The Sickening Truth Behind Cosmetic Gaming Microtransactions

Let's not forget the wider implications of game publishers as a whole encouraging the valuation and sale of digital cosmetics, as is best realised by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's literal skin economy.

With players able to not only trade their earned skins for other skins but also sell them for real-world money and even gamble them, it further normalises practises designed to prey on those with compulsive personalities.

While you can argue that the value of these skins is determined by the player market itself, it's nevertheless symptomatic of an industry which places an increasing amount of value on intangible, often artifiically scarce items which, for all intents and purposes, should simply be unlockable for all with sufficient effort.

This is of course just one branch away from the typical cosmetic MTX model, but also paints an unsettling picture of the creative ways in which the gaming public's thirst for cosmetics is being fostered and encouraged.

And finally, we come to the major, overarching issue with the current system...