One website is documenting games’ in-game purchases and warning fans if there are any unfair microtransaction offerings.
Microtransactions are more prevalent than ever before in gaming, but one website wants to help gamers learn ahead of time whether their next purchase features loot boxes, paid DLC, and game-changing in-game purchases. Meet Microtransaction.Zone, an online system that snarkly rates games based on their paid DLC.
The site was co-created by Jake Sulyvahn and Taylor Bartman, two video game fans who were “sick and tired of the ways in which so many modern video games try to squeeze ever more money out of their players, according to the project’s official FAQ. The website launched last week and quickly exploded after landing on r/PCGaming.
Microtransaction.Zone features an extensive rating system along with detailed information on how microtransactions work for each game. The site’s listing for Fortnite points out that the game is billed as free-to-play, yet also has a player-vs-enemy DLC expansion, cosmetic DLC, loot boxes, and no limit on in-game purchases, among other things. Meanwhile, the site calls Overwatch a “never-ending shower of loot boxes and digital sports jerseys.”
Interested users can provide their own submissions for the site, which are then reviewed by moderators before being published. Submitters can even add additional links that provide more context on how a game’s microtransaction system works, so visitors can see if they’re comfortable spending additional money on a newly-released game before making their purchase.
“Big-budget video games in 2018 are a hellscape of microtransactions, loot boxes, cosmetic DLC and subscription fees,” Sulyvahn says in the website’s official mission statement. “Sometimes, before you buy a game, you want to know: ‘How will this game try to make me pay even more money once I start playing?'”
To answer that question for yourself, check out Microtransaction.Zone here.
H/T PCGamesN
