Tencent has Invested in Grinding Gear Games

Wow, this community backlash is worrying me a lot.
I haven't been able to support GGG for a while now but the most worrying thing for me now is the russian roulette that is going on between GGG, Tencent and the community. One of these is potentially going to suffer and I cannot think that this is going to have a good ending. I want to continue supporting GGG but the fact of the matter is, I'm no longer sure what might happen.

If we all support GGG as before, things will stay relatively the same.
If people stop supporting, Tencent loses big, GGG loses big and eventually the community does also.
However there are several other potential end-states such as GGG suffering while the community and Tencent thrive or The community suffering while the two companies thrive.
The only situation I see that doesn't have a positive result for players is one where Tencent doesn't make the money they expect to make, forcing GGG to make changes they would prefer not to make.

All I can say is, I would advocate continued support the game for now and if things go sour, we can all say we experienced a great time for ARPG fans and all good things come to an end. Kneejerk reactions such as halting support temporarily can be just as bad as withdrawing support altogether.

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Incarcerated wrote:

Wow, this community backlash is worrying me a lot.
I haven't been able to support GGG for a while now but the most worrying thing for me now is the russian roulette that is going on between GGG, Tencent and the community. One of these is potentially going to suffer and I cannot think that this is going to have a good ending. I want to continue supporting GGG but the fact of the matter is, I'm no longer sure what might happen.

If we all support GGG as before, things will stay relatively the same.
If people stop supporting, Tencent loses big, GGG loses big and eventually the community does also.
However there are several other potential end-states such as GGG suffering while the community and Tencent thrive or The community suffering while the two companies thrive.
The only situation I see that doesn't have a positive result for players is one where Tencent doesn't make the money they expect to make, forcing GGG to make changes they would prefer not to make.

All I can say is, I would advocate continued support the game for now and if things go sour, we can all say we experienced a great time for ARPG fans and all good things come to an end. Kneejerk reactions such as halting support temporarily can be just as bad as withdrawing support altogether.

Well,
unless GGG has been living under a rock and in another galaxy, they were fully aware of the inevitable backlash. Meaning they might just not need our support anymore. China is big and Tencents money is long.

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alexrav wrote:

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LordDivine wrote:

I've been a supporter... Many times over. Way back since closed beta, and have felt that every time I threw money at PoE I was "investing" in pretty much an indie dev with a big vision and that gave me a sense of investing in making the game better and supporting GGG because they deserved it! That will come to an end for me now. I will no longer feel like I support GGG, and I know if I do a bunch of it will end up not going towards GGG and PoE anymore. I hope it all turns out well, I do, because I love PoE. But the time of my support, at least financially for PoE has come to an end.

I also feel this way. I will continue to play, but no longer buy supporter packs

this

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dyneol wrote:

They only support themselfes and a "free market". Free to sell you the air you need to breathe.

lmao commie pls go

I am of course speculating but..
Bottom line, Tencent will want money in return for their investment,that's how that works you don't need a degree to know that, how they go about getting it if GGG's numbers don't look good on the spreadsheet is anyone's guess. I think their Social Score system plays alot more of a role though..

The Chinese Government want a social score for every one of their citizens by 2020(minimal googling will find articles about it). Tencent works closely with the government and has their blessings to pursue Social Score tech which monitors everything about everybody, spending, health, online activity etc.

Apparently in China the social score thing is a big deal, free goods and services for high scores that sort of thing.

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But sometimes, Tencent will request features that they want to try in the Chinese version that we don't plan to roll into the international version.

Some of those features could be related to the Social score, Tencent is no2 to Alibaba in China, it makes sense that to compete they need more social score generating Tech, what better place to get it than the big mass multiplayer games?

What does this mean for Poe? Well in my limited opinion I think GGG will be left alone to do as they please, if they see a return then all is good, if not then.. who knows?
Boycotting supporter packs though because 'it's Tencent, it's the Chinese' well that just comes across as racist and in the long run you will just kill the game you love.

I don't think Tencent would have the know how to expand PoE from where it is without GGG so just keep playing and paying if you enjoy it until the Social Score pops its head up on International servers.

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Wikiquote:

The Social Credit System is a proposed Chinese government initiative for developing a national reputation system.It has been reported to be intended to assign a "social credit" rating to every citizen based on government data regarding their economic and social status. It works as a mass surveillance tool and uses big data analysis technology.In addition, it is also meant to rate businesses operating on the Chinese market.

Tencent and one or 2 other companies work very tight together with the Chinese Government.
They want to implement those kind of things on all sorts of Apps including games.

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dyneol wrote:

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Incarcerated wrote:

Wow, this community backlash is worrying me a lot.
I haven't been able to support GGG for a while now but the most worrying thing for me now is the russian roulette that is going on between GGG, Tencent and the community. One of these is potentially going to suffer and I cannot think that this is going to have a good ending. I want to continue supporting GGG but the fact of the matter is, I'm no longer sure what might happen.

