards to them are the icing on the cake. There are others who use reward hunting as a meta-game and that is fine too. I was addressing the people who come in and get the rewards then complain because they don’t have more and more coming in a constant stream or win a prize then say it isn’t good enough. Those are the people who need to understand and change their attitudes, and I have met a few recently so I felt that this was something that needed to be said. Most of my friends are older and wiser than that, you included.
I wasn’t attacking anyone, just putting it out there for others to give their opinions on something I felt needed to be said.

By: gary160974

gary160974 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 15:55:51 +0000

it’s all about your experiences on home, everyone’s different, I’ve had people ask to add me so they can do a quest for a reward that you can’t get unless your with a friend because they have no friends on home I’ve had people add me to try and get rewards from a personal space I own, even been asked to log in as people so I could get reward for them. Because they couldn’t. That is it what rewards mean to a lot of users on home its why they come on home. If it didn’t work developers wouldnt put rewards in home

By: gary160974

gary160974 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 14:30:06 +0000

Yep agree with you there homes become too dependable on rewards the amount of users that needed help getting rewards when you had to do quest with a friend was an eye opener to just how many single players home has, that come on home to collect rewards only. But why play home games without a reward because playing a game within a game and all the limitations that brings, surely we are better playing a disc based game rather than a limited home game. So does it mean we have to be bribed to play games on home. Currently looks and feels that way.

By: karen1

karen1 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 14:29:18 +0000

I just read your article with great interest. While I agree with some aspects of your reasoning, some of it is so completely out there that I can’t believe that you feel this way about most people on PS Home. I wonder if this is the way you feel about your friends. I do know a lot of people feel “entitled” but most all people I know feel that when a reward is offered they should get it when they earn it. “Up for grabs” prizes for the mazes was implied but when the people who won were told to give them their 3 choices of which prize they wanted, that tells me to state whether you are male or female so the “prize” was appropriate for the person who won. Yes I agree that Darthgranny is a very kind and giving woman on Home and she should not be faulted for what she has accomplished, however I feel you have attacked this issue with the wrong attitude. Your judgement of people rather concerns me if that is how you look at most people. I do agree with you that there are a lot of players who do expect things but the bigger percentage are just players who are grateful for what they get as rewards because they earned them not because they expected them. I could go on and on about this, but it saddens me that you feel this way..People are not here to “get” free stuff we are here to “enjoy” ourselves and that is what, I guess, we do expect. Rewards are a bonus not expected.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 12:44:51 +0000

I agree that the reasoning behind it might be sales where the developers are concerned. But it is the attitude that the consumers have that is the issue here. Just because you got a reward from one thing in Home doesn’t mean that every thing you do has to give you one, and continually do so forever.

By: Gary160974

Gary160974 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 07:26:08 +0000

Gifts from a friend id agree with it, rewards from home are just another sales technique, its partly our fault, because I could set up a completely empty room and tell people if they dance in this room for 2 hours changing they dance every 5 minutes they would get a reward of a jewel encrusted gold pile of manure for a limited time only. people would fall over themselves to get it. But theres usually a sales reason for giving it away. give away a neon flower and if you want the rest you have to play our game or get the rest paid for. give away a wall bracket but to use it you need to buy our biggest bundle, give away a theme you can only use in an apartment you buy. all sound sales techniques so developers encourage it because fall for it .

By: Jayson619

Jayson619 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 05:18:03 +0000

Good read.

But in my case, I am hoping Sony shares contents across their regions, free or not.