I Miss Earning Rewards In Video Games, Rather Than Just Buying Them

Once upon a time, exclusive cosmetics could be earned simply by completing a few in-game challenges. You couldn’t just buy them with cash to skip ahead, these achievements required a sacrifice of time and some level of skill. That’s what I really miss about video games of the past.

The Road to Recon

Picture it: the year is 2009 and Halo 3: ODST has just been released. You and your friends are enjoying the fresh and moody campaign as well as the emergent firefight game mode. All was well in the world.

Along with this fun, new adventure, we were also introduced to a community event known as “The Road to Recon”. This created an opportunity to unlock an exclusive set of cosmetic armor for use in Halo 3 multiplayer. All players had to do was complete seven “vidmaster challenges” (in-game achievements) and the armor was theirs. No exceptions.

These challenges were not easy, and perhaps most importantly, many required teamwork. I can still remember all the hours spent finding the hidden skulls, completing a level without shooting, or even the most challenging of all: 4 players finishing the last level of Halo 3 on legendary difficulty, and where any one death meant a revert to the last checkpoint.

If this community event had occurred today, however, things might have looked a little different. Recon armor might be the grand reward at the end of a battlepass, or simply bestow itself via sheer dumb luck in a lootbox rewards system. In any case, you might come across another player in-game and wonder: jeez, how much did they pay for that?

This sort of question was much rarer back in the late 2000s, but it was certainly picking up steam. These days it’s harder to come by a video game that doesn’t include some form of cash store or excessive dependency on microtransactions. While there may not be consensus on who started it, there are certainly signs we can look at to chart the development of this gaming phenomenon.

So What Happened?

It is worth mentioning at the onset that paying for extra content is nothing new. One could even argue that slipping a quarter into an arcade cabinet for another go at your favorite classic is a form of microtransaction. Yet, there is something about the gaming environment today that feels bloated by games wanting more from your dime and not your time.

From my perspective, things really took a turn around the late 2000s to mid-2010s. With the soaring popularity of games centered around social media, like Farmville, and novelty apps for your mobile device, such as Candy Crush, there had never been a better time to nudge the consumer into giving up a little extra cash.

As the years progressed, titles like Fortnite (which is also now available on your phone) would become a major contributor to the progression of this market with its “V-bucks” cash store and now ubiquitous battlepass system.

But perhaps it isn’t entirely the game industry’s fault. We are, after all, highly conditioned these days for instant gratification, so the idea of a long grind or overwhelming challenges may turn some away from certain incentives.

Perhaps a friend has invited you to their favorite MMO, but you don’t want to spend weeks grinding just so that you can catch up to their level. Cha-ching! Buy a pass. Maybe that elite tier skin is making you feel somewhat inferior, but you’d have to play dozens and dozens of hours to even come close to unlocking it. Cha-ching! Buy a pass.

After all, if people didn’t pay money for these in-game items, would they even make it into games in the first place?

Where Do We Go From Here?

I, for one, support the return of more strictly merit-based rewards in video games. I think it creates a healthier environment for gameplay, plus it can set a great scene for making worthwhile memories for you and your friends.

Merit-based rewards attach a sense of respectability to the skill of a player and help show off their achievements in a more equitable way. Not to mention, parents could finally escape the weekly onslaught of requests for in-game currency (whether it’s V-Bux or EA Sports FC Ultimate Team packs) from their children.

Back in the early teens, when Halo: Reach was all the rage, I would spend countless hours with a couple of friends completing weekly or daily challenges to rank up and earn new armor pieces and titles. While they were always more dedicated than I was, it was fun to see how close I could catch up, and the experiences we shared while playing were unparalleled.

On the rare occasion I entered a lobby and saw another player with a haunted helmet (only accessible after reaching max rank), I was in awe. I dread to think of how a cash store could have poisoned that feeling.

As much as I and others have an attitude of irreverence toward mechanics that tempt the coin purse, I’m not going to pretend that these mechanics aren’t here to stay. We might as well get used to them and learn to play alongside them. After all, I am no saint when it comes to paid cosmetics; I had my League of Legends phase!

At the end of the day, it’s about what brings you joy, and if you don’t mind spending some extra dollars, then the virtual world is your oyster!

Though earning rewards in games can be fun, be careful that online games don’t take over and even devalue single-player experiences.