he’s not wrong though. We will pay a price in terms of Chinese policy if we continue to offer material support to regimes that don’t support freedoms. It’s annoying that they weren’t given better offers, it’s far more annoying that now it doesn’t matter if I’m playing POE or LE, my money is going to China.
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At the end of the day it’s a question of moral choice and the type of world you want to leave for your children.
If they got hetical and moral criteria in the deal they will never go with tecent.
- and that’s just my opinion, but nothing is free, if the dealk seems too good/way more better than any other deal…there is a catch somewhere. and with Chinese you pay with blood.
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Dont give them anything ever again, make them deliver you a product you dont pay for
Thats how I operate with PoE, I financed them idiots for years until Tencent, now they can provide me with a free product forever. I wont ever complain and will play until it dies/I move on. theres no attachment and hasnt been for years
I paid around $35 for LE which is meaningless compared to money I waste on other things but I am fully committed in these scenarios to never spend another dollar, you can buy Stash tabs ingame anyway
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Lol what? yeah they do. Your inventory is literally gunked to crap without the convenience items they give to the point it’s practically unplayable.
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All that remotely, without offices. What a mess to coordinate and manage!
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I get that people have doubts regarding the future game development with TenCent now involved. But there’s so much speculation about it and assumptions of how this might impact LE development. This is already addressed by Judd. So regarding development involvement we can only either trust his words that there are no obligations and it won’t impact the development direction. You can be distrustful, but not disrespectful. EHG isn’t showing any signs of predatory behaviour, though. It has always been an open and very transparent communication.
From a political standpoint I absolutely respect that people have their principles and that they stick to it. The thing I absolutely despise however are the implications that some people make, like partnering with TenCent means:
- EHG doesn’t give a fuck about human rights
- They actively support Dictatorship
- LE is used for money laundering
And people even go further and connect that partnership with indirectly supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That’s completely absurd and shows evidence that people on the internet often don’t think rationally, but are really keen to have a common enemy they can bash on and unload their righteous fury that they somehow have build up.
TenCent is a Chinese company. The majority (around 30%) is owned by a Dutch company named Prosus that is part (and owner at the same time) of a South African company named Naspers.
You can do this “who owns who” with every international operating company and you will find connections you would never have expected. Today’s world is international. The world’s financial system is interconnected. Europe and USA export a massive amount of their products to China. Following that logic every company that does that supports Dictatorship and needs to be boycotted. But then the only way of living is to live on your own farm and grow your own food.
The real world is more complex than just TenCent = China = Dictatorship = Russia = Ukraine = Supporting War Crimes
Would be nice if it was that easy.
In fact even TenCent has struggled with the Chinese government as they have become a thread by getting too big. Companies like TenCent are oriented towards the western world and acquire the western culture over time. So working together with these companies can also help to open up communication and cultural exchange.
Isolation is not a good tool to approach. Thank god that Russia is so heavy involved in international trade. Else the sanctions won’t have hit them that hard. If Russia would have been isolated for decades, They would’ve laughed at the western civilisation and their swift exclusion.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to play down human rights violation or other criminal activities. But imho the world is more complex than some people her seem to think. If you are unhappy with the political situation in the world there are better ways to get active than bashing on an indi game dev studio that takes a chance to make their dream come true.
Yes, every step counts. I get that. And if everybody in the world would boycott every product of TenCent, maybe the world would be a better place. I hope that everybody that freaked out here also acts that consequently when he’s /she’s not on a forum on the internet. Inform yourself about the products you use and act accordingly to you moral compass you’ve shown here.
But also please be respectful and don’t hyperbole just for the fame.
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Will this mean EHG will turn into an MTX churning machine like GGG did with PoE after Tencent bought a stake in their game?
Surely you don’t invest into a company/product and not care about a return. It has to come from somewhere right? I remember when GGG was invested in by Tencent, not too long after their MTX creation was upscaled a lot. I don’t have the figures obviously, but I know GGG sell a huge amount of MTX and since the game is free to play, it’s basically the only revenue stream, merchanidise would barely register I would assume.
I know LE has an MTX system in place but as a game that you pay for up front, does this investment mean that side of the game will ramp up to the MTX creation and marketing like in Path of Exile?
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That’s not how it works. “Your” money is going to pay the past/current/future salaries of EHG staff and other bills during development. “Your” money would only “go to China” if & when a dividend is paid which is unlikely to be for a while (why would an investor give a company a load of cash then demand a dividend?). It’s not like EHG make physical products in China that you then buy, that would be “your money going to China”.
