#that push for predatory microtransactions in unfinished games

[jacob-blogs]

The amount of people not buying a Switch 2 on launch gives me hope that there won't be any shortage/supply issues when it releases.

[existentialsurvivalist-blog]

Most popular issue in gaming as of now - microtransactions

Lately, all I can see in the gaming media is microtransactions or bad business practices in general. There is a good reason for this, and I love that the community is talking about these issues, but I fear like some people do not understand why these issues are brought up. Most casual gamers think, that these issues, mainly bad business practices, are just a part of the industry, but the funny thing is, these practices are fairly recent. For instance microtransactions. They were, for the most part, a part of the mobile gaming market and also for a good reason.

The mobile gaming market needed to monetize their content somehow, so most of them used some form of microtransactions. Some were harmless, like extra turns in a single player game, or remove some time gating, but they do tend to get predatory. For instance, when any form of competition is involved, people will always look for ways to get ahead. We are competitive creatures, so we need to be better. Some game developers introduced microtransactions, that could get you a bit ahead, like removing the build times in some strategy games, or buying extra units or resources to crush your enemies. For the most part, this is not bad, but it does get worse when these microtransactions are pushed heavily. In my opinion, this is just not ethical. If a developer has some sort of microtransaction in their game, that is fine. Let the player know, that this is an option, but don't overwhelm the player. Most of these developers will put reminders of the microtransactions after almost every action, that requires any form of input. You click a button to build a unit and BAM, a full-screen banner is presented with information about how you could build the unit instantly, if you had some premium currency, that you can purchase. And the mobile market got flushed with this practice to a point, where some games are designed around the model. 

The microtransaction model was making so much money, that console and PC devs took a note and started to think of ways to do a similar thing. First came the horse armor for Oblivion, then came the micro DLC's, that added little content, then card systems for online sports games and the list goes on and on. Publishers are making so much money on these systems, that they stop caring about the quality of their product altogether. Look at the latest Mass Effect. The game was rushed, unfinished and just painfully average. All because the publisher was pushing the teams to work on a new IP, that I think will be another cash cow for the publisher. Anthem will be a multiplayer game and I already see, based on Battlefront 2, how it will be full of microtransactions. Sure, this is not a guarantee, but knowing EA's track record, there is a high possibility of this happening. 

But the biggest problem with all these systems taking place in our games are the players. Yes, the players. The casual gamer, the one round gamer, the gamers, that just don't have enough time to play and grind, the player, that is a little worse in online games, than his opposition. The previous sentence might seem a little controversial, shifting the blame from the publisher to the consumer, but think about it. Publishers and game devs would not push microtransactions so hard if no one would be buying them. Once they saw how much money is involved in this, they experimented and found ways and practices where players pay for microtransactions. And if the player is paying, then they will keep doing this. I saw and took part in the Star Wars Battlefront 2 boycott because I thought it might make a difference if enough gamers would not buy the game, but the truth is, it made no difference. 

Join me next time and read my thoughts and what can we as a community do to improve the situation.

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