I look down on microtransactions for a number of reasons. One of the primary ones is simply that I do not agree with the idea of real money directly influancing the games. With a subscription based model everyone pays the same thing, and pretty much competes on an even keel within the game. With a microtransaction based model, people are going to succeed or fail for the most part dependant on how much money they can invest in the game. I play games for escapism, to get away from a world in which the rich people control everything and have a massive advantage over everyone.
What's more I think it ruins the accomplishment of raiding, or PVP, if people are basically just going to be buying success in those endeavors.
Then of course there is the entire issue of microtransactions being a way to try and get people to pay more than they would for a subscription fee per month, albiet one tiny transaction at a time, in hopes that they don't notice.
I have no objection to paying for an MMORPG, but I will generally not do "cash shop" games and instead simply pay a flat subscription fee.
What's more I am just waiting for more "Sword Of The New World" type games where they will try and charge a subscription fee, AND make the game dependant on microtransactions. Paying them a fee for the right to buy the content you need to play their game.
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Also on the matter of there being no such thing as a free lunch, I think that's not nessicarly true: the idea that the cost has to come from somewhere.
The reason I say this is because of things like "Trust Funds". Simply put Trust Funds are when you invest a bunch of money in a bank, and set them up so you can only typically withdraw money based on the a portion of the interest. Typically the amount of money in such funds is massive, so only pulling out a bit of the interest still amounts to bucket loads of cash. Effectively creating a perpetual pile of wealth. You might ask "well, what happens if the banks that you finance with go out of business, after all they are making your money work for you..." well typically such funds are somewhat insulated in what kind of risks a bank can take with that money, and beyond a certain point the funds are set to automatically move to another bank... something that has allegedly killed financial institutions when they did something that brought them to a certain point that cased a lot of their big accounts to automatically migrate for self protection.... it can be complicated.
This is how a lot of rich people set it up so their kids can enjoy a playboy lifestyle and never have to work, unless they are phenomenally stupid. Simply put they and their children are guaranteed a constantly expanding pile of money.
As it relates to this article, consider that one of the problems with the industry and things like server expenses, is that nobody has yet to develop a trust fund as part of the development cost, that exists to pay server maitnence and the needed techs in perpetuity.
Indeed, as ironic as it might sound, one of the things I've been favoring is the idea that the goverment require companies selling "virtual" property have funds established to guarantee the operation and continued existance of that property even if they go out of business. Basically if you buy a game for digital download, the company should have the servers for that game covered by a trust fund (as part of development) to protect the customers buying that property should the company itself go out of business (or something).
Now yes, that's a bit silly, but it's the only way I see "digital" purchuses can be protected for the consumer. Personally I prefer to just stick with discs, and physical media, but I wound up putting some thought into how someone could make the whole digital media thing work without totally nuking consumer rights.
In an overall sense, the point that I'm making is that with the way money works, it is possible to create perpetual financing. This is simply a very simple way, and one that is frequently exploited by "trust fund kids", various charitible foundations, certain PACs, and even various properties that have their own assigned funds to cover maitnence and pay staff (some of which miught also be charitible organizations, such as hostels/communes to support artists so they can focus on creating art without worrying about more mundane concerns).
