Forums → Games → Why Day-1-DLC and Micro-transactions are worse than you may think | Article
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Authors Note: I originally posted this in my blog, and for those of you who think this is about advertising my blog, nah it's not. I put up the full article here (so you don't have to check out the blog if you don't want to) because I wanted people to realize that some of the practices being done in earning money through games isn't okay anymore. Yes, I'll be putting a link below, but I just thought I wanted to share this with everyone who buys in game content.
Why Day-1-DLC and Micro-transactions is Bad For Everyone.
So I’ve waited a very long time for some announcements on Battlefront (if you don’t know why I’m excited for this, google it), and boy was I disappointed, but how could I be? Day 1 DLC, micro-transactions, future expansion packs, and missing out on some content, that’s EA’s style of earning money, and many other companies are going along with it like it’s okay, WELL IT’S NOT. Gone are the times that gaming came before businesses and making money. EA is the prime example why gaming is betraying us, and taking my, no, our money. It got me thinking, where were the days when developers earned money because of developing a game, and not developing a game to earn money. So what are the bad trends of gaming these days?
Why is Day-1-DLC a bad practice you ask? Because when a game is released with a DLC, it just basically means the developers ripped a percent of the game and put a price tag on it. You’re practically spending for an incomplete game without the DLC. These evil developers (however you want to call it) don’t care whether you get an emotional bond with characters anymore, they make you pay to get closer and more attached to the characters and stories you play though and Destiny is your prime example for that. Games are so incomplete these days that it’s so hard to find a mainstream game that was released without extra added on the side for a higher price. The funny thing is, this kind of behavior is starting to reach all kinds of developers. Flash games now have other content you have to pay for, which in my opinion, totally ruins the whole beauty of a free flash gaming. Which brings me to my next point…
It’s not a secret that many games today have special kinds of currencies that are almost impossible to earn in game, if possible at all. If not possible, the game relies on the players lust to level up, buy more items, or just be better than the player who can’t afford to buy premium ****. I get it, it’s business and keeping the lights on, we all get it. What’s terrible about it is that you see smaller and newer games starting to follow that trend (even though this whole micro-transaction business started with mobile apps). Who said it was okay to pay to gain power? The definition of gaming these days isn’t grinding for hours, it’s paying five bucks to save (or take away, depending from your point of view) an hour of your gaming experience. You can’t put a price on virtual currency that doesn’t require anything but a computer to create. It’s understandable if you developers want to earn, and it’s understandable that generating income from ads aren’t as big as they were before, but overpricing your payed content is absolutely horrible. Developers would make way more money if they made five dollar deals into one dollar deals. Why? believe it or not (don’t be an idiot), most of the worlds population just can’t afford to throw money at their games. This goes especially for thirteen year old teenagers who are into mobile and flash gaming (which a huge population actually are). Imagine ten of those teens, on a dollar deal, about seven of them would have the bravery to ask mommy about helping them out. But on a five dollar deal, there’s no way mom’s going to say yes. I’m not going to lie, I was once in that position, I’ve been gaming before micro-transactions were a thing. The best part about micro-transactions are that you once they are created, developers don’t need a supplier for them. There’s no cost in giving better deals to players because your source of premium currency is infinite. That’s why it’s bad practice to overprice these kinds of deals. Bad for devs, bad for players, and bad for gaming as a whole. You’re essentially allowing the rich to hack your games, and leaving the not so rich in the dust, EVEN IN THE GAMING WORLD.
Expansions packs are fine, because they add to what is already great. Day-1-DLC rip from already existing content and just degrade the whole value of a game. Micro-transactions are okay, but overpricing it to a retarded state is not, or just not giving the real good value to it is not. Earning money from creating games is okay, but abusing your fan bases’ wallets is not. These are just some of the bad practices a good amount of developers do today. If you’re a developer, and you’re reading this, please know I’m happy to support your game, write about it, heck even buy some more content if I love it, but don’t abuse my wallet okay?