Pay-to-Pay

[BrotherRool]

If you haven't heard about it, the future is free-to-play microtransaction mechanics in $60 dollar AAA games. Pretty much every Xbox One game comes with optional things you can pay for (cars in Forza, money in Ryse, characters in Killer Instinct, booster packs in Powerstar Golf. Crimson Dragoon by all accounts is a free-to-play game that inexplicably charges $20 before giving you the privilege to pay them more money)

And every sign points to this being the norm for all games in the future. Gran Turismo talks about buying cars, FFXIII-3 is DLC ridden etc.

We had our warning signs, there was the Dead Space franchise, those small online booster packs in Mass Effect 3, but it seems like this is just the start. Free to play mechanics aren't going to stay online and they're going to invade every aspect of the game. You can grind time or spend money.

What do people think? On principle I'm not against games making more money, nor am I against the idea that people who have more money than time (which is a reasonable thing in this day and age) can buy their way out of time.

But the problem is, it gives the incentive to the developers to make games waste your time and if they don't, then the developer loses money. When you're deciding how much XP a car unlock costs in Forza, are you going to decide completely on what is appropriate and most satisfying or are you going to be thinking 'If I add an extra 0 here than I might get that bonus for Christmas?'

And we end up in a situation where games aren't being designed to be fun or meaningful but to antagonise you in small ways unless you pay for the pain to go away

 

[Barbas]

I think those game you mentioned are just being made by notoriously stingy companies. Still, if people do keep buying those sorts of games from those sorts of companies, they'll keep up the dirty practices.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I don't think the system is inherently flawed, but it does have the potential to be abused. If the game becomes genuinely less enjoyable to play unless you put down money for certain benefits, then I think it moves into the realm of being exploitative and absolutely despicable. However, if the game remains decently enjoyable so that people might be willing to invest the time into getting the benefits, then I don't have any problem with it.

 

[JazzJack2]

I don't think Micro-Transactions will be properly sustainable in the long run and this will all implode in on itself causing a major video game crash and the age of indie games will rise. Hey a guy can dream can't he?

 

[Vylox]

I see no point in micro transactions in games that have initial purchase prices.

The free to play(pay) model is just that. The game is free, you can give up money for added perks. And it has no reason to be in games that have an initial purchase price, aside from corporate greed. However gamers have been suckered into it already with DLC and additional content that has a monetary cost attached.

I would have no problems with an increase in a game's base purchase price, if there was enough merit in the game itself to warrant such an increase. That just isn't the case with the big name publishers and larger companies within the gaming industry.