Your Opinion on Microtransactions - Share Here!

[Literatel 144]

As all of us gamers (and many non-gamers) know quite well, microtransactions, loot-boxes, and pay-to-win mechanics have infested many video games over the past several years; especially those that are geared towards multiplayer. In case you do not know what the hay I am talking about, read the following:

- Microtransactions are a business model where the consumers (or in this case, players) can purchase items that were not originally available in-game (or even if they were, they would be a pain in the rump to grind for), for a small price. Cosmetic items (skins, etc.), weapons, characters, etc. fall under this category. As far as I am aware, all microtransactions share a common trait: you know what you are paying for. However, the game can be unbalanced using this mechanic. (For example, imagine if you are level 80 in a game and you need to acquire a level 90 weapon in order to progress further. However, you later learn that said weapon(s) can only be obtained through purchase, either direct or indirect. And thus, I move onto loot boxes.)

- Loot boxes - or loot crates, mystery crates, whatever you like to call them - are consumable virtual items which can be redeemed for a select number of random items per purchase. These loot boxes can be earned by playing the game, spending in-game currency, or, most commonly, by paying with actual money. Each loot box usually contains three items, and each time you open on, you have no idea what you are getting. The goal behind them is to open loot box after loot box until you (hopefully) acquire what you want, such as a weapon, cosmetic items, or an upgrade to your character, for example. And thus leads me onto the third and final unethical money-grabbing mechanic in this list:

- Pay-to-win. What does this mean? I know little about pay to win (compared to microtransactions and loot crates), but imagine the following scenario as an example:

You have two options: farm for tens or even hundreds of hours for this one weapon or character in-game (which can and typically does get excessively boring), or you can just pay x amount of dollars on-line for it to get it early. Or maybe you need this one weapon to progress further in the game, but you need to pay to have said weapon in your game.

(Note: If I left anything out, please notify me. :))

In my opinion, all of these methods used by money-hungry companies are absolutely disgusting. Not only that, but gambling is an illegal practice to those that are under a certain age. And yet, many (if not most) gaming companies continue to include loot boxes, MTX, or pay-to-win in the majority of their games. Why, you might ask? Because they want the dough.

Many governments across the world have cracked down on the gaming companies who are utilizing these money-making, scumbag tactics, but the gaming companies always find a loophole around the law. Most recently, many gaming companies who own games that have loot boxes within them have began utilizing this new, weasel-like, clever loophole around the laws surrounding gambling. You know how I said how loot boxes work, right? That you pay for a loot box, you open it, you have a chance of getting what you want (and you most likely will not), and you just keep on gambling? Well, many of these companies have changed this system. How many loot boxes function are now like this: You pay for a loot box, and you know exactly what you are getting. However, you cannot buy another loot box until you accept the purchase of your previous loot crate. How is this bad? I forgot the chemical name that is released by your brain when you gamble, but it is still being released in this scenario. Instead of people wondering what they will get in the loot box they have purchased now (and will continue to do so), you will be curious what loot you will get in the same loot box. It is basically the same system, only this method is, for now, totally legal.

And concerning the opinion of many that microtransactions and the like should only cover cosmetic items, I have a counter-argument. Imagine if in a game, your character is dressed in light brown rags. Then you turn to your left or your right, and you spot another player that is wearing an extremely fancy piece of attire that can only be obtained through direct purchase of real-life money. In this instance, the player in the much less fashionable clothing will almost always think, "Gee, I wish I had that skin or pet or whatever." And thus, they will be tempted to purchase said skin... and then the next one... and the next fifty skins. Sure, paying for cosmetic items that do not affect the core gameplay mechanics in any way are infinitely better than pay-to-win, but they are still a "sin" in gaming.

 

But what are your thoughts on microtransactions, loot crates, and pay-to-win? Are they necessary, or are they not so? Are they a genius concept and/or a scumbag move by game developers? Do you ever see them disappearing, or have they permanently redefined gaming as a whole?

