Video gaming at this point of time is peaking its popularity, back when video gaming was restricted down to basic home consoles; the community was very small and secretive. Today video games are everywhere and on almost every device that has a display. The one thing that has not changed in the community is the money. Money is a huge factor in the community considering money has to be spent on the game itself and a device to play it on. Video games and their price have not changed though; usually a new video game is $60. In the times of the NES $60 would get you a game that you could enjoy for about 10 minutes then it would get repetitive, but that’s how games just were back then. Now $60 will get you at least 100 hours of fresh content in a game, maybe even more in some games.

The big controversy that has always been inside the community is the Free-to-Play and Pay2Win games, as it is referred to in the community. Free-to-Play or F2P is a game that is absolutely free to play, meaning you don’t have to put any money into the game. Free to play means that the company making the game really isn’t making any money off the game, so the sale tactic from the publisher or company is to put things into the game that will make your experience more enjoyable or easier. This is what is referred to as Pay2Win. In many online multiplayer games Pay2Win is something that is VERY looked down upon, because it’s basically, whoever puts the most money into the game gets to win, which is an unfair aspect.

Valve, a game publisher, creates many Free-to-Play video games where it is completely free to play in every way, but you can put money in for some cosmetics that just change your appearance. One of these games is Team Fortress; even though the game is F2P the fact that people dump hundreds of money into the game doesn’t make them necessarily good at the game. Some games such as Payday 2 make players pay for the game initially, and force players to pay extra for in game features. Payday 2 as a game is very controversial because players think once they buy the game they would unlock the full experience, but that $30 only unlocks part of the game. Player will have to pay an extra $200 on a single game for the full experience. This is why many people stay away from this game now because the company doesn’t just want your money for buying the game. Cosmetics don’t give you advantage over other players, unlike in payday 2 where you have to pay to win and unlock the full game; even though the game was already initially bought.