@fractal-pitch
Did you even read what I wrote?? The first point I made was in defense of microtransactions and in defense of microtransactions. The whole first half of my post was to help players realize why microtransactions were around and why they are needed to help games like SoT continue to release content.
I know the posts of microtransactions is come left and right but I was talking in defense in Rare and then spanking them for going down a bad path for microtransactions. There are other ways and better ways to do it. They have a cash cow with this game for microtransactions. There is just a proper way to do things.
@Glannigan
EA brought Microtransactions front and center.....Actually I think the very first microtransactions that let gaming companies know of their potential was actually originally blizzard with WoW.
I remember there was a time when jokingly Blizzard put a mount up for sale with a price tag of $25 and millions of players bought it.
However what EA has done was predatory. Example
Mass Effect 3 - First day DLC. The content was already IN the game. The content was already coded, created, and installed in the game, but it was behind a pay wall. You pay full price for the game only to have to pay MORE to get the complete story. This wasn't an expansion after the game was out for a few months, this was DAY 1.
Its like if you had to pay full price for the last Harry Potter book for them to tell you, ONLY after you bought the book, that you can buy the complete version for only $20 more. They had the complete version the whole time behind the counter but you aren't allowed to buy it until you buy the first incomplete one.
EA's practices were predatory in that they intentionally marketed against human nature. The part of human nature that they marketed against is an actual thing. I keep forgetting what the actual term is but the study was done and it was coined. Same thing with loot boxes and trying to market an addictive gambling response in players.
Eventually their actual games became garbage as they kept pushing for multiplayer in everything so that they could add microtransactions. They made money on it and kept pushing it and then finally got punished for it.
Want to know how bad EA is??
"They're not loot boxes, they're surprise mechanics."