So i have a question that i’ve been prodding around and wanted to take your view as it deals with the business side of gaming. For a few years now… and with MASSIVE growth in the past year… game developers have been moving towards micro transactions within games. In fundamental terms, the “free-to-play” games live and breathe off this model…. you get the game free, but pay for in game content as you go…. for better or worse, this business model has had success (farmville, facebook games, mafia wars, even WoW)…. but now many developers are taking FULLY functioning games, and instead of having DLC, they are allowing cheats or “unlocks” via actual transactions.
for example… in EA games, (Need for Speed Shift 2)… whenever you buy a car, you can either buy it with in-game credits from accomplishments like advancing through the levels… or just outright pay cash through the Online Storefront. Football games, fighting games, shooters… across the board i see this type of trend happening. with these types of micro transactions, which online games have been going through, i noticed it allows players to sidestep actually putting in long hours into games, and just get what they want, put the game down, and go on to the next game… spend more money….
my concern, where the question comes… if this model is profitable… as industry trends seem to suggest… what’s the incentive to provide “good game design” that’s challenging but not impossible? I fear game design will lean more towards companies getting into the habit of “hey, make it impossible, so people will just buy the micro transactions!”