Current Events > Micro transactions: love it or hate it, but which game is doing it right?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I play Honkai Star Rail and used to play Genshin. Neither games are forcing you to pay money, and they're not exactly placing items that you can't get anywhere else behind a paywall.

I would gladly dump a tenner every month, just for that lucky drop

Fuck micros

As long as it isn't predatory, I don't have an issue with...

Warframe. You never feel like you need to spend money. Plus, you can actually farm premium currency since it's tradable.

Helldivers 2

the fact that people use mental gymnastics like "it's not that expensive, actually", "it's content you can just play the game for anyways", and "i can spend just a little bit every now an then" are why devs continue to create abusive microtransactions

some games have good dlc expansions that aren't just day 1 dlc. wipeout hd fury basically doubled the base game's content for cheap

For me any game that is paid and includes them is wrong. My mind will never change on that. Warframe is one that stands out as free to play and fun and I could enjoy it without micro transactions.

Anything more than cosmetics is disgusting and a scourge on the industry. And personally I think microtransaction cosmetics are also disgusting because those too used to just be part of the game when you buy it. But I know some devs want the F2P model for broader accessibility and need to have something premium to sell, so I get cosmetic MTX being a thing.

Deep Rock Galactic.

The Secret World was the first and only game I went in on microstransactions and it was gambling too lol at least I got to transfer all my cosmetics to the Secret World Legends and while it was a waste of money at less it still exists and I can see it live still but it had a great vibe.

As opposed to say Madden Ultimate Team where they expect you (and ppl do) waste hundreds of dollars on virtual cards that are only good for one season.

Kurumiee posted...

I play Honkai Star Rail and used to play Genshin. Neither games are forcing you to pay money, and they're not exactly placing items that you can't get anywhere else behind a paywall.

I would gladly dump a tenner every month, just for that lucky drop

You're not getting shit for luck with $10 every month.

I always liked maplestorys mtx. They were fair and was worth the money

AsucaHayashi posted...

I always liked maplestorys mtx. They were fair and was worth the money

You're talking about the game that set rates to 0% if you were a big spender right?

League of Legends I think does it right. You can earn everything gameplay wise via playing, but skins (that have no bearing on improving your stats) cost money.

Jupiter posted...

Warframe. You never feel like you need to spend money. Plus, you can actually farm premium currency since it's tradable.

Came to say this. Easily the most ethical version of MTs

The Secret World would turn your real cash money into premium currency where you if ya wasted enough money gambling you could eventually just buy that rare mount you missed anyway.

TSW was unashamedly about party/loot boxes back then. If you got 12 ppl together you would all get an extra item by opening them. I think that was part of what made it more fun too the community aspect.

Warframe and League of Legends are probably the best examples. But you'll notice the key similarity between them is that they're both free to play games that let you unlock all of the core gameplay mechanics through gameplay.

Isnt Fortnite free, and anything you buy using VBucks just for aesthetic purposes?

Games like that. Games where the only thing micro transactions do is change how your character looks

Tyranthraxus posted...

You're talking about the game that set rates to 0% if you were a big spender right?

0% sounds pretty fair xd

bigblu89 posted...

Isnt Fortnite free, and anything you buy using VBucks just for aesthetic purposes?

Games like that. Games where the only thing micro transactions do is change how your character looks

even those games fucking suck.

look how far we've fallen.

you're saying it's fine to pay 20 bucks for a fucking skin

Robot2600 posted...

even those games fucking suck.

look how far we've fallen.

you're saying it's fine to pay 20 bucks for a fucking skin

Try Valorant where they charged $300 bucks for gun skins.

i played valorant for like 18 months. i bought the battlepasses but im really glad i dont play any of that shit anymore

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Too bad they did everything else wrong with that game, at least on PC.

Never experienced anything so beautiful and well crafted yet so tainted by malicious modders. I would probably play nothing else but GTA Online if I could just play in peace

i played a few hundred hours of gta 4 online, but never gta 5 online, oddly enough.

