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My favorite Microtransaction systems are in Counter-Strike Global Offensive and Planetside 2. Planetside 2 has very slight pay to win mechanics in the form of
by f0e4c2f7 5y ago
My favorite Microtransaction systems are in Counter-Strike Global Offensive and Planetside 2.
Planetside 2 has very slight pay to win mechanics in the form of subscriptions for more xp, but it doesn't feel bad to play without pay.
Counter-strike on the other hand (and I think so other valve games too) have just about the perfect model in my mind. There are no advantages you get by paying, only status. The skins that you can buy and sell look cool but are purely cosmetic.
Even with this in mind people spend quite a lot of money (we're talking hundreds of dollars for one gun skin in some cases). It always seemed like a great way to generate revenue ethically.
One thing I will note with that model is they still have the gambling mechanics with the "crates" that open random skins. You could probably crank it up one more ethical notch by getting rid of those or trying to make them less addictive.
- kroltan 5y agoThat is indeed my current conclusion of the least-ethically-bad viable monetization. Purely cosmetic. However, paid status is not really a big hook for single-player games, you need to be able to show it off! This means that the game must be designed primarily around multiplayer interaction, which is fine but limits a lot the kinds of games you can implement with this monetization.