[PPOTW] Do you like micro transactions?

[Steena]

I think the vote is worded wrongly.

"do you like microtransactions?" should have 100% No, at any given situation or game (even dota2 which is entirely aesthetic, and only possible because valve makes money exposure of the platform, more than the game itself).
One should never LIKE microtransactions. If you say you LIKE them, do you also think "gee, I hope this will have microtransactions!" on an upcoming game? Is that a feature for you, something you're looking forward to? I find it hard to believe, but I suppose anything is possible.

I think you should have worded your question like: "can you put up with microtransactions?".

 

[Ericthegreat]

I bought all of the oblivion dlc >.>; most of it was shit.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

I followed every step since the Forza Motorsport 5 annoucement. Well the game now features less cars, less tracks and less game modes than FM4 (a X360 game btw). This is no big deal, since the game still have about 32 variations of 14 tracks and more than 200 cars, but the gamers started to got angry at first DLC, called "La Ferrari pack" wich features 1 exclusive car (La Ferrari) and 9 cars that were free on FM4. People got angry for paying for 9 cars that were already on disc, and were already avaliable on the past.

The angry keep growing when people started to realize that on the game you earnin game credits at a very slow rate, and the better cars had expansive values. And more than that, you could pay for "double earnings" (typical of F2P game).

Besides that, there was an "expansion pack" that includes "cars, tracks and more". This pack was removed before anyone buy it, but the content was spoted inside the game disc, so it was avaliable since day 1 too.

Now to summarize: playeres were angry with lack of content, then became more angry with low earning rates, than became even more angry with disc locked content + pay to win mechanics.

The result was that: http://news.xbox.com/2013/12/games-forza-5-economy-update they shiffted their polices (again)

 

[MelodieOctavia]

I dislike microtransactions in general. That said, they can be done right. Take Path of Exile as an excellent example. There are no XP boosts, no tournament tickets, no gear to speak of, just purely cosmetic items and tabs for your stash box. That's all. Everything else is completely free. Yeah, a Free to Play game with absolutely no pay-to-win elements at all.

As for retail games, I don't so much mind them (Pay to win) if A.) The game is not multiplayer, and B.) The content in question can be obtained by normal means of game play within a reasonable amount of time. Otherwise, the game can burn in the hottest level of hell. There should not ever be a time when people can rise above the normal players of a game exponentially quicker just because they have money. It's a disingenuous practice, and anyone who is paying for this content is just making things worse.

 

[Sakitoshi]

of the games that I have played I had only bought proper DLC.
on Borderlands 2 I bought the season pass and got all the DLC, the new costumes and heads weren't included because those little things are what the cash more in the games.
even on GOTY editions of games they don't include costumes because are irrelevant for the game itself and that way they can continue to cash in with it.
proper DLC isn't a problem if the game fells complete and the DLC is an extra, the problem is when you need DLC to follow the plot.
as for costumes, you can ignore it and be happy with what is included in the game.
that being said I "bought" some costumes and heads for Borderlands 2, but wasn't really my money, since I used little profits from selling Steam trading cards.

 

[FAST6191]

I think the vote is worded wrongly.

"do you like microtransactions?" should have 100% No, at any given situation or game (even dota2 which is entirely aesthetic, and only possible because valve makes money exposure of the platform, more than the game itself).
One should never LIKE microtransactions. If you say you LIKE them, do you also think "gee, I hope this will have microtransactions!" on an upcoming game? Is that a feature for you, something you're looking forward to? I find it hard to believe, but I suppose anything is possible.

I think you should have worded your question like: "can you put up with microtransactions?".

I dare say you have framed it oddly yourself. By and large I like what paid games have to offer and if micro transactions can help make more paid games then....

Am I inclined to headbutt quite a few of the people that were responsible for many of the current implementations of micro transactions? Absolutely.
Is the idea of micro transactions inherently flawed? Not at all. Indeed other than most payment providers disliking the transfer of small sums.

 

[tbgtbg]

I want microtransactions in my games about as much as I'd like a micropenis in my pants. Not at all.

