I Really Wish My Favorite F2P Games Microtransacitions Would Just Let Me Buy Items Straight From A Shop

Writing about free-to-play games means you end up thinking a lot about microtransactions – what’s fair and what’s not. As every layer of games in this space knows, if devs aren’t asking us to buy the game or charging us a subscription fee, they’re going to find other ways to make money off of us. Bills have to be paid. Hey… Even if we are outright purchasing the game or paying a sub, there’s a pretty high chance there are still microtransactions of some kind involved.

Case in point: the thing that actually made me start thinking about all of this is the latest offering on Final Fantasy XIV’s Mogstation. In case you’re curious, it’s a big fluffy kitty mount. And I mean a giant house cat, which is described as being native to Tural (the game’s version of the Americas). Of course, my immediate reaction was, “It seems like it’s time for me to contribute to Yoshi-P’s ring fund again”.

The thing is, like most store-only mounts (meaning those that didn’t appear in a game event first) the cat is a $24 USD purchase. There are some other, more expensive offerings, but this is the average. Still, when a mount or minion comes along that I really like, I’m ready to throw down the cash. And this is in a B2P, sub-based game.

Now, take all the games I play in the free-to-play space. Most of them are gacha games like Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, and Honkai: Star Rail. Genshin recently dropped a new update and introduced a new five-star character. I got lucky and got her in the set of rolls I did using the currency I’d been saving up while waiting for a character I wanted to become available.

Now, Honkai: Star Rail has a new update dropping on August 13 and has teased new versions of key characters that we’re going to want. Rumor has it that Dan Heng’s new form will likely be a freebie, while we’ll have to roll for March 7. And those five-star character rolls can get pretty pricey, particularly if you want to max them out. You’re looking at hundreds, possibly more than a thousand, dollars.

For me, this isn’t so much of a problem. I’m not rolling for the mechanically best characters. I’m rolling for characters whose personalities I like. Yes, Hugo and Lycoan are on my primary team in Zenless Zone Zero. I’m just lucky they’re a good match. Otherwise, I just fill teams with characters I enjoy who can keep me alive through the story content.

Still, I want to support games I like. With games like HoYo’s offerings, I opt for the battle passes. That seems the most reasonable to me. I get some useful items and additional rolls on characters just for playing the game. There’s the option to buy the character outfits as well, although the thing with those is that you must buy the premium currency first, which is not my favorite setup for buying things in games.

And then Final Fantasy XIV throws a new mount on their shop, and I’m reminded that if I want something from them, I can just plonk down a set amount of cash and get it. Sometimes those prices seem pretty steep. But other times, the item is tempting enough for me to just turn over the money.

I really, really wish I could do the same in the other games I play. Now, I do realize that they probably wouldn’t make as much money that way. Those whales are doing a lot of work carrying us freeloaders. But maybe there’s some happy in between?

For instance, I know that no matter what game we’re talking about, there are those players who always have to have the thing as soon as it drops. While there are others of us who can wait a while. I never go ham trying to max out the characters I roll on. I just obtain them, and then if they come back around, I roll again. But, what if there was a mixed option? Let’s say that when a character is first released, the only way to obtain it is to roll for it. I mean, the whales are going to roll no matter what. But, what about after that, when all that whale money has been obtained and it’s just the rest of us out there, they make the characters available to purchase directly for a set amount of money?

I mean, I roll on characters when they first come around, using my free rolls. But I’d also be happy to see a character return now and again, and just be able to drop a specific amount to obtain them. And, honestly, I probably wouldn’t complain if it were $20 - $25. I pay that much for a mount in XIV, and I’m subbed to that game.

And before anyone says it, I realize some will think this a pay-to-win scenario. My argument there is that none of these are really competitive games. When we do co-op, it’s typically to work together. The PvP, as it were, exists mostly in mini-games that often have nothing to do with our team specs.

Really, though, I just want a more straightforward solution to giving money to developers I like – one where they know what they’re getting. I doubt I’ll see this change, however. It’s pretty obvious the current system works well for the developers in question. But still… I can dream.