If these microtransactions in modern games keep getting worse, I'm gonna say goodbye to modern gaming for good.

After seeing the Call of Duty mobile and NBA 2K20 microtransactions, I'm disgusted at what modern games have become. Trying to nickel and dime you for every little aspect of a game, and preying on little kids to buy in-game currency they're just gonna lose. Plus, they make the game unwinnable; I can't tell you how many times I've gotten blasted on Black Ops 4 and Fortnite from people with overpowered weapons that I can't even unlock cause I can't afford to buy a million supply drops. If this is all games are gonna strive to be anymore, I'm don't wanna be a part of it anymore.

I'll give them until Holiday 2021 to fix all of this crap. If the games that are announced around that time are still full of these kinda predatory practices, I'm gonna say goodbye to modern gaming; I won't keep up with new games, or even buy new consoles at all. EA, Activision, Blizzard, Epic, Bethesda, Ubisoft, 2K, Capcom, WB, all of you're games are being fucking ruined by this gambling, both financially and enjoyably.

In its place, I'll be restoring my old Wii and PS2 collections from my childhood, cause the games on these consoles didn't have this kinda shit. Starting off with the games I already had like SpongeBob, Mario Kart, Smash Bros., Madden, Sonic, Disney games, Lego games, Need for Speed, Jak & Daxter, Tom Clancy, Marvel/DC, and Kingdom Hearts. Later on, I'll branch out into ones I've always wanted to try out. Then maybe I'll add GameCube and PS1 since they're backward compatible, and perhaps even other old-school stuff like SNES, Genesis, N64, or Original Xbox. There are a plethora of consoles with thousands of games for me to choose from that are just as fun as they ever were. I don't need you, modern gaming, I have other ways to play.

I really hope modern gaming gets fixed. Please tell me there are major game studios out there who don't practice this kinda bullshit. I've had a PS4 for years now, and I'm fucking TIRED of all of the nickel and diming, predatory gambling, and not being able to enjoy games cause I can't win them. You've got until Holiday 2021 to fix this problem, majorly, otherwise, goodbye modern gaming. Makes me sad, I've been engaged in this hobby since I was 6 years old, and now 11 years later look at what it's become.

Play some indie titles and Nintendo games instead. I stay away from all games with micro transactions except for games like Rocket League where it’s all just cosmetic stuff. Most AAA titles are just not for me anymore. It is indeed sad the way the industry has gone.

Multiplayer games tend to have more of these kind of practices + in order to stay current you usually have to buy these type of games close to day one.

I don't see so much of it in singleplayer games but it's still there.

Anyway, I was just thinking about this myself... people can call me stingy for not wanting to waste valuable money on gaming but at the end of the day I don't even have to be a gamer at all. I could give it all up if I really wanted to.

Or I could do something similar to what you suggested and just replay the old greats!

I think blaming the whole gaming industry for scummy and forced micro-transactions is unfounded, it's select publishers that drive them in.

Write them off sure, but giving up on modern gaming entirely just seems juvenile.

How people still tolerate Electronic Arts and Activision is mind-blowing honestly.

Unfortunately it's just going to get worst unless some laws get passed but good luck with all of that the majority of politicians take bribes like candy.

@RSM-HQ: I tolerate both EA & Activision by NOT paying a single dime anything with Microtransaction/lootboxes at all. Same goes for WB games like Shadow of War.

Yeah...Micro-transactions are one of the main reasons I'm not interested in buying the PS5 / Xbox Scarlet. Sure Indie titles are usually better about not having micro-transactions, but my gaming rig (Big Dossie) ought to handle them for the next ten years, and besides there's more then enough games for me to enjoy on the hardware that I have now.

Blaming the whole industry is a little extreme. As long as they give me a full product worth the money or allow me to earn stuff on my own then I'm ok.

Respect your restraint and morals to these companies, though sad truth is majority profit off both companies are micro-transactions. As such they continue year-after-year to see how much they can get away with, without the customers best interests_

Recommending these games to friends/ family gives potential to them falling in the micro-transaction pit in your stead. Which will only continue to damage your base-game experience. And you know full well it has already gone too far, c'mon. .

