Why Micro-Transactions Are Ruining Our Videogames

There is an alarming trend happening in the gaming industry today that has to deal with micro-transactions. If you are not aware of what this means it is the buying of special levels or abilities in a game through in app purchases. There is a myriad of things wrong with this as gamers everywhere are beginning to become frustrated with these purchases. Companies who are making the games are showing no signs of stopping as this is a huge financial advantage for them. In the past, once a video game was purchased then the company stopped making money from the customer but now the money can keep pouring in at an unlimited level.

Earning Things Seem To Have Disappeared

There are different types of micro-transactions available in many games. The first type is buying things for the game that are virtually useless for game play and in essence are just a greedy attempt by the videogame companies to make money off the player after the game is bought. In the past like in classic Nintendo 64 games like Goldeneye there were advantages that could be earned by beating a level in a certain amount of time. Now these advantages can be bought virtually making being proficient at a game worthless. It makes the true gamers feel like they are being nickel and dimed much like at a casino that actually makes you pay for drinks as you are gambling copious amounts of money. The other type of micro-transaction is buying things that could have been earned with some proficient game play. This makes online gaming against others confusing as certain upgrades should be given for better players. Giving the ability to pay to upgrade gives inferior players and the games skewed advantage taking a lot of the fairness out of games, making players feel cheated.

Unfortunately They Aren’t Going Anywhere

No matter what type of uprising gamers make over micro-transactions they aren’t going anywhere soon. The companies who are making the games are profiting after selling the game which was unheard of in the gaming industry just a few years ago. The only thing that could be done is some sort of boycott of games that are giving advantages to inferior players for just a few dollars. The odds of that happening are low as many people’s lives tend to revolve around certain games especially if they are played online. What could be asked of the company is just having them give the useless upgrades that don’t give any advantage. This would not only make playing the game online against others more fair but also get rid of the bad taste in the mouth of the veteran gamers. Having this happen is very unlikely as there are many people who enjoy the micro-transactions as they are inferior players. The essence of gaming is dwindling with these upgrades and many people can see it but not much can be done to prevent or resolve it.

Video games need to go back to their former glory in many respects. The days of going all the way back to the beginning of the game after losing all of your lives needs to come back with vengeance. It could be said that these micro-transactions are microcosm of what is wrong with the youth today. It seems like everything can be bought and advantages are just given away for the right price. Stopping micro-transactions could save videogames as we know it but getting the companies to stop is the much larger fight.