You've clearly forgotten how disappointing things can be when you're a kid. How you waited for Christmas or saved for weeks only to find the thing you got is garbage. I've heard plenty of stories about kids being absolutely gutted for not getting what they thought they were getting for virtual currency in Roblox and Minecraft.
That's also not mentioning how different aspects of a game can be fun or unfun. It could be that kids just want some item in aspirationally in a game but actually have no interest in playing the game itself. Much like how kids can have zero interest in the Pokemon card game but desperately crave spending $4 for the pleasure of 1 minute of unwrapping new cards.
That's also not factoring in the social pressure and envy kids feel when their friends talk about things they have.
> You've clearly forgotten how disappointing things can be
I must have because I don't remember being at all "gutted" when I obsessed
over the one $20-or-less item my parents allotted me each Christmas. This is
quite contrary to what I see amongst kids today who spend all of a couple
hours with their physical gifts and go right back to the Minecraft/Roblox
marathon.
My kids are so much happier on Minecraft because there's no built-in pay-money-to-get-better mechanism. Minecraft has a HUGE value in the price you pay to the amount of awesome gameplay you get. Even with Realms it's cheap compared to what you get out of it.
Well there's no beating Minecraft for value. Except you are aware that Roblox is a completely free game? Not all of the player-made content has PTW elements forced into it.
That's also not mentioning how different aspects of a game can be fun or unfun. It could be that kids just want some item in aspirationally in a game but actually have no interest in playing the game itself. Much like how kids can have zero interest in the Pokemon card game but desperately crave spending $4 for the pleasure of 1 minute of unwrapping new cards.
That's also not factoring in the social pressure and envy kids feel when their friends talk about things they have.