I’m not against the idea of MTX, I think there’s a place for them. For instance I don’t mind if a game sells deluxe edition upgrade as a MTX because that’s ultimately pro-consumer. Without that option you’re either going to have to bite the bullet and hope you enjoy the game or pay extra to get the same game twice if you do enjoy it enough. I know I used that option with BG3.
That said, selling in game resources as MTX is fucking stupid. It’s just fundamentally incompatible with good games. If the resources are abundant there’s no reason to sell them as MTX. If they’re scarce then they’re either deliberately scarce for the purpose of selling the MTX which is just scummy, or they’re scarce for some other reason (like if you don’t want to make fast traveling everywhere easily accessible) then selling that resource as MTX just undermines the purpose of the scarcity.
I spent a few minutes analyzing this sentence alone. Admittedly I read the rest of your argument and respect your opinion. It’s just that this is stuck in my head.
Buying the deluxe edition through a micro-transaction? My mind wants to classify this as an oxymoron. Admittedly a lot of microtransactions aren’t really micro by any stretch of the imagination but this just stands out.
Pretty sure he means a deluxe edition upgrade as a mtx.
Where some games allow you to get the base game, try it out and upgrade if you want. Rather than diving in at the deep end and not knowing if you’ll enjoy the game.
Oh 100% that’s what they meant. It’s just something that caught my attention as it almost appears to be an oxymoron.
In practice, “microtransaction” can mean many things. A small price, a purchase of non-unique content, or even a small quantity of unique (non-base) content. So yes, upgrading to the “deluxe” edition can fall under that description. But calling the “deluxe” content upgrade a “micro-transaction” almost appears contradictory. So I had a little chuckle while pondering this before becoming upset at how broad (and expensive) said “micro”transactions have become.
You’re right that it is weird. It’s because we use MTX and DLC almost synonymously and that’s because there’s a lot of overlap. They’re overloads terms and we need a better vocabulary to talk about the specifics. For instance I think if Dragons dogma didn’t sell resources and sold only the deluxe edition parts then there wouldn’t be that big of an outrage about MTX. The outrage is about the in game resources being sold, but it’s hard to present it that way when the only word we have for it is MTX, which also contains the part that is not the issue.
So you’d much rather pay $60 for helldivers 2 than $40? Because that’s the monetary difference between standard and deluxe.
Deluxe editions are generally for people who want extra fluff in their game. Not everyone wants the fluff and they shouldn’t pay for things they don’t want. Your idea “makes sense” only if you assume they’re going to give away deluxe stuff for free and the final price of the product doesn’t increase, which frankly is just naive thinking.
I’m not against the idea of MTX, I think there’s a place for them. For instance I don’t mind if a game sells deluxe edition upgrade as a MTX because that’s ultimately pro-consumer. Without that option you’re either going to have to bite the bullet and hope you enjoy the game or pay extra to get the same game twice if you do enjoy it enough. I know I used that option with BG3.
That said, selling in game resources as MTX is fucking stupid. It’s just fundamentally incompatible with good games. If the resources are abundant there’s no reason to sell them as MTX. If they’re scarce then they’re either deliberately scarce for the purpose of selling the MTX which is just scummy, or they’re scarce for some other reason (like if you don’t want to make fast traveling everywhere easily accessible) then selling that resource as MTX just undermines the purpose of the scarcity.
I spent a few minutes analyzing this sentence alone. Admittedly I read the rest of your argument and respect your opinion. It’s just that this is stuck in my head.
Buying the deluxe edition through a micro-transaction? My mind wants to classify this as an oxymoron. Admittedly a lot of microtransactions aren’t really micro by any stretch of the imagination but this just stands out.
Pretty sure he means a deluxe edition upgrade as a mtx.
Where some games allow you to get the base game, try it out and upgrade if you want. Rather than diving in at the deep end and not knowing if you’ll enjoy the game.
Oh 100% that’s what they meant. It’s just something that caught my attention as it almost appears to be an oxymoron.
In practice, “microtransaction” can mean many things. A small price, a purchase of non-unique content, or even a small quantity of unique (non-base) content. So yes, upgrading to the “deluxe” edition can fall under that description. But calling the “deluxe” content upgrade a “micro-transaction” almost appears contradictory. So I had a little chuckle while pondering this before becoming upset at how broad (and expensive) said “micro”transactions have become.
You’re right that it is weird. It’s because we use MTX and DLC almost synonymously and that’s because there’s a lot of overlap. They’re overloads terms and we need a better vocabulary to talk about the specifics. For instance I think if Dragons dogma didn’t sell resources and sold only the deluxe edition parts then there wouldn’t be that big of an outrage about MTX. The outrage is about the in game resources being sold, but it’s hard to present it that way when the only word we have for it is MTX, which also contains the part that is not the issue.
On Steam you can usually pay the difference to upgrade to a deluxe/ultimate edition
Deluxe editions of games are anti-consumer even if it is an upgrade. Just sell the whole fucking game to me or don’t sell anything at all.
So you’d much rather pay $60 for helldivers 2 than $40? Because that’s the monetary difference between standard and deluxe.
Deluxe editions are generally for people who want extra fluff in their game. Not everyone wants the fluff and they shouldn’t pay for things they don’t want. Your idea “makes sense” only if you assume they’re going to give away deluxe stuff for free and the final price of the product doesn’t increase, which frankly is just naive thinking.