Sadly customization and individualization are a huge content driver for most of these games. And regardless of them being “free2play” it all costs money to produce.
Most of your pay 2 play games don’t offer this huge amount of revolving customization. Even when they do offer a large amount of customization it sees an influx of individuality until the majority of the system has been attempted and then it just disappears.
Live service games end up costing loads to maintain simply in server costs so to keep up with a massive player base I can’t imagine the monthly cost that goes along with it. And that’s not even including extra content for the game itself. Itsuwari No Alice opened up about maintenance costs back in August in a bid to stay alive. It’s been eye opening when you consider the niche size of Itsuwari no Alice. https://automaton-media.com/en/news/20230803-20472/
Yeah the most egregious problems with a lot of these microtransaction games are because of parents who just don’t parent at all. I work with a guy who his kid calls him constantly while he’s at work so he can get more robux. And he just gives in no questions asked. If my kids would have done something like that I would have just taken their game away. Even when my children were growing up and they wanted to buy games or spend money on their phones there were ways you could track it and pay attention to it. Lots of parents just don’t care, and that’s probably the most sad aspect of it all.
Dad/Mom shouldn’t be an open bank account and respect should be the currency exchange. My kids had to do chores for the things they wanted to do and they had limitations to what that could go to. Because they don’t need to vegetate on the couch for the entire summer playing a game on their console only to get in trouble and lose it and continue playing on their cell phone. It blows my mind how many kids just basically parent themselves. And i was a latchkey kid! I was parented by respect and love for my parents and the fear of what could happen if I did stupid things. Not fear of punishment but fear of consequences in general. I accidentally shot out a neighbors window with my friends BB gun when my parents were at work. Parents found out and I worked mowing lawns and etc to get up enough money to replace it. Because I broke it, it was my responsibility to fix it. Too often kids don’t have consequences.
Man what a dumb rant. Sorry about that. Sore subject I guess.