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This is the stupidest timeline. I hope in 30-50 years’ time, this is all explained in history textbooks as the catalyst for why the entire system was re-written from the ground up to root out and prevent corruption and cronyism, but I’m not holding my breath.
The problem with cosmetic microtransactions is that it gives the creators a monetary incentive to make sure nothing you can earn in the game is as appealing as the microtransaction items, or that their availability (in cases where you can earn the same items in-game) are low enough that you’ll never reasonably earn what you want.
You can say ‘Cosmetics don’t matter!’ but the astronomical sales of cosmetic items pretty much proves that to the majority of players, that is not the case.
They also often intentionally create game mechanics specifically to ensure that players who aren’t paying see the better-looking players who did pay.