Games like Call of Duty revolve around PvP and to many would argue the map packs are a defining selling point to the games, not to have them is like owning 30% a product, or even less so. And I won't go into the other examples because I'm fairly certain we've covered them a few times already.

Seeing the money people are willing to burn also pollutes other companies to follow the same business models; because it works till proven otherwise. And while Activision and Electronic Arts have got away with it for years it's not a way to keep customers coming back_

As for Shadow of War; I respect any move to address universal feedback and remove all micro-transactions from the game to help good-will. Resolving the situation/ mending loyalty to a customer-base for a healthier future.

Something that remains to be seen from Activision and Electronic Arts, all they do is repackage and try again.

You won't be missing anything by giving up mainstream AAA gaming.

Stick to the AA and indie market and the occasional non-offensive AAA game and you will still have more good games that you will ever be able to play.

Number one rule is you gotta stay strapped just don't give money to shit AAA games.

May I recommend:

• Factorio
• Cross Code
• RimWorld
• Slay The Spire
• Disco Elysium
• CDPR games
• From Software games (Souls)
• Larian games (Divinity)
• Monster Hunter World
• Cities Skylines
• Wasteland 2 (and soon 3)
• Hollow Knight
• The Surge 2
• A Hat In Time
• Dragon Quest XI
• The Metro Series
• Touhou Luna Nights
• Nioh
• 20XX
• Cuphead
• Katana ZERO
• Sky Force
• Shadowrun
• XCOM
• Axiom Verge

And that's just off the cuff. I stopped myself because The Outer Worlds is about to come out and I need to eat.

Really. The shit part of the market is actually a very small percentage. A very small percentages with the biggest marketing budgets. Just don't support them. There are soooo many good games coming out all the time. It is, however, important to support the studios and publishers that do it right.

@pyro1245: Fine list_

Though to tag onto your list; shout out to Vanillaware, I love the games they make, gave tons of free DLC to all versions of Dragon's Crown as well.

Only issue is they take almost a decade per game, even when they re-touched up games like Odin Sphere.

It's going to get worse

Hasn't really been a bother to me so far.

From the games you've mentioned playing previously I don't think it would be seen as an issue. Hmm, maybe Smash Bros. Even then I think the quality of new Fighters is worth the price of admission.

Call of Duty for example is a game that charges real money for a literal 'red dot' cosmetic item, and I'm not even kidding. . .

Never paid for a micro transaction and never will. I don't give a shit which skin my game character is wearing. To block game content off to a paywall , WTF, some deadshits must actually pay for this " privilege"

EA, Ubisoft, Activision/Blizzard, Bethesda, and Take 2 are all doing their best to ruin gaming. Just don't support them and most of the other stuff is still pretty good.

The big studios have found them to be a good revenue stream. So unfortunately I'm not sure they are going anywhere soon.

@hd_hammah_17: there’s tons of games that don’t have those issues, and you’re mentioning mostly free to play stuff that’s not really games and is broken And abusive by design.

I’ve got piles of current gen games that don’t do any of this stuff, thankfully.

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

My generation (or our parents) paid $50 for NES games back in 1986. Everyone do yourself a favor and put that into the link above.

I just stay away from games that have them, especially those that are outright known for them.

Call of Duty, NBA 2k, Fallout 76 are games I'll never play. I spend a lot of time with games that have no mention of microtransactions.

You mean getting better: unless they changed it completely in the past month or so, CoD Mobile has literally no pay-to-win mechanics. You can buy a battlepass that has pointless XP boosts and pointless cosmetic items, neither of which gives you any advantage during gameplay.

CoD Modern Warfare 2019 is the exact same: you can buy content packs that unlock cosmetic items, new guns (which give you no particular advantage over the base guns) and operator skins, and the guns you get for free simply by playing the game. Also they are giving everyone all the new maps for free.

How that qualifies as "getting worse", I have no idea.

I think if you take the industry as a whole it's not so bad.

Yeah there are a few bad apples, but at the same time we get some good examples of free-to-play and microtransactions. Just look at Apex Legends; arguably the best multiplayer action game in the past couple years, and it is completely free. You can earn just about everything by playing the game, and anyone that pays does not have an advantage. And it was brought to us by EA, of all people.

