Lost Ark was really the "we don't give a shit anymore" moment. Blizzard is just following up behind them with a bigger bag.

The funny part about that statement, is my understanding of the international release of Lost Ark is that it's actually a lot friendlier than the original Korean version. You should really look into how Asian MMOs (especially Korean ones, and I think I've heard Chinese ones can be pretty bad too) work with monetization. This stuff is hardly new, and what we see internationally is generally tame in comparison. I remember almost 2 decades ago playing an international version of a Korean MMO (Dungeon Fighter Online) that had blatant "Buy this loot box to get cosmetics which give large stat buffs".

i spent $10k on a kickstarter game as far back as 2013, but i viewed it as an investment at the time. investing in the developers of the game being able to continue, as well as the assets maintained ~60-80% resale value for a time period. Sure it gave advantages in the game, but the game wasn't /designed/ around those advantages.

I think the part that's a relatively recent phenomenon is that games are designed with "free play" as an afterthought or even the game designed to push you away from it, instead of "free play" being the main design focus.

LA is a PC game, DI is a mobile game

The standards for the two are quite different.

It really doesnt. Fans are just upset the Diablo name was stained with this practice. You are looking at this level of spend required for pretty much any mobile gacha game

It's not just the amount of money they try to get people to spend, it's some really obnoxious tactics, like NPCs telling you they "don't run a charity" (i.e. steering you into spending real money) and paid bonuses that you lose if you don't login daily (as opposed to free ones in most other games).

Neither of those sound unique to Diablo Immortal. Several games employ the "purchase a daily bonus" mechanic. Diablo also has several free login bonuses, like the daily kills and the blue crest (which granted, is a way to push purple crests, but it's still a daily free item).

> As of right now, F2P players cannot earn top-rated Legendary Games, which are only available via some of the game's monetization options,

This was true for earlier games that have been burned to the ground at that point.

From the arricle:

> As of right now, F2P players cannot earn top-rated Legendary Games, which are only available via some of the game's monetization options

Which of the current major mobile gacha games does have this kind of exclusive pay-only items mechanics ?

Thats true. This is extra scummy. I was just talking about the cost to max out mobile gacha games.

I would have thought so but it does seem to be on the worse end. Battle passes aren't even account wide. You need to buy per server.