Advancing to Faster than Light

So I know I’ve been super quiet again, things have gotten busy with real life which has given me some trouble with working on Shuffle Breaker recently, apart from the video blog i put up a few days ago. But rest assured I am still working on it.

Also taking up my time recently… FTL: Faster Than Light had its Advanced Edition DLC come out earlier this month (for free, even!). FTL was one of my favorite games to play in 2012 and while initially I was a bit burnt out on it, a couple of my friends talking up the new features of Advanced Edition convinced me to dive back in and now I wonder why I ever left. All of the new features are pretty awesome.

DLC Review – Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta

A couple weeks ago, having found that I had 900 or so Republic Credits Microsoft Points, I decided it would be a good idea to grab the last DLC pack that Bethesda has released for Fallout 3. I am of course talking about Mothership Zeta, which probably takes you the furthest possible distance in any Fallout game since you wind up in space.

I’m going to try to avoid spoilers but be warned there might be a couple here or there. So read on, carefully.

Suddenly, a problem with Microtransactions?

I used to never see the big deal with microtransactions (i.e. paying for DLC and so forth on Xbox Live, the Wii Shop, etc.), but tonight I think I almost hit a stumbling block in my resolve to, aside from Battlefield: Bad Company, not have a problem with paying to unlock more content in a game.

I was playing an open beta of a new game on Instant Action (the server-side multiplayer games site) called Lore: Aftermath. Really fun mecha game, basically the multiplayer arena matches from Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, complete with a mech lab. Of course, you don’t get immediate access to those. And therin was my problem. See I enjoy customization, but I’m not allowed to customize without paying money to unlock a large number of emblems, and in fact, every single weapon.

I almost was annoyed by this, but then I realized something. I’m playing a game for free. I’m paying to unlock more features, essentially paying for the game. Unlike Battlefield: Bad Company, where people were paying $60 including money for DLC that was really pointless (i.e. balance-breaking weaponry). Having thought about that it seems to me it’s acceptable to pay to unlock features in a game I didn’t pay for yet. In this way the gamer is setting their own price, and while I don’t have any proof, I have a feeling it might work out pretty well.

Of course since this is a beta I’m a bit loathe to pay to unlock features in it since I’m not sure it’d carry over when the full version hits. But I don’t feel like I was being cheated per-se, especially since I haven’t really felt the need to have customization in order to enjoy the game more so far.