 

EDIT: No one can argue that microtransactions and loot boxes are genius moves and the most successful decision gaming companies have ever made. Don't expect this trend to go away. If anything, expect their use to continue to grow for decades to come, whether people like it or not.

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Melody2222

[Frostgage 7,973]

I'll admit I'm not a very serious gamer nowadays, but these things don't bother me too much. I can understand the companies' point of view; they are private enterprises, and I can't criticize them for prioritizing profit, especially in the case of developers of free games. It feels awful when in-game purchases give players an edge in multiplayer games, but the developers providing the service of their game have the right to set prices for items as they see fit.

[Rikifive 23,538]

I totally agree. 

In my opinion that's a really ridiculous design one could come up with. A balanced gameplay is an important part of a good game and in P2W there is no such a thing as balanced gameplay, as usually either it's unfair- not even difficult - but just unfair if you not pay, or too easy if you want it to be. This is a horrible trap you can bump into. At first the game sounds and looks nice, promising all the amazing content, then after downloading all of this you realize how bad it is -  the fact, that you pretty much won't experience any of this.

Spoiler

This is a serious disaster for mobile gaming, as most of the games there use that logic. I also don't get the prices there- you can buy one silly thing in a game for the same price as the full legit game on PC, for example. I really wonder what makes people purchase these. 
 I have to be poor at maths, because things don't calculate correctly for me there. 

I remember how much I loved these ^{SUPERAWESOMEOPENWORLD}3DMMORPG^{WITH99PLAYABLECLASSES} games back then... Every... Single... One... (not completely literally though) Was corrupted by such an irrational design. At first it seemed nice, but you eventually were getting stuck pretty fast- if you not paid, that is (at least if that would be a legit price... but no, that was just a beginning). In the end that made me avoid that genre and MTX even more. I generally avoid games as soon as they have MTX mentioned somewhere, unless these are purely cosmetic. I'm fine with not looking as epic as the others, as long as I can experience the game properly, as that's what it mainly is about.

Just wait until people will come up with MTX in movies. You buy a movie, but it only has few scenes with specific actors. You gotta purchase MTX worth 30 times more than a normal price for a full movie nowadays to unlock all the actors and see the full story. Yeah, wait, that's brilliant, I'm a genius!

Summarizing: I totally, absolutely prefer to pay for the game once and enjoy the content like it is meant to be, not based on amount of money I'll put. I want to purchase the product, not be tricked by it. 

Edited July 29, 2018 by Rikifive

[Literatel 144]

5 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

This is a serious disaster for mobile gaming, as most of the games there use that logic. I also don't get the prices there- you can buy one silly thing in a game for the same price as the full legit game on PC, for example. I really wonder what makes people purchase these. 

The gambling addiction? The "need" to buy it because everyone else has it? (In other words, it is quite sad.)

 

" Just wait until people will come up with MTX in movies. You buy a movie, but it only has few scenes with specific actors. You gotta purchase MTX worth 30 times more than a normal price for a full movie nowadays to unlock all the actors and see the full story. Yeah, wait, that's brilliant, I'm a genius!  "

 

No you are not. You have doomed us all. XD You are an evil genius and nothing less. XD

Edited July 29, 2018 by Melody2222

[Scrubbed user 3,415]

Micro-transactions, lootboxes, and pay-to-win are a tumor on the gaming industry. If people stopped enabling developers and publishers to implement such things, only then will thy be gotten rid of.

[Literatel 144]

5 minutes ago, Porsh said:

Micro-transactions, lootboxes, and pay-to-win are a tumor on the gaming industry. If people stopped enabling developers and publishers to implement such things, only then will thy be gotten rid of.

So if your solution is to get every gamer who has purchased and ever will purchase these "corrupted games" to either throw them away or refuse to buy them altogether, then with all due respect, but good luck on that one... ._. That would be like asking everyone to ditch their fossil fuel powered vehicles and only buy electric cars just like that *snaps*.

