It doesn't favour those who don't have time thought, unless those who don't have time also have spare cash. It actually favours those with credits, with no thought for those who have little time and little cash.
So holding it up as something favourable for those with limited time is not right, it favours the rich, pure and simple, regardless of whether they have time or not.
The whole "I dont have time to play the game but I do have cash" is at best a sorry excuse anyway and falls short on many cases as you pointed out. I never really understood it nor do I find it "okay" but of course I accept it that people do these things. I can get my head around paying RL money for ingame pixels (apart from the initial cost for the game itself) if its unique items that are not achievable otherwise be it skins/costumes or vanity items because they dont offer gamechanging momentum and people can or cannot buy them. Ater all we are talking about a
game. The very basic idea about a game is to enjoy it. If you dont have the time to play it you wouldnt enjoy it anyway regardless of how much money you throw at it. At best it ll give you an empty sense of achievement because it doesnt change the facts. You wont measure up to the "hardcore" people.
Whenever I saw store mechanics like they are discussed for SC I never saw something good come out of it. People buy others account or character boosts or magic gear in order to "skip" the grind while forgetting that what they consider "grind" is actually the content of the game. Many use the term unjustified and simply dont want to start at the very bottom. If all the game has to offer is "grind" then I doubt very much its worth more RL cash from me or anybody else anyway.
So that leaves only one thing as a reason for this kind of action.......Status and Prestige.
People do it to differentiate themselves from others and stand out. I am not talking about "reasonable" expenses here but rather the people willing to shell out hundreds of RL currency for a game that initially cost 30-60. Korean games are built on this behavior and they openly admit it too. Korean MMO players will "pay through the nose" in order to become top dogs on their servers and that status is often purchased with amounts in the 5-digits. Seems like CRoberts had to pay the bill for one of his kids digital "adventures" and suddenly had the idea to do the same thing himself. This korean model is often discussed in game development and is admitted to cater to a specific mindset too (in this case......highly competetive). Its not about a shiny item anymore or other simple stuff. The today business models are layered in such complex ways that its easy to get sucked in and hard to stop once you are part of the "race". There are so many things to do and so many ways for P2W to implement itself subtly that its often not even noticeable when you first start. Could be "important stuff" like an XP boost or another character slot and some time after that these things become "normal" to purchase all the time and you go for more advanced features because you are already paying right? Whats another 10 bucks down the drain?
The difference is of course that Korean models actually represent the term "micro-transactions". Its usually an ingame service for a small amount of money its just that these "tiny" bits add up over the month to end up as gigantic totals. Star Citizen simply "takes the farm" charging insane amounts of money for non-existing stuff...probably because they know that have to do it
now cuz there never will be a game and whatever they release will not have the same appeal as the dreams they currently sell. Thats a problem that they share with many western P2W games tho. Theres nothing "micro" about them. Mundane stuff cost as much as a monthly subscription and just adding a couple things together will bring the tally to the complete prize of the game again.
This "I pledge in order to back and support the game" is a noble idea and people use it for a bit of "extra prestige" from likeminded people while at the same time enforcing the idea and the practice in others who try to catch up then. Did you ever wonder why concierge was at first an "elite" status but now years down the line its considered "entry-level"? Someone finally swallowed the bitter pill and shelled out the cash in order to obtain it and others with the same condition were forced to do the same or be second place forever. People admire certain traits and hate others. Being "noble" or "generous" are two examples of traits others look up to. Selfish is one that is immensly disliked and cheating is a thing that can turn your status into complete hatred turned toward you. So of course the act of "pledging" is sold as being noble and helping the poor game developer creating the game. But the real reason is to either skip grind (selfish) or to beat the competition without any work or effort involved (cheating) but of course naming the horse for what it is would involved actual dislike directed at these people and as attention and approval by others is actually what they are
really after thats exactly what they try to avoid.
The "winner" in all this is of course the "bank" (publisher, creator, whoever owns the game) because at the end of it all when the servers are shut down, the game collapses or starts to die due to a low playerbase whoever holds the RL cash has actual value on his hands. The others realize they only ever owned pixels (aka dust) and payed for it like for "real" goods
I realize that the term "spare money" represents different values for different people but that doesnt change the facts I listed. Our whole world operates under the same rules. Money only represents value and value is determined by demand (see gold) so being "rich" actually means beating the competition and setting yourself apart from others and a lot of other things. Rich people dont have the expertise in life to do most stuff themselves. They dont have to work like poor people in order to stay alive they are simply rich. And of course they are willing to pay 10 bucks for a bottle of water because they have enough never thinking about the fact that paying that much for a commodity like "water" is an actual slap in the face of all the people who try to survive a week on that amount of cash. Or maybe thats exactly why they do it which would make them even sadder.
This brings us to the next item on the list....Power. In real life and in games as well the people "at the top" command the world (server) and their actions will reflect and be forced on all the people below them.
I realize I start to ramble so lets cut it short here and also sorry for breaking this off
In short. These games "trigger" the feeling of power through ingame purchases and they reward people doing it by status (naming, invitations, special rewards). Make no mistake tho. Regardless how much money you invest you will at best be a slave to the one holding real power which is the owner of the game. You dont "own" anything yet you are willing to pay as if you do. You remember all these coverages about "buyer behavior" and what kind of tools companies use in order to make regular people part with their money? Placement of goods, directed advertisement, trying to build an empathic link and so on. If you look at the amount of control and manipulation directed at you over the value of soap or bottled water (for example) do you really think you have
any power at all in life? The thing is that CiG does the very same just they offer you nothing tangible in return. Even if the ships you pledge for are currently in the game its still just pixels which will vanish the moment the game dies. But the bills will stay.
