A rich mans view that cannot be understood by poor people (poor people here!)
Shout out to Candy Crush on this post!
From: https://venturebeat.com/
I first got a smart phone around 2010. It was an Iphone 3GS. The landscape of mobility is shifting, and everyone is on it. Imagine a device that can act as 5 device and more; that’s how smartphone advertise themselves. And it worked! It worked so much I can’t imagine a day without my smartphone with me (except when being repaired or being stolen).
My memory of downloading a game in the IOS store is hazy. But as far as I remember, its all paid. You need to shell out money before downloading. Reasonable, since in console and pc gaming, you need to pay first before you play. So not a lot of phones have games installed since it is pay to install; or Pay to Play.
I don’t claim that I am an expert with micro transaction’s history. But one thing is for sure, Candy Crush Saga made it famous. Just look at the article below:
$8000?! On a game that the app store will tell you that is “free”. Everybody was outraged! Why would it cost you this much to play a game? But for developers, it is a golden opportunity (pun intended). And all free mobile games soon followed the trend. It was making millions and millions of dollars.
I can’t tell which console or pc game started this trend. Sure, MMORPG’s sometimes has a little micro transaction, but its not game changing or game ruining addition. Blizzard has done this with WOW, but just for cosmetic purposes. All games followed as well. Again, not game breaking, but certainly noticeable.
Then came the dark side… (I love myself!)
From: https://www.g2a.com
Ohhh boy, what can of worms this game opened. One of the highly anticipated game of 2017. Everyone was hyped since it coincide with the release of the new Star Wars movie. The first game disappointed, but only because the lack of content. This one was supposed to be the savior of the franchise. I was so excited to buy this back in November 2017.
And then this came:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/11/15/star-wars-battlefront-2-loot-crates-explained/
The site explains how the loot boxes works. Gamers were livid! We know how loot boxes works, we just don’t want the game to revolve around the pay to win system! An EA rep tried to explain it in reddit (the subreddit is already locked, but you can still see it here), making it the most downvoted reddit by that time. To give you the simplest explanation, players can unlock characters, but if I was rich I can unlock it with a single swipe (of my credit card). And toiling hour after hour just to get Darth Vader was so upsetting, the US government stepped in to stop it. EA had to pull and change how loot boxes works. Also just to add, this is a $60 game, standard only. With season pass and all it will cost around $80. And that is a tough pill to swallow with micro transactions included.
Now, there is a news the the US Senate will be banning MT and Pay to win models for games. I doubt it will push since pay to win games generate a lot of money to hapless customers. I have low expectations but still hoping it will be banned. Every hardcore gamers would love to have this feature removed and I am one with them with this en devour.
I'll continue this discussion on my next post. I will be discussing on how it will affect the gaming industry if pay to win will be removed.
Credits to: https://kotaku.com/u-s-senator-introduces-bill-to-ban-loot-boxes-and-pay-1834612226
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/11/15/star-wars-battlefront-2-loot-crates-explained/
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/us-state-representative-says-star-wars-battlefront/1100-6455147/
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/dppum98/?st=jeedsu6r&sh=a382c6a2
Late Game Bloomer 