So let's take a walk, shall we? (Gaming)

by Malagate , Sea of Tranquility, Friday, January 24, 2020, 08:57 (1764 days ago) @ cheapLEY

What part of your gameplay experience aside from aesthetics and social interactions is affected by Eververse? How well you play and how effective the game allows you to be aren't influenced by the extra money beyond retail that you spend on Destiny.

The entire seasonal XP reward track. It completely changes the way I have to engage with the game to level through it (or, of course, just buy my way through it in the final two weeks). The game is worse for its existence.

Wait, but that's a criticism of the season pass system, not microtransactions. And I don't really disagree with you, but unlock tracks are not microtransactions.

I also really hate the argument that cosmetics don’t affect gameplay. Cosmetics are a massive party of enjoyment in games for many people. Just because they don’t matter on a mechanical level doesn’t mean they’re unimportant to gameplay.

Well, show me how they do. Yes, I get enjoyment out of ornaments I've bought, and I use the odd specialty emote. But they don't change the heart of the game. They don't change what's possible. And new cosmetics and emotes that don't require microtransactions come out all the time. You feel the way you feel, and if the way MtX functions in Destiny is enough to get you to quit, that's your decision. All I've got to say about that particular fact is that it makes me a little sad.

It’s like saying that graphics don’t matter. My emotional attachment to my character is just as important to how good it feels to play the game as any of the abilities or weapons are, and the way that character looks is very much connected to that attachment. That may not be true for you, but you can’t just disregard how that affects how it feels to play the game for me (and large numbers of other players). Again, if it actually didn’t matter, selling cosmetics wouldn’t be a thing that’s happening in the first place.

No, I'm not disregarding the experience, I'm saying it doesn't change the gameplay. Different things, different motivations for quitting, if that's what you feel you have to do. We can sit down to play chess and you bring a finely-carved, marble set with gold inlay, and I can bring a painted plaster set of dinosaurs, but we're still playing chess, regardless of how ridiculous I look.

And by all means, we're going to feel differently about how that experience goes.