Where This Argument Takes Us

Look at a game like WORLD OF WARCRAFT for example. There’s a small cash shop, but the vast majority of “flavor” items like mounts, cool-looking gear and “toy” items are earned in the game itself. There are 343 free mounts and, thousands of pets, and countless unique pieces of gear. Many of these are difficult to find or require a large amount of time and skill to acquire. They’re an integral part of the game, even if they have no effect on the actual gameplay.

Can you imagine a world where every mount beyond a basic horse was locked behind a paywall? Can you imagine if a weapon’s appearance could only be unlocked with a $0.99 purchase? It would strip away a huge part of the game’s identity: earning cool and strange new items and the feeling of satisfaction you get showing them off.

Now, the obvious counter-argument here is that WORLD OF WARCRAFT is a subscription-style MMO. In one way or another, you’re paying for these items. But you’re not paying for cosmetics alone. You’re paying for servers, regular updates, and more content than several games combined. It’s this sense of value that AAA publishers are missing.