It's no different than spending thousands on travel or hundreds to watch movies at the theater. You're paying for the experience and entertainment, not something physical.

Me after realizing it's me with American Truck Simulator, buying all those DLC and truck packs.

Was going say your right how stupid, then dawned on me I have done this....😭

Isn't that literally everyone who owns digital games? All your shit on Steam is a license to use the software, you don't actually own any of those games.

I mean, I get the point, cosmetics and such and anything virtual is not tangible in the real world but let's not pretend we aren't all doing that with every game we spend money on.

Having said that, the amount of money companies charge for some of this stuff is outrageous. Luckily, nobody is pointing a gun to your head forcing you to buy it!

things can only be enjoyed if you trade money for physical objects then?

Cuz my partner has gotten many many hundreds of hours of enjoyment from the few hundred bucks they have 'wasted' on things like Fallout76 furniture and stuff. Eventually she will stop playing and 'lose' all that stuff.

I personally think the many hundred hours of happy playtime is well worth it. It's her favorite way to relax after work. We don't have a lot of space for her to build real castles but she spends sooo much of her time enjoying building virtual ones.

How is it any different from enjoying nice food or drinks with friends?

I'm glad I've always looked down on people who spend money to buy shit in games. If something is only available by paying for it, anyone that I notice showing one off in game gets a "tool" label rather than "cool".

Which is kind funny because if the game was a bit less abusive and had a way to get that item without paying, that negative reaction wouldn't be so strong because it would be ambiguous. Did this person play the game and get rewarded with that item or did they just throw money at it and get handed it? Can't be sure, so anyone that has it isn't automatically a tool.

And progression MTX are even dumber. It's like paying money so you don't have to play the game.

Though the overall quality of the game can play a role, plus whether the items are purely cosmetic vs give in game benefits (aka P2W). If the game is amazing, having some microtransactions doesn't bother me. Like when I pirated games, I had a threshold where if a game was better than that threshold, I'd buy a copy of the game because I wanted the devs to have money. Some MTX are like that, basically a tip jar for a great game.

But if the game isn't great, it's more like seeing an expectation to tip when you don't think a tip is warranted.

People who think that way are dumb

But when I sometimes think that way it's cool

Logic

I thought I was immune until I got sucked into some game where you battle with teams of players you collect and fight other players. There was some element of sending your titans to mine resources as well, but I forget the name of the game, but spent over $500 in it.

I literally uninstall any game that has gems, emeralds, coins that can be bought to speed things up.

Wow I didn't know that so it's a 90$ cosmetic plus pay to win. Ridiculous.

I'm sure that would cause a significant portion of the playerbase to react with angry and hurtful messages. Then poor Blizzard would have no choice but to wipe their tears with their massive new pile of hundred dollar bills.

I vote with my wallet by buying indie games or old discounted single player AAA games. This also means I can game on a crappy machine. Being a retrogamer also helps. I literally have more games to play than time to live.