stop hitting yourself

[terabient]

I wonder why video gamers as a group are so eager to take abuse from gaming companies.

Like, I was reading an opinion piece on microtransactions in premium-priced games, and you'd think there'd be like 95% agreement on these things (i.e. they're unnecessary and manipulative) but no! There are lots of people who are defending the right of corporations to charge money on top of a sizable entry fee, ostensibly because something vague like 'the servers need money to stay open' or 'development costs so much these days' so it's okay to create inherently manipulative systems to drain your wallet of $0.99/$5/$9.99 at a time? I understand that creating games is expensive and you have to pay the people who work on them, and servers require maintainece; but ffs your business model is to charge $60 to play the game. it's not my fault if a publisher spends an outlandish amount of money on promotional mountain dew flavors, or decides to go over budget by cobbling together a multiplayer mode a few months before release so that they can add microtransactions in the first place. i am literally and morally outraged that companies raking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year have the gall to insinuate that they need $60 AND my lunch money in order pay their (overworked, underappreciated) workers and shit out another premium priced game in a year.

But apparently not everyone has the same problem and don't mind getting charged over and over again. :|

Comments

[tyger]

Uuuuuurgh YES it's so terrible I refuse to have anything to do with it.

Microtransactions on a free to play game is one thing - still not a thing I support, but I can understand the reasoning - but on something you're paying top dollar for in the first place??? What. Even.

I. I really don't have any idea what is wrong with neckbeard nerdjocks, I really don't. =____=

[terabient]

Yeah, microtransactions are almost always manipulative even in a free-to-play game, but at least...you understand that going in? It's like visiting a casino: it'll take a lot of your money without you being fully aware of it at the time, but at least you know that fact before you walk in.

Microtransactions are like those amusement parks that charge a fee for entry and all the rides are free BUT if you pay extra you get to wait in a shorter line. And like, I KNOW amusement parks do that, but that doesn't make the practice any less shitty. :|

[tyger]

It's soooo shitty, yes. :( :( :(

The casino parable is particularly apt, I think, it preys on people with the same brain quirks, just in a different context. :/

[sirvalkyrie]

I am okay with some DLC. Like Omega Quintet is a small JRPG, it is already full of a ton of alternate costumes inside it, but I was okay dropping a few bucks to get the two DLC costumes I really liked. But all the story things were in the game.

[terabient]

IMO DLC and microtransactions are separate issues, although I know not everyone (including the article writer linked above) feels the same. I've spent a lot on cosmetic DLC myself, and I don't think it's manipulative the way microtransactions are. Cosmetic DLC is the devs/publishers saying 'here is a cool thing we made, to use it in the game you have to pay X amount of money.'

Microtransactions almost always function as a way to avoid some part of the game that's designed to be tedious. With MTs the devs/publishers are saying 'You can do X task, and if you do it enough we'll reward you with something cool--OR you could pay us and not have to bother with all that.'