When something goes wrong, you speak out about it, right? Even if its a small thing, and doesn’t affect you personally, right? Well, video gamers have been speaking out about a certain thing for a while now, but only now has it boiled over. You see, microtransactions have been a thorn in players sides for some time, and with the controversies with Star Wars: Battlefront II, it finally came to a head. Players were outraged over what EA was doing, and so EA decided to shut off the microtransactions just hours before the game launched.
For those who don’t know, Battlefront had a progression system where you were to get cards and items that would allow you to become stronger. Some, you could get through natural progression. But…you could also pay to get it, and during the beta, it was so noticed that players not only called it a “pay-to-win” system but also, a “gambling” system.
Now sure, the “gambling” was a bit harsh, but you can see why. When you’re going to spend money on things that you don’t know what you’re going to get…isn’t that gambling? And with all the hate that’s been thrown at Battlefront with this microtransaction system, with the very rough progression system, and the hero costs, you can understand why EA backed off of it.
But…what does it all mean? What does this all prove? Well, I think it proves that gamers have limits. While certain games are actually fine with certain purchases, those don’t impede gameplay. This does, and players hate it. More and more, developers seem to find ways to put it in. Shadow of War had microtransactions when Shadow of Mordor didn’t. Players hate the loot boxes in Overwatch, and to pay to get more just drives them crazy.
Now yes, no one “forces” you to buy these things, but most times, these microtransactions make it so you HAVE to pay them just to be competitive, or to be something more than standard.
I don’t know if what EA did will set a trend, but hopefully, it’ll be a call to both developers and players that there is a line with these things, and it shouldn’t be crossed.
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You want to see a game that is all about microtransactions? You should check out War Robots. Talk about a pay to win game, this is the king of them all. They have Robots and gear that can only be acquired by paying huge amounts of real money directly or spending huge amounts of cash for a chance to win parts and pieces of the equipment you want. We are talking about $250.00 + for a level 1 Robot that eventually can be upgraded to level 12, after spending a huge amount of money again. The same thing goes for the weapons, huge amounts of money to acquire and then more to upgrade from level 1 to 12 and then some start over with name change and upgrade system from level 1 thru level 12 all over again. The “regular” players in the game have no hope of acquiring these advanced Robots and equipment because of the extreme cost, so consequently they become “target practice” for the few elite players who can afford to put out hundreds of dollars for the advanced equipment. The game developers (Pixonic) could care less about the constant complaints of the regular players because they are making a fortune from the game’s microtransactions. The game is so out of balance in favor of the “privileged” players that the game is becoming an “exercise in futility”. The game is constantly coming up with new ways of coercing players into paying more cash money just to be able to stay alive for a short time during the battles. The privileged players can even have 5 Robots in each battle compared to the regular players 3 or 4, as much as they can afford. There is nothing even close to fair play in the game when you end up having to fight against the special players. Why play the game at all then? It’s such a great game when you aren’t pitted against the privileged players, (about 1/3 of the time you will be fighting against other “regular” players) And it starts out fairly normal in the beginning, until you start to earn better and better equipment. I guess that is the main complaint that I have is that the rich A-holes don’t have to earn their equipment, they can just buy it with cash money. This is a full fledged “pay to win game” and Pixonic doesn’t even try to hide it. They are making a fortune from the lazy, rich dirt bags.