Yep. We didn’t even know how slippy the slope would get. Now we’re at the bottom of the slope, and the only thing slipping down is horse shit, and the shit is landing on our faces.
HarryCoinslot
Now do one for when karma farming started.
Proper_Corgi5045
It was executed perfectly. They picked such an amazing game to start weaseling their way in.
TacticalTobi
how are people mad about horse armor?
ohtetraket
Honestly, there is no universe where gaming didn’t develop MTX.
Novus_Grimnir
My horse was a queen and she deserved the best. I regret nothing!
Toruviel_
I thought this was Witcher 3 horse armour from a mod in Vivienne style
Khalmoon
Honestly no it started with us
RobIson240YT
They also added it in Skyrim via Creation Club, and in ESO as a pre-order bonus.
FizzingSlit
It’s interesting to me that so many people point to this being the beginning of micro transactions and yet when it comes to modern games argue it’s not a micro transaction if is only cosmetic.
I know you’re not saying that but it’s something I’ve noticed happens weirdly often
BigRussoOnTheButtons
What game is this?
Scorpio989
Microtransactions were nothing new to PC players during this time.
Templer66
I mean you could make a lot of arguments about DLC and micro-transactions, but while the Horse Armor may have been an early example I don’t think it was the root of all evil. I can think of two other games much more responsible. League of Legends and Team Fortress 2. There are likely games that tried to do it before them, but they are the first ones I think of with a cash shop for cosmetics, and arguably worse in the case of TF2 is early on the hats had gameplay value. The bigger thing there is that unlike the horse armor, I can’t remember people criticizing the cash shop in those games at the time or at least not to the same degree.
heeden
Ah yes, the cosmetic DLC I didn’t have to buy and now there is loads of cosmetic DLC I don’t have to buy.
Spuigles
“We added Horse armor!”
Me who runs around while jumping and casting healing spells to level up while travelling or just fast travels: “I dont need it. But.”
Lokkena
Nah, it went wrong when they charged for extra lives in arcades.
AwardFabrik-SoF
But it created the gem “Look at my horse, my horse is amazing
…” so there’s that.
beathelas
Someone watched Fear & Eggs
Mr573v3n
Also Maple story really started the avalanche
JustifiedDarklord
I remember years ago, pretty late during the PS3/360/Wii generation, that I was talking with some of the neighbor kids and I mentioned how I didn’t like how games were trending to the DLC model of selling a game for full price and then selling costumes and shit piecemeal when in previous gens, you’d just get that kind of stuff by playing the game and meeting specific goals.
They looked at me bewildered. They were like “But if you didn’t have DLC, how did you get new content?”. I’m like “Well that’s just it, that was the entire game – but it was complete.” and they just looked at me like what I was saying made no sense and were like “…Okay but… how did you get new content? New costumes, map packs and all that stuff?”
They literally couldn’t comprehend the idea of not having to pay extra for things like costumes and other cosmetics. It was an alien concept to them. And this was the generation that it really debuted in! It’s only gotten worse since then. I imagine you’d get an even more confused response if you asked kids about it today.
lostcauz707
Following Josh Strife Hayes into the past, we can actually blame MapleStory for the first microtransaction.
No-Pomegranate-69
Back looks like Bananas
Scatamarano89
This was the gaming industry Harambe
omeralal
What did I miss in here?
tomsaiyuk
Someone watched a YouTube video and decided to act like they just remembered this was the start of buying game skins/cosmetics
Di3thx
From a golden horse coat to selling partial games with items, levels and so much more locked out till you pay more. Some games even ship with all that already downloaded you just have to pay to access it. How did it get to this?
Oh I know already. People said that was ok.
shadowpikachu
Nah players told them it’d be right.
F_Kyo777
Hate that argument. Its not stupid horse armour that started it all.
