Okay, we all know just how greedy and stupid microtransactions can be, but what are some of the most grevious examples you can think of?  Here's 18 to get you started (you guys know how I'm working on Tales of Phantasia?  As #12 on this list shows, the IOS version is most definetly NOT "new and improved"   )

http://www.cracked.com/photoplast...

And I'm also sad to say, my wife recently turned to the dark side...she now does tablet gaming    Thank God though she hasn't succumbed to those microtransactions though with her rummy game she's been tempted sometimes  

This also reminds me of this classic moment in the now 20!! year history of South Park:




Can you imagine how it would be if I had kids (the human kind) getting all envious of these players who can afford hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars on a DLC ship/weapon/armor/whatever...and I happen to say something like:

Them: Wow, look at all these awesome upgrades/armors/weapons/items for *insert name of phone/tablet game*...I'd give anything to be able to have them...
Me: Hey, you guys wanna see something really cool? *shows off Master Sword/Hyrulian Shield and doing usual Link moves*
Them: .........
Me: I got this in Japan and it's limited to only 100...look at the lifelike craftsmanship!    I also got some of my real game cartridges/discs/consoles I'd love for you guys to see!  
Them: That's...nice...but we wanna check out more of these DLC's!
Me: But...but...this is real!  
Them: Real games and real collectibles are for old people!  

All the more reason I'll stick with having kitties instead  

Mass Effect 3: Core character was removed but shipped on day one as on disc "DLC"

At least the on disc ones can be cracked/GameSharked(?) someday. As seen on that list, I feel especially sorry for those who invest real money on DLC/power-ups/etc on a game that then instantly becomes worthless once the game's server (am I using the right terminology?) doesn't "feel like" offering/hosting the game anymore  

In the PC version, you changed one variable in the .ini to =1.  

 

Can't think of any off top of my head, but I do find them annoying. I remember the days when you just simply unlock a costume or a feature in a game... now you got to buy it on top of of the game that you've already purchased? Ugh.

All I know is that Drive Club is super annoying with all the DLC cars/modes. It seems like 90% of the game is DLC add-ons. Total BS.

Wasn't there a Need For Speed game where you had to buy the gas for the cars?

Those freemium ones drive me nuts, because I'm always around the kind of people who would never pay money for an in-game purchase. They grind their time away because the microtransactions put monetary value on the time it takes to unlock something, even though the game itself is more work than fun. I'm no stranger to grinding, but I hate how mobile games are weirdly not fun and more like a Skinner box.

Mario Kart 8, OTOH is a perfect example of how to do DLC right. On the disc as-is you get the usual Time Trials, New Cup GP, Retro Cups GP, 50cc/100cc/150cc/200cc and so on. IOW, if you just have the disc as-is, you are not missing anything that you didn't already have in previous Mario Karts, such as MK Wii. In this case the optional extra tracks (yes I did get both packs) are truly just that. Optional. So I'm not completely against DLC and such, just those way too many times when it's done the wrong way.  

I feel like I should just post a link to the App Store or Google Play store "top free games" charts, and end the thread lol.

I'm playing the hell out of Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, they have some of their pay-to-play stuff being way off. The basic ingame stuff is gems, $1 for 100, 100 lets you refill your energy and 500 lets you draw a new player from the good pools. You currently gain 50 gems from the daily quests which are no problem to do, and 200 a day total from the two celebrations. You gain 100 each time you level up your rank (I'm in the 40s), 500 for some trophy rewards that are one time deals (But there's like 40 of them), plus a few other odds and ends. So this part here is fine. You just have to be carefull of your energy, sometimes doing different events to level up your rank for the free energy refill or hoarding the energy refill rewards they sometimes mail out, but just gives it a bit of strategy. I have no issues with how they do their gems.

Where they fucked up is the pure buy it now stuff. When I first started playing, you could also buy an energy refill for $.99, refills 30 energy. if you use gems (Which also cost the same amount), you gain your max energy in refill, so if you're above rank 20, it's better to just buy gems. By a lot. They've recently changed it to 60 energy, but my max is 57 now, so I don't gain much.

They also had some ability chests, with +10% abilities for HP, MAG, MP, ATK. For HP, it's not to hard to get +10%s for free, we just had an event to craft +15%s. For MAG\MP and anything buy ATK, you get a crafting recipe in the storyline for them all. Takes 5 mins to craft one, with very common items. The only thing in this you cant get a ton of is the +10% ATK, but at like $29.99, it's worthless.

You can also buy equipment, for like $40. Almost all of this bundle is WEAKER than my current free equipment. And brands you as a pay to win person since some of these items you can only get via the bundles. I've seen like 2 people I can tell were buying these, almost no one else is.

Wasn't there Azuras Wrath, with dlc for the ending?

If not, there's a sonic games on mobile. Microtransactions....for extra lives.

The all time worst DLC was NBA 2K12 when they hyped for months what ended up being a cel shaded game that absolutely nobody wanted to play. And to make matters worse the mode featured tons of legends players people wanted to play as who were never made available in any of the normal modes, and many still haven't been.

