Battle passes have become all the rage in multiplayer games. Most online competitive releases have them, and while the feature set and quality varies from game to game, most have one thing in common: Making an initial purchase, then leveling up by playing to unlock rewards you’ve ostensibly already payed for. On some occasions, you even have to pay extra once you have them. The whole thing is s clever way to squeeze more money out of dedicated players (you’re already going to play you’re passionate about. Why not pony up some cash and earn a few rewards for your “effort?”). But we want to know: How many of these things have you bought? Be honest.
I’ve been content simply keeping up with Dota 2’s battle pass, though that’s not exactly a cheap option. Valve ups the ante on their battle passes every year, making a higher initial buy-in more enticing (it’s a deal on all those battle pass levels you’ll have to earn later by playing! How could you pass up a one-time offer to get a bunch of levels up front?) and offering better rewards. Better in this case includes three extravagant cosmetic items that would otherwise cost $35 or so for how much they alter the characters they’re attached to. But I can’t feel fleeced when I’m spending money to get levels to “earn” those rewards when I’d rather just pay for these items individually. For example, the Axe set you unlock at level 425 is the only item I really want, but I’ll have to either grind or spend my way to it and get the Earthshaker and Invoker items (which I don’t really want) along the way. Yeah, this is definitely a scheme. But I bought the battle pass, and I’ll probably end up with that Axe item.
What about you? Have you managed to avoid the battle pass craze? Or are you knee-deep in one (or multiple) right now? Let us know in the comments.