I assume this is what you meant?

Edited July 29, 2018 by Melody2222

[Scrubbed user 3,415]

Yes, I am suggesting people need to stop buying the lootboxes and such. Remember when SWB II was announced to have them, and the massive shitstorm that came from it?

[Literatel 144]

6 minutes ago, Porsh said:

Yes, I am suggesting people need to stop buying the lootboxes and such. Remember when SWB II was announced to have them, and the massive shitstorm that came from it?

While I do agree with your statement, it just isn't going to happen by random. Like I said earlier, the following scenario would be impossible: everyone walks out of their gas-burning cars and orders electric vehicles. They know that gasoline-powered vehicles are harmful, but nonetheless, they continue to use them. Unless the governments step in (for the 40th time it seems like) and are not met with loophole after loophole, I don't see a (sudden) impact happening. Does our voice matter? Yes. But we are just anchovies to the companies. The whales (yes, that is what the gaming companies call them), or the people who buy sh*t tons of stuff from them, will be enough to continue to supply them. To quote the chairman of EA, "We will continue to support the practice of direct out-of-game/in-game purchases [aka lootboxes, etc.] because they are making us money."

And what if the gaming companies find another loophole again and offer the governments a portion of the salaries that they earn? They might as well be home free at that point.

Edited July 29, 2018 by Melody2222

[Scrubbed user 3,415]

I am aware that most people don't care that it's hurting the industry and they will just buy whatever is shoved in their faces from these companies, and that the detractors are the vocal minority, but that's the problem. If people actually knew what they were doing, they wouldn't do it.

Go back to the 90's and early 2000's where you had to play the game to unlock all the items. Nowadays, you have to buy it, and all the people who have bought lootboxes and micro-transactions are the cause of it.

Also, your EV analogy doesn't exactly work.

Edited July 29, 2018 by Porsh

[Literatel 144]

9 minutes ago, Porsh said:

I am aware that most people don't care that it's hurting the industry and they will just buy whatever is shoved in their faces from these companies, and that the detractors are the vocal minority, but that's the problem. If people actually knew what they were doing, they wouldn't do it.

Also, your EV analogy doesn't exactly work.

This is true. Now, I do not want to sound like the next Ms. Depressinator (copyright) here; I am just quite upset at the current model in which video games are based off of. But I think we can all agree that video games are not what they used to be - even 10 years ago, most were quite a bit different than what they are today.

Locking content from the game (unless you pay for it) is a scumbag practice. I am not talking about DLCs, since they are supposed to be expansions. But when I open up a game for the first time that I have spent possibly nearly a hundred dollars on, and I have heard only but good to great reviews about it, and then realizing that half of the content is under lock and key... I get pissed. I almost bought... I forgot the name of it, but they added in loot boxes two hours before the game's launch. Two hours. They knew that if they advertised loot crates earlier, the game would have lost a lot of the initial fan base before release, and its hype would have gone down. Half of the game's weapons were locked, half of the armor was locked, the list goes on. The PVP part of the game was a sh*thole. You had these level one players with level one weapons facing level one players with level 50 weapons. It was disgusting.

I know it doesn't, but it's the best I had at the time. They are both toxic (fossil fuels and gambling in-game), and although people can see the solution, but nevertheless, little changes.

Edited July 29, 2018 by Melody2222

[Literatel 144]

And it's just not video games. I am also a member on a medieval RPing site, and you only start off with 10 characters slots. As a writer, that is pretty restrictive. Do you want more character slots (temporarily)? Pay $5.00 per character slot. Don't like your username? Pay over twenty bucks to change it. The site is amazing, but I am beginning to wonder if microtransactions will become as interwoven in our society as taxes are.

