After all the wonderful things to come out of Korea — kimchee, Warcraft’s Jang “Moon” Jae Ho, ridiculous neon auto accessories, and various hot supermodels — the peninsular nation is now exporting pure evil. No, not “Juche” Communism, worse than that. I mean microtransactions.
Electronic Arts’s Battlefield: Bad Company beta debuts today on Xbox 360. The game contains ten weapons that can be unlocked. Five will be gifts for purchasers from specific retailers. But the other five will cost you cash money.
Why does EA want to take more money from people who already paid for the game? Why does EA want to make Baby Jesus cry?
EA says the new weapons are balanced, and won’t break the game. Then what’s the point? Why pay cash for a virtual item that does me no good?
This is what’s often said about in-game purchased items — they don’t break the game. They’re just costumes, or houses, or other ephemera you don’t really need. Then why buy them? Why charge me real life cash money? Why make these purchases available to children (or even adults) who aren’t very good at monitoring how much money they’re spending?
Oh, yeah. That question answered itself.
Link.