A game should be complete when you plonk down your sixty bucks. Yes, expansion packs that come along later (and are genuine expansions, not just stuff they deliberately held back to release later) are fine (though they really should sell them at retail not just as downloads, but that's another discussion) but nickel and diming gamers with this sort of shit is just ridiculous.

 

[Steena]

Is the idea of micro transactions inherently flawed? Not at all. Indeed other than most payment providers disliking the transfer of small sums.

Depending on what you mean by "inherently flawed" (inherently being the key word here), I may personally consider every microtransaction, by nature, to be flawed. Microtransactions bank on the fact that a small amount of money equals no money at all for some people, and so they mass-purchase small quantities of products and end up paying more than what they actually realize. Abusing this fact, pretty much the entirety of microtransactions are, as a result, extremely overpriced.

Just compare the price of a full game, the result of 1 to 5 years of full-time work for a full team of developers, being priced at 40-60 euro/dollars.

Now get to re-use already existing assets or merely re-texture/re-name them, which is an abysmally smaller amount of work, being sold for 1 to 10 euro/dollars. The effort to value ratio is completely fucked up, and this is because microtransactions are designed to fuck it up in order to make more money, more easily.

If we consider the price of a generic game as an universal value, I'd put the actual value of most microtransactions to less than a cent individually, but they get rounded up to 1000% that amount because "who doesn't have one dollar? that's like nothing!".
There is a reason everyone is doing microtransations. You get away with using old assets and sell them one by one, fooling people who lack understanding in difference between creating something from the grounds-up and rehashing existing assets.

I have yet to see a microtransaction system/DLC priced in a way that would feel truly fair, compared to its respective game. And that would actually be stupid for a publisher to do, that's why they don't do it, they can just round everything up and sell it anyway.

 

[Youkai]

sometimes I think it is a good thing especially when this helps to support f2p games and maybe if it is resonable help developer of good b2p games make a new part of a game as well.

But sadly 90%+ want a completely unresonable high ammount of money for everything -.-
besteht current example i know except many Handy games would be that marvel puzzle quest game on steam where they want more than 1$ for 1 random Charakter you might not even want so 1$ for a lucky draw (if you use the expensive one it is even more expensive)

 

[nryn99]

I think the vote is worded wrongly.

"do you like microtransactions?" should have 100% No, at any given situation or game (even dota2 which is entirely aesthetic, and only possible because valve makes money exposure of the platform, more than the game itself).
One should never LIKE microtransactions. If you say you LIKE them, do you also think "gee, I hope this will have microtransactions!" on an upcoming game? Is that a feature for you, something you're looking forward to? I find it hard to believe, but I suppose anything is possible.

I think you should have worded your question like: "can you put up with microtransactions?".

I would actually LIKE, microtransactions, depending on what they are. Even in mmorpg, microtransactions can be handled well.

I don't really like the paying to get it sooner. Because most people would rather buy it in the shop and people would complain it's almost Pay to Win.
I would prefer having some items ONLY available through microtransactions and some ONLY available on drops.
This would support both the people that dishes out too much money and the ones who plays the game. Both sides can trade for what the other can only get.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

absa-fucking-loutely not.

I Freedom the fuck out of mobile F2P games.

 

[guicrith]

I despise them but they should go down eventually and stabilize like when theirs too many bugs(the money of people that buy micro-transactions) then the bird(f2p game devs) population increases they eat all the bugs and theirs no bugs left and the birds starve(lose money) then the bird population goes down below what it was before the cycle then it repeats again(with a new trend online gaming,f2p,8bit games,war games and any future trend that makes them money NOTE:f2p is the only bad trend on the list)

 

[DJ91990]

I think if a retail game is going to have micro-transactions it should be cheeper and the micro-transactions should not be balance breaking. An example would be like the Black Lion Trading Company on Guildwars 2. Make the game $40 instead of $60 and have "neat" things like "Body Color Kits" "Aditional Music Tracks" and "Tournament Entry Tickets".