It was dumbass people and probably a lot of casuals, who didnt saw dark side of it and happily paid for it. Fun fact. Its happening to this day! All of those Destiny, Call of Duty, The day before supporters (and probably much more titles and franchises, just too many to pinpoint all). All of those preorder buyers for digital rent to get extra “unique” skin for their backpack or whatever. Those are the real problems, not that somebody put a skin that didnt change your game at all. Now you have ads everywhere, its like free mobile game, without being F2P (check CoD, greatest add platform ever).
28 Comments
Yep. We didn’t even know how slippy the slope would get. Now we’re at the bottom of the slope, and the only thing slipping down is horse shit, and the shit is landing on our faces.
Now do one for when karma farming started.
It was executed perfectly. They picked such an amazing game to start weaseling their way in.
how are people mad about horse armor?
Honestly, there is no universe where gaming didn’t develop MTX.
My horse was a queen and she deserved the best. I regret nothing!
I thought this was Witcher 3 horse armour from a mod in Vivienne style
Honestly no it started with us
They also added it in Skyrim via Creation Club, and in ESO as a pre-order bonus.
It’s interesting to me that so many people point to this being the beginning of micro transactions and yet when it comes to modern games argue it’s not a micro transaction if is only cosmetic.
I know you’re not saying that but it’s something I’ve noticed happens weirdly often
What game is this?
Microtransactions were nothing new to PC players during this time.
I mean you could make a lot of arguments about DLC and micro-transactions, but while the Horse Armor may have been an early example I don’t think it was the root of all evil. I can think of two other games much more responsible. League of Legends and Team Fortress 2. There are likely games that tried to do it before them, but they are the first ones I think of with a cash shop for cosmetics, and arguably worse in the case of TF2 is early on the hats had gameplay value. The bigger thing there is that unlike the horse armor, I can’t remember people criticizing the cash shop in those games at the time or at least not to the same degree.
Ah yes, the cosmetic DLC I didn’t have to buy and now there is loads of cosmetic DLC I don’t have to buy.
“We added Horse armor!”
Me who runs around while jumping and casting healing spells to level up while travelling or just fast travels: “I dont need it. But.”
Nah, it went wrong when they charged for extra lives in arcades.
But it created the gem “Look at my horse, my horse is amazing
…” so there’s that.
Someone watched Fear & Eggs
Also Maple story really started the avalanche
I remember years ago, pretty late during the PS3/360/Wii generation, that I was talking with some of the neighbor kids and I mentioned how I didn’t like how games were trending to the DLC model of selling a game for full price and then selling costumes and shit piecemeal when in previous gens, you’d just get that kind of stuff by playing the game and meeting specific goals.
They looked at me bewildered. They were like “But if you didn’t have DLC, how did you get new content?”. I’m like “Well that’s just it, that was the entire game – but it was complete.” and they just looked at me like what I was saying made no sense and were like “…Okay but… how did you get new content? New costumes, map packs and all that stuff?”
They literally couldn’t comprehend the idea of not having to pay extra for things like costumes and other cosmetics. It was an alien concept to them. And this was the generation that it really debuted in! It’s only gotten worse since then. I imagine you’d get an even more confused response if you asked kids about it today.
Following Josh Strife Hayes into the past, we can actually blame MapleStory for the first microtransaction.
Back looks like Bananas
This was the gaming industry Harambe
What did I miss in here?
Someone watched a YouTube video and decided to act like they just remembered this was the start of buying game skins/cosmetics
From a golden horse coat to selling partial games with items, levels and so much more locked out till you pay more. Some games even ship with all that already downloaded you just have to pay to access it. How did it get to this?
Oh I know already. People said that was ok.
Nah players told them it’d be right.
Hate that argument. Its not stupid horse armour that started it all.
It was dumbass people and probably a lot of casuals, who didnt saw dark side of it and happily paid for it. Fun fact. Its happening to this day! All of those Destiny, Call of Duty, The day before supporters (and probably much more titles and franchises, just too many to pinpoint all). All of those preorder buyers for digital rent to get extra “unique” skin for their backpack or whatever. Those are the real problems, not that somebody put a skin that didnt change your game at all. Now you have ads everywhere, its like free mobile game, without being F2P (check CoD, greatest add platform ever).