Oh hi Mark, it’s that time where we put out a new episode of the Big Red Barrel UK Podcast and you give it a listen.
We’ve got all your favourite people called Dan, Tim & Coleman all geared up to talk about a bunch of stuff about video games, so you know… do that listening thing.
Included on this week’s show:
- EA closes down Developer Visceral Games.
- New Activation patent encourages Micro-transactions in matchmaking.
- PlayStation gets caught out in some Gran Turismo Sport doggedness.
- Nintendo Switch’s 4.0.0 update, update.
- Dan dabbles in Middle-earth Shadow of War.
- Tim babbles about Syndrome & Megaton Rainfall.
We appreciate you chaps taking time out of your week to listen to our show. For your convenience, you can simply download the MP3 by clicking HERE or you can subscribe via iTunes, RSS or Stitcher and stay up to date.
IPlayGamesTooMuch
I think the worst thing about the patent that wasn’t mentioned isnt that they would match player a with horse armour and b without horse armour, it’s that they would match a with horse armour and hundreds of hours of gameplay with b without armour and maybe a few hours of gameplay. That is bad match making.
Furthermore it also mentions if player b in that scenario did buy the horse armour eventually they would match them with player c with even less time to simulate that the purchase increased their own skill and made them better so that they would consider further purchases for similar results. In that scenario if it were tied to any sort of ranking system, even if it were cosmetic it would be pay to win.
I’m not sure any game model justifies bad matchmaking.