The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was the first major game to be released with a DLC. It was just horse armor for 2.50 euros, but it laid the foundation for the monetization in video games that we know today.
No game today can be without an in-game shop. Whether it’s a free-to-play or a full-price game, you can at least buy cosmetic items. But often, you can also buy better weapons or shortcuts to save time. For me, cosmetic items were okay until now, since they don’t give other players an advantage and therefore don’t affect my gameplay.
But then on YouTube, I came across the video Why Is Every MMO Dying EXCEPT this One by Lucky Ghost and got some food for thought from it. Although the video mainly focuses on why Final Fantasy XIV is currently the only MMORPG with stable to growing player numbers, the reasoning is coherent and can be applied to almost any game.
The fundamental evil of games today is the very existence of a real-money shop. As soon as a game takes content out of the actual game and puts it into a shop, it also removes a goal from the game. Older players will remember seeing a player with amazing armor or a weapon and knowing the effort it took to earn it. These players were admired, and you resolved to get that far yourself through diligence and dedication. You had a goal.
Nowadays, people compare the skins they bought from the shop. You walk through Albion Online and a player’s appearance says nothing about them, only about their wallet. In Eve Online, expensive ships used to have a special paint job. With the SKIN system, any ship can be painted, and more conspicuously than the special ships ever were. A player in a Black Ops ship used to have skilled for many years. Today, they’ve just popped enough injectors.
But now, on top of the real-money shop, we also have Season Passes. At least here you have to play actively to get the later rewards. But here too, there’s a paywall and, additionally, a time limit. If I’m not paying at the moment or don’t play a game during a season, I have no chance of unlocking the reward. Except, perhaps, eventually in the real-money shop.
So what’s the conclusion? In my opinion, developers shouldn’t invest their time in creating cool paint jobs for items, but instead integrate the items back into the game itself. As part of the game, which you can unlock through achievement—or not. Something you want to achieve and can show off. “Look, I finally earned the full armor set after many raids.” Give game content meaning again, dangle a carrot in front of the players, and motivate them to invest in the game through good content.
Otherwise, it’s not surprising that players quickly turn their backs on World of Warcraft after an expansion because they’ve already played through everything. A mistake that New World also made because they listened to the first wave of players: they simplified travel, raised trade to a global level, and lowered the carrot. Everyone was supposed to be able to achieve everything quickly. And so they did, and were quickly gone again because there wasn’t “enough” content.
Some might say that the grind is just a cheap way to extend playtime. Unfortunately, that’s often true. But it’s also a good way to make an achievement truly meaningful. This is how you emotionally bind players to your game and create a pull effect on other players through its external perception. Maybe not millions of players over a long time, but a loyal community. Sure, for a FIFA or a Call of Duty, short-term success is the goal. For MMOs and service games, however, it’s not the sprint that wins, but the marathon.