10 Hugely Influential Video Games (That Made Everything Worse)
6. Team Fortress 2 - Accidentally Birthing Microtransactions
If there were any example of mislaid intention, then this entry sums it up perfectly.
Microtransactions. Dirty word, isn't it?
There's nothing worse than paying top dollar for a game, only to find out there's insidious in-game purchases littered throughout. You know who's to blame for that though?
Team Fortress 2.
It may not have had them at launch, but in 2011 Valve added a cosmetic microtransaction system. Purely optional and aesthetic, completely harmless. What danger could a new hat bring?
The problem is, greedy publishers then saw the EArning potential in this (heh), and thus the boom of "in-app purchases" and "pay to win" mechanics spread like wildfire.
What started as fun, optional cosmetic dalliance became such a horribly rooted practice across many platforms. It's only in recent years that these have been heavily dialed down, yet they still lurk about.
It wouldn't be fair to blame Valve though. How were to know that a fancy hat for your Medic would spawn something much worse?
Nine years on and we're still reeling from it.