If we all support GGG as before, things will stay relatively the same.
If people stop supporting, Tencent loses big, GGG loses big and eventually the community does also.
However there are several other potential end-states such as GGG suffering while the community and Tencent thrive or The community suffering while the two companies thrive.
The only situation I see that doesn't have a positive result for players is one where Tencent doesn't make the money they expect to make, forcing GGG to make changes they would prefer not to make.

All I can say is, I would advocate continued support the game for now and if things go sour, we can all say we experienced a great time for ARPG fans and all good things come to an end. Kneejerk reactions such as halting support temporarily can be just as bad as withdrawing support altogether.

Well,
unless GGG has been living under a rock and in another galaxy, they were fully aware of the inevitable backlash. Meaning they might just not need our support anymore. China is big and Tencents money is long.

Maybe this also brings into highlight just how much of a love-hate relationship GGG's support base have had with the company. Scratch love-hate, it's like trying to deal with a bad case of multiple personality disorder when a good chunk of the community decide to go ape whenever *something* happens to go in a direction they dislike. GGG themselves have been good at taking feedback into account, but a lot of this feedback is barely worth the name, instead falling into the category of knee-jerk and mostly unwarranted backlash. Then again, it's easier to scream about the world coming to an end for some people than it is to make reasonable conclusions straddling both lines of the fence. Fanaticism doesn't help anybody, least of all GGG and you, the players.

I was just buying the supporter packs for the swag anyway.
Never really saw it as an "investment", just a transaction for cool MTX's and a T-shirt.

I remain hopeful, Incursion is looking great.

I'm a long-time casual (I'm just a huge lagger lol), personally I think this is great for both GGG the company and the game development. Tencent seems like the most optimal choice considering all the other gaming companies out there, they are hands-off and GGG is a very good company by itself that benefits a lot from this hands-off relationship.

I also happened to play a lot of League of Legends very seriously since Season 1. Never did I buy a skin and feel like I was supporting Tencent instead of Riot or something. Also any development changes in the game, good or bad, was usually attributed to Riot Games successes or failures and not to Tencent's. Tencent was usually blamed for anything going wrong with the asian pro scene or game.

I've seen a lot of people getting upset, I think a portion of the reasonably upset individuals are the ones whom feel that GGG should stay indie. This makes sense, because GGG represented leaders in altruism in game development, and it's a bit hard for people to embrace a big change like this.

I also am seeing a demographic whom are upset due to political views.

For this latter group, there seems to be two subdivisions: straight-up Western nationalists, and people whom want to take a stance against the sesame credit system.

Of those two divides, I think the group of people protesting Tencent's involvement in social credit scoring makes sense (the anti-China nationalists come off as low-key racists.. or if you use twitch chat you realize some of them are just straight up racist lol). The anti credit-scoring individuals have a valid point because social credit scoring is a threat to human sovereignty.

However, I wonder if people realize that it's Alibaba and NOT Tencent that is developing China's main social scoring system. What Tencent specifically did was attempt to create competitor to China and Alibaba's sesame credit. So objectively speaking: you are NOT funding the official sesame credit system, you are funding a company who ATTEMPTED to create a competitor version that was rejected by the Chinese government. (Doesn't make things good, but better than what some people say)

Ultimately I don't want to punish GGG just because I don't like their business partner. As is with Riot Games, any money you put into GGG will be put heavily towards paying the developement team. I believe Tencent just mainly benefits from both the company valuation and chinese release. But company valuation is win-win for everybody: GGG, Tencent, and probably us the players, and if you're looking for a positive way to view things: it's cross-the-border deals like this that contribute to a better world. Anarcho-capitalism ftw.

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Just want to add: if Tencent is going to be helping with the graphics/art budget then.. hot female templar and anime-league, pls GGG

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alexrav wrote:

I also feel this way. I will continue to play, but no longer buy supporter packs

If you hate GGG and PoE so much now because they are now owned by chinese company tencent, then it is hypocritical to continue to play the game.

@ExiledToWraeclast Exactly!

And to all who hate Tencent for political reasons: Have a look at Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook and the many others first, they do a lot worse. And if you hate China for political reasons, have a look at your own country first (at least if you live in a so called western country), there is going wrong so much more, and there is so much more to fix.

For anyone worried about Tencent now owning GGG, I don't think you have anything to worry about. As a League of Legends players from before, during and after the Tencent deal, I can assure you that there has been no real bad effects from Tencent becoming the owner of Riot Games.The most you could maybe say that happened was that League started releasing some stuff earlier in China or things like that, but that's about it and that could be more to do with Riot choosing to focus a bit more on Asian market then they previously had before, possibly because of the publicity of Tencent buying Riot gave to League of Legends in Asia or just because Riot saw the Asian market becoming bigger and bigger, thus it makes business sense increasing focus on that market.

All the issues and drama with League is the same it's been as always,champ op, something not working, something getting fixed all Riot's "fault" nothing really that can be thought of to have been done because of Tencent.

If GGG continues the operate the same way as it has before, like Riot did after the Tencent purchase, I will continue to support your game and company.