Watch: We Are Worried About Microtransactions in Racing Games!

Aiden237 said:

How dare someone wanna make money from their hard work?

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I am ready to give money for good work. I have bought plenty of mods, DLCs and stuff for many games/sims
If the money is deserved and i want spend it i have not a problem with it.

The problem is like everyone wanna squeeze the orange to make money with bad content, stolen content or ridiculos content. Thats all i can add. Thats my opinion. You or others can have of course another.
Thats the good thing, we still can choose.

Kevin Troschinski said:

I am ready to give money for good work. I have bought plenty of mods, DLCs and stuff for many games/sims
If the money is deserved and i want spend it i have not a problem with it.

The problem is like everyone wanna squeeze the orange to make money with bad content, stolen content or ridiculos content. Thats all i can add. Thats my opinion. You or others can have of course another.
Thats the good thing, we still can choose.

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Funny how you mention about “bad” “stolen” or “ridiculous” content you just said about Skin paterons.

You are on a site that include lots of number 1. A little bit of 2. And plenty of 3.

PR0JECTNR56 said:

Might be the last of it's kind, but my go to model is definitely the original Assetto Corsa.

One time purchase with optional DLCs, where the game also works like an accessible frame, leaving the door open to any form of modding.

Taking in consideration that the game goes strong until this very day with many quality mods to choose from, and it's getting close to the 10 year anniversary, I think it's fair to say, that it has proved it's worth.

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Those DLC's could already be labelled as microtransactions.
As it's small portions of content, compared to a full release.
The AC full vanilla release was a bit of everything and not a full game at all.

Honestly, the software has advanced so much that if this starts a trend, then the community at large will simply migrate to the mod-supporting games.
But overall, I believe the focus should be on expanding the community instead of milking it.
That's partly why I don't use iRacing, it feels like I'm being milked for some marketing dream.
The pie is still way too small. Sim racing is the single most expensive esport by a big, big margin. No need to make it even less accessible.
A friend of mine recently ordered a 100k sports car, I convinced him to sign up for a rally driving course, track driving, etc. Couldn't convince him to get a sim, he thought it was too expensive. Not smth crazy, just a gaming PC, monitors, seat + G29. To me, this speaks volumes.

Aren't MICRO transactions called MICRO for a reason? Doesn't it mean they are below - say - a dollar or a Euro so really a transaction that feels like no transaction at all but would do if you added them all up over the course of a month? Isn't that the basic idea? Sucking you dry drip by drip? And do most of the transactions discussed here not fall under this bracket? Just wondering. Seems like folks use this thread to vent the same old anger (against paid mods, against iRacing) over and over while the topic really is a different one ...

I really want DLC car armor.

Whether we are fans of them or not, microtransactions are here to stay. Developers have to make money somehow, and consumers, as a whole, are very price-sensitive.

I remember paying $47 for Official Formula 1 Racing 24 years ago. I was a teenager, that was 2 week's income from mowing two lawns. I'm now a professional adult with a steady income, and of the 3000+ games in my Steam library (yeah, I know), I spent that amount on... maybe 5-10 games? And that's discounting inflation, even.

Few companies are willing to charge consumers (and few consumers are willing to pay) the $120 or so that their game actually needs to be priced at to be a sustainable product. However, many more consumers, and more companies are willing, to charge you $79.99, and extract more revenue from willing and eager customers through DLC and mtx.

Here's a hot take: I'm glad that microtransactions are part of the ecosystem, albeit with some caveats. It's an efficient way to better match companies and consumers. Imagine if all concertgoers had to pay the same amount for tickets whether they're front row or nosebleeds. That's not very efficient. Likewise, selling a game at a lower cost, and monetizing options, allows someone to get some part of the experience, and allows the company to earn something from that person rather than nothing. I got many people to purchase Automobilista 2 on sale, and they eventually bought the DLCs. They never would've given Reiza a cent if not for the low cost of entry.

Those caveats? Mainly ethical ones. Selling to children and pay to win are chief among them. Loot boxes are iffy. That being said, for cosmetics that have no significant impact on gameplay, go ahead, create value out of nothing, and have people pay for it. I have a StatTrak skin for every Counter-Strike gun there is, I spent triple digits for them... yet I can get killed by a noob who has had hundreds of hours in the game, for free, who has no gameplay disadvantage over me. That, to me, is a fantastic way to handle microtransactions.

Microtransactions are here to stay. Rather than trying to fight them wholesale, I'd rather fight to make sure they are guided towards things that add value to the base experience and not things that gatekeep the base experience.

Aiden237 said:

How dare someone wanna make money from their hard work?

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Aiden237 said:

How dare someone wanna make money from their hard work?

Click to expand...

If modders consider modding "hard work", then why do it in the first place?

I always thought that modders created their content because they loved simracing, not because it was a job. If modding is done purely for profit, then it's taking away a very important aspect of it, I think.

Unless, of course, you do like Reiza (and others I suppose) and launch your own studio.

But a modder that creates a mod for an existing game is adding something to a game that already exist. If he sells his mod, then he should also be willing to pay a fee to the studio, because he is profitting from somebody else's work.

Metla said:

I'll put a similar comment to the one I put on the video.

