What is the price of a whale?

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#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.

[commandervulkan]

You're telling me I can BREED Elves with Werwolves?! That's just like the novels I write that people in the costumes keep buying from me

[VBPunch]

I laughed hard at the sponsor for the video, that's like Burger King sponsoring a video on how hazardous processed food is. Took their money and told the audience to be wary.

[pocketheart]

There is a certain irony to accepting a sponsorship from a mobile game with horrific microtransactions on a video about whales.

[SwoleBenji]

I played on the same server as a massive whale in Archeage. He'd spend upward of $400 a DAY just to stack a ton of buffs and he'd auto-shoot people 100 to 0. I made it my mission to build my character around stunlocking him 100 to 0 and ignoring defense (Spear passive if I remember right) and he started whaling harder by paying bodyguards to stop me. Fun times.

[derrinerrow]

I still loved the story of a Whale who spent over $100k on Diablo Immortal and got the best gear, but was unable to matchmake with a single player in the PVP because of how his stats were way higher than everyone else. He literally payed to win, but now he is unable to actually play with what he bought.

[DtemplarK]

Remember kids, ironic whaling is still whaling, if you see a player or streamer spend thousands of dollars on microtransactions to show "how bad it can get" those are still thousands of dollars that go into the shareholders pockets.

Yes i'm talking about the whole fiasco with diablo immortal, that game is such a monetary success is not even funny at this point.

[planescaped]

My brother is a dolphin. And I can only speak anecdotally, but he spend so much money on these garbage games as a coping mechanism. Instead of a conventional shopping addiction he turns to when he feels stressed, depressed or unhappy, he blows money on these cash vampire games.

I get the impression it's the same thing with most of these people.

[darthplagueis]

Should be noted that a lot of whales are not some random rich people who can simply afford to splurge that much cash on a game every month.
Many of them are people with some kind of compulsive spending disorder instead. They'll spend money in-game because it helps them cope with whatever they're going through even if their budget doesn't actually allow it and in exchange they end up cutting corners elsewhere.

[stephanf]

Oh what an Irony that you advertise for a whaling game before this video lmao.

[JachymorDota]

On paper, it sounds interesting for games to be free and you buy cosmetics to support it.
In reality, "You want 20$ for BLUE?!" in "prepaid" games.

[Larry]

The Moby Dick of whales had to be DarkSyde Phil, who had infamously spent over $45, 000 on a WWE mobile card game.

Even worse is he's not even in the top ten players of the game!

[LloydLaws]

Nerdslayer: what is the price of a whale??
Also Nerslayer: sponsor of my video, game that promotes whaling

[Marinealver]

The sad fact is a single whale 🐋 that drops over a thousand dollars on the in-game store is worth more than ten gamers spending $60-70 on a full priced game. And some whales spend even more than that.

[yokorose]

The irony here with the ad for a mobile game and talking about whales in video games. i really think its a bad idea having that ad at the start of this video .

[MistaBrandoVA]

I remember your DOAG on that Star Trek MMO and how it’s only being supported by whales spending literally thousands of dollars. That really stood out to me for how ridiculous it sounded but also shocking that a few thousand players were still pumping lifeblood into an old game like that.

Even reading about all the money some people poured into Diablo Immortal absolutely astounded me, there’s nothing wrong with supporting a game you like and doing what you want with your own money but holy shit putting thousands into a mobile game is bonkers to me

[ViolenVaymire]

Whales are often thought of as rich, But you don't gota be. I lived 10k below the poverty level(9k a year, Milk is 6 dollars here) yet spent 1k a year in a game called Smite( i played for 8 years..). I lived ok, just spent way to much on one game.
Kept me poor tho, for sure.

[Texelion]

If it wasn't so predatory, I'd just see whaling as some form of crowdfunding where those with money pay for everyone to enjoy a product, and there would be nothing wrong with that.

Unfortunately it's not the case.

And I wonder how many of these whales actually pay with stolen credit card numbers or Paypal accounts...

There is just so many things wrong with this practice.

[IncredibleEdibleCake]

I'm a little shocked that you barely touched upon the human cost of whaling, let alone the dehumanizing way the industry refers to people as sea creatures. Most people who drop tons of money on video games have serious issues: gambling addiction, shopaholics, depression, etc. that these monetization techniques prey upon. They are often not rich, most of the time they are in pretty rough places, financially, and "whaling" gives them the slightest feeling of power and control while siphoning off the little money they have.

Also, I really hate how shitty microtransactions have become acceptable as long as they are "just cosmetic." I remember a time when cosmetics were part of the standard package of video games, but now you see even single player games carve out their cosmetics to sell them back to us.

[noobnoobnoob]

The worst part how it exploits the human brain making people spend money they don't have. Speaking from experience I have a one track mind. Drugs are illegal if nothing else to protect our weak vunrable this do raises the question of autonomy in legislation. Honestly I just would wish that we could have business that would think ethicly before we have to legislate. Have a great day!

[demicol]

FFXIV Producer has said they are sticking to subscriptions because it creates a constant flow of income, instead of unpredictability of people buying micro transactions