Microtransactions, an entire revenue stream that was born out of a single piece of horse armor, have been a hot topic in the gaming community ever since their rise to popularity at the turn of the previous decade or so. Anyone else have fond hate-memories of booting up Dead Space 3 and seeing that weapons must now be crafted, only as an excuse to sell weapon parts for real money? Yeah, it hasn't been all great.

I don't want to focus on the shadiest of MTX this article - there will be no further mention of non-cosmetic in-game shop purchases going forward. What I do want to focus on is the absolute pinnacle of cosmetic MTX: The cosmetics Path of Exile has been churning out since early last year, when they launched Kirac's Vault, a very light sort of battle pass for the game.

Generally, when you think of a microtransaction such as a skin, an image of some 3D character wearing a fancy set of clothes is conjured into your mind. This is in no small part due to Fortnite's popularity and the fact it currently boasts over 1,500 skins, but let us distance ourselves from this Pavlovian response for a moment.

Microtransactions in Path of Exile are purely cosmetic. The types of MTX in Path of Exile are fairly vast (skill effects, gear, portals, hideouts, pets), but none of them give the player any sort of game advantage whatsoever. A year and a half ago, starting with the Siege of the Atlas expansion, Grinding Gear Games, the company behind Path of Exile, decided it was time to juice up their MTX game. What if some of the cosmetics they sold weren't just boring skins anymore? What if they had an extra cool situational effect? Allow me to wet your palette with a few of their cosmetic concepts that made it into the game:

  • An armor set whose cool red misty effect's vibrancy increases or decreases depending on your current percentage of life of energy shield.
  • A sandfish pet that burrows through the earth, occasionally rising and consuming the corpse of a fallen foe, then growing.
  • A back attachment that generates a creepy, ethereal purple hand above your character that pulls strings attached to your limbs.

Now that you have an idea how how far these cosmetics can go, I'd like to showcase some of the most absurd, or rather, absurdly brilliant, cosmetics Path of Exile has released in the past year and a half. Developers of games that churn out a senseless amount of cookie-cutter skins per month, please start taking notes. There's absolutely no way I can reasonably fit all their great stuff in this article, so I'll be picking a few great examples, starting from the most tame effects, to the most wild.

If you'll enjoy watching all the wacky MTX Grinding Gear Games have come up with, I'll have a list linking to all their cosmetics showcases (that include wacky effects) at the bottom of the article!

Bloodscouring Cloak - The Sinister Towel

The Bloodscouring Cloak, part of the Knightmaster Supporter Pack available during the Lake of Kalandra league, offers two unique effects when worn:

  • It tracks your kill streak, which is generally only doable when you have an item with the "Rampage" modifier equipped.
  • It collects the blood of your enemies then violently vomits it out once you've been out of combat for a short while.

Here's a video showing it in action (cut to 0:42):

 

Bloodboil Weapon Effect - Creative Health Bars

 The Bloodboil Weapon Effect, part of the Bloodthirsty 'Core' Supporter Pack, also consists of two effects:

  • It summons a dagger above rare and unique enemies you hit. Its glowing red core depletes as the enemy loses health.
  • When killing an affected enemy, the dagger impales them.

Cut to 3:27 to see how it works:

Ant Colony Pet - Force Your Will Upon Mutant Insects

The Ant Colony pet takes the whole concept of idle companions to a new level. It summons fourteen ants that follow your cursor, in a line, anywhere you hover on the screen. Using a second copy of the pet doubles the size of you ant line!

Check those cute ants out at 1:41:

Belltower Map Device - Live Updates on Your Desperate Situation

For those unaccustomed to Path of Exile, the map device is simply the in-game object you interact with that opens up your maps. Think of that ghostly fellow in Diablo 3 that keeps popping Nephalem Rifts for you.

The Belltower Map Device tolls its bells when you open a new map, but as you consume your remaining portals (presumably from dying), the map device suffers just as much as your chance of success.

