YES

by mnemesis, Friday, March 01, 2013, 12:00 (4067 days ago) @ Cody Miller

You're assuming that every thing that can be included in the game has an absolute value with regards to making the game "better," but there is no such absolute value for all players. The 'exclusive content' might be NASCAR-style stickers to apply to your armor. You might think that is "crap content,' but there are very likely a whole lot of people who would think the opposite. So, microtransactions might be enabled to allow for individual players to augment the game in ways that make it more fun for them. Artistic integrity is preserved, in that the developer has provided all of the possible great things they can think of for their game, but provided some of those things in such a way that only the people who want them need to acquire them.

Even if the extra content is something more significant, like another weapon, the argument's the same. The core game has all the functionality that the developer feels is necessary, appropriate, and fun. They provide extra weapons, abilities, etc. for the kinds of folks who like having more options and better ability to maximize their skills. I know you think that everybody should want to maximize their skills and abilities, but that's just not the case.

I completely disagree that the mere act of allowing microtransactions (or exclusive content) is going to negatively affect the design of the game. They're making a game that (they hope) millions of people will want to play for ten+ years. I would think that, out of necessity, they would want to create as many paths as possible for players to take to have fun doing it.