The dilemma of supporting free to play

I'm a big believer that in our late capitalist society, what we choose to buy is among the most important choices we make day to day.

Whether its choosing to fill a bottle at home rather than buy a plastic bottle of water, or paying more for that new hoodie cos you know it wasn't made by slaves, every decision is a tiny little vote for the world you want to live in.

This brings me to my small dilemma.

When I enjoy a game that's either free or very cheap, I often like to purchase something in-game to support the developers and this week I've enjoyed Apex Legends enough that I want to pay a little something for it.

However, I hate random drop loot boxes and I can't bring myself to buy them. I consider loot boxes as a poisonous, predatory practice lifted straight out of the gambling industry and I see buying them as a vote FOR them. By buying them I'm helping the business case for having them in games in the first place.

So what to do? I've unfortunately concluded that I won't be sending any money Respawn's way until there's a way to do so that doesn't involve gambling.

Give me a store where I can buy characters, skins, quips, whatever... for straight up money and I'll buy 'em.

Uh, pretty sure there is a store where you can buy skins with the premium currency and you can also unlock characters with it. It's not just loot boxes.

Yeah there totally is a store where you can buy skins. Problem solved?

@agentzigzag: Buy Apex coins and buy the skins they sell for those in the store in game. Additionally when the season pass comes out, buy that. The first one will be in March and then the plan is to have a new one every three months.

In general, I struggle with this as well - long term. The demand creates the supply, which is why I do buy more expensive meat that comes from a proper farm, for example. At the same time I know that for each person deciding to go this way there are dozens that don’t (in this example people who are getting old enough to eat meat and start to consume). So in the end, this fight is almost completely futile and all I’m buying is some sort of release from the guilt. I’ll still do it, but I know it makes next to no difference, as a whole, people don’t really care.

yeah you can just buy what you want. the battle pass launches next month too, maybe wait till then and see how it all shakes out.

They really did a fantastic job of making a F2P model that's open enough for you to enjoy however you're comfortable with it. The core group of characters are fun, but if you want to unlock more you can do it with in game currency and real money. Loot crates are there, but you can buy individual outlets through the store. And there's a battle pass coming which rewards you with more outfits if you want to buy in.

Also, the game is fun as hell and it's free.

No complaints at all from me.

The only "Free to Play" games I'd be willing to vouch for are games that are truly free (as in freedom), like Xonotic. It's free in both senses and doesn't have any mechanics to try to manipulate you into buying anything, as there's nothing you can buy. It's still a great and solid game.

If I'm going to spend money on a game, I want to just pay the money up front and have the complete experience right there. I'm not willing to put up with anything with micro-transactions.

At the end of the day, you have to understand what you are trying to accomplish

Do you want to change the world? What you purchase will likely make no difference whatsoever

Do you want to "look yourself in the mirror" (bit dramatic, but you get the point)? Then who cares about the world. You do you

With loot boxes, your purchases don't matter. They aren't going to stop being lucrative and they are going to get regulated (with a heavy hand) at some point anyway. You buying or not buying is irrelevant to how things are going to play out. I support games that I think do an okay job of it (Path of Exile comes to mind) and I don't support games that I think don't (CSGO and PUBG).

Similarly: I am not buying MK11 even though I've been looking forward to it. Not going to open the can of worms here, but let's just say there is someone involved I actively do not want to support or see in any form of media I consume. I am under no illusions that what I am doing will make a difference and I am sure it will sell well. But I feel better not sending any cash that way.

I can't think of many 'proper' free-to-play games that I've had an issue with. If they give me the game for free, I'll pretty much accept any kind of microtransactions that don't throw the game itself out of balance. If I like the game or spend a decent amount of time playing it, I'll throw some money at it.

The only time microtransactions rub me up the wrong way is when they're in a game I've paid full price for. Star Wars Battlefront 2 was disgusting for this upon release (it's fixed now).

I think loot boxes are a bit shitty but I don't really get why people get so upset with them. If you don't like it, don't get involved. Pokemon cards and other similar collectibles are no different. It's all a forced rarity scam.

I like the game and while I have an issue with paid loot boxes as an ethical standpoint (they’re predatory towards gambling addiction tendencies), they don’t affect me personally. I even like the idea of getting random surprises skins as I play, so the models kinda suits me even if I think paying money for loot boxes shouldn’t exist at all.

What bums me out is that I wanted to support the game, I love Respawn’s work and wanted to encourage them, but none of the transactions they offer really make sense. I don’t care about the skin, so I figured I’d buy one or two of the locked characters, but you can’t just only buy them. You need to buy premium currency and you either don’t have enough to buy a character, or you get more than needed and have leftovers currency you’re supposed to spend on skins. I know it’s designed that way because it encourages people to think less about how they buy and that basically every game with premium currency does it this way, but it really rubbed me the wrong way. I wish it was just a fixed price for an item, none of that currency bullshit.

So I didn’t buy a thing. It’s a testament to the game that it is good without needing to pay a dime and I’m sure the devs themselves would rather have a better micro transactions system in place, but that’s the market I guess. While the fact that you don’t need to buy anything to enjoy the game is ethical, I don’t find how the micro transactions are set up to be. Still glad that it seems to be a success for them.

Maybe see if there's some merch you can buy. Or Titanfall 2 if you haven't.