Fuck off, Micro-transactions.

You know what? It's time. For the sake of everyone involved, I'm calling it. It's time to shit-can micro-transactions. They were interesting at first, then funny, then annoying.  But now, they exist only to infuriate and divide us, and it's time for them to go away. Micro-transactions are the hybrid offspring of a pyramid scheme and Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

I understand how they came to be, and I understand what they intend to do. In theory, it should be great to play a game before deciding if you want to invest money into it. I understand that it's also supposed to be in the best interest of the consumer to decide how much money they want to spend playing a game. And the free to play, micro-transaction model is a decent barrier against piracy. These should be good things! And yet, all they've accomplished is separating lonely, rich, or stupid people from their money to chase extemporaneous bullshit.

By continuing to buy into this trend we're supporting a money vacuum that's only interested in the art of game-making as it pertains to manipulating people- those with lots of expendable income, problems with addictions, or incapable of understanding the concept of money, to click away billions of dollars to play with a Skinner box.  

If you love video games, you should care.  That money could be used to finance developers who want to create meaningful digital experiences, instead of repetitive activities that either increase or decrease in difficulty depending on the number of dollars you want to throw at them.

The first thing we have to realize is that there are things that freemium games simply can't do. First, they can't surprise you. How can they? You're paying a dollar at a time because you know exactly what it is you're paying for. And that's important. Would Ocarina of Time be as great if it was sold to you an hour at a time? No. You want to have adventures because you know that once you've completed them, you're entitled to the satisfaction that comes with overcoming obstacles. Can you really be happy with winning a game if the strategy involved handing over real, actual money whenever you were stumped? The notion of a rewarding challenge vanishes when you simply pay to turn down or completely erase the difficulty level.

Best case scenario, the challenge comes from trying to complete the game without paying, something that every game company has to consider the worst case scenario. 

They can't develop a narrative, or, more accurately, they can't do it without people feeling completely scorned.  "Want to see if Guybrush Threepwood becomes a pirate?  Only three more dollars!"

And that's just the single-player games. When you add MT's to multiplayer games, you're venturing into even more frustrating territory. Why bother playing against others, when the strategy of the game boils down to “spend more than the other person.”

What if this was applied to chess? Who the hell wants to play a chess game where you're playing 16 pawns against 16 queens because the person at the other end of the board gave twenty more dollars to the game creator than you did?

That's what's really at stake here.  If you want to keep playing games, then, like developers or publishers, you depend on other people to play and buy games.  And all the free to play, pay to win model will do is scorn people away from an industry that's on the verge of something awesome.

Look, from the very little I understand about game development, I can't say that a freemium game is easier to make than other types, but by common sense, I feel pretty confident when I say that putting together a game that's thematically interesting, mechanically balanced, and emotionally satisfying is a lot more difficult than, say, not doing that. Were I in the position of the game developer, I would want a system that makes it easier to make money for less work. But that can't be what we are here for.

Look, I understand that for many people, the goofy games on your phone are simply meant to be time killers. That's awesome. But there's no reason that we shouldn't want our time killers to be better, and they won't be- unless we understand what it is that we're investing our time and money into. It's possible to have great experiences with games of every single genre, but it means taking risks and thinking about gaming from the standpoint of an artist, or a gamer.  Microtransactions, I would bet a huge amount of money on, were the brainchild of an accountant, and making art solely from the perspective of making money never goes well.  Ask this guy.

Furthermore, freemium games never end. This may sound like a small complaint, but hear me out. The reason that we saw such awesome transitions between games during the first two decades or so of the medium is, put very simply, after a game was released, the people who worked on it started working on something different.  But the micro-transaction model is meant for you to spend perpetually; the only incentive to end the game is to manage costs.  When people get bored and want to move on, then we can innovate.  Until then, they give us real money for a non-existent currency, and the cycle continues.

This simply will not sustain, long term.  If we keep capping creativity for the sake of extending the profits, people will see through the gimmicks and start doing different things, like exercising, and fuck that.

Inevitably, this will go away. Some crazy ass developer will take a gamble and produce an absolutely awesome mobile game- one that people want to play for reasons other than psychological manipulation- and it will change everything. This will work- people already spend 22 billion dollars every year, the vast majority of which is payment for additional content on free games. But when people who only got into games to waste time see the Android equivalent of Half-Life, there will be an awesome new shift towards innovative games- games with puzzles that require actual thought and skill, not a set amount of time or a credit card number. You'll see games get sold based on the personification of their characters again. You'll see interesting themes. You'll see fascinating stories. You'll see people start playing games, things you love and relate to, for reasons other than the time they saw Kate Upton on a commercial.

You'll finally see what a completely interactive touch-screen controller can do when it's attached to the display. You'll see people playing demos of games, and then depending on the outcome of a demo, and then either buy a game, or take a pass. I can't fucking wait.

Sam lives in Austin, TX, and is still bitter about his addiction to Farmville.  Follow him on Twitter or email him at swellbo@gmail.com