Games

Eh. I was being dismissive of people's genuine concerns. I didn't earnestly engage with the topic at hand. I was definitely in the wrong and deserved to get downvoted.

I updated a reply I made to another comment in the thread, and I figure I'll drop it here as well.

As someone who played Payday 2 and had a ton of discussions with my friends about that game's ever changing monetization models I feel like the ultimate conclusion I came to was "capitalism is exhausting." And I mean that in the very literal sense that capitalism will result in the physical, mental, spiritual, and financial exhaustion of everyone who doesn't hold capital. This is not good, but good things can come from it. As more people start to realize the system is broken more people will want to change it. So I was being dishonest, I actually do have a lot to say about video game monetization models, but generally I think capitalism is a self-correcting problem and if you want to reduce the amount of harm caused by greed the only real option you have is to consume less and convince other like minded people to consume less.

The other thing I have more to say about is Tekken 8. Not the character customization feature, but about the story mode which is possibly the best videogame story I have ever experienced. I won't bore anyone with the details, but the story in T8 is the conclusion to a multigenerational feud between a grandfather and father, and a father and son. It is the end to what could have been an endless cycle of hate and violence. And this ending is only possible because Jin decides to face his demons, forgive himself, and forgive his enemies.

This lesson in my mind is literally the most important lesson for a person to learn, and so I'm willing to forgive the inclusion of microtransactions of it means that some kid somewhere who is struggling with accepting who they are can play this game and come to the realization and sense of peace that Jin and I did.

My dismissal of the "badness" of microtransactions was a result of a belief in the potential "goodness" of the game overall. Obviously these sorts of moral calculations are all relative, but if anyone wants to talk about this more I would love to.