Reply 2

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Wednesday, March 06, 2013, 15:15 (4283 days ago) @ Kermit

If I wanted an emblem, and didn't have the time or desire to play 90 hours, I'd buy it. Would you rather they monetize something less mundane?

yes
way, way less mundane, please

So you're saying you want to monetize things that could actually affect gameplay.

No, I didn't say that and I don't want that, I mean it could at least be something like a weapon skin, preferably more like a set of armor, and really I'd prefer for it to still be possible to earn it in-game.

We tend to balk at the cost of everything, and we expect to be able to buy used games,

um, what? why shouldn't we expect to be able to buy used games? we can buy used... everything else; it's a common enough and supported enough expectation that there have been multiple lawsuits based on not being able to

I expect that right. It's my property. But Cliffy has a point, which is this does affect game companies' ability to make a profit and fund future games.

I really doubt used game sales are making a bigger dent than people just downloading whatever games they want, and regardless I don't intend to let any company take away more of my rights with products than they already have.

My larger point is that there is a cost to everything, and something has to give somewhere.

That's pretty vague, what do you mean by "something has to give somewhere"?

Microsoft and Sony together lost $8 billion on hardware this generation. There is no free lunch, and there are no free games.

You of all people should know they generally don't make their money on hardware, they make it on games, and as I said, people are in fact getting them for free. I believe some parts of the industry are suffering for various reasons. I don't think EA, Activision, or Microsoft are in any of those parts. Sony might be, but mostly for other reasons.

I'm hopeful, though, that things will work out. Assuming Cody's right, and microtransactions ruin gaming for a time, some creative people will invent a different model.

I think a new model is extremely unlikely-- people have been figuring out different ways to charge for things for thousands of years. I think a different model is fairly unlikely, mostly just because of momentum. The most dramatic thing I can see happening in the near future is a paradigm shift in pricing.