Video Games

[nocera]

It must be said, but people buying from scalpers are huge part of the problem. Remove that, and there's no reason for people to use bots to snatch them up.

Eh, I disagree. I wouldn't pay more than retail price, but Microsoft and Sony didn't give people much of an option. I happened to get lucky and secure a pre-order on the initial pre-order day and got my console at launch. The people who didn't luck out, by no fault of their own, were ****. You either had to wait and hope you get lucky with the next drop, set up notification alerts or browser extensions and hope you somehow beat the bots, give up and wait for months before they're readily available in store, or pay the scalpers.

Resellers saw an opportunity to make an easy buck using bots that they already had in place for sneakers. Sneaker makers, by the way, combat bots pretty effectively now. Nike's snkr app is bot free. Adidas and others have protections in place, along with the majority of the major retailers. Target, Walmart, Best Buy... they never had to deal with bots before so they weren't ready, had zero protections in place, and the majority of their inventory got swallowed up instantly. That's on them. But it's also on Sony/Microsoft for relying on the outdated pre-order system.

[NTP66]

Mind you, I didn't say those people were the entire problem. If people use bots to buy themselves a unit, that's different, but they're not. They ripping everyone else off. And people are paying up for them, so the circle completes.

[nocera]

I wonder what percentage of total lifetime console sales are in the first week. I keep reading you guys saying this is a bad look for [company] but those of us who eschew this nonsense and will wait to next year don't really have a stake and we don't have a reason to think less of the company for whatever is going on.

I guess there is an overlap between someone that cares enough to try to get a console and launch and those that will complain about not getting one on the internet. Just curious how much of the overall console buying population they are.

Yeah, early adopters are usually the most hardcore gamers. I don't know what percentage of console customers that makes up, but I'm willing to guess that hardcore gamers make up no more than 15-20%. The problem I see is that they released these consoles in Q4 to capitalize on the holiday. PS5/Xbox Series consoles are THE gift this year. And most won't be able to purchase it. I see that equating to a lot of pissed off people.

[dodint]

Yeah, I'm not saying folks don't have a grievance. As a middle aged guy with no kids that is effectively a casual gamer at this point I'm not really impacted by inventory shortages as I can just wait. But I do have the money to buy one so Sony/MS must care on some level.
It is weird given how much we've learned about logistics over the years that this kind of thing is still a concern.

[NAN]

Yeah my daughter is the same way. Seven years old and crushing Lynels/Guardians. Love it.

I actually beat my first two golden Lynels yesterday in Master Mode. Definitely the hardest enemies in the entire game.

I know it's a VAST game, but any tips for someone still somewhat early in the game?

Is there a number of shrines you completed before you went on further in the main adventure to get more hearts?
Armor or weapons you focused on?
Side quests to build up rupees?

Just stuff like that.

[skullman80]

I Just get mad when I want to give a company my money and they don't have the product available. That's a me problem though. The companies not having any protection against bots is something else that really drives me insane. It's something that could be at least deterred if not stopped, but they don't care to do it. This is also on retailers and their websites and not just Sony/MS.

[Morkle]

I wonder what percentage of total lifetime console sales are in the first week. I keep reading you guys saying this is a bad look for [company] but those of us who eschew this nonsense and will wait to next year don't really have a stake and we don't have a reason to think less of the company for whatever is going on.

I guess there is an overlap between someone that cares enough to try to get a console and launch and those that will complain about not getting one on the internet. Just curious how much of the overall console buying population they are.

I don't think it's an impact negatively for me personally, I can live without the PS5, have no interested buying a scalped machine, so if I wait, I wait. It's an inconvenience, it's a cluster, but it is what it is.

[tifosi77]

I wonder what percentage of total lifetime console sales are in the first week. I keep reading you guys saying this is a bad look for [company] but those of us who eschew this nonsense and will wait to next year don't really have a stake and we don't have a reason to think less of the company for whatever is going on.

I guess there is an overlap between someone that cares enough to try to get a console and launch and those that will complain about not getting one on the internet. Just curious how much of the overall console buying population they are.

Don't know about week 1, but sales through the first month (which would include pre-orders) was something like 3-4% of lifetime hardware sell-through. Worth noting the PS4 had an abnormal sales cycle in that Sony had greater unit volume sales in years 3 and 4 than in years 1 and 2. That was fueled by an enormous bump in volume when they introduced the Slim and Pro variants.

To your other point, I'm with you. I won't be getting a PS5 until the first major price drop, which likely won't be for 2-3 years.

[dodint]

Yeah, looking at it, PS4 came out in November 2013 and I bought it in January of 2015 when I moved to Wisconsin. Was a gift to myself to enjoy the loneliness of Wisconsin winter while I waited for my wife to move in May.

I traded it on a PS4 Pro in early 2019.

[willeyeam]

It must be said, but people buying from scalpers are huge part of the problem. Remove that, and there's no reason for people to use bots to snatch them up.

Perhaps they aren't priced high enough if people are paying scalpers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Morkle]

That's the terrible thing about it. Sony and M$ looking at this like they could jack up prices next time around.

