"If you think modern microtransactions are bad, check out a few classic arcade games sometime. Sure, they might only ask for a quarter or 50 cents to play, but that's just the starting price. As soon as you run out of lives, it's time to feed the machine again. In theory, you might be able to beat an arcade game for just a quarter. Actually getting there took weeks or months of practice.
It wasn't uncommon to have to drop $20, $50, or even more to see the ending of some old arcade games. And of course, that was just for one playthrough. Yup, classic gaming was a whole different beast from what we have in the 21st century with its host of mods and accessibility options. But even taking into account that these games were designed to make as much money as possible off of you, a few were truly devious."
