Originally Posted by
Wondercrab
I don't know why a lot of people are focusing so much on the technicalities of what Blizzard said/didn't say, rather than discussing the money-hungry, psychologically manipulative way they chose to distribute these skins. It feels as though the devs are all too aware of the "it's just cosmetic/you can earn it all in game" mindset, and are hiding behind that simplistic reduction of the business model to try and push it to its absolute limit. We as consumers have gotten very used to defending these kinds of microtransactions, since they're generally one of the least offensive ways for a company to bring in extra revenue post-launch, but devs (and sleazy businesspeople) have gotten wise to this as well. There are still good ways and bad ways to do purely cosmetic microtransactions, and the Overwatch summer games model is absolutely one of the worst, most exploitative ways of handling them.
It makes me terribly sad, because Overwatch had such a bright start. I didn't love the loot box system on launch, but I didn't detest it either. The fact that it only took them a couple of months to start doing money-grubbing stuff like this, however, followed by Jeff Kaplan's cringe-inducingly slimy, corporate response, has completely destroyed any of my respect for the way Blizzard are handling the business side of Overwatch.