Quote Originally Posted by Packetdancer View Post
I mean, that's fair. And entirely reasonable; lord knows I've dropped games due to burnout.

I just consider "play during this period to earn rewards exclusive to this period" part of gaming reality -- even if I also find it exhausting and would prefer that any timed exclusive reward eventually have some alternate way to get it -- whereas "play during this period to earn rewards exclusive to this period but you also have to give us money before you get the rewards, otherwise you're just playing for no rewards" is something I consider borderline unforgivable.

And "play during this period to earn rewards exclusive to this period, except the rewards are loot boxes where you might not get what you want, and you need to give us real money in order to open those loot boxes" is, in my opinion, flat-out the gaming business model equivalent of a war crime. Loot boxes you pay to get in a cash shop are bad enough. Putting the loot boxes in your inventory, forcing you to pay to open them or else deliberately, consciously throw them out... that's the worst sort of psychological manipulation and abuse of FOMO.
Companies are definitely trying to make it a part of gaming reality. I understand seasonal rewards (summer events, holidays etc.), but entire games being structured around these battle passes is extremely fatiguing. They are often made incredibly grindy, you are looking at 50-60 hours MINIMUM per on a lot of these passes, and that can be EVEN IF you pay for the premium variant with several tiers already unlocked. I get that they are a good way to revitalize a game for specific periods, but I just don't like it. FFXIV is doing this as well with their CC season malmstones or whatever.

I've never liked lootboxes, it's a big reason I cannot stand ESO's shop for example. Not only does Zenimax have FOMO "limited time" items in the shop, they had limited time lootboxes. Not to mention the high prices, and $100 houses. It was incredibly ridiculous.