The fact that a large portion of the sim community supports the iRacing model just shows that we are the problem, EA would never get away with a scam such as this.

Makes the horse example seem a bit cute.

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I still can't make that jump to Iracing. The constant monthly fee bothers me and is the main reason I haven't bit. Is the game worth the monthly fee?

Kingkoenig said:

If modders consider modding "hard work", then why do it in the first place?

I always thought that modders created their content because they loved simracing, not because it was a job. If modding is done purely for profit, then it's taking away a very important aspect of it, I think.

Unless, of course, you do like Reiza (and others I suppose) and launch your own studio.

But a modder that creates a mod for an existing game is adding something to a game that already exist. If he sells his mod, then he should also be willing to pay a fee to the studio, because he is profitting from somebody else's work.

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How did you take that from that?

People put hard work towards things they enjoy because they wanna make it to the best of their abilities. Also for most, it went from fun to work because they enjoyed it that much. Sites like this would be dead without groups like RSS, VRC and URD on the AC side.

Also, why should a modder have to pay the studio? It would be the opposite way around. Games like AC would be dead without mods.

P.S. Calm down on the gendered language modders female and male make mods.

Kevin Troschinski said:

I am ready to give money for good work. I have bought plenty of mods, DLCs and stuff for many games/sims
If the money is deserved and i want spend it i have not a problem with it.

The problem is like everyone wanna squeeze the orange to make money with bad content, stolen content or ridiculos content. Thats all i can add. Thats my opinion. You or others can have of course another.
Thats the good thing, we still can choose.

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Couldn't agree more with what you said

Microtransactions?! Heck, no. I want to pay 15$ a track and then lose access if I don't pay another $10 a month. I prefer Macrotransactions!

As for game prices, I just need to look at what we paid back in the late 90's. Sure, there was a physical product with resale value, but I did see an ad for the WCW N64 game selling for $69! Back in like '97!

The big problem too many people don't bring up is what happens when the servers shut down? In most cases it seems that your money goes down the drain and you can't use what you paid for. This is why games as a service are such a problem and it's a shame that gamers allowed this to happen.

Kingkoenig said:

If modders consider modding "hard work", then why do it in the first place?

I always thought that modders created their content because they loved simracing, not because it was a job. If modding is done purely for profit, then it's taking away a very important aspect of it, I think.

Unless, of course, you do like Reiza (and others I suppose) and launch your own studio.

But a modder that creates a mod for an existing game is adding something to a game that already exist. If he sells his mod, then he should also be willing to pay a fee to the studio, because he is profitting from somebody else's work.

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I created hundreds of vintage tracks for Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 3 (released in 2000), and they're all free, and I'm still creating them. someone else created 100~200 modern tracks and they're all free. There's simply no payware mod for that game. yet you can race almost any track in formula 1 history, that is including those bizarre 94 tracks. not to say how many car mods exist for that game. In AC even common tracks Monza 72, Detroit 82, Phoenix, Watkins Glen 80, Zolder 75 are missing. Money only encourages scams not creativity

Aiden237 said:

How dare someone wanna make money from their hard work?

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There is a HUGE difference between then and now and what he said.

Early gmotor modders still don't make payware even when they have AC modders
ripping their content ( cars tracks skins the lot) and flogging it.

I guess that says something for our origins huh.

Gawd, GPL gave you Targa, Dundrod, Isle of Man, Monaco Rocks and some of the best most complete historic mods ever produced and never charges you 1 red cent.
All for Love !

Anyone remember the meltdown and drama back in the day when some chap started selling high-resolution sky textures for rFActor 1?

It was the End of Days for many people...

Wish I could remember his name.

The thing that really gets in my craw is barely any of the are legitimate.
Millions of businesses pay dues they pay TAX anyone who makes money and does not pay their share is ripping off honest workers funds.

The biggest one is I have had a number of sites charge me GST that they collect and don't hand over to their Government. That is just plain thieving and along with the rest of the offences could land you in jail and at best a big fine.

If they all paid their dues I would be happy with that.
That is why I will keep saying we need a official body a world wide organization for painting and modding that most of us will pay dues for to get beta testing and other such things, many things.

That would be millions a year to fund our industry and future.
All content would have a seal of approval from the Co.Op.
Black list anyone else that does not comply.
How long you think it would take for sites like Paetron to wake up and smell the roses ?

Metla said:

Anyone remember the meltdown and drama back in the day when some chap started selling high-resolution sky textures for rFActor 1?

It was the End of Days for many people...

Wish I could remember his name.

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Hudson Kerr
Most everyone spewed then later took his work and used it for themselves in multiple sims.
Hypocrites.

I got AMS1, RBR, AC, GPL, PnG3. Go ahead and do your worst, modern gaming

Not just payware modders either.

How about the freeware modder says he has been trying to get permission to release
his work so just for now he will make private, so if you want it contact him/her.

All the time well knowing that one of the first that downloads it will leak it.
Smacks of hypocrisy too they don't have the balls to release it, so they let someone else do it.

Durge Driven said:

There is a HUGE difference between then and now and what he said.

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He literally called out AC Skinners for having paterons. People who constantly get requests, who put days of effort into skins and moaning about them wanting payment for their work. As if most don't use tools that cost more than they should.