This is plain irrational, people are buying this game at a faster pace than ever despite this shit costing 70$, but still charging up to 28$ for one single cosmetic set exclusive to a fucking cash shop, plus a fucking battle-pass. I’ve never been a fan of the series in fact I never played Diablo III so I can’t relate but still, Blizzard got into the brain of their clients with this shit it’s just fucked up. It’s not rational, consumerism at this level can’t just be a trick that is played on their brains by clever marketing teams, it’s deeper than that. People are being broken, their wits have been altered. There is something about impulse control that was removed from their abilities. No ableism intended, people with disorders need respect and care. I think that capitalism is responsible for damaging people mentally, those people are victims and need help.
End of rant.
This is the power of advertising, of creating a brand image and a loyal base of dedicated consumer-fans. If a critical mass is reached it even takes on a life of its own and consumers themselves become more effective advertisers than the sellers of the products. A culture of group think and peer pressure is created where identity and consumption are intimately linked.
I know there have been comments before here defending the practice of advertising, even arguing that it is necessary and indispensable, but personally if it was up to me i would have our future socialist states ban all advertising as it is a dangerous and socially unhealthy form psychological manipulation. There are instances in which it creates literal cult-like behavior.
Society is literally at a point where I’ve gotten straight up evicted from multiple friend groups because they started orbiting highly-predatory freemiums or pay-to-plays that inexplicably had constantly-stocked, sideways-priced cash shops while everything earnable looked like k-mart threads; and I wasn’t about getting hoovered like that. If that’s not ‘cult-like’, I don’t know what is.
I got sucked in to Fire Emblem Heroes. Wish I didn’t. But I quit about a year ago and I think I’m fully done with any game with even slightly sketchy monetization. But especially loot boxes.
The DPRK is a great example of a socialist society without advertisements. The only kind of advertising that makes sense is propaganda.
The economist Paul Baran estimated that marketing represents the half of the companies work to show their products, so this cost is being transferred to society, we are funding parasitic jobs which are not related with solving the main human needs these times, like access to house, to bread, to public healthcare and childcare, and many other ‘social debts’. Also, the rules of commodity’s propaganda and marketing are focused in playing with our desires and instincts, which produces desire-centered minds and feelings in which everything is consume.