don’t let you play the game

Behold the natural evolution of “in-game purchases” for video games: instead of “pay to win,” this new system is “pay to lose” or “pay to not be able to play at all.”

Jun 29, 2020

Games, UI / UX

100 candies, candy conflict, computer game, DLC, don’t let you play the game, expansion pack, forbid playing a game, game, in-game purchase, legendary dominion, loot box, microtransaction, microtransactions, parental controls, pay to lose, pay-to-win

Background: The financial model of the video game industry now makes heavy use of in-game purchases (“microtransactions” / “DLC” (downloadable content) / “loot boxes”). These supplementary purchases frequently bring in more revenue than traditional sales. Most transactions fall into these categories: Pay for additional content: the “expansion pack” model. This is old-fashioned, but still exists.…