Micro transaction and the possible horrific future

[YoungBoyJimmy]

We all know where the popularity of micro transaction started, and how it evolved into today's loot box trend that plagues gaming today.

But now that loot boxes is starting to get some resistens and restriktion in the legal department I wonder what gamecompenis will turn to…

Will they go back to sell skins and other ingame items from a catalog? well , I have a scary theory that they will turn to mobile gaming once again to find the “newest” scam tactic.


I have been trying different populare app store games recently and I notice a new VIP mechanic that scared the hell out off me.

This is how it works, when you buy items in the store you’ll earn “points” or what I like to call it VIP experience. And after so and so amount you’ll level up you VIP level and that in turn unlocks “shortcuts” or features in the game. This made me think, doing this AAA companies can have half the game locked away from you until you use x amount of money after purchasing the game or have day 1 DLC but claim its a VIP thankyou content.


What do you think of this possibility, or do you have any other horrific way they can replace loot boxes.

[MadMummy76]

These VIP items were in games even before paid microtransactions. For example there were games that gave XP boosts for playing every day, and not missing a single day. It's basically rewarding an addiction. I never acted on these incentives, I mean I didn't load up the game just for that, but there are probably many people who couldn't resist it.

As someone who almost exclusively plays single player games, this issue doesn't seem as serious yet. Well to me the issue is the devs turning away from single player campaigns and focusing on competitive online games that can be monetized in this manner.

AAA games can't afford to lock away half the game, because you paid for the game, not for half the game. My wallet closes easier than most people's, if I get the slightest hint of being scammed by a publisher / dev I cut them off immediately. If they stop making games to my liking then I won't be playing new games. It's sad but it wouldn't be the end of the world. There are already very few games released that are of interest to me.

[YoungBoyJimmy]

they already sell AAA games half finished, they have done day 1 DLC and they have locked missions/maps/stories behind pre order or deluxe editions, and the inloggen mechanic is a mechanic that was used but I feel like that's the same as comparing buying skin from a catalog to buy a loot box to get the skin, you’ll end up with the same thing but they uses different (stronger) influence to sell them.

[Astraea]

What you describe sounds similar like what MMO's do like FFXIV, you get a special (cosmetic) item when you purchased X months of subscription. I guess there will be some people who immediately buy 2 years of sub just to get a mount, but for the rest of us, we can just ignore those incentives right? I really don't feel any pressure from those kind of transactions.

People who do feel the pressure will do it once and then they realize they just paid for 2 years of subscription while only playing a month and will never do it again. I certainly have made mistakes myself with purchasing additional content, but like many of us I can learn from my mistakes, thank god for that

[YoungBoyJimmy]

I do see what you mean, blizzard just had the buy 6 month for an exclusive mount thing, but what I'm more afraid off is stuff like buy skins using only ingame currency but you need to be VIP level x to buy it, or you can only craft 1 item at the time but if you are VIP level 10 you can craft 10 items at once. there are alot of things they already do but give it a VIP level and you are forced to spend extra money to use quality of life improvement.
I looked at one mobile games that had faster grind if you where in a guild, but you needed to be VIP level 5-10 to start a guild, and they could also lock players out of the guild if they weren't x VIP level.

[Astraea]

Yes, that sounds like a very unfriendly system to players. All I can say is: don't buy or play those games. And open a topic about it once in a while on gaming forums, like this one; to remind people of it's bad practice and you'll find most people agree with you. This has been an ongoing discussion among gamers for a long time and it seems less people fall for it nowadays. In part, I believe, thanks to the discussion that warns newcomers.

[MadMummy76]

What you describe sounds similar like what MMO's do like FFXIV, you get a special (cosmetic) item when you purchased X months of subscription. I guess there will be some people who immediately buy 2 years of sub just to get a mount, but for the rest of us, we can just ignore those incentives right? I really don't feel any pressure from those kind of transactions.

