It always astonishes me how much people are willing to pay for cosmetic digital items (game skins, stickers, NFTs, etc). But it's a huge market, even if you leave out the bits of it that are just gambling.
I'm one of those guilty of spending hundreds (or maybe low thousands? yeesh, I don't want to know) of dollars on Path of Exile cosmetics that have no gameplay impact. My justification (ok, self-rationalization) is that it supports a small company* making a really good free-to-play game that has no pay to win elements. As a gamer, I want more games like that, and cosmetics is a way for the whales who can afford it to subsidize free players, while still giving the game a large and thriving community.
That model is so much better than the typical Asian MMO (or Diablo Immortal) that are straight-up pay to win, gating progression behind various currencies that you have to spend real money on.
But yeah, at the end of the day, these are totally ephemeral things with no real value, disappearing into the ether when that game shuts down or the company goes away (which has happened with many of my favorite games, sadly, like Firefall).
*Side note: Path of Exile is actually mostly owned by the Chinese conglomerate Tencent. But development for the Western market still happens at Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand, and the monetization is still cosmetics-only in the West. I think Tencent made a separate version with pay to win for the Asian markets.
That angle is certainly more understandable - it sounds like you're almost treating them as a donation to the developers rather than purchases for your own benefit. Games like Deep Rock Galactic had something similar - the vast majority of the cosmetics (and all of the gameplay affecting items) were free - but there were a few "supporter" cosmetic packs you could buy.
Yeah, exactly! I think Deep Rock Galactic was like $20 when it first came out? I took a gamble on it and it was one of the best indie early access games I've ever played. For the amount of content and fun it provided, $20 seemed way too low. I was happy to support them and get some cosmetic armors in exchange.
The game kept getting better and better through the years. It's a pretty awesome success story.
They eventually made a board game too (it was okay, IMO).
Overall, I just prefer a gaming ecosystem made of many small but passionate players rather than the Ubi (or Wizards) of the world. And cosmetics can help with that without sacrificing gameplay integrity.
I'm one of those guilty of spending hundreds (or maybe low thousands? yeesh, I don't want to know) of dollars on Path of Exile cosmetics that have no gameplay impact. My justification (ok, self-rationalization) is that it supports a small company* making a really good free-to-play game that has no pay to win elements. As a gamer, I want more games like that, and cosmetics is a way for the whales who can afford it to subsidize free players, while still giving the game a large and thriving community.
That model is so much better than the typical Asian MMO (or Diablo Immortal) that are straight-up pay to win, gating progression behind various currencies that you have to spend real money on.
But yeah, at the end of the day, these are totally ephemeral things with no real value, disappearing into the ether when that game shuts down or the company goes away (which has happened with many of my favorite games, sadly, like Firefall).
*Side note: Path of Exile is actually mostly owned by the Chinese conglomerate Tencent. But development for the Western market still happens at Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand, and the monetization is still cosmetics-only in the West. I think Tencent made a separate version with pay to win for the Asian markets.