Pay To Play

Age of the Geek Column: Halloween is coming, but there's something even more terrifying lurking in the shadows for gamers.
Modern DLC and microtransaction practices.
I've touched on DLC (downloadable content) many times before, but here's a quick recap to get you caught up. Since the dawn of the 21st Century, it's become an increasingly common practice to extend the life of video games by selling additional content after the game has launched. Developers can continue to create new modes, missions, or other interesting additions after the game has been released and simply patch them in thanks to the magic of the internet.
When done in good faith, it's a business model that is beneficial to both developers and gamers alike. Developers get an additional revenue source and gamers get additional content.
However, it's a business model that is prone to abuse when not done in good faith. With the ability to continue to update games long after they've been released, the very concept of a "finished product" has become impossible to define and, rather than developing additional content, many a developer has been caught slicing out content from the finished product, only to sell it separately. One of the most egregious offenses of this practice came when Capcom released "Resident Evil 5" and then charged an extra $5 to unlock the game's versus mode, which was already present on the disk.
Relatively few developers these days are so brazen as to sell gamers content that's already on their $60 disks, but their solution to the bad PR was to simply stop putting the content on the disk. Instead, Day One DLC has become an increasingly common practice, asking gamers to drop additional dollars for "extra" content to add to their brand new game as soon as it comes out.
Sometimes there is a good reason for Day One DLC. There can be months between a game being finished and its physical release, which leaves developers with plenty of time to create new content. At the same time though, it's hard to believe that game developers haven't adjusted their definition of "finished product" in response to the ability to sell "additional" content post-launch.
This week, Bandai Namco announced that their highly anticipated 2D fighter, "Dragonball FighterZ," will offer eight "new" characters for sale post-launch. An odd announcement to make considering that not only is the game not out yet, but the base roster hasn't even been completely revealed.
Last week, "Dragonball FighterZ" was a $60 game that would be finished and released this January. This week, "Dragonball FighterZ" is a $95 game that will be released in January and finished later this year.
But it gets worse.
Loot boxes, one of the more predatory practices spawned from the cesspool that is the mobile gaming market, have begun to make their way into the mainstream gaming industry. The concept is simple. Spend a few dollars for a chance at unlocking content of one kind or another. It's not legally considered gambling yet in the United States, but give it time.
Blizzard's "Overwatch," has used this system with relatively benign effects. After a $40 buy-in, you get everything you need to play the game, but cosmetic items are unlocked via randomly assorted loot boxes that can be earned in-game or by dropping a few dollars. Since the items are purely cosmetic, and can be earned without spending any real world money, this microtransaction system has been generally well received.
Warner Bros. Interactive's "Middle-Earth: Shadow of War," on the other hand, has started to push the bar to the next level. Breaking the cardinal rule of micro-transactions, the loot boxes available in the game contain gear and allies, which has a direct effect on gameplay. While you don't necessarily have to spend money on loot boxes to beat the game, it's been reported that the game's third act becomes something of a grindy slog, doubtlessly designed that way intentionally to encourage players to spend a few bucks to cut ahead.
Even worse, Electronic Arts' "Star Wars: Battlefront II" does the same thing, but it does it in a multiplayer environment. Lootboxes in this game contain game changing weapons and upgrades, giving players that can afford it the ability to literally buy an advantage over other players.
Keep in mind that loot boxes were designed to finance free-to-play mobile games and that both of the previously mentioned games sell at the standard $60 retail price.
It's not a coincidence that that these egregious practices are attached to beloved IPs either. A spoonful of Star Wars makes it easier to swallow the idea of buying power so that the next time around it seems a little more normal.
Unfortunately, it's a tactic that is all but guaranteed to work. I suspect large game publishers will push the line a lot further before the gaming community pushes back.
Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and this column is a complete product, but I'll talk to you about microtransactions at the grocery store for $1.