Delusibeta
Banned
So, Forza 5's reviews are out, and the Europeans are (generally speaking) not impressed. Take, for example, Eurogamer's review.
Yes, it appears that Forza 5 has fallen into the classical microtransactions trap, by increasing the grind alongside making it possible to buy using real case large amounts of in-game credits. Similar complaints were made about GTA Online, which conveniently enough also had a fake-cash-for-real-cash scheme. GT6 will also have a fake-cash-for-real-cash shop, so the jury's out on whether they will follow Forza into increasing grind to encourage people buying credits (not that GT wasn't grindy enough :v )
This is not exactly a new concept, however: EA's been doing this for donkey's years now with the Ultimate Team being the poster buy of microtransactions in full priced games. For the uninitiated, it's a fairly simple concept: buy "packs" of players in a similar manner to trading cards, make a team out of your players and then play online against other players' teams. Packs are tiered, with the best players more common in the most expensive packs. Oh, and you can buy packs for cash. You can probably see the problem here.
EA has also been rolling out microtransactions to their other games, from pay for resources in SSX and Dead Space 3 (although thankfully neither was particularly necessary in my experience) to buying packs of items for Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, to outright unlocking everything in Battlefield 3. Other companies have gotten in on the act too, with Assassin's Creed 3's multiplayer and Arkham Origins' multiplayer also featuring pay-to-skip-grind options.
This appears to have become the replacement to the online pass: leaving the option to pay to skip grind, and in some cases (cough Forza 5 cough) increasing said grind noticeably. This is bad for consumers for obvious reasons, including endangering multiplayer balance (not that there was much to begin with for most multiplayer progression systems :v ) to making games worse as a direct result (aforementioned Forza 5 example). There's also the possibility of the "whales" phenomenon experienced by some of the more popular free to play titles crossing over to paid games, and I wouldn't be too surprised if it turns out someone has already gone broke due to FIFA's Ultimate Team.
tl;dr edition: microtransactions in full priced titles are shit, developers and publishers should stop adding them to games and we consumers should stop buying the bloody things.
Yes, it appears that Forza 5 has fallen into the classical microtransactions trap, by increasing the grind alongside making it possible to buy using real case large amounts of in-game credits. Similar complaints were made about GTA Online, which conveniently enough also had a fake-cash-for-real-cash scheme. GT6 will also have a fake-cash-for-real-cash shop, so the jury's out on whether they will follow Forza into increasing grind to encourage people buying credits (not that GT wasn't grindy enough :v )
This is not exactly a new concept, however: EA's been doing this for donkey's years now with the Ultimate Team being the poster buy of microtransactions in full priced games. For the uninitiated, it's a fairly simple concept: buy "packs" of players in a similar manner to trading cards, make a team out of your players and then play online against other players' teams. Packs are tiered, with the best players more common in the most expensive packs. Oh, and you can buy packs for cash. You can probably see the problem here.
EA has also been rolling out microtransactions to their other games, from pay for resources in SSX and Dead Space 3 (although thankfully neither was particularly necessary in my experience) to buying packs of items for Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, to outright unlocking everything in Battlefield 3. Other companies have gotten in on the act too, with Assassin's Creed 3's multiplayer and Arkham Origins' multiplayer also featuring pay-to-skip-grind options.
This appears to have become the replacement to the online pass: leaving the option to pay to skip grind, and in some cases (cough Forza 5 cough) increasing said grind noticeably. This is bad for consumers for obvious reasons, including endangering multiplayer balance (not that there was much to begin with for most multiplayer progression systems :v ) to making games worse as a direct result (aforementioned Forza 5 example). There's also the possibility of the "whales" phenomenon experienced by some of the more popular free to play titles crossing over to paid games, and I wouldn't be too surprised if it turns out someone has already gone broke due to FIFA's Ultimate Team.
tl;dr edition: microtransactions in full priced titles are shit, developers and publishers should stop adding them to games and we consumers should stop buying the bloody things.