While it looks cool, most fans were upset 2KSports "wasted" so much time on the mode. It has never reappeared since.



Years later and teams like Glen Rice's Charlotte Hornets or Alex English's Denver Nuggets have still never appeared in NBA2K. It's a shame that a mode nobody wanted could have so much content people crave.

The Family Guy mobile game...I wanted to try it because I was a fan of FG and I thought it might be semi entertaining like The Simpsons one...wrong. It was stupid, Facebook obsessed and EVERYTHING was microtransactions. I mean I know mobile games are like that but...this was the worst I've seen.

The Simpsons game is much better...while they do have microtransactions you can..."cheat" and get free donuts (in game currency to buy premium stuff) using Reddit and they don't go after you...

My mother's really obsessed with The Walking Dead mobile game, and while the game itself is good for a free game, according to her you can only upgrade certain buildings if you buy the gold (gems, brains, whatever it is). Worst of all it presents it in a way that it doesn't seem like it's trying to screw you over, so she fell for it and spent enough to buy two new Xbox One games. Really sucks, but with a name like the walking dead behind it of course it can't be bad :/

Also the solitaire one was great  

Well at least you can get alternate forms of Solitaire, like on the NES, and the SNES one not only has the classic Klondike (that's the Solitaire game as most people know it) but several other forms and a really unique form that I don't think is found anywhere else where you try to build the best five poker hands you can. And there's a DS version where there's dozens, maybe hundreds of forms of Solitaire to choose from...and there's no annoying ads or upsells and most definitely no worrying about it going poof and being gone forever.  

Yes I know I'm sounding like an old fuddy duddy traditionalist but there's just too many elements of modern gaming (outside of WiiU/3DS) I can really do without  

Oh, I forgot to post my South Park analogy I mentioned already before but thought it'd be perfect for this topic  

Anything with microtransactions isn't a real video game. So all of them are stupid.

I'd like to introduce you to my old friend, the life counter in Gauntlet.   

I honestly am starting to prefer games with them.  Everyones always talking about how  "Games need to be balanced".  Bullshit.  If someone pays $500 to get uber god gear, and I don't need it, that's fucking awesome.  I don't NEED to best stuff to win. That's why I'm a Julia player in tekken.  

 

I was expecting a very different list. A lot of those are pedestrian complaints. Valid? Sure. Particularly notable? Nope.

When Microsoft first enabled this kind of thing for consoles we had a lot of laughable stuff, like the cheat codes in the Godfather Game being free on PS2, Wii, etc but charging real money for the same thing on XBOX 360. They act like making a pay gate for something on the disc is new too, but: no, it isn't. My Quake shareware CD had "id Stuff" on the disc, which was pretty much the full versions of everything id Software and Raven had ever made together since before Wolfenstein 3D, but encrypted behind a paywall.

Even as far as modern console DLC goes, they did it with Soul Calibur on the XBOX 360 and PS3. Darth Vader and Yoda were technically on BOTH discs.

Paying for upgrades and such is fucking garbage. What satisfaction is there in that? It's like paying to use a game genie. Online games with random drops are the worst. Then they get sponsored YTers to open $500 worth of stuff and kids think that's normal. Terrible role models.

That's what I explained to my wife  repeatedly when she complained about the other players using some sort of joker card powerup in her usual 500 Rummy tablet game...that yes costs money (and I don't mean rupees/zenny/gil/bells...).  If you need to cheat in a game, that's why we have either in game cheat codes or Game Genie/Shark.  I sure hope these tablet/phone games don't charge you for an in game map (*cough* can look them up on Google/other places).  

 

Also, you know how you have sports games coming out every year and people go through all this trouble doing achievements and so on (or whatever it is you do exactly)? Well what happens when the next year's game comes out, doesn't that make whatever you did the previous year or years pretty much meaningless?

Microtransactions aren't all bad. I think Halo 5 is actually doing them pretty well; you get extra "reqs" to use in combat, which are items/weapons/vehicles/etc attained through "booster packs" like cards. You get some each day you log in, win matches, participate in other matches, etc. You get them pretty often. You also earn in-game money to buy gold boosters just from normal play; cash isn't required. The super powerful items are a high level that has to be gained through play in the matches, so you can't just bust out a rocket-launching warthog right at the start. In exchange for putting this microtransaction system in the game, 343 is making all DLC content free, with regular game balancing updates and new maps/modes/etc. I was pretty pleased overall.

The kind I hate the most though, are on-disc "DLC." The crap that is already contained on the game you paid money for, and have to pay more money to access it. Soul Calibur IV did this several times, where you ended up simply buying a key code to unlock thing, but the game tried to make it look like you were actually downloading stuff; gee, a whole arsenal of all-new weapons and armor, new characters, etc and the DLC is only a few kilobytes big? wow...

I only play Halo 5 with friends, which is the only way to play it as it makes it fun. The points and booster pack set up is about the only thing the game did right. The points are not that difficult to add up and they do give them for participating in matches. There is absolutely no need to spend extra money on this game to enjoy in game add ons, power ups, armors and assasination moves. This is definitely a feature that needs to roll over into the next Halo game.