Good post… The world is not black and white… its grey/gray and should be treated as such. and unless you have the facts & truth of any situation, its best not to fire broadsides without reason… Sure you can have an opinion but you also have an obligation to understand that there is much more to any situation than what you likely are aware of.
I am a South African whos family owns a few shares in Naspers from before they purchased part (45% ish) of Tencent in 2001. From a purely capitalist perspective this has been a lucrative investment. Looking at things in more detail, this indirectly means I have investments & am profiting indirectly from things that I do not politically, morally or ethnically agree with. Did I actively make a decision to invest in a company like Tencent? No, but I am benefitting in some way from its sucess. Do I like them as a company. No. Do I trust them. No. Do I approve of Chinese politics & human rights issues - no. Do I approve of all the other crap that is going on in the world… No… generally not… Do I make an effort to recycle, buy local and support brands and companies with matching values… Yes… Do I boycot companies that do things legally and morally wrong (to my view)… Whenever I realistically can (Yes, You Blizzard)… but I am also a realist and I have to live in the world as it is now and that means you cannot exclude everything that doesnt live by your standards or your views… life would be pretty shit imho if you had to do that…
If I wanted to believe in a black and white world then I would be a subsistence farmer with a farm 100miles from anywhere in the middle of Africa and I would most definitely not be posting anything on a first world game forum…
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Hey guys! Looking forward to having a really great game foundation becoming even more attractive to the whole community of enthusiastic ARPG players. Only hoping for the best!
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Thats the most rational response to a situation like this, Nobody ‘rationally’ is going to look through partnerships of company information on websites that only they decide what you have access to and say ‘OH I guess Tencent seems ok’
I view this as someone who is against the mistreatment of animals regarding slaughter for food and saying “no ive had enough im going to take a stand somewhere” and refusing to eat meat and not engaging with that system if they can
I dont really care much except I wont spend further cash on the game. Now that is out of the way when is Runemaster/Falconer being released?
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Look forward to MTX with Chinese style.
I can guarantee i wont spend a dime on this game ever again. Tencent is funding you now.
Go ask your chinese overlords for the monies, you want them as a partner you certainly dont want my money.
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Sounds very similar to what GGG said when TenCent invested in them. They also claimed that they’ll keep all freedom and keep making all the design decisions. Looking back it was the moment where it all started to go downhill for POE. Although it got more successful regarding pure player numbers, the decisions made clearly went away from GGGs original game philosophy. Can’t really imagine TenCent was completely uninvolved in that process.
Hope I’m wrong though, I really do.
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Talking about a hype train derailment, this was it.
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TenCent also owns a MUCH bigger piece of GGG like 87% I think it is and less then 25% here
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Convenience with inventory management and gameplay are two separate things. They do not sell anything that improves “gameplay” as in letting you skip content, do more damage, buy gear with real money, improve crafting odds, or anything like what Lost Ark or other actually p2w titles do.
Having better inventory management allows you to sell items and have more convenience but any F2P model that doesn’t allow you to P2W does the same thing. At a certain point, you will want to buy one of the $30 supporter packs and get some stash tabs on sale, but that point isn’t necessary until you’re playing end game and invested into the game. The core system is meant to be enough of an introduction to allow new players to decide if they want to spend money on some convenience. That said, once you reach a certain point I do also think that convenience isn’t really optional. It’s pretty much necessary if you intend on really investing time and energy into the game. For casual players, I would say it isn’t. You can easily create character or account mules as we did back in the Diablo 2 days.
My problem is how you phrased your post and lumped GGG in with hard P2W games and games that “changed” once they were invested in, when PoE is not P2W and they’ve always sold stash tabs, long before the Tencent buyout. In fact nothing has changed from GGGs original design philosophy. I played that game from beta until 3.15, and their decisions have been consistent throughout. Nothing has changed since Tencent took over, and using an optional purely cosmetic battle pass that doesn’t even contain points or anything that allows you to buy convenience items as proof that it has is just silly.
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why are people arguing about what tencent does to games (who gives a shit)
the real reason you should hate this deal is tencent helps fund the Genocide of the Uyghurs.
But please continue arguing if Tencent is good or bad for the game.
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Everyone in the world has different priorities.
Also, yay video game forum becoming mixed with politics. Its always just a matter of time.
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i hope when you deal with tencent, this game is not change to free to play!!!