Don't tempt them! (Destiny)

by Speedracer513 , Dallas, Texas, Tuesday, June 23, 2015, 15:10 (3536 days ago) @ Cody Miller

...So it's not "selling cosmetics for money" that bothers you, it's just how they package them apparently.

In some sense. If not, I'd be barred from any new game at all essentially, since they all have preorder bonuses now.

So, what's so bad about it then? I, personally, would much rather have the option to individually buy - or ignore - cosmetic items that don't affect the game at all. I have a really hard time understanding why someone would think that is a wholly unacceptable way to offer things that some people care about but others obviously don't...?

I'm not sure I have a GREAT answer for you, but I think it boils down to having the artistic integrity to make sure everybody who buys your game has access to your best work as a developer. Your game is your art. Everything in it should be important. I'd hate to go to a film and not see that one super cool slow mo action explosion shot because the theater chain didn't enter into a deal with the studio, or I didn't buy a premium ticket. I'm sure George Miller would hate that too. Yet, that's essentially what developers are allowing nowadays.

Yeah, obviously it can be implemented very poorly. If the developer were to continue to charge a "full" price for a game that is missing basic (or even a "reasonable" amount of) cosmetics, and then wants to charge for each "add-on", that is a very poor way to do it and we should all vote with our money by saying that is unacceptable.

But when you have a quite vast world, with a vast selection of cosmetics already, I see nothing wrong with offering some unique things for a small fee.

And then we can get into the whole discussion of allowing the community to make (and sell for a small amount) their own class items and shaders. Valve has a long history of doing this the right way. Microtransactions for DOTA go towards funding community events and tournaments. There are even (a small amount of) TF2 community members than have been able to make a living off designing and selling hats! Yet, there has been zero amount of harm inflicted on the game of TF2 itself by having the hat market.

Microtransactions can be bad and often are - but that is more due to the implementation and not any inherent characteristic of their nature. I have faith that (a) if Bungie were to implement microtransactions, they would do so in a non-evil manner, and (b) their longstanding history of listening to their community would ensure that if the first implementation is less than optimal, it would continue to be improved until most of their community finds it acceptable.