I Miss The Times When Games Came In Full Package Rather Than Broken Mess Filled With Microtransactions

I'll never understand why Overwatch 1's lootboxes are always held up as an example of BAD BAD NOT GOOD MICROTRANSACTIONS when it was the best kind of lootbox. Uncomplicated, all cosmetics you could unlock by just playing, no paid keys, etc.

No lootbox system before it was nearly that "generous* so how did OW become the poster child for predatory games in so many article photos?

This is adorable. The Witcher 3 was a bug ridden mess. So were lots of Bethesda games from the 90's and Early 2000's. About the best you could say about games back in the day is that they launched without micro transactions. And even that isn't necessarily true. Looking at you shareware.

There's so many games with game breaking bugs and soft locks that never got fixed. Can we stop with the rose tinted goggles BS and be serious?

Yes micro transactions suck. Yes it kind of sucks to have to download a day one patch to play a game when you have limited access to Internet or no access to online services. Yes, I do want complete games. Yes. I do miss demos. Yes I am upset with developers over promising and under delivering. But we have got to stop pretending things were all gravy in the before times.

And that's why I don't really buy new games anymore unless they're compelling in some way. Last new game I bought was helldivers 2. Prior to that was Death Stranding. Oh and cyberpunk 2077, because I got had like everyone else.

Is this your site you keep pushing?

People keep paying for them. The industry will keep on selling that way. Keep rewarding bad behavior.

The gaming industry has drifted away from offering full-fledged games to putting unfinished titles that are jam-packed with microtransactions on the market.

Games also used to cost a substantial amount more in real terms.

https://retroonly.com/how-much-did-nes-games-cost-in-the-80s/

A budget NES game would cost $27.53 in today’s dollars, the average game would cost $110.14, while the best games would cost $165.21 in today’s money!

Like, if someone shipped a game with a base price of half of what an AAA-class game used to run, that'd already be into very controversial territory.

But people are, apparently, okay with buying games in chunks. They just really don't like one, large, up-front base pricetag. So...game studios do what you'd expect. They sell the thing in chunks.

I mean, while I agree that that has some drawbacks, I'm kind of okay with that to the extent that it means that games that suck get cut off in production before they turn into too much of a disaster. If your base game doesn't sell well, there probably isn't gonna be a bunch of DLC published.