4 was hacked to shit so i just assumed 5 would be really bad too but it sounds like i missed out

Robot2600 posted...

even those games fucking suck.

look how far we've fallen.

you're saying it's fine to pay 20 bucks for a fucking skin

I'm saying it's fine becasue buying them/not buying them changes nothing within the game itself.

I play Fortnite from time to time with my son a nephews, although it's basically them playing and me running around and not knowing what I'm doing. I haven't spent a penny on the game, and the in-game experience is exactly the same as theirs is.

The vast vast majority of games just have cosmetics and the ability to buy, like, ingame money and xp boosts. I really don't know why people have a bug up their ass about them so much.

Games where the micro transactions are for cosmetic items are my preferred way for these. I made a post on reddit ages ago on IAP. Might be relevant.

Couple of ideas from me where I've found I've been happy to drop real money on games. I think the key word is "fair" for me. Items where you feel like you are supporting the dev, and don't feel like you're being exploited as a cash cow.

Things I'm Ok With:

• Games where you can pay to remove ads- If your game is good and I'm thinking I'm going to be in it for the long haul I'll be more than welcome to pay to disable ads in exchange for a permanent bonus or daily rewards.Idle Planet Miner(iOS, Andoid) does this well where when you remove ads you still get the in game items pop up that would normally prompt to watch an ad to get the bonus but you just get the reward right away and don't need to watch an ad.

• Piggy Bank Mechanic- Essentially you earn premium currency throughout the game at a fair rate and it goes into a "piggy bank" which you can pay a fixed amount to crack open to gain the premium currency you've earned.Egg Inc(iOS, Android) does this. It essentially means you could decide to buy the premium currency by cracking the piggy bank at a price you felt was worth it to you. You can still earn premium currency through the game directly but it's at a slower rate than you earn it into your piggy bank.

• One Off Purchases- I find games that allow a one off purchases to unlock a permanent bonus to be acceptable as long as I deem it a decent bonus and there are minimal permanent upgrades. AgainIdle Planet Minerdoes this well where you can buy a limited number of one off "mother ships" that give a permanent bonus to various stats. On the flip side they added a few more recently which came across as a money grab so it needs to be fair.

• Non Gameplay Related Purchases- Games that allow you to buy outfits or other similar aesthetic items can be a good way to earn money.Almost a Hero(iOS, Android) allows you to buy outfits for your characters that don't effect gameplay. If it's a game I'm into then I'm happy to buy an outfit I think looks good for a character I will be using often. If it's a really good game sometimes I will buy an outfit just to make sure the developer gets money.

• Rewards that effect everyone playing-Cookie Clicker(web) has a bonus called "heralds" which is a fixed % increase on cookie production. This % is based on number of people who are currently supporting the game on patreon. I can imagine this could be abused where in game prices are adjusted to take into account this bonus so again it needs to be fair.

• Returning from Idle Bonus- When returning from being away from the game an option to watch an advert to double your offline progress can be an effective way to make me want to watch an ad. If I've been away for a few days and I've collected a lot of idle progress and I'm presented with the option to watch a 30 second ad to get even more progress then I'll usually do so. Again this is fair to me because I have the option as to when and when not I consider it worth watching the advert. I'm not going to watch the ad if I've only been away a few hours for example.Idle Miner Tycoon(iOS, Android) WAS a good example of this but a recent update ruined the game for me.

• Longer Offline Progress- My final type of IAP I usually consider fair is the option to increase amount of time I can earn offline progrss. For exampleEgg Incused to cap offline progress at two hours. You could buy a one off purchase to increase this to a longer period. Even better was you could already increase your offline time limit through various upgrades but the one off purchase just made it even longer. Bonus to this is you can still play the game initially without the unlock and it's only going to be if you enjoy the game and are going to come back and stick with it that the ability to receive longer offline rewards is a helpful purchase. Similar to this is when you have limited "build queues" and you can buy another build queue to increase efficiency. Again in early game these are usually not important and only really a benefit if you're planning on sticking with the game. Similar to the One Off Purchase suggestion above this should be fair and for me personally it should be limited to a fixed number.

