The Easy Way Out
Remember those days when you played Candy Crush on the toilet or during class, and you got stuck on that one stupid level try after try. And after the 3rd or so attempt, a pop-up appears giving you the option to use your credit card to purchase points to purchase new benefits.
This mechanism is technically known as “in-game purchases” in the gaming world and more affectionately known within the gaming community as utter garbage money-grubbing game-destroying corporate developer bullsh*t. It’s the reason why the “free-to-play” models of Candy Crush and the zillions of handphone games exist despite being ‘free’. This underhanded tactic generates hundreds of millions for the companies each year and is the topic of high scrutiny especially when it pertains to child addiction.
But I don’t personally care about this. Handheld games are generally weak substitutes to actual rich world of video games and frankly, I think they’re a terrible thing to waste time on. They’re repetitive, simple, addicting, and dead-end in terms of personal growth and fulfillment. Plus, it’ll encourage your kid to use your credit card and waste hundreds/thousands of your dollars.
This strategy of shoving in-game purchases has made its way to console games, my main focus and great love, in the form of ‘loot boxes’, bundles of in-game purchases that offer anything new from new content to new functionality.
And (yea you probably guessed it), it’s utter garbage money-grubbing game-destroying corporate developer bullsh*t.
The Corporatization of Fan Support
Any corporation’s complete aim is to extract as much value from it’s customers, sometime even when It completely tilts the player base. Gamers universally hate in-game purchases and while most will still play the game while ignoring this ‘option’, the system is actually implemented to exploit the weakest and youngest of players.
So we’ve seen again and again great games that are liquified to peddling nonsense. The highly acclaimed Lord of the Rings gamification Shadow of Mordor led to the highly anticipated release of Shadow of War last year. Everyone hoped for more of the good stuff but all we got was paywall after paywall.
This is becoming common practice now, especially for industry giants like Ubisoft and Activision.
And unfortunately, the practice is being expanded to full parts of the game including core functionality and narrative. New purchasable stuff like Season Passes and “Expansions” (which most suspect were originally part of the game but purposefully cut out to package into future sell-ables) are cluttering the space.
Japanese game developer Konami went to the farthest extreme after they parted ways with legendary Metal Gear Solid developer Kojima, taking the beloved franchise which landed on a masterful note a few years with MGS5: The Phantom Pain and coming out with the latest regurgitated, monetized trash in the form of Metal Gear Survive. EVERYTHING is locked away behind a loot box. Want to try out a new level or weapon? Cough up 10USD. Want to save a 2nd game in a separate slot? Cough up 10USD.
The Ethics of Pay to Win
There are number of legitimate reasons to try and pressure companies to stop using loot box systems. Probably the most significant is that it promotes gambling behavior amongst children. This is a bit of an extreme, like the gaming gun scare of decades past. But it is important.
My main concern is the degradation of what gaming offers its audience. Games are supposed to be fulfilling experiences that rewards the player for their curiosity, skill, and dedication. But the loot box “Pay to Win” model undermines all that, allowing anyone to just throw a few dollars at the problem. Problem solved.
We already live in a world where satisfaction comes too fast. It’s been proven that dating apps actually undermine relationships and fast food undermines general health. This type of gaming destroys the long-term fulfillment of rich immersive games that reward the player instead of forcing an addiction upon you.
What to Do
Just don’t buy this garbage. I’ve never and never will purchase a game that has this shite. And tell your friends not to as well.
Steem on!