Edited July 29, 2018 by Melody2222

[Scrubbed user 3,415]

21 minutes ago, Melody2222 said:

I know it doesn't, but it's the best I had at the time. They are both toxic (fossil fuels and gambling in-game), and although people can see the solution, but nevertheless, little changes.

There are a number of reasons why I said the EV analogy doesn't work, but "toxic fossil fuels" isn't one of them.

[Literatel 144]

Just now, Porsh said:

There are a number of reasons why I said the EV analogy doesn't work, but "toxic fossil fuels" isn't one of them.

Anyway, regardless, it is still a terrible thing. But nonetheless - and I am not siding with this guy - but the CEO of Blizzard said, "Kids buy packs full of a random assortment of trading cards. If you are so concerned about gambling, then try focusing on every demographic."

Now, I personally don't play any games that feature microtransactions. Okay, forget that. That's a lie. But I never play games that require you to use said methods to win the game/get more content.

My prediction: microtransactions, loot boxes, etc. will (possibly) be banned within the next decade or two.

[Rikifive 23,538]

1 hour ago, Melody2222 said:

The gambling addiction? The "need" to buy it because everyone else has it? (In other words, it is quite sad.)

And that's where the cycle goes on and on...

1 hour ago, Melody2222 said:

No you are not. You have doomed us all. XD You are an evil genius and nothing less. XD

Yeah, let's hope nobody sees that.

 

Porsh is right. We, players as a whole are the ones who took that bait, so those fishermen enjoy their loot.
Thankfully though, I keep seeing hate at MTX more and more often- perhaps someday 'haters' will change things for better...

[Literatel 144]

2 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

And that's where the cycle goes on and on...

Yeah, let's hope nobody sees that.

 

Porsh is right. We, players as a whole are the ones who took that bait, so those fishermen enjoy their loot.
Thankfully though, I keep seeing hate at MTX more and more often- perhaps someday 'haters' will change things for better...

And on and on... and on and on... and on and on and on... and on and on and on... and on and on... (That's what you say when trying to explain this to a CEO of a gaming company.  Every time they try to speak, you know what to do.)

They are watching us. 

We already have, to a tiny extent. If you read into the Star Wars: Battlefront II scandal, you'll know what I am talking about.

Yes, we took that bait, but they were hanging a donut at the end of the fishing line. How could we resist? We thought it was genius... for a short while. Or at least, some of us did.

[Rawzy 1,302]

Just don't play games that are pay to win. If a game has loot boxes, don't buy them. If you want to be better at the game, then practice. Looking good in the game doesn't mean you're good at it.

Edited July 29, 2018 by Rawzy

[Lord Valtasar 12,685]

i never payed for my gaming, and i was playing some games that are heavily pay-to-win-ish.like lineage 2 e.g. and korean games are nothing if not gambling centered.as one who never payed though, i can say you can still have good cheer playing those games, as long as you ignore the top players.in truth i felt like they were the victims,not me who had to work hard to get that fancy gear they got with a click,as they threw down the drain half the game's mechanics, they were always the first to stop playing

despite all that, microtransactions ruined many games,i can immagine how much better those games would be if everyone was equal,and i'll have to add to your list by saying that i also think payed DLC are a scam,since instead of adding to your game, they usually just take from it before they release it,selling you an incomplete game but still in full price, and then adding the missing pieces and ask you to pay again.it's their way to invade singleplayer games aswel and it angers me as its all i play these days

Edited July 29, 2018 by Lord Valtasar

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

I am fine with Lootboxes and microtransactions in free to play games,  the developers need to earn their money somehow.

Lootboxes and Microtransactions in paid games? Depends,  microtransactions for cosmetics I up for it.  But a randomized reward? No,  because you sometimes have to end up paying for multiple ones just for a single item or cosmetic.

The problem I have with that is because it is Randomized,  you end up paying for something but don't know what you end up getting,  while I am not saying that it is exactly the same as gambling, you have to keep in mind that people with gambling addiction or young children can end up spending buckets of cash because they want to have that one skin.
 

