Although this post has been prompted by the release of shadows of war. I was wondering what people thoughts are on micro transactions in general. And specifically in a single player game like Shadows of war.
First off, i have not bought and nor do i intend to buy shadows of war at full price. I really liked the first one. But i am immediately put off by any game that has paid for DLC on day 1. Especially if that game is £60 right off the bat, which is very expensive for a game. And i find pretty insulting to be fair. Its like the developers want to have their cake and eat it. I might get it further down the track if it goes on an uber sale. But it does frustrate me it has to be this way. It seems like publishers and developers seem to be fine with alienating gamers like me, and i know that i am certainly not alone in staying away.
Secondly, I have deep reservations about micro transactions employed in this way in games. Especially when its pay to win. There are loads of regulations in the gambling industry. And pay to win is a bit too much like gambling IMO to be considered a totally fair and legit market practice. Especially when you are dealing with large numbers of kids and teenagers.
Does it work in any game? I think it can work when it is done creatively and non obtrusively. Largely this boils down to being limited to the cosmetic department. Games where this works? Team Fortress market place and Elite operate a pretty successful market place for cosmetic purchases ("successful" being that it doesnt negatively impact on the game if you dont want to purchase a new hat or a new paint job). I also think it works in free to play games. And is a fair trade off when you are deriving enjoyment from something that you are playing for "free". Games here include most mobile games, but i would also extend that to games like hearthstone.
But it seems like bad market practice to me to employ micro transaction in games where you are already asking for a whopping initial purchase price. And it is even worse when those transactions are all geared towards pay to win. And teh game is unnecessarily grindy to try and "encourage" you to part ways with you hard earned money.
Specifically looking at shadows of war. I think this takes the market practice to a new level of awful. For those that dont know, one of the developers died during the course of development. So the developers put a paid for dlc which featured the dead developer, into the game. Which, if purchased, would mean that some of the money would go direct to the dead guys family. A nice gesture perhaps? Wrong! The money would only go to the developers family if you happened to live in a finite number of states in the US. And yet it was marketed that monies would go to the family. It was only after reading the small print that this became apparent. And it caused a huge backlash. And Warner bros and Monolith backtracked on it. I do not know what the current position is. But really, thats beside the point. The mere idea of firstly marketing their death, and then profiting from it is, i think, pretty disgusting. And really betrays what a morally low point parts of the industry are in.
Whats the solution? I hate to say it, but i think some sort of voluntary code of practice should be signed up to by developers. One that states clearly when they will or will not use micro transactions. So that it is an industry standard. And they will not be present in games played by kids. Personally i would go further and include triple A titles.
First off, i have not bought and nor do i intend to buy shadows of war at full price. I really liked the first one. But i am immediately put off by any game that has paid for DLC on day 1. Especially if that game is £60 right off the bat, which is very expensive for a game. And i find pretty insulting to be fair. Its like the developers want to have their cake and eat it. I might get it further down the track if it goes on an uber sale. But it does frustrate me it has to be this way. It seems like publishers and developers seem to be fine with alienating gamers like me, and i know that i am certainly not alone in staying away.
Secondly, I have deep reservations about micro transactions employed in this way in games. Especially when its pay to win. There are loads of regulations in the gambling industry. And pay to win is a bit too much like gambling IMO to be considered a totally fair and legit market practice. Especially when you are dealing with large numbers of kids and teenagers.
Does it work in any game? I think it can work when it is done creatively and non obtrusively. Largely this boils down to being limited to the cosmetic department. Games where this works? Team Fortress market place and Elite operate a pretty successful market place for cosmetic purchases ("successful" being that it doesnt negatively impact on the game if you dont want to purchase a new hat or a new paint job). I also think it works in free to play games. And is a fair trade off when you are deriving enjoyment from something that you are playing for "free". Games here include most mobile games, but i would also extend that to games like hearthstone.
But it seems like bad market practice to me to employ micro transaction in games where you are already asking for a whopping initial purchase price. And it is even worse when those transactions are all geared towards pay to win. And teh game is unnecessarily grindy to try and "encourage" you to part ways with you hard earned money.
Specifically looking at shadows of war. I think this takes the market practice to a new level of awful. For those that dont know, one of the developers died during the course of development. So the developers put a paid for dlc which featured the dead developer, into the game. Which, if purchased, would mean that some of the money would go direct to the dead guys family. A nice gesture perhaps? Wrong! The money would only go to the developers family if you happened to live in a finite number of states in the US. And yet it was marketed that monies would go to the family. It was only after reading the small print that this became apparent. And it caused a huge backlash. And Warner bros and Monolith backtracked on it. I do not know what the current position is. But really, thats beside the point. The mere idea of firstly marketing their death, and then profiting from it is, i think, pretty disgusting. And really betrays what a morally low point parts of the industry are in.
Whats the solution? I hate to say it, but i think some sort of voluntary code of practice should be signed up to by developers. One that states clearly when they will or will not use micro transactions. So that it is an industry standard. And they will not be present in games played by kids. Personally i would go further and include triple A titles.