Micro transactions have been a huge topic in gaming lately. Whether you are paying for the best weapons and armor in the game, cosmetic items, loot boxes, double xp, and more, if something can be downloaded too a game the developers are selling it. A lot of gamers are furious at this new standard in the gaming industry, but do they have any right to be angry?
I mean these are gamers that have been paying $60 for a game since the PS3 and Xbox 360 days, and back in those days items were unlocked rather than bought. At least that is what other gamers are saying that don’t quite understand the situation. The fact is that video games are getting better and better each year. Graphics are more detailed, open world maps are expanding, and online multiplayer content is improving, but one thing about new games hasn’t changed, and that is the price. It has been over 10 years since the release of last generations consoles yet despite games improving in every way the price remains constant. Why is this? I think that at this point gamers and game companies have gotten comfortable with this standard price and offering special editions at higher prices with extra content is now widely accepted. This way gamers that just want to play a new game can be happy with a $60 price tag while dedicated fans of a game would be happy to fork over extra cash for extra content that doesn’t cost the developer anything because this content has already been created. While special editions and DLC (downloadable content) have received backlash from gamers before, many accusing developers of locking away content behind a price tag, it seems that they have become accepted. Now micro transactions are the center of attention in the gaming industry, but I would have to say they are mostly justified. I mean don’t get me wrong there are times when micro transaction could get out of hand. For example, if you can basically spend a large amount of money to be the best player in the game then I think that is completely wrong. If however the micro transactions give you items that are purely cosmetic then I think that is justified.
Developers need to find the right balance between selling items that the players will want without so much selling players an advantage over other players that are actually good at the game but don’t have the extra money to spend on it. One good example of this would be double xp. Often times players can purchase a few hours of double xp to help level up faster. This might seem like you are paying for an advantage over other players, but if you have ever played games like Battlefield and Call of Duty you know that level is more of a bragging right than an actual advantage since the best players will dominate the game from day one at any level. Most of the people complaining about micro transactions don’t understand what goes into making and maintaining a video game. If you ever sit through the credits of a video game you probably realized they are much longer than movie credits. So many more people are involved in making a game nowadays and in the end all those people need to get paid. One might argue that a $60 price tag would be plenty considering the fact that millions of copies are sold, but there is something else players fails to consider. Online multiplayer games need servers in order to operate and those servers require maintenance. Multiplayer games, especially first-person shooters, are also constantly going through balancing updates, and with the complexity of today’s games they are bound to be shipped with bugs that will need patching. How can a gaming company afford to continue paying employees if their only revenue is from the sales of their games alone? I personally support the direction that micro transactions are taking video games and hope that everyone complaining can keep an open mind about micro transaction, or make the choice not to spend money on them like I have and still enjoy the game.
I mean these are gamers that have been paying $60 for a game since the PS3 and Xbox 360 days, and back in those days items were unlocked rather than bought. At least that is what other gamers are saying that don’t quite understand the situation. The fact is that video games are getting better and better each year. Graphics are more detailed, open world maps are expanding, and online multiplayer content is improving, but one thing about new games hasn’t changed, and that is the price. It has been over 10 years since the release of last generations consoles yet despite games improving in every way the price remains constant. Why is this? I think that at this point gamers and game companies have gotten comfortable with this standard price and offering special editions at higher prices with extra content is now widely accepted. This way gamers that just want to play a new game can be happy with a $60 price tag while dedicated fans of a game would be happy to fork over extra cash for extra content that doesn’t cost the developer anything because this content has already been created. While special editions and DLC (downloadable content) have received backlash from gamers before, many accusing developers of locking away content behind a price tag, it seems that they have become accepted. Now micro transactions are the center of attention in the gaming industry, but I would have to say they are mostly justified. I mean don’t get me wrong there are times when micro transaction could get out of hand. For example, if you can basically spend a large amount of money to be the best player in the game then I think that is completely wrong. If however the micro transactions give you items that are purely cosmetic then I think that is justified.
Developers need to find the right balance between selling items that the players will want without so much selling players an advantage over other players that are actually good at the game but don’t have the extra money to spend on it. One good example of this would be double xp. Often times players can purchase a few hours of double xp to help level up faster. This might seem like you are paying for an advantage over other players, but if you have ever played games like Battlefield and Call of Duty you know that level is more of a bragging right than an actual advantage since the best players will dominate the game from day one at any level. Most of the people complaining about micro transactions don’t understand what goes into making and maintaining a video game. If you ever sit through the credits of a video game you probably realized they are much longer than movie credits. So many more people are involved in making a game nowadays and in the end all those people need to get paid. One might argue that a $60 price tag would be plenty considering the fact that millions of copies are sold, but there is something else players fails to consider. Online multiplayer games need servers in order to operate and those servers require maintenance. Multiplayer games, especially first-person shooters, are also constantly going through balancing updates, and with the complexity of today’s games they are bound to be shipped with bugs that will need patching. How can a gaming company afford to continue paying employees if their only revenue is from the sales of their games alone? I personally support the direction that micro transactions are taking video games and hope that everyone complaining can keep an open mind about micro transaction, or make the choice not to spend money on them like I have and still enjoy the game.
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