I saw a related rant here years ago, and this is a good time to share it again.
Without DLC/MTX, the amount of money a publisher can extract from one customer is capped at the initial price of their game. The only way for the publisher to make more money under such a model is to create a better game that generates greater sales from more customers. This market rewards game makers for creating the best possible games.
With DLC/MTX, the amount of money a publisher can extract from one customer is uncapped. The publisher can make more money targeting vulnerable customers and children via predatory skinner boxes and gambling mechanics. This market rewards game makers for creating highly exploitative games with deliberately painful mechanics that are only alleviated by further payment.
There is no reality in which DLC/MTX do not shift the motivation of publishers from “creating ostensibly good games” to “creating intentionally bad games.” And that’s what MTX-riddled games are: intentionally bad games.
The truly sick part: there are people whose sole job is to create and implement predatory DLC/MTX using psychology and statistics to maximize the amount of money they can extract from the player base while giving them literally nothing of real value in return. And these legitimately evil employees are paid salaries from the revenues provided by their victims. If you’re a “gamer” who spends big money on cosmetics and pay-to-win mechanics, you are literally paying horrible people to make your existing experience worse so that they can then turn around and sell you solutions to problems THEY create.
If you’re a “gamer” who spends big money on cosmetics and pay-to-win mechanics
This is really bad with young people (like under 18). Go see how many of them would call themselves gamers and haven't shoveled mountains of money into Fortnite skins, Roblox, etc. Just see a kid's birthday party where they get piles of in-game currency gift cards where in one day they will stack up more Fortnite gift cards than I've spent on any single game in my entire life. You can laugh at them but they don't care, because how they appear in a game is that fucking important to them.
And these legitimately evil employees are paid salaries from the revenues provided by their victims. If you’re a “gamer” who spends big money on cosmetics and pay-to-win mechanics, you are literally paying horrible people to make your existing experience worse so that they can then turn around and sell you solutions to problems THEY create.
This seem to be a recurring theme in modern business and politics.
Still the youth is damned, even here you will barely get push back against those practices, Even when you got indies using a older model of earning their keep, people will just gloss over it.
It is something i'm still pondering on how to solve.
I'm sure it's already occurred to you, but I want to add my vote for its importance; the phrase "why do you care, it's not your money" needs a direct and concise answer. It's the one I encounter the most in these debates and I feel like it's some kind of programmed response without much forethought on their part.
It results in a worse game for everyone else (^intentionally bad games), but there's some more to be discussed beyond simply being a "bad game" since that's such a flat and subjective thing to say, and normies will argue from that position.
I saw a related rant here years ago, and this is a good time to share it again.
Without DLC/MTX, the amount of money a publisher can extract from one customer is capped at the initial price of their game. The only way for the publisher to make more money under such a model is to create a better game that generates greater sales from more customers. This market rewards game makers for creating the best possible games.
With DLC/MTX, the amount of money a publisher can extract from one customer is uncapped. The publisher can make more money targeting vulnerable customers and children via predatory skinner boxes and gambling mechanics. This market rewards game makers for creating highly exploitative games with deliberately painful mechanics that are only alleviated by further payment.
There is no reality in which DLC/MTX do not shift the motivation of publishers from “creating ostensibly good games” to “creating intentionally bad games.” And that’s what MTX-riddled games are: intentionally bad games.
The truly sick part: there are people whose sole job is to create and implement predatory DLC/MTX using psychology and statistics to maximize the amount of money they can extract from the player base while giving them literally nothing of real value in return. And these legitimately evil employees are paid salaries from the revenues provided by their victims. If you’re a “gamer” who spends big money on cosmetics and pay-to-win mechanics, you are literally paying horrible people to make your existing experience worse so that they can then turn around and sell you solutions to problems THEY create.
This is really bad with young people (like under 18). Go see how many of them would call themselves gamers and haven't shoveled mountains of money into Fortnite skins, Roblox, etc. Just see a kid's birthday party where they get piles of in-game currency gift cards where in one day they will stack up more Fortnite gift cards than I've spent on any single game in my entire life. You can laugh at them but they don't care, because how they appear in a game is that fucking important to them.
This seem to be a recurring theme in modern business and politics.
Still the youth is damned, even here you will barely get push back against those practices, Even when you got indies using a older model of earning their keep, people will just gloss over it.
It is something i'm still pondering on how to solve.
I'm sure it's already occurred to you, but I want to add my vote for its importance; the phrase "why do you care, it's not your money" needs a direct and concise answer. It's the one I encounter the most in these debates and I feel like it's some kind of programmed response without much forethought on their part.
It results in a worse game for everyone else (^intentionally bad games), but there's some more to be discussed beyond simply being a "bad game" since that's such a flat and subjective thing to say, and normies will argue from that position.