Why micro-transactions piss us off

Micro-transactions are the scourge of the gaming industry.

They are, in my eyes, what separate console games from uninspired, smart phone fodder like Candy Crush (sorry, Facebook family).

That is to say there's nothing wrong with smart phone games. Admittedly, this is a different topic for a future blog post.

However, the reason I don't recognize smart phone games as a viable, respectable medium within the  industry, largely lies in the fact that their content is generally locked behind a pay wall. And why shouldn't it be? If a game is free, sure, the developer has to make their money somehow. But paying real, green money for fake, game currency rubs me the wrong way and you simply won't convince me otherwise.

This is exactly the type of thing that feeds into the intended audience and believe me when I say, it shows a genius, absolute mastery of marketing and target audience analysis.

Take a moment and ask: who plays Candy Crush? Who plays Farmville or Angry Birds?

Likely not the same people that play Destiny or Fallout, but rather, people who look to pass time on the go and aren't in the gaming "know" enough to be aware of the 3DS or Vita.

A picture comes to your mind when you think of that target audience- likely a parent, playing Candy Crush after hopping on Facebook to check on how Aunt Gertrude in Michigan is doing. Or, a kid who doesn't own a console, playing the only game he/she has ever known on their iPhone.

To these folks, this is the picture of gaming. It's what they've known. They download a free app, and then unlock features as they see fit by paying their way through micro-transactions.

And for them, that's fine.

But please, for the love of all things games, leave them out of my console games.

We've seen micro-transactions in our console games before and the community has generally expressed backlash. It's not uncommon to see things like this cropping up in sports games and the public certainly let 2K know what they thought of the character and weapon skins available for purchase on release day of the four-player monster hunting fest, Evolve earlier this year.

I was troubled to hear that such transactions are actually working their way into a game that has dominated much of my time since its release last year- Destiny.

Emotes, I read, will begin to be sold by a merchant in the social space in Destiny. Check out this bit from Gamespot on it if you haven't seen the news: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-gets-microtransactions/1100-6431167/

What always gets me with these type of announcements is the immediate cowering, whimpering response we get from the developers when such transactions are introduced and backlash ensues: "It won't impact the core game," they cry. "It's simply aesthetic and totally optional."

Optional or part of the core game or not, what you fail to see is that you're missing the point.

The point is, you are knowingly hiding content and locking it behind a pay wall, which is unacceptable on consoles. I don't care if the content is an extra character skin, a bonus level or a special sound that plays when I start the game up- I want it as a part of my $64 investment in your product.

And, actually, in the case of Destiny, it's a bit more for players like myself who have been around since launch. For players like me, we paid $64 for vanilla Destiny in September 2014, $40 for the two year one expansions and recently, $40 for The Taken King.

If my math is correct, I've put nearly $145 dollars and more than 200 hours into Destiny- have I really not earned the option for my guardian to point at another player in social space in a different way?

Listen, the problem I have isn't that I have to spend money on a game. I'm willing to. Clearly, as evident by my DLC purchases in Destiny. But that's just it- I want to purchase DLC. And locking aesthetic items behind in game currency that is only purchasable through real currency, just leaves a bad taste in our mouths as devout gamers.

If a developer comes out with meaningful DLC, I'll pony up $10, $15 even $20 to get more out of my game, but what I refuse to do, is feed the greed that is micro-transactions and trust me, developers, we are smart enough to realize the difference.

A prime example is Rocket League,which took PSN by storm after becoming a free PS Plus game. The crew over there is releasing a free Halloween "expansion".

Shovel Knight, which charmed players like myself with its retro charm, released a free re-skinning of the main character to allow players to go through the game as Plague Knight.

Do we now see how that works? Take care of your players. They will come back and likely sing your praises in the process. No one wants to boot up a game that they spend hard earned money and their free time on to see options locked behind pay walls.

We paid our paywall when we bought your game and we will gladly do so if your package is meaningful and fleshed out.

I have a free emoticon I'd like to extend to companies that want to nickel and dime their player base to the game over screen, but I'll let you fill in the proverbial blanks.