 

Lootboxes in a 60 dollar/euro game? Heck no.   We all remember the Star Wars Battlefront 2 loot box controversy, or how every year a new call of duty is being released with tons of loot boxes and other things.

in 2017 some game publishers got greedier than ever before and took advantage of this loot box mechanism.

Activision has filed this patent back somewhere in 2016

 

I don't know about you guys, but I don't exactly trust a company that relies on psychological manipulation upon their consumers like that with such a patent, especially on the younger children. 

[RDDash 18,943]

I enjoy microtransactions that don't hinder the enjoyment of the game. Usually it's stops being fun when the game starts to punish you for not purchasing microtransactions

[Gryph 36]

Well, I agree in the points with the pushed microtransactions, but I don't mind optional ones, especially in a free game.

But I have to say, I do prefer to be able to buy the full game instead of buying smaller things all the time. Some mobile games I came across have this option, where you are able to purchase the full game and then have full access to everything.

I mean, yes, it makes sense that you pay for somebody else's hard work. It's unfair to expect it to be fully free, but nobody does it anyway. It just gets unfair for the consumer if you have to pay for the game AND there are microtransactions in the game, especially when you paid almost 100 bucks for it.

 

I actually used to play a free to play MMORPG (and I still sometimes do) and I put hundreds of Euros each month into the game... It was 250€ at minimum back then. I did that for a year and now... Well, I still have all the stuff in the game, but I'm now thinking of what nice things I could've bought with this money, rather than ingame stuff. And once the server would be down... Well, I paid money for something I don't even own anymore. And that's just the scary part of microtransactions. You pay for something a huge amount of money and then suddenly the servers are down and you can't access your goods anymore...

This is why I've started to only invest a maximum of 10€ in a game, if it's free to play. And if I see too much pay to win aspects, I simply leave the game and buy a proper game for a console or PC.

 

So... Yeah. As convenient microtransactions can be, especially when you don't have too much time to grind for something, I always prefer them as what they are: Just a little help to skip time. If you HAVE to pay an additional fee in order to be able to continue, something's not right then. But if it's optional, all's just completely fine.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,465]

Though it annoys me to no end to see things I would love to have in a game behind an extra paywall, I think there's nothing wrong with microtransactions as long as it's not online-pay to win, or worse, pay to play/continue if you have already paid something. 

[Libra 11,690]

I am okay with these microtransactions and lootboxes as long as the awards are purely cosmetic. If you want to spend $40 to make yourself look like Anakin Skywalker go nuts, man.

what ticks me off is that they instead throw a "i cant believe its not gambling!" spin into the whole lootboxes in hopes you might get that super powerful one shot kill weapon.

making it so you have to pay money to progress is perhaps the biggest pay to win i have ever seen. And ive played my fair share of mobile apps that love to shove this formula in your face. (Gamelofts's MLP app to be one of them)

[Passion 3,479]

6 hours ago, Porsh said:

Micro-transactions, lootboxes, and pay-to-win are a tumor on the gaming industry. If people stopped enabling developers and publishers to implement such things, only then will thy be gotten rid of.

 

I agree with Lootboxes and Pay-to-win, but not with microtransactions and I'll quickly explain why below.

 

3 hours ago, Harper said:

I am all for loot boxes / crates etc, people pay for a very low chance of getting something good so it's their fault if they don't get what they want.

 

That's how addictions are developed. From an adult standpoint, you know that such stuff is irrelevant to your gameplay or game enjoyment. But that's not a case for a lot of teenagers who do not understand the value of money. I've seen with my bare eyes cases of people so affixed on getting that one cosmetic, that they HAD to spend hundreds of dollars. And it's not the case of these people deciding if they want to buy it or not. It's the randomized system and glorification of said cosmetics that builds up envy and desire in easily influenced minds, to the point they feel they MUST buy these items to feel better about themselves.

