Nothing inside a video game should cost real money. Ban the entire business model. Entertainment is a tool for emotional manipulation - usually toward enjoyment. Fiction seeks suspension of disbelief and attachment to completely artificial interests and goals. Charging actual currency for anything under that fiction is an abuse. It's exploiting your brain's fuzzy separation of wants. However much you *desire* a goal in soccer, it's just a ball going through some posts. It has no economic utility. There is no exchange rate between score and hamburgers. Maximizing that mistake is the entire driving force of this industry-swallowing abuse. It's half of all revenue. Boycotts don't work. It's in $70, flagship-franchise, *single-player* games. It costs nothing to add, even in games you already bought. Only legislation will fix this. Now the usual excuses. 'Just don't pay them.' The entire game is expertly crafted to make you *crave* whatever they're charging for. Games make you value arbitrary nonsense - that's what makes them games. Gently convincing you over time is the developer's *job.* 'You want it for free!' *You* want it 'for free.' I want people to *buy games.* Like how it worked for forty years straight. 'But servers need money.' This shit's in World Of Warcraft - a subscription MMO. You think Blizzard is hurting? 'But arcades--' were renting someone else's machine. Your own phone doesn't get to charge you a quarter per minute. 'But cosmetics--' are still an engineered desire which can be denied until you pay more money. 'But budgets--' follow revenue, always always always. It has never been easier to make *a* game. Companies choose to spend millions because they expect to make billions. 'Well it's better value.' This bullshit makes them more money... and they get the money from you... so this "free" bullshit costs you more money. You get it? In no reality should it be possible to pay the price of a whole-ass game for one imaginary hat.

Dat avocado toast excuse, every time.

The article admits this isn't true and the money spent on these games is decreasing. This is another corporate article blaming individuals for systemic economic failures.

Are you talking about Gensin Impact? The game that even on PC looks and plays like a mobile game? With grindiness and awful animation quality? Surely you can't consider that top notch stuff? Or is gameplay time of 100+ hours and anime girls really that convincing to you? Genuine question.

Motherfucking young people and their fucking hobbies. How irresponsible.

I never said it was a great game. In fact I literally said: > Genshin has a lot of other problems even gacha aside I just said it wasn't *garbage*. There is plenty of other actual garbage out there. It looks and plays like a mobile game because it *is* a mobile game. It's a mobile game you can play on your PC if you want. But it's still a 5-year-old mobile game. expecting it to look like AC Shadows or something is silly. Besides, the BOTW-ripoff-meets-anime art direction really seems to appeal to a lot of people, and art direction is much more important than graphical fidelity anyway. The soundtrack and score is genuinely very good and varied, with each area having its own feel and sound to the music. The game is huge and has lots of different areas to explore, each with its own characteristics. The world has lots of little details and puzzles, some that are extremely simple dopamine hits and some puzzles that are somewhat challenging. There is like a hundred hours or whatever of story content to go through that at least quite a lot of people seem invested and engaged in. There are new events every month or so with various things to do. Let be clear: I don't like Genshin personally. I don't play Genshin. I think there are a lot of problematic elements in it not just with monetisation but with grind, RNG, retention/addiction mechanics, unskippable cutscenes and probably more I'm forgetting off hand. It's still blatantly unfair to call it "garbage".

Young people do young people shit, always have and will. I ate beef and vegetable soup for 3 months straight to buy a new engine for my race car 20 years ago...

I haven't heard of addictive design in the business model of avocado toast.

Theres an actual difference between spending money on things you enjoy vs unable to pay for food and rent.

Candy crush costs money?

Yeah, that's how it goes. Glad you got out when you did.

Depends on the scene/popularity of the band. If I have to pay more than $20, it better be a band I really want to see.