Things that turn me off and will almost certainly make me put down your game:

• Impossible Events -Games where in game events are borderline impossible to complete without spending money are a big no no for me. I'm happy for events that require effort to complete but this shouldn't be to the point I'm needing to set an alarm twice in the middle of the night to ensure I gain enough event currency.

• Whale Bait- Games that either directly or indirectly target and promote whales. If you don't know, whales are the small minority of people that tend to drop lots of money on a game to either ensure they are #1 in a leader-board or get rewards that give them a benefit in PVP. If I feel a game or event is "unwinnable" or I'm being penalised because other people are spending more money than me then it's usually a surefire way to make me put the game down.Idle Frontier: Tap Tap Town(iOS, Android) awards prizes in events based on what percentile you finish the event in. Being in the top 10% for example gives more rewards than finishing in the 75% percentile. This is usually found in games where you'll have a breakdown of premium currency going up to stupidly high (my opinion) prices like $99.99. These days if I see a game and it offers multiple levels of premium currency it's usually puts me off before I even download the game.

• Forced Ads- Games that force me to watch an ad after a certain action are a big no no. A few games I've played where you'd get an ad shown to you with no warning after certain actions. Big no no. If your game has ads and I like the game I have no issues but it needs to be my choice to watch an ad. I don't even remember one of these games as an example as it's pretty much an auto uninstall for me so I don't play long enough to remember the game.

• Unlimited IAP Upgrades -Any sort of upgrade you can purchase that stacks and is effectively unlimited puts me off.Adventure Capitalist(iOS, Android) has the ability to purchase an unlimited number of production bonuses. I think this is more down to me and being too much of an impulse buyer but when I hit a grind it's tempting to think you're being forced into purchasing them. I'm not saying this is the case with Adventure Capitalist but similar games do feel like they are designed to push you to buy these to progress as opposed to them just being a handy boost.

Warframe, Helldivers 2, Path of Exile...I think that's it.

Warframe has a shitload of grinding if you dont want to pay, but you always still feeling like youre making progress. Even then, you can just farm stuff to sell if youd like too.

PoE essentially treats your first playthrough as a free trial and from there you're just buying inventory space if you'd like to get serious.

HD2 takes not a lot a ton of time to grind out stuff, doing so is fun af, or you can be lazy with the bulk of it and just log in and collect the free shit. Or you can buy it if you really can't wait

b/c they are parasites taking money from regular ppl for a thing that we used to get for free--they aren't actually exchanging a good or a service for anything useful, they arent giving that money to the artist or something like that either.

it's just a dead weight on civilization.

specialkid8 posted...

The vast vast majority of games just have cosmetics and the ability to buy, like, ingame money and xp boosts. I really don't know why people have a bug up their ass about them so much.

The problem with selling things like XP boosts is that the game is then designed to make it so that you would need XP boosts. It makes games that are a little too grindy because they want people to be annoyed enough that they would spend money to make it easier, when it was always within their control to just make leveling up easier so you don't need to sell boosts.

Cosmetics may alter the look of a game, but anything that you can buy in a cash shop that impacts the core mechanics of the game are inherently going to be a problem because they are in direct competition against good game design philosophy.

FOMO and battle passes with expiration dates are probably the only 2 things I dislike about Fortnite. Otherwise, it's a very good and fun game to play. I enjoyed my time I played with my nephews and it's the only battle royale game I was able to get in first place solo que a lot of times. Was only able to pull this off once in PUBG.

s0nicfan posted...

The problem with selling things like XP boosts is that the game is then designed to make it so that you would need XP boosts. It makes games that are a little too grindy because they want people to be annoyed enough that they would spend money to make it easier, when it was always within their control to just make leveling up easier so you don't need to sell boosts.

