No full retail game needs any amount of microtransactions or loot crates.

We now have this artificial viewpoint that somehow without either of those no developer or publisher would make any money on a game. It's incredibly disturbing to think that people think this is okay even for cosmetic purposes.

I came from an era where you'd purchase a game and be given the full experience. If the game offered cosmetics, they'd be in there to unlock or purchase with the in-game currency. If it didn't, it didn't.
Sure, there wasn't many of the quality of life features we enjoy today. But it was an era where gaming was still to an extent a hobbyist activity and if you wanted to make a game sell you'd have to make a good and interesting game, that's all there was to it. There wasn't spending 40+ million dollars on advertising, it was you'd make a game and if it was good the word of mouth would be more than enough to sell the game.
And you know what? I was happy with that, I still am. I'm collecting older systems, and going back into these games I can still enjoy myself playing games that were made for me to enjoy and not just made for me to milk out my wallet and then do the same thing in the next yearly release.

People say that games are too expensive nowadays to make. Honestly, if they're too expensive then stop making expensive games. All this money thrown into a development and games still aren't as good as they used to be... The top rated games of all time barely actually include any modern games but instead a plethora of classics that put most modern releases to shame. With the advancement of technology it should be the other way around, we shouldn't be looking back at gaming thinking where did we go wrong but looking back and being happy with the progression of something that is apparently meant to be an artform but never treated as such.
I would be happy with the market being flooded with more humble budget releases. There are tons of indie games out there that could be so much better with a little more attention and assistance (without having to force predatory practices into them) and gaming could genuinely be a wonderful hobby to be part of.
It's just a shame that greed has to ruin something like this. And unless we all continue to speak out about the state of the industry then we'll never go back to an era of games made by gamers, published by gamers, made for gamers.

I hope you get stuck in an elevator with someone having severe flatulence issues.

"We need to accept the new norm."

You can accept the new norm, the rest of us will continue to be intelligent and avoid this garbage.

only FTP

No where they are acceptable no where in a full price game, period.

I have no problem with it in free to plays, cosmetic only, or in a non competitive mode that's not exp based and doesn't require grinding to unlock those mt in game such as Halo 5s warzone where everything can be unlocked without purchase

Uh no we don't need to accept the "new" norm or any norm for that matter. Remember PC Online passes? And also the other BS microtransactions that launch XB1 games had? Well all those failed because gamers refused to purchase them and accept the "norm." There's no problem with wanting more money but there is when you do it in such an underhanded and disingenuous way.

"We need to accept the new norm."

Nope, would rather give up gaming, no problem, many other hobbies out there.

they're acceptable nowhere.

No, no we don't need to accept the "new norm" and it's B.S. articles like this that are the damn problem. Accepting these practices is NEVER the right thing to do. Every damn time you give publishers an inch, they take every mile that they can reach. STOP accepting this nonsense.

MTs are ONLY acceptable in FREE TO PLAY games because money has to be made somehow. They are NEVER acceptable in full price retail games alongside DLC, Season Passes, Multiple Editions, and Pre-Order culture. Period.

Opening lootboxes to progress in a game is never acceptable. These publishers are reacting to feedback by forcing because only 10% of players said they would spend money on them. You give them a small hole and they'll tear it greatly where it affects the rest of the playerbase that wants nothing to do with them.

The author also assumes the devs are getting paid from MTs or the publishers is giving them cuts. That literally will never happen unless regulation changes occur, the publisher does not split a single dime from MTs or other extras and the money is just going to the fat cats while devs get whats owed to them from these people and nothing more. It's feeding an already bloated bank that does nothing to help the people who crunch time day in and day out aside from what they're owed.

NO we don't need to accept MT. The problem is that you can't by a specific item, you need to buy multiple "lottery tickets" to get what you want.
That should never be accepted....ever.

nope