Unicorns (Gaming)

by Schooly D, TSD Gaming Condo, TX, Friday, May 26, 2023, 08:55 (335 days ago) @ Cody Miller

If anything, the learning of the rules and development of your play style and tactics has more self expression in it than picking combinations of cosmetics that are in the game. Just like real life, fashion as self expression has been co-opted by capitalism resulting in expression as consumption rather than creativity.

Allowing people to express themselves through play style and tactics doesn't make them nearly as much money as cosmetic items. Not least of all because 90% of people simply don't have the intellectual wattage to think critically about how they play a game.

You're touching on an important point though which is that, in real life and in-game, self expression in itself isn't the point. The point is to communicate status. People don't buy Gucci because Gucci is the one brand that perfectly captures the wearer's innate aesthetic ideal, they buy Gucci because it's high status. I think you'll see something similar in Neo-Marathon which is that, while you will have a huge arsenal of customization options that form the bedrock of the experience and allow you to craft your avatar exactly as you want, what is going to drive people are the set of sale-able items like quirky visors and cat ears that immediately signal "this person bought/earned something" rather than "this person has style."