So it has been announced that the upcoming anticipated title Dead Space 3 will contain an in-game crafting system for weapons and equipment, based on materials that are collected through gameplay. Sounds dandy! Crafting systems can be an excellent addition to a game if implemented right, as they give the player a greater feeling of involvement and personal effect on the game at hand. See, its not just any laser death-saw that you're toting around, its YOUR laser death-saw, hand crafted by the sweat of your twiddling thumbs. So crafting systems are all well and good, but(and there is always a but) this doesn't seem to be a feature created out of the goodness of EA's heart.
The issue lies in the fact that players will have the option to purchase these in-game materials using real money, in order to fast track their way to the best equipment. Wonderful, a $60 game with free-to-play monetization methods, that's exactly what the industry needed...
The argument can be made, as it can with most microtransaction systems, that none of this is mandatory, and therefor harmless. But I feel like that misses the forest for the trees. So yes, EA isn't forcing you to buy anything, but they are implanting an idea. How tempting will it be to just shell out a few bucks instead of painstakingly gathering your crafting materials? How long would it take you to earn that rocket launcher, and wouldn't you rather just have it now? And I would be willing to bet that everything from the crafting system to the difficulty curve is subtly tweaked to keep you asking those questions.
For a game that already costing gamers $60, that bothers me.
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Microtransactions are fine on their own, to be sure. They are a great way to reduce or even eliminate the upfront cost of a game, while allowing the player to dictate how much money they want to lay down for the experience. But placing this type of system in an already full priced game simply brings to mind the image of EA shaking gamers upside down for the change in their pockets.