Horse armor was above-board, compared to this shit. You got files you didn't have. Modern "DLC" is already on your hard drive, appearing on other people's characters, but *you're* not allowed to touch that file until you pay ten actual dollars.

I'm not supporting what you're condemning. I'm just arguing that it's not 100% black and white. I disagree with "all live service games bad." I certainly agree that some are predatory and a problem, and the entire genre as a whole needs more regulation. I couldn't really grasp spending that amount of money on a video game, even cumulatively, so no I didn't consider it from that angle.

The regulation needed is: fuck all that. Games make you value arbitrary nonsense. That is what makes them games. Attaching a dollar price to that fiction is a category error. The entire business model is an exploitation of that confusion. This abuse is making games objectively worse. Maximum revenue comes from addiction and frustration. Fun is an obstacle. At best, fun is bait on the hook. The actual goal, *especially* for "free" games, is to grind you down as thoroughly as possible to extract real money over and over and over and over. If you don't think that's you - neither did most people who wondered where all their money went.

Uh nice! Good combination with all those social security number and credit card leaks.

Not a new low, it's an old low applied in new ways.