Maybe we have to agree to disagree on this point, but where IAP is different today is the existence of consumable IAP.
Only until recently was it possible to spend money on a game and, at some point later, have game content and state be identical to before you spent that money.
"Paying for the full version of Doom" vs "buying some gems in Dungeon Keeper" may be conceptually the same, but the long term result is vastly different.
I'd argue that the value you receive from the former utterly blows away the latter, but customer and developer trends are sadly proving me wrong.
> where IAP is different today is the existence of consumable IAP.
Sure, consumable IAP is a different thing than mini-expansion style IAP. I think that its at least as old as the MMO world an may have earlier precedents, but its certainly taken off.
> I'd argue that the value you receive from the former utterly blows away the latter, but customer and developer trends are sadly proving me wrong.
Consumable IAP is, in a sense, a highly efficient rental scheme that takes from each user according to their willingness to pay.
Only until recently was it possible to spend money on a game and, at some point later, have game content and state be identical to before you spent that money.
"Paying for the full version of Doom" vs "buying some gems in Dungeon Keeper" may be conceptually the same, but the long term result is vastly different.
I'd argue that the value you receive from the former utterly blows away the latter, but customer and developer trends are sadly proving me wrong.