Saturday Soapbox: The story of the microtransaction

[Administrator]

If gamers weren't defined by games, they would be defined by moaning. And the biggest moan of the last few years has been about microtransactions. I've heard people say that they're an innovation too far; that they're undermining AAA games; that they're destroying creativity; that they encourage addictive design; that the companies using them are greedy; worst of all, that they're allowing me to indulge in egregious semi-colon usage.
These are all wrong. Well, the semi-colon thing aside. Our goldfish memories are making the $50-70 outlay for an AAA game seem the norm - but it isn't. Microtransactions are how we've traditionally paid for certain games. And there's nothing inherently wrong with them. Look.
These are arcade machines. You might remember them. They're individually expensive but they make their money back just from microtransactions... otherwise known as quarters or ten pence pieces.
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