Once upon a time, we could unlock all cosmetic items just by playing the game we paid for.
When cosmetic DLCs came around, framed as a way to support the developers it was still somewhat accepted. If you wanted to look pretty, pay a little more. Fine.
But what's up with all these seasonal passes and whatnot? So, you're saying I can pay a game for the privilege of working to earn these cosmetics. And there's a seasonal rotation, so I can still stand to miss out if I don't play enough in the given time frame?
That's a bad deal if I've seen one.
I know it's been around for a long time, but it's a crappy business proposition. It's a sad state that we can't just pay for a completed game and avoid any microtransaction bs in game while playing.
It's truly disappointing. I was already primed to buy Inkbound with my friends on release to play multiplayer for the most part since trying the demo, but having zero offline function when singleplayer was playable put me off + higher than expected pricing, and the nail in the coffin was the day one pass.
Now that they've reworked the name of their pass (not sure about the changes to its mechanics, but I doubt I will check properly) to the "leveling pass" and made offline a beta feature (which, again, should've been day one), it's too little too late. It was a very promising game, but I can't objectively say the pros outweigh the cons in this product I wanted to buy.