[jamesfzhang]

One counterexample is Hearthstone. Players buy packs to have access to cards that otherwise would take them weeks to unlock. AFAIK, professional & hardcore players actually spend a lot of money buying these packs so that they can unlock the cards ASAP and study & test them for competitive play.

[runevault]

I feel like CCGs tend to get a weird pass because of games like Magic making it a common occurrence while managing to appeal to hardcore gamers.