this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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What is sad is that 6 of the 12 platinum games rated by top revenue are free to play games - so must be making money on micro transactions. Sad that model works so well for extracting cash out of players.
I really wish it wasn't so bloody effective. I absolutely HATE micro-transaction games. At least for the moment there are still good choices on PC or the consoles where you can just buy a game and play it. Mobile gaming has turned into an absolute cesspool.
Sadly customization and individualization are a huge content driver for most of these games. And regardless of them being “free2play” it all costs money to produce.
Most of your pay 2 play games don’t offer this huge amount of revolving customization. Even when they do offer a large amount of customization it sees an influx of individuality until the majority of the system has been attempted and then it just disappears.
Live service games end up costing loads to maintain simply in server costs so to keep up with a massive player base I can’t imagine the monthly cost that goes along with it. And that’s not even including extra content for the game itself. Itsuwari No Alice opened up about maintenance costs back in August in a bid to stay alive. It’s been eye opening when you consider the niche size of Itsuwari no Alice. https://automaton-media.com/en/news/20230803-20472/
Personally, I'm fine with a free game + buying cosmetics but it should be "see a skin, buy that skin" and not loot boxes or other gotcha mechanics.
I'm obviously not the majority but I play Fortnite and halo infinite with my kids. We haven't bought anything but enjoyed hundreds of hours playing. There is people who like to spend and people who don't, and at least in these two tittles there are no predatory issues as long as an adult is supervising.
You are the majority though. Every time stats on free to play products are released it's revealed that 90% of people spend no money and the vast majority of revenue is from whales that spend absurd amounts
Yeah the most egregious problems with a lot of these microtransaction games are because of parents who just don’t parent at all. I work with a guy who his kid calls him constantly while he’s at work so he can get more robux. And he just gives in no questions asked. If my kids would have done something like that I would have just taken their game away. Even when my children were growing up and they wanted to buy games or spend money on their phones there were ways you could track it and pay attention to it. Lots of parents just don’t care, and that’s probably the most sad aspect of it all.
Dad/Mom shouldn’t be an open bank account and respect should be the currency exchange. My kids had to do chores for the things they wanted to do and they had limitations to what that could go to. Because they don’t need to vegetate on the couch for the entire summer playing a game on their console only to get in trouble and lose it and continue playing on their cell phone. It blows my mind how many kids just basically parent themselves. And i was a latchkey kid! I was parented by respect and love for my parents and the fear of what could happen if I did stupid things. Not fear of punishment but fear of consequences in general. I accidentally shot out a neighbors window with my friends BB gun when my parents were at work. Parents found out and I worked mowing lawns and etc to get up enough money to replace it. Because I broke it, it was my responsibility to fix it. Too often kids don’t have consequences.
Man what a dumb rant. Sorry about that. Sore subject I guess.
Yup.
I'm surprised to see Destiny up there, considering how good Bungie are at playing the small violin of "We are but a humble small studio, ye cannot expect us to keep up with the big boys! 'tis why we have not been able to ship new pvp maps for so long! The paaaaain! We are forced fire a bushel if employees if ye will not spendeth more!"
The thing about live service is that it's also a money-vacuum, they need to be making loads of money to keep themselves going.
I don't understand people who spend money on these games. Even if I enjoy it spending money just feels like some scam that I don't find it enticing with how the whole game feels like an advertisement.
Kids. It's kids spending their allowance. Source: had to clamp down and say no more robux.
And probably also streamers who aren't spending their own money (donations and referrals probably) who make the problem worse by making it seem like everyone else has these pointless cosmetics.
I wish this were the simple truth but it's not so simple from my perspective. I have a buddy who falls prey to the micro (and sometimes macro) transactions in games on PC, the worst one right now is Star Citizen I think but it's all sorts of different games with different kinds of content and cosmetics that they're selling. His girlfriend is the same way (or maybe worse honestly).
It's not just kids and streamers, these games and the devs who make them are exploiting the addictive qualities of gaming in my opinion and anyone can become a victim of that type of addiction (same as any other type). My friend already had addiction problems though so maybe it's more likely for people who already have that in them. Although his girlfriend isn't an addict, and I am but I don't buy any of that so it's clearly not just about that. I wish they would both stop, they're always struggling with money but I don't think they realize how much they spend on video games, not that I can (or would) say anything bad or judgy about that.
Free to play games make me feel dirty like I'm being used
Wait til you hear about this thing called capitalism.
Even if you're not buying any microtransactions, you're still being used.
I mean you’re playing the game, aren’t you simply paying in an unconventional way? You can’t pretend to think that you playing a game you paid nothing for is bad for trying to extract something in return?
That being said, games where you pay for the game and still have a ton of microtransactions to actually enjoy most of the content of the game are just highway robbery.