Ey. (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Monday, January 27, 2020, 19:13 (1765 days ago) @ Claude Errera

What you can't do is tell those of us that are actually okay with the overall development arc that you know what's good for us better than we do. (That is what the quoted sentence above is trying to do.) I disagree with your premise that there is NO way that you can make a good game while offering the same content for free or by in-game play - I LIKE the fact that I have a choice, and I USE that choice occasionally for differing outcomes, depending on my at-the-time-current circumstance.

Take any given game with microtransactions that can be either bought or earned by playing. We make one change:

Every microtransaction now costs $0.00.

Let's leave aside that in such a circumstance frictions would no longer need to exist. Let's just pretend they are still there. In such a scenario, how is everyone not better off, or at least the same?

Those who want to skip playing the game can still 'buy' the item. But it doesn't cost them money. They are better off.
Those who want to 'earn' the items are still free to do so. They are no better or no worse off.
The earners who do it for fun can still do that with no impact to them.
The earners who do it for prestige are still dealing with people who just buy the item. They are in the same situation.

There is literally no downside to this artistically. It is better. Or am I missing something?