Once upon a time, we could unlock all cosmetic items just by playing the game we paid for.
When cosmetic DLCs came around, framed as a way to support the developers it was still somewhat accepted. If you wanted to look pretty, pay a little more. Fine.
But what's up with all these seasonal passes and whatnot? So, you're saying I can pay a game for the privilege of working to earn these cosmetics. And there's a seasonal rotation, so I can still stand to miss out if I don't play enough in the given time frame?
That's a bad deal if I've seen one.
I know it's been around for a long time, but it's a crappy business proposition. It's a sad state that we can't just pay for a completed game and avoid any microtransaction bs in game while playing.
I say this as someone who doesn't like MTX, but I've never understood how optional cosmetics ever factor into whether a game is "complete". The only way they could be seen as an important part of the game is if you play games to play dressup. Which I get if you're playing a fashion designer style game or a game thats almost purely social, but in the majority of games they don't fucking matter at all. How do people get so bent out of shape about them?
You really shouldn't be but I feel you'd be surprised how many people, especially MMORPG players, care about this. I personally play GW2 a lot and since there's no gear treadmill unlocking cosmetics is one of the main goals you can actually do there, to show off your accomplishments or hard work. Ofc it's not the only thing keeping players engaged but it is a major part of it.
Besides, if it didn't matter to players then it wouldn't be monetized as much in the first place. So whenever I see this argument "well its just cosmetics so it doesnt matter:", I get kinda frustrated because obviously it matters, obviously it works which is why it's still a thing to monetize so much.
I'm not arguing it doesn't matter, I'm arguing it shouldn't matter.