So after just looking at the forums and learning about what can be gained through micro-transactions, seeing the community reactions to this, and what Bungie previously stated I have taken it upon myself to garner your opinions into this thread and add a poll because why not. As the title asks, how do you feel about micro-transactions being more than just cosmetic? There are arguments for and against micro-transactions and people are tossing around the term "P2W" (Pay-to win). [u][b]What is Pay to Win?[/b][/u] Pay to win is when someone can gain an unfair advantage by paying real money for it. A game called World of Tanks allows you to buy Gold ammo that deals more damage than regular ammo and it also allows you to buy tanks that are not able to be used by players who don't spend money. This is an unfair advantage and is exactly what Pay to win is. Destiny's model for Micro-transactions is not what I would call Pay to win as anyone can gain armour mods with enough grinding. Bungie aren't giving players who pay money items that cannot be obtained through normal play so it's not Pay to win since everyone can get the same items eventually. What Bungie are doing is what I call: [u][b]Pay to Progress[/b][/u] Pay to progress is where a game lets you buy items with real money that would otherwise take a longer time to unlock. For example you can grind for a few hours to unlock one chest whereas another player can buy 10 chests immediately and gain items that will take you days to unlock. Players can gain an advantage for a time until you can play long enough to be on equal footing. Pay to progress has good and bad points. As some people have mentioned having an ability to buy items that cuts down play time makes juggling a busy work/family life with in-game time easier. People who don't have enough time to play games can stay on par with those who have all the free time in the world. However on the flip side of that point having the ability to bypass what is supposed to be the game is in itself bad game design as it is essentially telling people that they can skip the boring stuff and get all the rewards out of it. This can also easily be manipulated into heavily pushing players into grind for days or spend a little money to avoid it scenarios. [u][b]What's your opinion?[/b][/u] As mentioned above, how do you feel about this? Originally Bungie stated that micro-transactions were going to be cosmetic only and yet we are seeing otherwise. Slowly more useful items are creeping into micro-transactions and have an actual affect on game play. Do you feel this is a good decision for the future of the game or do you think it will make the game more enjoyable for those with less time? I'd like to know your actual opinions on this. [u][b]My Opinion[/b][/u] I have always said no to micro-transactions in paid games. If a game costs $60 and is backed by a multi-million dollar company they [u]don't need[/u] any extra cash. It should always be the publisher putting more money into a game to make it better not the players who already paid for the initial game and who have to pay for DLC. I fully expect the game to amp up it's micro-transactions to coincide with a lot of tedious grinding. Anything Bungie say will or will not be in the game should not be taken as gospel either.