New ways to monetize the game through customization.

[Packetdancer]

I hate it. Unfortunately, it seems to be the latest trend for every game. I'll watch devs acting like their "new" monetization scheme is so much better. Including fortnite style battle passes and the like. All FOMO.

If your "battle pass" is a "you pay once and everything we come out with during the duration of this pass, you get" system -- e.g., season passes that come with "any and all DLC we come out with" and such -- I'm inclined to like it somewhat more -- or at least, hate it somewhat less -- than actively "here's a Cool Thing! Don't you want the Cool Thing? Better buy the Cool Thing right now, or you'll never see it again!" followed by, three weeks later, "Here's the Cool Thing with new, better colors! Don't you prefer this Cool Thing? Better buy it right now, or..."

But if your "battle pass" is "you need to pay us money in order to be eligible at all for any rewards you would earn in-game during this period", then your entire business model is bad and you should feel bad.

If you make things I earn in-game dependent on paying you real money and earning those things in game, I will stop playing. It's even worse if you make earning those things in-game become gambling a'la loot boxes. I bailed on Secret World Legends after having been a loyal player of The Secret World from beta -- having a Grandmaster lifetime subscription and all -- because they started dropping in-world loot boxes from mobs that you had to pay real money to get keys to open, and which you had no idea what they might contain. And that was a hard pass from me. (Despite the fact that, as a holder of one of those legacy lifetime subscriptions, they threw a large number of those keys at me per month.)

I will pay for extra content. I will grind for extra content. I will not pay you (beyond any applicable subscription fee to the game in general) for extra content which I must then also grind for.