Many don’t realize how the standard even became the standard to begin with.
Around 15 years ago (a little more, but not much more) these micro transactions started popping up. And to be honest, they were around the same prices then as they are now (the differences was in the variances which I’ve mentioned in another thread). Back then it was much of the same complaints as we have now.
The argument was that if you don’t buy it, it won’t keep going. Well in 15 years, it kept going and like you said it became an industry standard. How can something be so successful that is so reviled?
Well obviously someone is buying it, and buying enough of it to warrant its standardization.
The argument doesn’t end there. The issue is that the people who dislike the practice aren’t really doing enough. Its not enough to simply keep the wallet closed. Because you can still benefit a purchase without making a purchase.
This is the sneaky thing about cosmetics. You can argue it is intended, or just a little happy accident for those profiting from the phenomenon. But that is irrelevant. The point is it works. How it works is as follows.
You see a monetization you don’t like. You don’t buy it. You close out the shop and continue to play. Someone sees you in normal stuff, and looks at the shop. They have a different set personal thoughts to what is valuable to them (doesn’t matter what that is or the circumstances to it). They purchase the item and use it. They benefit from you not opening your wallet because you don’t have the same items.
They look different from you, have things you don’t have. And it drives the value up for them. This isn’t to say the reason the prices are high because you didn’t buy them. This isn’t suggesting that at all. What it is suggesting is this was the intent from the beginning. To disgust you enough to not purchase, but to drive up the fake value for those who are willing to do so and willing to pay higher prices.
But by continuing to play the game as you are, having paid the initial price of the game and no more. You are yet still contributing to the content paid for by others which is plenty enough to keep the industry standard rolling for yet another 15, 30, 100 years going forward if nothing really changes.
If everyone who disliked this standard simply stopped playing games with microtransactions 15 years ago and refused to participate. Those people who purchased cosmetics would only have each other to show off their vanity items and it would have quickly lost its luster. There would not have been enough ‘peasants’ running around to sustain that vainglorious desire.
Is it possible to still do that? I don’t know. I do know that there is developers that still refuse to introduce the practice so there is still games you can play if this is against your principles. But unfortunately its been proven that most people who dislike this standard industry practice are willing to continue to compromise those principles to play these games.
One extreme example that comes to mind was in MechWarrior Online. For a limited time, you could buy for $500usd a mech with a Golden Skin. It wasn’t anything fancy other than the skin. But tell me that wasn’t targeted at simply getting as much as possible from the aforementioned players who see value in things others won’t buy.