“It’s just cosmetics.” That’s been a constant refrain ever since we entered the microtransaction era. That was an excuse nobody wanted to hear back in the Oblivion Horse Armor days, but now? While annoying, most people seem to have begrudgingly accepted the existence of cosmetic microtransactions if the game isn’t selling actual power boosts.
However, what Diablo 4 is starting to do with its live service ambitions is probably the first time I’m actually pretty upset with cosmetic microtransactions. It’s a game I really like, a game I am looking for more reasons to farm, but yeah, they are pushing their luck here.
The problem is that they even saw this coming. Much ado was made about there being cool sets in the game you could transmog, at least as cool as anything you could find in the cash shop. That was mostly true at launch (with a few exceptions I believe were indeed cooler), but now here in season 1, it’s ridiculous.
My good friends at Icy Veins recently discussed this issue, which was the inspiration for my post here. They posted an image (I took a chunk of it below, but it’s much bigger, go look at it) that shows the disparity between the cash shop and free armor this season.
There were zero new sets offered in the game itself. Not even individual pieces of armor, because Uniques, for reasons I cannot fathom, do not have their own unique appearance in the game. That leaves the infamous “red shirt striped pants” set from the free part of the battle pass, which makes it look like you’re a town NPC.
Then you get to the cash shop. I’ve already talked about the insane $20-$35 prices on these, which is one thing, but it’s another when you see the full volume of these. The “best deal” are the ones you earn from the paid part of the battle pass, which is $10 and is a set for all five classes.
The rest? So far there are 22 different armor sets for each class, five for Barbarian and Necromancer, four for Druid, Sorcerer and Rogue. I imagine those last three will get another three to round out things for 25 total. That is 25 paid armor sets in a single season compared to one free one which is outrageously awful. And nothing at all is new, cosmetically, to be earned in the game outside of like, a Butcher-themed horse.
In the live service space, there are other controversies like this. But in a game like Destiny, players complain that there are two cash shop armor sets a season and one in the battle pass. And at least one of them can usually be easily earned with an in-game currency (Bright Dust). Diablo only gives out earned currency in its $10 battle pass, not the game itself, and it’s not enough to by a single item in the store. You’d have to save up for 4-5 seasons (and pay $40-50) to buy a single armor set for one character.
This is not Fortnite or Call of Duty. This is a loot-based game and that includes cosmetics, as everyone wants to look cool. Having zero free options to loot in-game in a season is untenable. This is an absurd practice and there should be no more than maybe two of these themed sets (so ten, across all classes) per season, one in the battle pass and then the rest should be earned. They can be hard to earn, but that would be another reason for people to engage with the season, instead of being done after 1-2 weeks (like I was). I feel really strongly about this, but who knows if anything will actually change.
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