LucasNox wrote:
You probably should just stop buying Final Fantasy then. It's just the current sad state of the gaming industry. They think they can get away with pretty much anything and every big gaming company like Square Enix must maximize profits. It doesn't even have to do with F2P or P2P.
Publishers have been slicing off content of a game you already paid for, and selling it to you again as "additional" for a while now, and it's being a commonly abused practice.
Konami just sold one $30 mission (you can complete it in as little as 10 minutes) of Metal Gear Solid V as its own individual game. They literally sold it in a box at Gamestop and it's just one sliced off mission of their to-be-released MGSV, and they call it a prequel.
Back to the 'stop buying Final Fantasy then' - based on LR and XIII-2, I think you're going to need to learn to control you impulses around these microtransactions and DLC if you're going to keep gaming in general, but definitely for at the very least XIV and XV. Consumers are going to smarten up eventually and basically demand more quality at some point but right now we're all getting screwed over and the publishers are making out like bandits. For now, you've gotta be tough and don't buy into their scams.
I'm well aware of the state of the industry turning games into a service. I've been following that issue far more closely than your average individual.
As far as 'slicing off game content you already paid for.' I do not believe in the dogma provided by the vocal minority on this issue for multiple reasons, but I'll just list the largest one for you.
The price of game production has gone up incredibly over the last twenty years, but game prices have not risen appropriately with production costs in the last decade. What you believe of 'holding of a slice of the game you've already paid for' , to me, shows ignorance of this fact. If you were paying $60 for Playstation 3 level graphics, and we are now on Playstaiton 4, you've been buying an improved product at an inferior price for a while now, and the game companies are trying to make some severely lost revenue back.
Now, if you're willing to sacrifice big-budget quality to maintain your full experience at the $60 price point, then that's fine. But if you're wanting them to maintain top of the line experiences, and not hold some work back to pass the hat? Then you're just being self-entitled. I think at this point most people are realizing the fact that these 'slices of the game' are in fact designed to offset bloating production costs, and the rising independent game market has developed to cater to those who prefer gameplay at a lesser expense than high production quality at a higher-than $60 dollar price-point.
When it comes to Final Fantasy, I am willing to pay that extra if I find that extra content enticing enough. This goes the same for any experience I would enjoy for any game or series I am a fan of. It fills into my whole "I want to support them." thing.
But, honestly, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Elder Scrolls are about the only big budget RPG series right now still captivating me. We'll See what Mass Effect does after Shepard is out of the picture, but after Dragon Age II, and how much upheaval the ending of ME3 caused, I'm not holding out too much hope there.
Still planning on getting FFXV. I'm intrigued for that one.
But I've got my eyes looking on the independent market at this point. Very, very few big budget games are as appealing as they once were, and my heart yearns for the more classic games of my childhood. I won't lie.