this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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Rocket League trading site founder will never 'build a product based on the decisions of another company' again after one decision from Epic puts him out of a job (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Why in gods name would a game remove trading after it'd been around for a while?

I don't play rocket league, so I don't know how good psyonix is with the community, but from the article it makes it sound like this was entirely epic's decision. Sure, every game is going to wax and wane in popularity, so he would have had to find another source of income eventually; but he wasn't afforded the luxury of having time to pivot when the site's revenue started dropping too low because the rug got pulled out from under him. He was given the impression by psyonix that they liked his site by giving him an in-game flag and (it sounds like) special API access, and now they're suddenly cutting ties to him.

[–] ChicoSuave 62 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Epic bought Psyonix a few years ago and immediately started making changes like making the game an Epic store exclusive and limiting steam connectivity. Game status and time left used to be able to be seen on the steam friends list and now it only shows Rocket Leagie being played.

This limit to trading is because Epic made several shitty anticonsumer moves like hiding how many people are searching in a queue and drove off the player base. By limiting trading a player is forced to buy any cosmetic instead of trading unused copies or blueprints they don't want to other players. It's just another branch hitting the remaining player base as the game is in freefall.

[–] TheMauveAvenger 26 points 1 year ago

Psyonix has always been shitty on their own. And they sold out to Epic; they didn't have to do that. Epic is a known quantity of terrible, but Psyonix is not innocent in any of this.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Psyonix started off very good, but slowly got more and more shitty. The biggest turning point was the Epic games sale. After that the game only got more and more shit. In the past few years it just seemed like a big money printing machine. No soul, no new ideas, just more shit for the players to buy. As a Rocket League player with >2000 hours, I'm sad what one of my favorite games has become.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

All of that stuff is cosmetic and you don't need it. I bought this game when it first released, haven't spent a dime on it since and I still have fun playing it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Well, have to say the NFL mode and melee smash mode were pretty good new modes. But other than that, yeah I agree there weren't any new addition, updates, even rocket pass went pretty meh.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Why in gods name would a game remove trading after it'd been around for a while?

Jagex removed trading from RuneScape back in the day, for less greedy purposes than Epic is doing here, and it effectively killed their game.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

dumb decision to dedicate yourself to a proprietary game's little microtransaction market now aint it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It sounds harsh, but it is very risky to put all your eggs in one basket. I feel the same way whenever I read about someone whose livelihood apparently depends on income from YouTube and some arbitrary/automated decision by Google cuts off their revenue. The actual fix is to have employment contracts in place so this can't happen (which Google would have to be forced into as many places have forced the likes of Uber to treat their employees as employees), but for the moment don't let your income rely on empty words and good will!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The actual fix is to have employment contracts in place

No, if you want to be self employed (YouTube creator, digital marketplace owner, etc), you need to diversify your revenue streams. For a YouTuber, perhaps stream on Twitch, write up summaries of videos on an ad-supported or subscription based site, sell merch, etc. If you run a digital marketplace, sell digital content for multiple games from different publishers, and if possible, make your own digital content to sell. And so on.

The less diversification you have, the more formal and binding the contracts need to be. If YouTube wants you to be exclusive, they'll need to pay upfront for the opportunity cost you'll incur from not entertaining other options, as at as at least have a severance package if they cut your contract short to cover the transition period to a different platform.

You don't need an employment contract to avoid this type of issue, and in many cases employment contracts are less valuable than proper diversification if your role can be diversified.

[–] KidsTryThisAtHome 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, aren't we all putting our eggs into one basket with our jobs? Isn't that what all of us are doing, relying on good words and will of our employers? Most of us work for a company that could decide to get rid of us on a whim. "At will" employment is a thing in some places where they can literally just decide to fire you if they want. Sure, it seems silly to make a living off a video game, but any company could just as easily make just as stupid of decisions.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"At will employment" is not a thing in the civilised world, places with passable employee protection laws ensure that you can't be fired without reason and you will be compensated if you do lose your job.

[–] KidsTryThisAtHome 5 points 1 year ago

Lucky for the people in those places, apparently America isn't civilized enough. My point still stands though I think, most of us are relying on things outside of our control for a paycheck

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

dumb decision to dedicate yourself to a proprietary game's little microtransaction market now aint it.

Owners of CSGO(CS2) 3rd party marketplaces seem to be making a killing off of fees, so it can be done successfully. But I doubt that Rocket League trading sites see anywhere near the volume of CS2 sites.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Game went to shit. Last played it in mid-February.
I believe this will only aid in killing of an once successful video game and esport.

Yeah MTX, loot boxes and in-game shops are bad but they were very unobtrusive. And since all the big-wallet players are now leaving to spend less money only the kids will remain or not so well-off will remain and as a last action they will also leave.

I give it 5 years until it's unrelevant.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I mean the game is exactly the same... Yeah the cosmetics and so on yeah... But the gameplay and all is the same, I guess you could complain about extra game modes or new stuff I guess but if you like the core gameplay is still there.

I agree that being bought by Epic was bad... for multiple reasons specially for people that wanted cosmetics for okay prices. Surprised they kept it working on Steam as I expected "here you have a code and go play on our store" although that might be more Steam terms or something than them doing it nicely.

Similar case with fall guys being bought but at least in that case it made sense since the games was going to die...and at least they could get something and make it live for longer with that deal.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean the game is exactly the same...

Tbf the game skill ceiling went beyond what I was willing to invest in the game vs what the player base does and the reward too little to keep me enganged. Played around 930h around lower diamond level since season 2 or 3 (basically the last season with the Prospect/Silver/Gold league system)

[–] sheogorath 3 points 1 year ago

It made me sad Rocket League went this direction. They have enormous potential in eSports with their easy to understand gameplay and you can easily see someone is good on Rocket League even if you're not playing it.

I even made some good lasting unexpected friendship in the early days of 2015-2016 just playing with the mic on.

[–] davepleasebehave 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So milk the last remaining moments?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Absolutely. Last I remember the shop (as a replacement to actual key/crates systems) had pretty expensive prices but you got what youwanted as a trade off.

Epic tries to milk what they can and probably try to end it for good (sadly) in the long run.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

So he'll never build another product again?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My retirement investment strategy is that I only purchase one companies stock.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is why I had my sell limit at $420.69, it was a known quantity and far beyond where I thought the stock should have been. Traded options on the way down, made a good chunk (then wasted it all like a nutsack).