Triple-A gaming these days is following that lovely trend of trying to get us to hand over more of our hard earned cash (or government handed student loans) on games even after we have payed full price for them. This comes in a number of ways, from excellently developed DLC such as The Witcher III’s “Hearts of stone” (which was more interesting than “Blood and Wine”), to being able to access content already on a disk but locked behind a pay-wall (a quick google search reveals Rezzy Evil 6 was a culprit of this, and this is just another reason to shit on it). This practice also extends to micro-transactions that can result in pay-2-win situations that are more commonly seen in Mobile Games such as “Clash of Clans”, to more cosmetic items such as items from the “Elder Scrolls Online Crown Store” to “Overwatch” loot boxes.

If you’re anything like myself then I feel sorry for you. But, to keep to the point of this article, you are probably loathe to spend money on items that aren’t DLCs (the good kind, not the “Oblivion Horse Armour” kind). In my case, it is because I’m entirely reliant on my student loan and with all the partying and drinking fast-food that I spend my money on, I simply cannot afford to buy 30 Overwatch loot-boxes in the unlikely chance that maybe, just maybe, I get a good Winston skin. But some of us are weak. I certainly have caved multiple times to one of my favourite games and its demand to purchase interesting random boxes. I wanted to know if I was the only one on the Twisted Bard team that breaks the rule of ‘no paying for unnecessary crap’. So I attempted to gather up our best writers to share their opinions with you. Only I was available from the crowd, so enjoy the other writers instead, complete with funny and random nicknames I assigned to them on the spot.

Let’s go!

Samuel Myerson (AKA “The Pope”)

After spending up to £70 on a new game, the last thing I really want to do is to spend more money the next day on it. Sure, I’m happy to spend on the same product a couple of months afterwards for DLC, but not after just a couple of days. And certainly not for cosmetic of pay-2-win items. However, I am but a human being, and according to most world religions (and most of my relations) I am flawed. I am weak and imperfect. I think that is the reason why I eventually caved and purchased (over a period of time) £41 worth of Crowns for “Elder Scrolls Online”. This was on top of the £70 I payed for the base game.

Now sure, some of this went towards a DLC pack. But the majority of it? That went to buying crafting motifs which means that I can craft my armour and weapons in many different styles. But worse than that, I also bought random loot boxes. I purchased something I swore I never would! I was such a young, naive 17 year old when I purchased “ESO” and swore never to use the store, and I had no knowledge about “Wild Hunt” boxes or the fact that I could get a puppy as a pet from one of them. If I had known, then I’m certain I would have understood the actions that I take somewhat regularly today. Or not. 17 year old me was a bit of a pretentious dick.

Aiden Botfield (AKA “The Hobbit”)

I personally think if you are invested enough in a title then paying for a optional micro-transaction is suitable. I personally have only ever bought loot boxes for Overwatch and a colour palette for Warframe. They are both games I have over 50 hours in at the time I purchased the items and I knew I was going to put more time in. It also helps the developers, so if you are a fan of companies like blizzard then buying a few loot boxes is okay. Paying for advantage over other players is wrong and should be abolished in the games industry, especially with free to play mobile games that will advertise £100 worth of premium currency as “best value”.

Tyler Hull (AKA “Golden Boy”)

There are only two instances in which I am willing to pay for DLC in a game. The first instance is when I feel like I have gotten way more content out of the game then I paid for. An example of this would be Rocket League. I bought it on sale for $12 and I spent over 500 hours on that game. At that point I was willing to spend a couple of extra dollars to show the developers I appreciated their game. In these types of instances what the DLC is does not matter as I am only doing it to show the devs I appreciate their game and hope they continue doing great things. The second instance I will pay for DLC is for more content in a game that I really enjoyed. In Payday 2 I paid for DLC that gave me the chance to play more missions and use more guns. I only pay for DLC in games where I have put a lot of hours in. I never pay for DLC upfront as I want to pay for it when I know I have loved the game.

Paddy McCaul (AKA “The Rogue”)

I was playing Overwatch just after the Halloween cosmetic content hit and there I was skating around in my standard Lucio skin while all these DR Frankenstein Junkrat’s and monstrous Roadhogs danced around me in a sea of death and I thought, wow I want some of that action.
So I went to the PlayStation store, got to the page with the Overwatch loot boxes and was trying to decide how many boxes to buy when my girlfriend walked into the room. I started to happily tell her what I was doing but then I said these words out loud:
“I’m spending real money on outfits for my video game characters”.
It suddenly dawned on me that I was going to be spending real money on outfits for my video game characters, money I don’t really have on outfits that I could even unlock just by levelling up without spending extra.
That day was the closest I have ever come to spending money on microtransactions and while I have no problem with giving people the option to by cosmetic upgrades if they want them, I won’t be going down that road again.
Also, pay-to-win makes no sense to me and I suck at games (yes you do).

Alastair Roberts (AKA “The Codfather”)

I will only pay for dlcs, I try my hardest not to make any micro transactions. For things like GTA, Rainbow Six Siege and Destiny I’ll just grind my way to get things instead of buying the in game currency. That being said I have gotten bored and bought lives for candy crush back in the day, before I realised changing the phone’s time works as well. I’m a stubborn bastard, so I will never pay to win. I will drag a team down with me!

Mark Caffrey (AKA “The Enigma”)

As Alastair said I will only spend my hard earned $$dolla$$bills$$ on dlcs. However games such as Destiny haven’t received my money for all of their dlc content because with games like that I will wait for the $60 version of the “collection” release (I’m financially smart). When it comes to the price of games these days I’d rather grind the hard way than take an easier way out. Rarely am I compelled to spend actual money on outfits for my characters or a new glamour weapon because in reality I will end up trading the game in in the long run and my expenditures will have been for nought!

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So there you have it folks, honest opinions from honest strange people. We hope you enjoyed this delve into the psyche of some of our staff here at Twisted Bard. If you didn’t, be sure to send a message to my boss, as he loves listening to the complaints of the masses. Until next time, ba-bye!