They should have been forced to do it the other way. “You advertise as free, so you have to provide this for free.”

“I think you’re just playing bad games…”

Like Baldur’s Gate 3?

“Where it’s predatory it sucks” - The literal definition of microtransactions.

I think we’re done here. You think video gaming is what’s happened in the past ten years. I played my first video game in 1979 on an Atari 2600. I remember Pacman fever, I lived in California during it. I remember when Space Ace and Dragoons Lair came out in the arcades and cost .50 instead of a quarter…

Tell me again how I’m “just playing bad games…” You just can’t see the forest for the trees…

And I’ll add the most important thing you forgot…

You have around 50 years of game data to sift through… Not just what a limited set from Steam gives you.

I’ll wait.

There’s a problem with your starting point.

We were talking about microtransactions. You jumped to free to play.

Not all games that have microtransactions are fre to play.

So you’ve lied again. Not as easy you thought.

What you need to do is grab ALL games with microtransactions. You need to grab stats on ALL free games. You need to grab stats on hidden cost games (also called free to play).

Try again junior.

And try thinking this time.

Okay, let’s think critically.

“I’ve been able to play games for free because of microtransactions”

Microtransactions cost money, that’s not free. What you are saying here is you got to play a game without supporting the devs while OTHER people paid for microtransactions.

You assume incorrectly, I support devs by buying games, not supporting microtransactions.

“Most of the most popular games in the world are free…” First, like hell. Show me stats that support a claim that MOST popular games are free. Second, if a game is supported by microtransactions, you’re lying if you say it’s free. MICROTRANSACTIONS ARE NOT FREE.

Next “I have purposely bought microtransactions to support the developer…” I support the dev by buying the game.

Microtransactions make a good game bad, and bad games worse. None of what you said made an argument for microtransactions. Microtransactions encourage devs to hide fixes behind pay walls, even small ones.

My statements weren’t kneejerk. Your nonsense obviously wasn’t even thought through as it’s internally inconsistent.

I look forward to you trying again.

How did it happen before microtransactions?

I’m thinking of all the times I’ve said, “You know what makes this game great? The microtransactions.” All ZERO times.

There are bad games and good games. Microtransactions make bad games worse AND good games worse. I intentionally only pay for games without microtransactions. THEY move the game from “I’m interested” (like with the rerelease of dungeon keeper) to “Well, I can play the OG version on GOG. Without microtransactions, I’ll do that.”

That business model ONLY works out for the business. It is NOT for the best interest of the customer.

So while what you said is right, you are incorrect.

I created a process to remove the bot accounts from my database without crashing my site. I have tested and it looks like all functions are working. If you need help because you suddenly have thousands more accounts than you would suspect ask me for the procedure. I’ll gladly provide it.

I was able to identify bot accounts by looking at creation times. They accounts are grouped by “batches” where the account creation times are within seconds of each other. That’s not typically going to happen with random humans creating accounts.