10 Video Game Things They KEEP GETTING WRONG
4. Battle Passes And The Fear Of Missing Out
Remember when we talked about artificial scarcity?
That's only been enhanced by battle passes, the new kids on the microtransaction block.
After people started pushing back against loot boxes as a form of gambling, publishers needed a new, exciting way to grab money off their consumers. The battle pass was the solution to this 'problem'.
Battle passes are fundamentally designed to encourage excessive levels of gameplay for a steady drip, drip, drip of rewards. For a fee at the start of a season, you'll unlock the battle pass, and gain access to several new skins, weapons and other items.
The more you play, the more you get!
Seems great, but if you think about it further, it's an awful practice.
The whole thing gives these skins, particularly the ones at the top of the battle pass, a sense of artificial scarcity. People NEED to get to the top of the pass to get those skins, coz if they don't, they'll be lost forever.
In turn, the more they play the game, the more they'll see that there are other, EVEN BETTER skins outside of the battle pass. Then it's just a quick hop, skip and a jump to your credit card and those skins can be yours too.