Konami Ingeniously Fuses Two Things Everybody Hates: Insurance And In-Game Microtransactions

from the nickel-and-dime dept

Thu, Oct 15th 2015 2:53pm — Karl Bode

Konami's Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a fantastic game. I'm about 70% through according to the game's completion status, and while in typical Hideo Kojima fashion the plot is an incoherent mess, the level of polish and detail in the game is unprecedented. But sometimes a great, well-reviewed $60 game just isn't good enough. What do you do when your game breaks all manner of sales figures and is universally acclaimed? Why, you suddenly decide to saddle it with a brave new form of annoying microtransaction, of course.

Konami's latest microtransaction for the game went live last week, and is essentially a protection racket for users who'd like to keep their character's home fort (aka "mother base") intact. Players can spend hours collecting resources in-game to build up their mother base with weaponry, staff, and other defenses. As you grow your micro mercenary empire you can also expand into what's called forward operating bases (FOBs), which other players can not only invade, but steal resources and staff from. Here's what it looks like in-game: Don't want this stuff stolen? You can now pay Konami for FOB insurance:

"Your FOBs are always at risk of coming under attack. Now, you can rest easy with FOB insurance (paid service). If you sign up for insurance, then during the insurance period you will be compensated for any materials and staff lost due to rival infiltrations...Staff/materials stolen by the rival will in fact remain on your base, and an identical amount of staff/materials will be handed over to the rival instead.

In other words, those who paid $60 for the game will have things stolen from them periodically, but those willing to pay more will avoid such a fate. Amusingly, just like real insurance, you have to keep consistently paying to remain covered, and there are a number of things the insurance won't cover:

"FOB insurance isn't a one-off payment either, with players required to renew the virtual insurance policy periodically in order to remain protected. Just like real-life, not everything will be covered by the policy either, including abducted staff being held in the Brig; wounded staff (although, staff lost due to death or extraction will be compensated); staff used in defence of the FOB; and nuclear weapons."

You pay for the insurance with MB coins, which can be bought with real cash payments ranging from $1 for 100 coins to $50 for 6000, or acquired (slowly) in-game for completing tasks. One-day of coverage will cost users 50 coins, three days costs 100, a week costs 200 and two weeks costs 300 coins. Now I personally don't give a damn as I tend to focus more on offline play to misanthropically avoid human beings, but for those who appreciate a little something called in-game balance, making the entire point of competing with other users irrelevant has justifiably raised more than a few hackles.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: in game microtransactions, in game payments, insurance, metal gear solid v
Companies: konami

32 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Nate (profile), 15 Oct 2015 @ 3:10pm

That's a nice FOB you have there
It would be a shame if something happened to it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dogwitch (profile), 15 Oct 2015 @ 3:15pm

konami... becoming the Japanese version of EA!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2015 @ 3:16pm

Not to defend the insurance
But aside from staff (which is a non-issue to get back), you only ever lose online resources that are generated passively, or are stolen from others. It's a pretty fun system all things considered. Just this insurance thing is dumb is all.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonmylous, 15 Oct 2015 @ 3:24pm

Sounds like...
just another run of the mill Empire builder app. Build a base, attack and claim land, and build new bases, all vulnerable to attack from other players. Standard micro-transactions include Peace Treaty or Truce which protects all your bases from attack or recovers lost resources, purchased hero upgrades (either items to upgrade your existing heroes or flat out better heroes), armor for heroes, build speed ups, and other such garbage to penalize non-paying players.

Wait, i thought this was a third-person shooter game?!?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2015 @ 3:45pm

Re:
They make EA look like a ray of sunshine.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2015 @ 3:46pm

#FucKonami
[ link to this | view in thread ]
cypherspace (profile), 15 Oct 2015 @ 5:28pm

No Karl, don't you get it?! It's obviously some sort of deep commentary Kojima is trying to make about the relationship between gamers, war, and profiting off of...ok you know what, I'm just going to leave all the 2deep4u back in MGS2 where it belongs.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2015 @ 7:17pm

Re: That's a nice FOB you have there
Is there an option to hire the A-Team in game to run Konami out of town for their protection racket?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
That Anonymous Coward (profile), 15 Oct 2015 @ 8:07pm

But but but how else would be we able to afford bonuses for sr. management for pushing this shitty idea onto customers?
We can force people to grind, inflating our play numbers AND rake in handfuls of cash for people not able to sit in game 24/7.

This is win win win... except for the customer who ends up losing everything because to earn enough coins required far to much effort on stupid things than enjoying the game.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2015 @ 8:45pm

This must be against the law somewhere. Are they calling it insurance or as something else.

If it's called insurance and something goes wrong there would be no end of idiots trying to sue them for it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2015 @ 9:16pm

The micro-transaction culture is why I quit playing video games. In the early days, game developers were passionate about their art. They were gamers themselves, creating something that they themselves would want to play.

Now-a-days it's all about micro-transactions, Disc Locked Content (DLC), Pay to Win scams that nickle and dime gamers until it's no fun anymore.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2015 @ 10:30pm

Re: Not to defend the insurance
Yes, alot of people are saying this. Or: "just play offline after you make the FOB".
A couple of things that should be told also:
1.) Your FOB stays online even when you are not.
2.) If you want to unlock some of the research in single player, you have to create an FOB.
3.) If you want to avoid creating this then you have to go offline and stay offline with the game... forever.

The fact that you ever lose progress from your singleplayer game by people robbing you is an insane "feature" that will insure that when people stop playing, they stop playing for good.
If you stop playing for a while, be it that you get sick, have to concentrate on other things, or just get tired of the game and think of returning when a possible expansion is released; you would have to grind for many hours to get your staff back.
Even if you have a full staff and get robbed in the slowest possible way (losing 10 guys each day), most if not your entire staff will be gone after 6 months.

