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Mircotransactions in AAA Games Are Never OK

Mircotransactions in AAA Games Are Never OK

With the recent news that Destiny will start utilizing microtransactions to unlock some aesthetic and social customizations, I’m wondering if we’re being eased into a paradigm in which it is common and acceptable for developers to charge us multiple times to fully enjoy their games. Fee-to-pay is a term and genre coined by Jim Sterling that applies to any game that you pay full retail price for only to discover that some system of progress or customization – parts of the game experience that you’ve already dished out $65 to enjoy – requires additional, small payments in order to be fully taken advantage of. Sometimes these are simple things, like a skin or color variant. Sometimes the purchases really do alter gameplay.

Dead Space 3 is a notorious offender. In DS3 you are required to find certain materials in order to craft and upgrade your weapons. The higher tiered equipment isn’t going to come quickly, and farming the materials you need takes an awfully long time unless you’re willing to pay EA a little extra money on the side. This is infuriating and unacceptable. The game devs are quick to point out that you don’t have to pay money to get the materials, but you are hopelessly naive if you don’t think that they intentionally made obtaining them a time-consuming and tedious process for those who decide not to pay.

In researching Halo 5 ’s new multiplayer mode Warzone, I found out that players will be able to pay small fees in order to unlock powerful, late-match weapons and vehicles. ‘Serious players’ who play a lot will be able to unlock these weapons by earning the in-game currency, and the microtransactions are supposedly there to help the more casual players who want these items but don’t have the time to commit to the game. We know however, and Microsoft knows, that it will be the serious players who are most compelled to purchase these items right away, giving them and their clans a distinct advantage in competitive matches.

This is shameful, and likely within hours of paying full-price for this game players will be sending Microsoft more money as they unlock the weapons that serve them best online. These microtransactions are becoming more common in retail games so you know that they’re seen as a potentially huge source of additional income, and if developers and publishers are taking the time to implement a system that utilizes microtransactions, you can bet they are going to do everything they can (with varying measures of tact) to persuade you to use them.

Mircotransactions in AAA Games Are Never OK

Imagine buying a Magic: The Gathering starter deck for yourself from a local hobby store with hopes of participating in a beginner’s tournament it’s hosting. Several turns into your first match you draw a rare, powerful card, only to be informed by the judge that you cannot play the card unless you pay another small fee. “But I’ve already bought the deck! The card was in the box that I opened,” you protest. “Your purchase grants you the basic cards that you need to play,” he responds with a sly wink, “but if you want to use that card you’ll have to play nine more matches or submit this small, unlocking premium.” You refuse to pay the fee, and your card is returned to the bottom of the deck.

Even if you’re still able to win the match and this transaction opportunity “doesn’t affect the gameplay,” the fact is that you’re being asked to pay twice to fully enjoy something that should be yours. Hopefully if you have a spine you can’t imagine allowing things to go down this way, but I challenge you to point out how being charged to access content already contained on a disc or in a game that you’ve installed is any different. I know my voice is likely to fall on deaf ears but I implore you not to encourage this thievery by forking over your hard-earned cash – again – to these AAA swindlers. We will all suffer for it.

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