Hey there everyone.
I recently dinged the big level 100 and I feel it's appropriate, given my experience in the game, to share some perspective on the free to play economy of Apex.
I'd like to start by saying that I legitimately like the game. A lot. Obviously, because I'm level 100, but more so because it is the first legitimately well-made game to surface in a long time. I brushed Apex off at first because AAA games are nothing but an endless conveyor belt of shallow experiences designed to con you into spending money on special editions, DLC, microtransactions, literally anything to get you to pay for a game twice despite the game being mediocre-at-best BECAUSE they chopped it up to sell you the aforementioned garbage. Apex bucked that trend by bringing exceptionally thoughtful design to the table combined with a game that, for the most part, just works. It's not perfect, but it is far better than it has any right to be.
But...
Simply put, the economy is broken. Like, really bad. And that's a problem for players and for Respawn.
A quick preface. If you're the kind of person who sees Jim Sterling post another video about loot boxes and just rolls your eyes, then you aren't going to like this. If you get angry when people debate the merit of a blind loot box system versus a straight up cosmetics marketplace, then you aren't going to like this. You're going to get two sentences in and make a post about how we should "stop whining and accept loot boxes" because criticizing things you like is hard and it's easier to tell people to be quiet. I can't stop you, so go ahead and do your thing.
To summarize the economy in Apex: you start off getting free loot boxes every level. After a while, you only get free loot boxes every couple levels, then every five levels or so. At level 100, you stop getting free loot boxes and you can only earn red legends tokens, which at the moment can only be spent on new characters or custom skins provided you already own the base legendary skin. This means that the number of cosmetics you can earn without paying real money is finite. You cannot grind forever to get a skin for your favorite character, at some point you have to pony up cash.
There is nothing wrong with that last part in and of itself. The game is free and it has to make money somehow. The devil is in the loot boxes.
This is where I could do a bunch of math to show you some shocking statistics about how badly you are getting boned by loot boxes, but we all know we are. Loot boxes do nothing but prey on players. It is a decidedly anti-consumer practice that is illegal in multiple countries. I'm not going to waste my time explaining how you have to spend hundreds of dollars to have a reasonable chance of getting the item you want. I don't need to, considering the Reddit post about the guy who spent $500 to get the Wraith heirlooms. That says everything needed about how abusive the system is and how poorly skewed the odds are in the favor of the seller and not the purchaser.
Here's the painful part: I really, really want to buy skins for my favorite guns. I am more than willing to spend money on cosmetics for my favorite characters. I have a desire to give Respawn my money...
... in a fair transaction with reasonable value where I know what I am getting because I am a rational adult who isn't about to be treated like a "whale" playing Candy Crush.
I spent probably $200 over a couple years playing League of Legends. And I don't feel like I was ripped off. Every time I knew exactly what I was getting and I was able to make a conscious choice about what was a good value for my entertainment. $7 to make Urgot look like a crab person? WORTH IT. $5 to make Veigar a leprechaun? ABSOLUTELY, TAKE MY MONEY. $10 to have a 25% chance of getting an item I want, not a specific one just one on my list of maybes? NOPE! $18 for a mediocre skin that only changes appearance and has zero special effects or effort put into it? ABSOLUTELY DOUBLE NOPE. $18 skins in League have all custom voice lines, all custom animations, unique special effects, the list goes on. They earn that price tag. Respawn cannot reasonably expect to present value with a skin that just gives Bloodhound a plague mask, not for $18 at least.
I can't imagine I'm alone. There are plenty of people out there just waiting to throw money at you Respawn, but loot boxes are just straight up cancer. No one want's to feel like they wasted money on nothing and that is exactly what loot boxes are. On top of that, asking $18 for a single legendary skin is just preposterous given the level of quality we are getting in return.
You are actively losing money by keeping the system as is. I get that some bean counter at EA has decided this is the best way, but seriously. Just think about it for a second. You are trading a steady stream of happy customers who got what they wanted at a fair value for preying on the select few players who have a gambling problem and cannot help themselves but spend excess amounts of money vainly chasing the item they want.
You are trading 100 happy customers who all spent $5 for abusing one poor guy who spent $500 and barely got what he wanted.
That's not healthy for the game. It's not good for players, since most of us will never pony up the stupid amounts of money needed for the skins we really want. It's not good for Respawn because you are literally making less money than you could.
You can have my money when I'm allowed to purchase exactly what I want and you're willing to offer reasonable prices.
tl;dr
Loot boxes are bad.
$18 is comical for a single skin.
You would make more money with a normal storefront instead of the AAA standard loot box slot machine.