[shafnutz05]

Yeah my daughter is the same way. Seven years old and crushing Lynels/Guardians. Love it.

I actually beat my first two golden Lynels yesterday in Master Mode. Definitely the hardest enemies in the entire game.

I know it's a VAST game, but any tips for someone still somewhat early in the game?

Is there a number of shrines you completed before you went on further in the main adventure to get more hearts?
Armor or weapons you focused on?
Side quests to build up rupees?

Just stuff like that.

Yeah, honestly I did a TON of exploring. My recommendation is to do the Ruto questline first (out west) because you get Revali's Gale...that has been the most useful of the four powers by far for me, as it lets you explore much more readily in mountainous areas (especially when your stamina meter is still relatively low).

Always bomb the ore chunks too, most of my money is earned through selling amber, ruby, sapphire, etc. That said, make sure you save at least 3 or 4 of each for when you start unlocking the fairy fountains and upgrading your armor, which is extremely important.

I think I had like 60 or 70 shrines down before I even started the second divine beast quest.

[nocera]

That's the terrible thing about it. Sony and M$ looking at this like they could jack up prices next time around.

I doubt that. The amount of people buying from scalpers is probably a drop in the bucket to the direct sales.

[NTP66]

It must be said, but people buying from scalpers are huge part of the problem. Remove that, and there's no reason for people to use bots to snatch them up.

Perhaps they aren't priced high enough if people are paying scalpers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm going to buy one before Morkle even gets his and then sell it for $2k.

[MR25]

That's the terrible thing about it. Sony and M$ looking at this like they could jack up prices next time around.

I doubt that. The amount of people buying from scalpers is probably a drop in the bucket to the direct sales.

Plus they're making money of the scalpers anyway.

[nocera]

@skullman80 reading this thread's discussion on buying from scalpers:

[skullman80]

Haha. I said I wasn't proud of what I did, but it is what it is and I have a console.

[tifosi77]

The bigger problem isn't so much that bots are actually facilitating scalpers buying up inventory (although that's certainly happening). The bigger issue is that the webstores aren't sufficiently equipped to deal with bot traffic, so when they're faced with bots attempting 65,000 transactions per second, the site basically shuts down. Even if only 1% of those attempted transactions carries through to completion, that's a lot. It's tantamount to a DDoS attack.

[nocera]

It's because these electronic stores never had to deal with it. Like I said, in the sneaker world, the retailers and companies are well equipped now to deal with bots. Hopefully this changes things but with the huge gap between console releases (or other in demand electronics like graphics cards), there isn't much incentive to fix it.

[NTP66]

Both are at fault. And skull shall wear a cone of shame.

[NAN]

Yeah, honestly I did a TON of exploring. My recommendation is to do the Ruto questline first (out west) because you get Revali's Gale...that has been the most useful of the four powers by far for me, as it lets you explore much more readily in mountainous areas (especially when your stamina meter is still relatively low).

Always bomb the ore chunks too, most of my money is earned through selling amber, ruby, sapphire, etc. That said, make sure you save at least 3 or 4 of each for when you start unlocking the fairy fountains and upgrading your armor, which is extremely important.

I think I had like 60 or 70 shrines down before I even started the second divine beast quest.

Thanks. I made it to Zora's Domain, but haven't fought the Devine Beast there yet. I don't think I'm strong enough. I have about 15 shrines done now, but 5 were for the Runes. So I only got like 2 additional heart containers.

I went back to exploring and just looking for shrines and side quests to build up money and life before I move on. Maybe I'll head out west as I've been exploring in more the Northeast.

[Kaiser]

The players will never care as a group, as long as some of them get theirs. its like buying gold in WoW, you cant buy gold and then complain that chinese botters are taking all ya ****.

[tifosi77]

@nocera

Yeah, I've seen it mentioned that online sneaker retailers have had this sorted for a while now, which I admit I found kind of interesting. Bot traffic is much more prevalent now, and more sophisticated (if that's the right word) than when the last gen consoles launched, but the electronics sellers (both first-party direct, and retailers) didn't really do anything to prepare for that with this gen console launch.

[NTP66]

There was a story about it recently, and there were more than a few American groups doing the bot thing to snatch these up. The one group said they were able to purchase thousands of consoles combined.

[the wicked child]

Thanks. I made it to Zora's Domain, but haven't fought the Devine Beast there yet. I don't think I'm strong enough. I have about 15 shrines done now, but 5 were for the Runes. So I only got like 2 additional heart containers.

I went back to exploring and just looking for shrines and side quests to build up money and life before I move on. Maybe I'll head out west as I've been exploring in more the Northeast.

I can't really give you a set number, but I recommend favoring stamina over health after you have "enough" hearts to not just get your ass handed to you non-stop. Being able to climb/run further is super important to being able to explore further. Once you have enough hearts to get the Master Sword, definitely go for full stamina at that point.

Definitely collect korok seeds as you go because you want the weapon slots. More weapon slots means less chance of getting caught w/o a decent weapon. I would not recommend going for all of them, but it is worth fully upgrading the inventory slots.