People who do feel the pressure will do it once and then they realize they just paid for 2 years of subscription while only playing a month and will never do it again. I certainly have made mistakes myself with purchasing additional content, but like many of us I can learn from my mistakes, thank god for that

I've been duped into buying deluxe editions of games for extra content. And usually as it turns out that extra content is filler garbage. Mostly just clutter for your in game inventory that you never can or want to use.

[Astraea]

That sucks. I bought Fortnite before it became what it is.Talk about a scam..

[Spect3r]

Oh look another thread about micro transactions.

When will Mods start taking action on the duplicated threads?

[YoungBoyJimmy]

If you don't like it scroll past it, you don't do anyone a favor by saying off topic comments.
also different threads on the same topic can be a good thing for spreading ideas or discuss the topic, I bet you don't go to youtube and sey "oh, another gaming channel. when will youtube start banning them..."

[lostaname]

So basically another way to feed addiction and fomo.... samw same, but diiiiferent but still the same. what else is new?

[Dave666]

It won’t be long before a AAA publisher tries to put energy bars in full priced games

[YoungBoyJimmy]

I bet! or consumable emotes and voice line in online games :P
hard to say how far they can go, or how much gamers can tolerate.

[henk717]

Personally i am not very worried about it, my bar has been a lot higher then most and as a result i have already been avoiding many of the triple AAA titles.
I just don't find them fun anymore, its a generic template with a skin and in-game monetization. Its just not very exciting for me.
But every year a handful of good titles come out from AAA publishers that aren't like this and are genuinely very fun to play, those are the titles i tend to buy.
The Indie scene also avoids these malpractises and gets bigger and better every year bringing me a lot of new exciting games.
And then there is of course the gold mine that is older games, there are so many fun games i either haven't played yet in my library or that i have not bought yet so ill be able to enjoy this hobby for years to come.

Hopefully other people will do the same and sooner and later people just abandon these terrible games with terrible practices just like mobile gaming , sure it might be booming for the casuals but there will then be more publishers focussing on the core audience that doesn't stand for this.

[grayfox313]

Vote with your wallets, don't buy them. This is why I switched (hurhur) to Nintendo this gen

[Eldarion]

Micro transactions have been bad, horrible even. The recent practices of delaying microtransactions to keep the review score from taking a hit is really seedy, but kind of brilliant at the same time. And of course things like the santa gear and the dot are egregious. As bad as things seem to be I feel like they have still been worse in the past. The worst micro transactions I've ever heard of came from the godfather video game. I think it came out around 06-07. The PS2 versions had cheat codes. The xbox360 version did not, preferring instead a different code, that being your credit card number in order to unlock the same benefits that the PS2 version got for free. There was a big kerfuffle about it at the time and I think that was still the low watermark for these sort of practices but, that water is getting pretty low again so we'll so. The fact seems to bee though that no matter how angry people get, the money is still too good to pass up, and companies continue to find the best ways to cram these transactions in. But dissappointment in many AAA games is kind of what got me to love more indie type games. The amount of play time I have gotten out of games like Stardew Valley, Rogue Legacy, Kerbal Space Program, to name a few is absurd. And of course there are still good AAA games out there as well, I'm just a lot more selective than I used to be. Unfortunately large companies like Activision and EA are so big they cant stop this sort of thing. They need that revenue and if that means turning out shit titles with shitty micro transaction practices so be it. Video games will decline a bit, companies will fail, better ones will rise, video games will go up again, corporate creed will rise again and the cycle will happen again. The best thing anyone can do to fix the situation is not buy the games and make it clear whenever possible why. Iwata years ago, I think before even the DS came out thought the video game landscape was just overflowing with games people didn't even necessarily want. And he was frustrated by what to do likening the situation to being a chef who needs to cook something for someone who's all ready full. I think this was part of the reasoning why nintendo leaned so hard into trying to create unique gaming experience.

In the issue of EGM that introduced the original xbox one of the original xbox teams, maybe it was ed fries, or j allard, or someone else said something like "Maybe we need half as many games, but make them twice as good" I wish game publishers felt the same way.