Konami are shooting themselves in the foot with this and it shouldn't be hard to see why even the greatest of fans of this "feature" will be hit by this in the future... unless of course you buy the insurance for the time you are not playing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2015 @ 11:45pm

Re: Re: Not to defend the insurance
It reminds me sickeningly of Mercenaries 2, a game I bought recently for the ps3. I can't even play it without turning off the PS3's internet connection, or the game >AUTOMATICALLY
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2015 @ 4:23am

Re:
some geniuses predicted all this $h!t already, I read it in
The Managerial Revolution (1941 Burnham)
or in
The Bureaucratisation of the World (1939 Rizzi)
... but never got to extrapolate it into MGS online
this rockstar CEOs are starting to destroy everything that matters
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2015 @ 4:28am

GDP!!!
the prisoners in China will get jobs,
they will raid your virtual home base to sell the contents on ebay to swiss and norwegian children,
this will boost the worlds GDP
how on earth could this be ruled illegal???
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Klaus, 16 Oct 2015 @ 4:43am

Going for broke
"Konami Ingeniously Fuses Two Things Everybody Hates: Insurance And In-Game Microtransactions"

The trifecta of brilliance would be if they run in-game ads for this POS.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2015 @ 5:00am

I have my own system of micro-non-transactions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
That One Guy (profile), 16 Oct 2015 @ 5:43am

Re: Going for broke
Shush you, don't give them ideas.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2015 @ 7:08am

The 'best' part of this insurance scheme is that Konami has all but made the FOB invasion system mandatory.

Even if you have no desire to ever use the multiplayer mode, after a certain mission the game will force you to create a FOB. You can't continue the single player mode until you do. And that FOB will be vulnerable to invasion by other players. You don't get a choice in the matter.

The only way to skip creating the FOB is to disconnect your gaming console from the internet. If you don't want other players to invade your base and steal your resources your only options are to never play the game while connected to the internet again or to buy the insurance. It really is a protection racket.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Fenderson (profile), 16 Oct 2015 @ 7:43am

Re:
"your only options are to never play the game"

Never playing the game at all sounds like the best option to me.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
voiceofReason (profile), 16 Oct 2015 @ 10:03am

Looks like Techdirt has re-discovered America
Has anyone here ever played Clash of Games, that little-known game from 2-3 years ago that is one of the most popular games on ios and Android? Or how about This Means War?

In each one of those games (and probably many more I don't play)one can buy a form of protection against being invaded and having one's resources taken using in-game resources. Those resources can be slowly earned (or quickly and in large volume bought for real cash). In TMW they are called "Shields" and in Clash of Clans something else. In both of these games "Players can spend hours collecting resources in-game to build up their mother base with weaponry, staff, and other defenses" and then "...other players can not only invade, but steal resources..."

What makes the version of this in this game so very different as to constitute a horrible "microtransaction?" Or did Techdirt just have a slow day?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Rekrul, 16 Oct 2015 @ 10:11am

Crap like this is why modern gaming holds virtually no interest for me at all.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Fenderson (profile), 16 Oct 2015 @ 10:47am

Re: Looks like Techdirt has re-discovered America
It's not different. It's horrible in those games as well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Fenderson (profile), 16 Oct 2015 @ 10:49am

Re:
Yes, me too. Microtransactions (as usually implemented), phoning home, and DRM are what drove me away from nearly all gaming.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mattmon (profile), 16 Oct 2015 @ 10:51am

This just guarantees that everyone will use the insurance
"Staff/materials stolen by the rival will in fact remain on your base, and an identical amount of staff/materials will be handed over to the rival instead."

So all you need to do is, buy the insurance, disable all your defenses, tell everyone "free stuff come and take it". They get all your stuff, and then the insurance gives you everything back that they took?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2015 @ 11:09am

Re: This just guarantees that everyone will use the insurance
The invasion selection is a random handful. The closest thing you could get to telling everyone to take free stuff is to change your base logo into something somewhat resembling that message using preselected words and images.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mattmon (profile), 16 Oct 2015 @ 11:26am

Re: Re: This just guarantees that everyone will use the insurance
If that's a way to get the message out, then I imagine the users would agree on some standard logo for everyone to use.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BigKeithO, 16 Oct 2015 @ 12:57pm

Re: Looks like Techdirt has re-discovered America
Aren't those games free to play? MGS5 is a $60+ AAA game, not a free to play phone game. Microtransactions are one thing if you aren't paying anything else otherwise, paying $60 and then being offered the choice of paying insurance or having your stuff stolen is something else.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BigKeithO, 16 Oct 2015 @ 1:00pm

Re: Looks like Techdirt has re-discovered America
Also, they are stealing the things you collected in single player. The "Clash" games are built and billed as multiplayer from the get go. Even if you never go online and play MP you are still going to have resources stolen from your single player game.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Voiceofreason, 16 Oct 2015 @ 1:15pm

Interesting point, in both games I mentioned, as well as I assume in the references game, raiding and stealing is a main feature, as is protecting.

Why is it wrong to impose a cost or penaltufor doing so?

One could as well argue that a person should not be permitted to voluntarily decide to build up other defenses in TMW b buying cells.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2015 @ 1:44am

Re: Re:
Certainly sounds like more fun
[ link to this | view in thread ]
G Thompson (profile), 17 Oct 2015 @ 2:23am

Who has time to play online and with the FOB's... I'm too busy fultoning anything that moves (or doesn't) and ummm.. perving on Quiet whilst in the chopper ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]