I like DLC as an option, but when it is part of the game (like if you don't purchase it, you're missing out) then it is a problem, then you have an unfinished game.

Thank god for independent studios, though, that's the last bastion of the finished, wholesome, quality game. I might get a few dozen hours out of a AAA game, but I get hundreds out of indies.

Agree 100%.

As for EA and Activision, it's because they hold the rights to a few franchises, namely Battlefield and Star Wars (EA) and Call of Duty (Activision).

If a group of four friends want to play together, and two of them get Call of Duty, the other two are going to get call of duty also, even if they're not interested. These are games made for people that get like one new game every few months, they're not games for people that appreciate gaming.

@mrbojangles25: Totally agree, some people enjoy the annual entries because it's the comfort game of choice. I myself follow this guilty pattern to an extent with Monster Hunter, I've bought every one since 2nd G on PSP.

While I cannot speak personally on those two shooter series the word gets out pretty quick. And wonder how long quality can dip before fans of Call of Duty and Battlefield say "enough is enough", and that they deserve better.

Think fandoms should be rewarded for being committed to series. Not be punished and treated like idiots. With all the backlash EA have been (finally) doing right; letting Respawn have creative control of all the projects they've made. Maybe they'll start doing the same for the other developers.

Activision however. I dunno. They don't seem like the kind that learns lessons. Much like Bethesda.

I'm just gonna be real honest, here... I don't think it's such a terrible thing, and I don't think companies are bad guys for these kinds of practices... I mean, aren't they just doing what responsible businesses are supposed to do? If anyone's to blame, wouldn't it be us, the gaming community? And, quite frankly, what if the people downloading additional content don't mind at all? I hate to say it, but I don't think all of this morality really has a place in any kind of business. Isn't that the idea behind the free-market trade?

I've heard some folk talk about the children and how it's a scumbag move for companies to lure children in and all that, but isn't it funny, though, that we laugh whenever politicians and other activist groups use the children to further their agenda, but then we always talk about the children when it comes to something we don't like? I'm not trying to attack anyone, here, personally, I'm just saying the children are always being used for this kind of garbage.

Look, I'm gonna be real, here, I don't know much about much in life, so I've got a question: All morality and all that other b.s. aside, would you say that it is hypocritical for the gaming community to want government involvement in this microtransaction issue, but then at the same time want the government out of their games, like the whole violent video games situation, with politicians wanting to censor and outright ban certain video games?

Again, I don't know much, and I'm not here to fight. I just want to know a few things, and I'm glad somebody made an article about this as it give me a chance to ask some folk some things.

1. Is there a hypocrisy in here with government legislation on video games being seen as okay sometimes? Again, morality aside.

2. Aren't companies just doing what's best for business, and not necessarily wrong for doing what they do? Morality aside.

3. Are we, the gamers, to blame for all of this?

4. Isn't it just fair democracy to vote with your wallet? Are we becoming nazis for going against this idea?

5. Isn't it the parents responsibility to worry about the children? I've heard something about governments playing some role in children's lives due to the fact that the governments have some kind of responsibility to the future generations, or something like that... So, who's responsibility is it to worry about how often the youth of today spend on microtransactions?

@usedtogame:

1) Yes, there is a hypocrisy, government should stay out of the gaming industry completely and let the market regulate itself, which for the most part, it has done a good job of.

2) Yes, they are, but they have to be accountable to consumers and the more they try and get away with, the more people start to push back. This is not about morality, we are dealing with entertainment here, not necessities for survival. Companies will do what they can do to maximize profit, but if they go too far they will lose out instead.

3) You can't lump "we" as gamers into one category. You can argue that some enable game companies to engage in these practices, but you can also argue that gamers speaking out have kept a lot of companies in check. I don't blame anyone, at the end of the day people will do with their money whatever makes them happy. I personally have never bought a microtransaction, I play a ton of indies and single player stuff so I am more or less not affected by the current state of micro transactions. If a day comes when micro transactions start infecting single player stuff I will vote against it with my wallet.

4) It is not democracy, it is capitalism, but I get what you are saying.

5) Yes, it is the parents responsibility to monitor the spending and gaming habits of their children. While I am not a fan of microtransactions, or EA in general, I would think it foolish to blame them for a parents lack of education as to what their kids are doing.