Developers of multiplayer games have the power to create cosmetic items that could help facilitate creative gameplay, which in turn seem to spur social interactions. But publishers have increasingly pushed to monetize such features through microtransactions, which feels like an invasive trend when you consider that the CD era of games often allowed you to freely customize your in-game house/car/clothing without microtransactions (atleast until small expansion packs started appearing). While cosmetic items having a cost can help fund the creation of more cosmetics, it often seems like even the most basic cosmetics are expensive.

One of the most egregious examples was in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (now called Counter-Strike 2) where you could set two of your guns to appear white (called the Whiteout skin), but to do so you'd have to buy the items from another player. The P250 version (in Factory New condition) costed $153.61 while the USP-S (again, in Factory New) was $214.67 at the time of writing.

In a similar example in Rust, there's a fireman's jacket (called the Fire jacket) in the game files, but to be able to craft it you'd need to buy the item, which would currently cost you £389.85 on the Steam market. There's an alternative Fireman's Jacket standing at £7.26, which still seems pricey, and neither option includes a helmet, gloves, boots, or leggings. A Steam FAQ notes that the market has a 5% Steam Transaction Fee and also a 10% game specific fee. The high prices may partially be a result of item scarcity, which essentially bloats the game files for no reason if players aren't likely to come across the content. Some cosmetic features are available on the Steam Store, such as the ability to make your base look like it's made of bricks for £10.39.

The extra income might be good for the publisher, and it might be nice for players to be able to sell items on the market (although not all of them are "marketable"), but these relatively expensive "products" don't offer a great sense of value for money, and the pricetag itself stifles some potential for creativity when you have to buy it to be able to unlock it in-game. The general neglect of the creative side of the scene's culture (evident in the updates leaning towards competitive gameplay) resulted in that creative culture largely evaporating, leaving only 0.3% of Rust bases as creative structures by 2023.

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