This is 100% a fantastic thing. (Destiny)

by slycrel , Tuesday, October 06, 2015, 01:37 (3432 days ago) @ Ragashingo

This isn't a huge problem right now because everyone is a paying customer. This distinction will only get worse, and fast, if the system goes free to play.

Are they? How many maps that started out paid attached to The Dark Below and House of Wolves and the Sony Play Station are now free for everyone? Something like 9 right? People who didn't buy The Dark Below and House of Wolves got new public events and new armor and weapon models and bug fixes and public events. And they didn't get to play new missions or raids. They didn't get access Raid specific items like guns, shaders, ships.

The game has been split for a while now, really. The best we can hope for is the additional income from the cosmetic items really does let Bungie deliver neat bits of new content while they also work on large, impressive paid updates like The Taken King. If I can get quality new content inbetween the paid releases without personally having to spend a dime I'll certainly take it!

Yep, you're absolutely right that things are splintered right now. When TTK came out I remember a few different people coming onto the boards complaining that suddenly they couldn't do a bunch of things they could do before. They all got shouted down and told "hey, but the expansion, it's worth the money and you'll be happy!" i.e. just pony up and it will all be good. Pay and your problems will be over.

I mean, it's already a thing with the DLC as a larger lump-sum transaction. This can turn into the same thing. It isn't now. But it could.

From a business sense this kind of audience is a goldmine. We've got red bull doing promo codes. I'm sure there will be others. This is why facebook, twitter, instagram, etc valued for billions of dollars. Because they have a huge audience. So yeah, I get that someone in the food chain there at Bungie wants to use it to make money.

But let's be realistic about it. That's what this is. It's about making money. A tangential goal is to make the game better with micro-transactions by using that money (I'm sure after a bunch of people get their cut) to keep the live team going well. I hope they can make it a win-win for everyone -- fun for us and they make money. I have my hopes and concerns. We'll see what happens.