Up to the line, not over it (yet) (Destiny)

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 22:47 (3254 days ago) @ Kermit

Well said. There's a bit of "profit motive = pure evil" to these discussions. As if a profit motive taints all over motives, as if the business of making games weren't a business, and as if we can't decide at any point that the benefit to us, the gamers, is not worth the money we spend. Bungie has a motivation to keep us from making that decision.

Not necessarily. They have a motivation to hit a point on a revenue curve. If the amount of revenue they make from the portion of players that approves of microtransactions (or, at least, is unable to resist from indulging in them) is more than the amount they lose from those who stop purchasing the titles because of a perceived overemphasis on microtransactions, then they have an incentive to keep moving in this direction.

It is bad enough that the amount of development time needed to create cosmetic items for cash purchase is already so much lower than that needed to create real content, that there is an incentive for creating cosmetic items and against creating actual content.

Because of the token light levels and the new infusion mechanic, I don't think this is a toe over the line, but it is right up to the line with no more wiggle room left. I'm just a bit surprised that either Bungie feels so driven that their imaginations need to be put to work into financial "innovations" such as this, or that they are so desperate for cash that this is absolutely necessary to keep the lights on. I'm not sure which is worse.