I don't know about multiplayer games (I imagine they're the same) but I have never once played a single player game where I was anywhere close to compelled to buy xp. I don't think anyone builds games around that. It's something they throw on at the end of development for lazy people.

The last one I personally played that I thought was decent was CoD Infinite Warfare

You could just save up scrap and buy the weapons directly instead of even buying anything

anything that isn't gambling or FOMO timed battle pass shit is fine, i think. somebody mentioned Warframe, and that's a great example. tons of content in the base game, and if you really want some cosmetic thing, you can just buy it without having to gamble for it with lootboxes. i'm okay with throwing some scratch to the devs to support a game i like, within reason.

Prestoff posted...

FOMO and battle passes with expiration dates are probably the only 2 things I dislike about Fortnite. Otherwise, it's a very good and fun game to play. I enjoyed my time I played with my nephews and it's the only battle royale game I was able to get in first place solo que a lot of times. Was only able to pull this off once in PUBG.

Yeah "season passes" turn me off unless it's something I'm really into. I'm happy to drop money on an extended edition of a game that promises to include all future DLC. Not so much for some sort of GaaS where new content is drip fed through seasons. I also hate GaaS as I like to "complete" my games. Not keen on infinite games that just go on and on and on.

Master duel is the current game Im playing thats doing it right. Grinding for gems isnt hard nor time consuming, the dailies are generally easy and the battle pass isnt ridiculously time consuming and pays for itself once fully leveled.

Rewarding consistent and dedicated play.

I've always been fine with Division 2 microtransactions since they are purely cosmetic and since their Warlords of New York expansion in 2020 every content update has been free.

Also Rocket League does it right when it comes to season passes because you can buy it once and if you never use those credits in the store and level up to 110 every season you get the same amount back to spend on the next season pass. The season pass gives you access to a second row of cosmetics and also xp boosts. Also they have had some timed events where you could earn credits for completing challenges

But fuck Epic for removing trading

I feel it is debatable if they count as microtransactions, but music games like Rock Band have many songs to buy for cheap. I feel like the term microtransaction has evolved to mostly mean in game currency, but I remember the term being used for games that would just sell tons of cosmetic or even gameplay items for cheap (like the early days of Payday 2)

And as someone with more than 1700 songs in my Rock Band 4, it is something that really enhances the game. No DLC is absolutely needed like in a competitive game. This is all about just getting more music you like

Robot2600 posted...

i played a few hundred hours of gta 4 online, but never gta 5 online, oddly enough.

4 was hacked to shit so i just assumed 5 would be really bad too but it sounds like i missed out

5 Online was a ridiculously complex experience. When it launched originally, about a month or two after 5 came out, it was a little more basic - you could buy garages, buy apartments/houses, modify cars, but most of the money and experience earning activities were instanced matchmaking things (ranging from PvP death match to car races to PvE missions like in the main game).

But they've added so frigging much now. There are heists that comprise multiple planning missions culminating in the actual heists, all sorts of businesses to buy and operate (like an arcade and you can buy more arcade machines that you can actually play), a submarine with cruise missiles and submarine dock and helipad, a night club, you can buy a hangar for storing and modifying aircraft and run smuggling operations out of it, you can run drug and money counterfeiting operations, a chop shop, an underground gun smuggling ring.

Many of these businesses also come with their own special operations centers that you can drive around and run more missions out of.

And a lot of the stuff has splashed out from the instanced content to open world content, so you can steal someone's car as they're trying to deliver it to a seller or destroy someone's helicopter as they're trying to drop off stolen medicine.

It is absurdly well developed and fun with friends in closed sessions but good luck in the public world.

Last time I played there'd be some modder or other who would spam a cash service message and then crash your game. And 98% of the time if you try to report a modder, their mod intercepts the hacking message and you die and then the game crashes.