For a long time now, many have justified in-game cash shops with the phrase “it’s just cosmetic.” It’s a sentiment that makes sense on the surface, but I think it becomes harder to justify as games become more and more bent towards pushing those cash shop items. At what point is it too much? For…
Tag: microtransactions
EU Commission Bans Misleading Virtual Currencies
I don’t know about you all, but I seriously believe that the advent of microtransactions was one of the worst things to ever happen to video games. The moment large developers and publishers found out that they could make more money selling digital junk in their games than selling the actual games themselves is the…
The Duck’s Top 5 Events of the Decade: From Sketchy Practices to Movies and Beyond
For the Duck’s own list of the top 5 most important gaming events of the last decade, I’ve got a mix of good and bad. On one hand, certain companies have gotten greedier than ever. In the middle, we have well-intentioned developers who attempted to deliver a good product, failed, then tried their best to…
I’m Now Absolutely Convinced That ‘Free To Play’ Will Always Be Awful!
There was a time when I thought that free to play could be okay. I mean, I thought that it would exist mostly as another option alongside traditional paid games. I also thought that free to play games would also still be designed to be games first. Well, we’ve been dealing with this model in…
[Revisited] Rushing to an Early Ruin
The following is a re-post of a piece from last year. Now that BioWare has finally admitted that the game needs a major overhaul and is going back to the drawing board, I felt it was important to remember that it was their attitude and approach that made this mess in the first place. I’ve…
I Hate Cash Shops
I’ve tried tolerating them. I’ve tried rationalizing them, and I’ve tried to ignore them. You know what though? I just plain hate cash shops in full-priced video games. I hate the effect the presence of those shops tend to have on the games that employ them, and I hate the lie that supposedly justifies their…
ESRB To Add ‘In-Game’ Purchases Labels to Games with Loot Boxes and Microtransactions
The ESRB announced yesterday that they are going to begin requiring an extra label placed on game boxes that feature any sort of in-game purchase system. Here’s the full statement:
Relying on Lootboxes is a Mistake
Are you really happy with the lootbox system? I’m not. At first I thought they were fun. I mean, who doesn’t like the feeling of opening what is essentially treasure chest? The thing is though, almost all of the fun in a lootbox is found in the opening. Once it’s done, it’s done, and hopefully…
Microtransactions – Are they good for games?
Microtransactions or micropayments, are a dirty little schemes cell phone games and video games have used to hook gamers into paying to play. These strategies have a bad reputation because they have a frustrating method to get players to buy additional content. But these schemes work, why? Gamers like additional content and are willing to…
VIRTUAL BASTION 