I don't mind micro-transactions when they don't become a pay-to-win or pay-not-play thing.

I dislike microtransactions in general. That said, they can be done right. Take Path of Exile as an excellent example. There are no XP boosts, no tournament tickets, no gear to speak of, just purely cosmetic items and tabs for your stash box. That's all. Everything else is completely free. Yeah, a Free to Play game with absolutely no pay-to-win elements at all.


As for retail games, I don't so much mind them (Pay to win) if A.) The game is not multiplayer, and B.) The content in question can be obtained by normal means of game play within a reasonable amount of time. Otherwise, the game can burn in the hottest level of hell. There should not ever be a time when people can rise above the normal players of a game exponentially quicker just because they have money. It's a disingenuous practice, and anyone who is paying for this content is just making things worse.

That game better stay the HELL away from HELL-CON, or I'll launch it to the coldest reaches of space!

 

[Pedeadstrian]

World of Warcraft is like that as well, but with a full-priced expansion pack every year or so on top of it

First of all, no it's not, the new in-game store sells pets, mounts, and cosmetic helms, which have zero gameplay effects (unless you just started the game and don't have any mounts to your name, but that's a silly argument). They do have services like character transfers and faction changes that cost a pretty penny, but I hardly consider them microtransactions. I just consider them expensive services.

Anywhoo, like 90% of the people here have said, I dislike microtransactions, but whether or not I can, to quote ShadowSoldier, "put up with them" depends entirely on the definition of microtransaction and what the microtransaction is. I'm basically going to be mirroring one of FAST's and pretty much everyone else's posts.

Purely-cosmetic: totally fine. Whether they're armor pieces that go in a separate slot of normal equipment, skins, pets (with no abilities), etc., they're A-OK in my book.

Items available to players through normal gameplay in a reasonable amount of time: I don't like it, but I can live with it. Also depends on the ratio between the item's worth, its cost, and the amount of time/sheer luck it would take to get it.

Everything else: gtfo of my game. I don't want to wait 48 hours for a building to finish being constructed when Dumbass McInheritance gets it immediately. I don't want to be vastly outpowered compared to people who spend real money. And, I might as well throw this out there, I don't want to be charged for something that was already completed but pulled for the game for later microtransactions, ie on-disc DLC.

People swear by the Guild Wars 2 microtransaction system, but even that isn't purely cosmetic. I have yet to try this Path of Exile, but I may soon seeing as how I desire an online game where my poor ass is just as powerful as the next guy.

 

[Gamer4life]

might get hate might not and i havent read through this whole post but imho the one person who does like pay for stuff correctly is tf2 you get i think like 99.99% of any item you pay for for free just by playing the game

 

[SuzieJoeBob]

Angry Birds Go is f***ing insane with micro-transactions, also known as in-app/in-game purchases. $50+ for a Kart? I could buy an entire Mario Kart game for that, and I would be getting more than 1 go-kart.

 

[calmwaters]

Angry Birds Go is f***ing insane with micro-transactions, also known as in-app/in-game purchases. $50+ for a Kart? I could buy an entire Mario Kart game for that, and I would be getting more than 1 go-kart.

How about this? 20$ a hero, and there are 8 heroes. I can get those and more in SSBB and only pay 50$. And don't forget the character enhancements which are 5$ apiece. Sure, it doesn't sound like much; but it becomes a lot when you already have 40 heroes.

 

[enarky]

Microtransactions and DLC is the cancer that kills gaming. I want a complete game when I pay full price, please.

 

[FAST6191]

[snip] DLC is the cancer that kills gaming[snip]

Said cancer has surely existed for decades at this point then considering it used to be called an expansion pack.

 

[enarky]

Said cancer has surely existed for decades at this point then considering it used to be called an expansion pack.

Back then I physically owned the medium said expansion pack was delivered on. I could do whatever I wanted with it and if I didn't like it or didn't have any use for it I could resell it. Now I'm completely dependent on a publisher offering said expansion pack in the future and it's tied to my account on a specific network. I'd say that's quite a step back, don't you?