TBH I don’t think it’s possible. Because the bottom lime of bunsinesses is often to make money. The problem is that everyone (whether it be the devs or investors, etc) will always want MORE money. To make more money sometimes businesses will make changers that not favourable or fair to consumers.
A good example I think is the in app purchases and loot box system.
A long time ago, most games didn’t have in app purchases. It was always a pay for up front thing. But when devs realized that they could make money using free apps and in app purchases, that took over. This is sort of a positive thing for consumers since people who didn’t want to pay could play for free up to a point or with restrictions. Then pay later if they liked it. The issue is when some apps went too far to make more money and tipped the balance between player happiness and profit. Ex. Sims free play. Games that have “stamina” to do actions. But you end up waiting so long for recharge that you feel forced to pay ridiculous amounts of money for 5 stamina to play at all. In the end you may end up forking over $100’s to $1000’s to play and make any progress or spend more time waiting around than playing.
With loot boxes, you didn’t see it everywhere before. But once companies realized they could make more money using loot boxes then implemented it everywhere. In my opinion they took it too far since they designed loot boxes to activate the same pathways of the brain which are activated in people with addiction (ie. alcohol). Basically changing loot boxes into something you buy because you want to into something you buy because you can’t stop and need that “High” feeling. There are also issues of course with the drop rates and actual content of loot boxes vs price.
On top of that loot boxes started to be implemented in games that already charge full price(ie. overwatch, battlefront). At that point I think they’re just gouging players for money.
The only two games that I’ve played where most players seemed fine to fork over ridiculous amounts of money or keep playing a game for free that blantantly charges exorbitantly in app purchases is Love Nikki and Lineage 2 Revolution.
The problem is I don’t think their models will work in VG.
Love nikki is a dress up/collecting game with some visual novel aspects. To complete some of the most beautiful and event “sets”(an outfit, dress + shoes + accessories ,etc) it either costs ridiculous amounts of money or ridiculous amounts of time. But I think they’re able to keep the playerbase happy because they make it possible to collect parts of the set and also MANY other nice sets for free. This amount of free content is quite extensive and I’ve found that with enough grinding and saving you can collect some of the really nice sets. So basically they provide A LOT of nice content for free and make players feel like they can grind to get premium currency(gems) and items. But they still make money thanks for whales, frequent offers, constant events, and massive amounts of content to collect. This game wakes up a collecting itch as well. They do have a gatcha/loot box sets but it makes up a small percentage of sets available.
lineage 2 revolution, is a mmorpg. It’s probably the most unashamed pay to win game I’ve ever played. It flat out caters to whales and has a huge RNG aspect. Even the playerbase jokes amount how the only way to get better is by MasterCard (aka your wallet). To get a high CP(aka power) you have to have rare equipment, which is completely RNG. They basically have monetized and RNG’d every aspect of the game. If you’re free to play, you have no hope of every reaching the whales and you’ll be grinding for awhile.
I’m actually not sure how the devs make so much but I’m pretty sure it’s cause of the whales.
TLDR; Games I used to play that make a lot of money use monetization models that might not work in VG. But they generally make players feel like they can grind for stuff and get free stuff while catering to whales.
Edit: Sorry that was long