In the MMO shooter Destiny , discussions about microtransactions have reignited. The reason for this is a fresh trailer from Bungie.
Yesterday, Bungie released another trailer for the Festival of the Lost, which did them no favors. This video bluntly states in the title that it is a trailer for the “Treasures of the Lost”, referring to those items currently available for purchase with real money in the Eververse. We have already introduced the contents of these Treasures of the Lost during the Festival of the Lost.
At the beginning of the trailer, Tess Everis greets you with the words: “I have something very cool for you”, followed by the written note that you can stock up on festive items in the Eververse store. Then the items are presented. See for yourself:
The community is not reacting well to the promotional trailer for real-money spending. Almost 5000 users have rated it negatively on YouTube, while only 1700 have rated it positively. Trailers with such poor ratings are not something Bungie is typically known for.
In the reddit forum, the video is causing quite a stir. More than eight posts have made it to the front page of the top topics, all of which criticize the microtransactions and harshly criticize Bungie. One user even took the time to create a timeline of microtransactions in Destiny to show how “aggressively” the Eververse is currently operating.
“We want to play more, not pay more!”
And now people are heatedly discussing, throwing around slogans about why this year’s festival is terrible, pointing fingers at Bungie or at all Guardians who engage in microtransactions in Destiny. The entire community is being urged to boycott the Treasures of the Lost so that Bungie finally realizes they are going down the wrong path. It is also being suggested that one should completely avoid Destiny during this “Festival of Microtransactions”.
Some users, however, also defend Bungie and emphasize that they also need to fund their livelihood somehow. The expansion “Rise of Iron” was quite inexpensive, after all. Furthermore, the items that can be obtained through real money spending are purely cosmetic. No one is forced to buy them.
One Guardian expresses a wish that many would likely agree with: Such time-limited events that bring variety and new items into the Destiny universe are definitely welcome. However, these should provide reasons to play more and not to pay more. Microtransactions are fine and good, but it should at least be possible to obtain all the new masks of the festival by investing time and playing the game – not by starting the console with a fat wallet and buying everything.
A difficult topic. What do you think about it? How would you improve the Festival of the Lost?
