Hold up. Apex isnt predatory? Lol (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Monday, April 27, 2020, 10:27 (1458 days ago) @ someotherguy

I do think it is. But it does have a few key differences. The game is actually completely free to play. You only pay money for new characters, and you can actually get those decently easy for free. That gets more difficult the more you play, as the rewards for leveling up drop off at a certain point. Get to a high enough level, and earning a new character is probably not super realistic. If you play that much though, spending $12 on a new character probably isn’t a huge ask. Other than that, money only gets you cosmetics. I’m not typically a fan of that argument, as I don’t think there’s a clear line between cosmetics and gameplay—I firmly believe that if you can dress up your characters and gear then that is inherently gameplay. Unlike Destiny, though, there are no gameplay implications tied to your gear at all. No perks, no stats. It is just a skin. All events are entirely free, you don’t have to buy the season pass to participate in anything, it’s only to buy into the seasonal reward track. I still think that’s silly—paying for the privilege to grind out cosmetics isn’t great.

The game still heavily relies on fear of missing out and limited availability, and I think that is predatory and problematic. It’s not something I can explain away, but it does not bother me as much as how Destiny works. I can easily spend no money on Apex and still enjoy the entire game. That’s not true in Destiny, and it really feels to me like Bungie is trying to play both sides of saying the game is free to play, but you also still have to pay for these totally amazing (give me a break) seasonal activities. If you don’t pay, you get a skeleton of a game and can’t actually play current content with your friends, but if you do pay you get a bunch of half-baked activities that just push you to spend more money in the Eververse.