You can see the Belltower Map Device at 0:17 in the following video:

Atlas Hideout - The Game Needed More Maps

Have you ever wanted to open portals to a map that is part of the Atlas (which is a map of most of the game's maps), from within a hideout that is an even bigger Atlas? Grinding Gear Games thought you might. The Atlas Hideout is:

  • A very nice place (perhaps a bit cold and windy) situated somewhere in the ether.
  • Its main floor is a "life-size" copy of the Atlas, your map of maps that tracks your progress of which maps you've completed.
  • The floor Atlas is directly influenced by whatever changes you make to your 'real' Atlas. It's a 1:1 copy, but you get to walk over it.

Behold the absurdity at minute 6:27:

Arcanomorph Pet - Man with Spider Becomes Manspider

Ever felt like you needed a makeover? This creepy cosmetic is a two-for-one. While out in the world, murdering mindless corrupted chickens and whatnot, a creepy spider pet follows you around. When returning home, however, a sinister metamorphosis occurs, and you become the spider. Were you the spider all along?

Check the spider boi at 4:04:

Prospero's Ring - Letting Everyone Know You're Making Cash

The trade bots love this one. A ring that oozes with coins is nice and all, but a giant golden fistbump that everyone around will see? Not sure it gets any better.

Behold the fistbump starting at 0:42:

Chessboard Hideout Decoration - Only Missing Solitaire Now

You may know that Path of Exile enjoys tackling other genres of games with their league concepts: Blight was an Action-RPG take on tower defense, and the most recent league, Trial of the Ancestors, is a similar take on the auto-battler / auto-chess genre.

Well, one of the 2023 Core Supporter Packs includes a 1:1, working copy of famed manual-chess genre game chess! Simply plonk the decoration inside your hideout and you've got a fully playable chess board to use with your friends. That's right, you can buy chess inside Path of Exile.

Here it is, in all its glory:

 

Alright, Internet Writer Man, What's Your Point?

First and foremost, I hope I have not given you the impression I am some microtransaction shill. I spend perhaps 30 bucks a year in Path of Exile's shop, and am generally averse to microtransactions of any type, especially in games that aren't free to play.

I wanted to draw attention to the cosmetics Path of Exile has been making for the last year and half just because of how high-effort they are. Once, I might have thought some flashy Fortnite skin whose trench coat periodically erupts lightning tendrils was peak cosmetic, but Path of Exile has forever raised the bar.

Cosmetics with cool added effects aren't a concept Grinding Gear Games have invented, but their implementation is, as far as I know, unique. While in other games you may find "added effect" MTX, they're almost always some level of "bullshit" rare, several tiers more expensive than regular, bland MTX, or outright inexistent.

Path of Exile's new, cool cosmetics are baseline. They've almost entirely replaced regular, no-effect cosmetics and they cost just the same as before (depending on their source). You could argue the Mystery Box cosmetics cost more: A box used to be $3, but is now $5. However, with the price hike, they added duplicate protection to the boxes, so if, say, you wanted to collect everything in a box, that's actually a price decrease.

I suppose the point I'm getting at with this article is that no one seems to be talking about how Path of Exile has changed the nature of microtransactions. The fact that they keep putting more effort into designing cool MTX proves it is financially successful. If a medium-size studio like GGG can afford the manpower to do this, shouldn't we hold even bigger game developers to the same standard?

Loot boxes seem to be on a slightly downward trend recently, but microtransactions as a whole aren't going anywhere. Since we're stuck with this unsavory system that so many games implement, we should, as consumers, demand greater value for our money. I'm sure Fortnite could implement special kill effects for specific weapon types, or skins whose appearance change depending on how much you've walked in a match. Certainly, Hearthstone could implement boards that suffer visual changes depending on your current health.

We've come a long way from horse armor. Perhaps it's time we stop buying it until that horse armor also increases the muscle mass of your horse based off of your maximum Stamina, and makes the horse say "I always knew they were real!" and cower when next to a ghost.

Here are the promised links to all the cool, special cosmetics Path of Exile has been releasing the past year and a half. They are neatly contained in the box below:

Links to All The Fancy Path of Exile MTX Showcase Videos

What's your take on microtransactions in general? More importantly, what makes a microtransaction "worth" buying for you? Let us know in the comments below.