Dual Currency Microtransaction Scam Comes to Core Gaming

It’s become clear based on recent developments in the game industry as well as countless statements by industry leaders and analysts, that microtransactions will soon be an integral aspect of gaming across the board. Since core gamers will be most affected by the change, it's incumbent upon us to understand how games that are heavy with microtransactions work as well as how they play; and dual currencies are the perfect vehicle for understanding how pay to win games function. Not only are they the most common pay to win scam, but nearly every facet of this ploy’s inner workings reveals how pay to win games are deleterious to quality video games in general.

[wannabe gamer]

If you dont count mobile/phone games then it isnt as big of a problem. console and pc gaming have issues with it yes, but i think its a much different/worse problem on mobile games.

plus a lot of people use the term pay 2 win too loosely. ive seen games that offer nothing but cosmetics items as paid content and still there are always those people on forums screaming p2w omg pw2

[fenome]

Don't buy into the BS and be VOCAL about how we don't want them, take a stance. Don't just talk about it be about it though, because if you're just talking sh*t about it and still buying them it doesn't make a difference. Vote with your wallets and speak your mind, they'll listen to the $dollar signs$ first, but if those aren't working they'll listen to us.

[tee_bag242]

Same thing goes for playing for online

[Vitalogy]

This is the most disappointing decision on sony's end so far for me. They used the "online MP is free" flag the entire ps3 era against microsoft and then the ps4 comes out and boom, you have to pay to play online.

Now just imagine if they kept the previous status, they would probably have sold almost twice ps4's as they have already.

[Ripsta7th]

@Vitatology- that's not true because PS + started on ps3 offering free games and still does on ps3(free games. Free online) but I and many people knew it was inevitable for Sony to go f2p this gen . At least I hope Sony makes some major upgrades to their servers with the PS + money and don't t forget PS+ is what made XBL better(free games there too )
If they would have kept the same status their servers wouldn't improve

[Vitalogy]

@Ripsta7th Yes I know ps3 online is still free, I was clearly reffering to PS4's online MP, not ps3.

[fenome]

Yeah, that's true, but PS+ is worth the money either way. I've been a long time member and have no regrets at all. I don't even really play online but I still subscribe to the service either way, it pays for itself. I was already a Plus member when I got my PS4 so the only difference I saw was new ps+ games on another system I own.

[HardcoreDroid]

The article links to a boycott. We hope gather a million names.

[fenome]

My name's on it, and I just hopped on the laptop to share the link too, this is real

[BillytheBarbarian]

Don't buy into them. Simple. Too many people will buy anyways because of impatience.

[HardcoreDroid]

Better yet, stand together, and we become much more powerful as does our message, which reads something like: "if you cross the line we will reveal you for who you are, and then hit you where it hurts--profit margins.

The boycott gives us a way to be heard, and a way to fight back and have it matter.

There's a link at the bottom of the article.

Gamers who care, i think most do, should sign.

[NatureOfLogic_]

Ace Combat is absolutely the worst f2p game I've ever played. I'd rather pay a monthly fee It's so bad.

[DualWielding]

I'll never play a freemium game that's all I can do to help the cause and I do have faith that freemium games would never replace traditional games in core console gaming

[InTheLab]

These type of games will be the death of mobile gaming, not console gaming. We all look back and fondly remember arcades and the games in them but those were all pay to win scams. Those game were designed to get you to drop quarters. You cruise through a fighting game then hit a sub boss like sagat or Goro then drop a ton of money trying to figure out how to fight them because they don't play like normal characters or have their difficulty artificially turned up. Most arcade game employed this tactic and we all spent countless hours and money playing what was basically a scam.

So here we are 25 years later and "cheap" mobile games basically carrying on the tradition of artificially hiking up the difficulty or out right blocking you from progress in order to get you to spend. Only this time, they make any currency you earn ingame worthless so you will be forced to grind. And after all that grinding, they hope you'll finally break down and spend real money to progress through the game and that is the very definition of scam.

But these types of games will never take hold on consoles. Consoles are the reason arcades died. You simply press start to continue instead of inserting money. There will always be devs willing to create games that are worth your time and money.

I say the real problem for core games are the dlc scams. Take CoD Ghosts for example. The games vanilla maps are all terrible but many of the top gamers on YouTube are all saying the same thing. The new maps should have been the vanilla maps and in order to enjoy traditional CoD maps instead of the huge way too big for 6v6 maps, you have to pay $50 which is basically buying another game.

Or take Titanfall, for example. They want full price for a game they admitted cut out plans for a deep sp experience and more modes in the pm because they lacked the funds to do so. So instead of creating a deep and satisfying game with at least as much content as shooters from the beginning of last gen, they release a game with 15 maps, 10 pilot weapons with 6 of those being primaries, 3 titans, 6 Titan weapons, and little to no customization. And had the balls to charge $60 for a paltry amount of content. But don't worry, they'll make sure to charge you even more through dlc for their work in progress game. Hopefully enough people have convinced themselves that Tf is worth more than $30 so all that money will help them create a full game in Titanfall 2.

And of course there's the indie games that are way overpriced or the big budget titles that are full priced but 4 hours long.

I could go on but I've already wrote a blog.

[mydyingparadiselost]

"Some have suggested that if gamers simply refuse to buy them that they’ll sell poorly, fail and everything will be hunky dory. A recent study performed by mobile marketing firm, Swrve, however, showed that almost 98.5% of the people who download IAP-heavy games on mobile don’t buy microtransactions at all. Yet somehow, the other 1.5% is holding up a multi-billion dollar industry. If this same dynamic were to take hold in core gaming markets, what the average gamer wanted would become relatively unimportant to the companies that finance video games."
This is the horrible truth about the F2P/P2W model and how it can succeed even in an environment where everyone hates it. People forget that most companies care about their customers money and not the customers themselves. As long as the profit is there to be made it doesn't matter how many people get pissed off, it will happen anyway.

[Spotie]

This is why "vote with your wallet" isn't necessarily enough.

It takes spreading the message, and not letting anyone forget even after the threat is gone.

[djplonker]

Microtransactions are fine for f2p games but keep it out of AAA titles for god sake....

*cough* ROCKSTAR *cough*

[HardcoreDroid]

Thank you so much for the thoughtful and largely positive responses. Please do sign if you care and have forgotten (that is what this is all about) and there's button there to FB and tweet it. If you can, every bit helps.