It's one of typical gambling psychologies. If you went to a casino and saw someone win, wouldn't you feel more motivated to play so you can win as well?

 

2 hours ago, Mickey Adaptus said:

I am fine with Lootboxes and microtransactions in free to play games,  the developers need to earn their money somehow.

 

Now to explain my lootbox vs microtransactions approach:

If it's a paid game, the very idea of having lootbox and microtransactions is ridiculous. You paid for the game, you shouldn't be having any content paywalled AFTER you have paid for it. It's in the files. It literally is in the files on your PC, but you cannot access is until you pay.

Free to play: I present to you:

Also known as the game that makes everyone questions "Why aren't other online games like this?" and state "I can't believe this is free..."

 

Warframe is a Prime example of what online gaming SHOULD be. There are no lootboxes there as company behind it avoids any forms of systems resembling gambling like wildfire. But it has microtransactions. You can buy literally everything you want with real money, including warframes, weapons, skills etc. But guess what? I've played it a lot, and you can literally farm up these items as well. And it doesn't take eternity. You don't have to farm stuff to be able to farm stuff which will allow you to farm stuff thanks to which you'll finally be able to farm the last stuff you want. No. If you want something really bad, you just have to focus on that objective. Many items are available to you for farming up nearly from the beginning of the game. And the amount of content this game has is RI-DI-CU-LO-US.

I've been spending cash in this game gladly because game is clear about what you get with it. I don't buy accursed lootboxes hoping that MAYBE I'll get what I want one day. I buy things like I was in the shop. I go in, say I want "That one" and I get that one.

 

If any companies like EA or Activision state that they NEED to maintain lootboxes etc to uphold game revenue, or anybody ever states that games need lootboxes, I want to point them towards Warframe's Digital Extremes company which has massive respect to players and works with dedication to upgrading their game so that it creates revenue but does NOT s*** on their userbase.

[SaburoDaimando 1,196]

In terms of Mobile and (Especially) F2P games, it depends on how the Microtransaction is carried out, and how much one is willing to pay.  But in $60 retail titles, there is no excuse to use any form of Microtransactions, or even Loot Boxes, in these kinds of games.  Especially not for Pay 2 Win mechanics.

One game use to have Microtransactions: Middle-Earth: Shadows of War.  They were Loot Box-based and they gave the player Orcs if they spent the money to open these Loot Boxes.  And these Orcs would help the player beat the game.  I found it to be a BS system, and I never found anything Optional about this(Besides the fact that not going down this path means a long grind).  But as I stated, the game no longer has Microtransactions.  In fact, I heard it's no longer as grindy as it once was, which meant the Microtransactions were only made to fill up Warner Bros' coffers.

Furthermore, there's also the new Call of Duty coming out.  Microtransactions and Loot Boxes, as bad as they are for the game, aren't the only problems with Call of Duty 2018.  There are other problems like trying to copy Fortnite's Battle Royale, and eliminating Single player.

And I think you all know about Star Wars: Battlefront 2, which locked progress behind Loot Boxes.  

[MangoFoalix 24,899]

My honest opinion on micro transactions is this. I have fell into the hole of buying into micro transactions before with a few games. Though there is a difference between that and loot boxes. I will not even think about touching a game with loot boxes in it since it absolutely ruins a game for me. I liked games before where you could actually customize stuff without having to go through the pay wall of Loot Boxes. I don't see micro transactions going anywhere soon but I know one thing, I think most game companies realize that Loot Boxes were a fad and that most have not been doing it recently.

On another note, the "companies need to use Loot Boxes because the $60 price tag isn't enough" train of logic is false. Most game companies do not need the extra money that Loot Boxes provide, $60 is perfectly fine but since we live in a greedy capitalistic world, we have Loot Boxes. Yes, I do also think Loot Boxes are gambling. You are putting money into RNG and hoping to get what you want. That is pretty much the definition of gambling.