Steam Now Supports Developers Selling In-Game Items

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While I'm pretty sure I would never pay $5 for an in-game item like "punk rock" pants, I think this is a good idea as long as everything sold is cosmetic. Your thoughts?
 
Buying cosmetic changes works for Riot. Works very well.

Slippery slope to P2W though.
 
Sometimes it is fun and worth it. If people will buy it, why not sell it?
 
Guild Wars has been selling cosmetic stuff for years. Still has not resulted in P2W. Boosts, cosmetic items, but nothing that influences pvp.
 
As others mentioned, this isn't something new, and there are dev out there who are able to implement the concept without turning the game into P2W.

The benefit I could see with this is that it allows smaller dev to do the same thing without having to spend money on setting up their own store front.

Good or bad, it still depends on each individual dev.
 
Yakk said:
Buying cosmetic changes works for Riot. Works very well.

Slippery slope to P2W though.
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I agree!

P2W needs to go away for any online play. SP you can buy whatever you like but MP it shouldn't be allowed.
 
Cr4ckm0nk3y said:
I agree!

P2W needs to go away for any online play. SP you can buy whatever you like but MP it shouldn't be allowed.
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Only thing to be careful of is it might be hard to resist for smaller indie developers, Valve just needs to be vigilant about it.
 
It depends on the game. In FPS or MOBAs selling cosmetics are fine as long as it doesn't affect animations or give some kind of boost. In MMOs I think its BS as it just means they are going for a cheap and lazy cash grab over making content to work for in game. Why come up with a new quest, challenge, or map or whatever to earn an item, when you can just crate some skins and throw them in to a cash store and make instant profit with out wasting dev time on creating the content for acquisition. I'm sure they make money off them but it takes away from the actual game by doing so.
 
Yakk said:
Only thing to be careful of is it might be hard to resist for smaller indie developers, Valve just needs to be vigilant about it.
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Exactly! Payday 2 is a prime example of a dev getting a little carried away.
 
Cosmetic is fine and works great for League of Legends, but beyond that micro transactions suck and no one wants them except rich punks that want to feel superior because they have money to waste.
 
Yakk said:
Buying cosmetic changes works for Riot. Works very well.

Slippery slope to P2W though.
Click to expand...
It is a slippery slope. There is a lot of support around the idea of not paying for items that give you an advantage, but just like DLC we have been slowly and more progressively been warmed up to microtransactions until we didn't have the urge to jump out of the pot anymore.
 
I don't mind cosmetic micro-transactions, as long as they are kept thematic.

A large part of the game experience is the ability to live into the world that is being created. In some games, some cosmetic customizations just are not believable. No professional - for instance - would charge into battle with a bright orange camouflage patterned weapon.

Unless the game itself is goofy and funny, the cosmetic customizations shouldn't be.
 
Steam will probably not regulate what developers sell. So, whether the types of items are cosmetic or not is not their concern. They are just allowing and providing the ability to do it. How devs choose to support it...well, that's on them.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041952871 said:
I don't mind cosmetic micro-transactions, as long as they are kept thematic.
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Agreed. Seeing people run around with pink guns in CS GO was a massive turn off for me. Not that I cared for it much in the first place.
 
It's funny how everyone slowly but surely got worn down enough to where Horse Armor is now perfectly fine. Ya'll got took.
 
Armenius said:
It is a slippery slope. There is a lot of support around the idea of not paying for items that give you an advantage, but just like DLC we have been slowly and more progressively been warmed up to microtransactions until we didn't have the urge to jump out of the pot anymore.
Click to expand...

The first game/company to make micro transactions work was Turbine (before being unfortunately bought out by WB) and their MMO game DDO. At the time nobody thought micro transactions would ever work, but it did because of the nature of Dungeons & Dragons adventure packs. It worked so well it saved the game from closing and the game producers were invited to panel discussions/seminars for other developers.

Fast forward to today and it's become a mess of cash grabs and P2W with only a few developers incorporating it correctly.
 
Cr4ckm0nk3y said:
Exactly! Payday 2 is a prime example of a dev getting a little carried away.
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+$2.50
Kor said:
It's funny how everyone slowly but surely got worn down enough to where Horse Armor is now perfectly fine. Ya'll got took.
Click to expand...
+$.99
Valve gets a chunk of every microtransaction through Steam.

The <18 crowd will happily spend mommy and daddy's money, and the parents will gladly shut their kids up. I know this because I hear some parent complaining about their own kid or a kid in the family doing this at least once a week at work or one of the kids' sports. The publishers and distributors don't care that your kid spent $120 on texture packs and bigger numbers with just 3 clicks on your phone. It's designed that way, it works exactly as intended, and it's a major commercial success. For every runaway bill that gets refunded, there's another whale just waiting to be speared.

It started with piecemeal DLC instead of full expansions, then day 1 DLC on disc, horse armor, cosmetic micros, "fun pain" micros to get around daily limits, and now we are seeing random cash-shop reward "gachapon" micros both outside of crappy Korean MMOs and in full-pay games.

This is the future of gaming.
God bless the pirates that don't deal with this shit.
 
Have fun buying the imaginary items for that game. Wow, my game only cost me $5 on a steam sale, plus $500 of in game items over the last year. What a deal! :D
 
Zarathustra[H];1041952871 said:
I don't mind cosmetic micro-transactions, as long as they are kept thematic.

A large part of the game experience is the ability to live into the world that is being created. In some games, some cosmetic customizations just are not believable. No professional - for instance - would charge into battle with a bright orange camouflage patterned weapon.

Unless the game itself is goofy and funny, the cosmetic customizations shouldn't be.
Click to expand...

Yea, I am not a fan of the nerf gun skins. I mostly play on console so I know I should have no expectation of 'realism being a design goal' of any shooter game, but still....
 
Zarathustra[H];1041952871 said:
I don't mind cosmetic micro-transactions, as long as they are kept thematic.

A large part of the game experience is the ability to live into the world that is being created. In some games, some cosmetic customizations just are not believable. No professional - for instance - would charge into battle with a bright orange camouflage patterned weapon.

Unless the game itself is goofy and funny, the cosmetic customizations shouldn't be.
Click to expand...

Chicken Hat Snake disagrees with your assertion. :p

(Though I do agree with you)
 
Accept this, and in 10 years RPGs will be selling everything at every vendor for real cash.

They slowly insert the dildo into your ass until the next thing you know, it's going full bore into you, and you didn't even feel it.
 
Ive always felt the time spent doing this should be spent making a better game.
 
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