Texas Senator Ted Cruz Admits to Buying Pay to Win Microtransactions

Politics can be a tricky thing. And there are plenty of politicians out there that people feel very strongly about. On prime example of such is Ted Cruz, the Senator of Texas. Regardless of his stances on legislative issues, a new piece of information about him has come out that just rubs us the wrong way: he spends money on pay-to-win boosts in games.

On the most recent episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz, a talkshow/podcast where the Republican Senator talks about current events, Cruz admits that he will sometimes purchase microtransactions in order to power up his in-game characters. The discussion began when a viewer of the show submitted a question pertaining to Asmongold, a popular Twitch streamer. The streamer claimed to have reached out to Cruz to ask about his stance on randomized loot boxes in video games.

Cruz remarked that he would be happy to engage in conversation with Asmongold about the issue. He also stated that there is a concern regarding gambling and how modern games are designed to encourage it.

Initially, Cruz speaks against microtransactions, saying that he [doesnt] like it when you can buy in game items and sort of make your character stronger or get advantages. But this is immediately followed up with a confession that he does exactly that.

Now I confess, when I play games Ill sometimes buy it cause it's more fun if suddenly your character has a lot more great stuff that would take six months or a year to build up. So sometimes Ill spend 20 bucks and buy a treasure chest full of coins cause then I can spend them to get cool things in the game.

Its not made immediately clear what kind of games Cruz plays. No names are mentioned, short of a single instance where he played a Nintendo. Often referred to as "Pay-to-Win," the ability to purchase upgrades that improve performance or skip wait times for upgrades is predominately common in mobile games. We suspect the games that Cruz plays are primarily, if not exclusively mobile games. This is both due to his lack of familiarity with consoles and the platform's general trend to have microtransactions of such a nature. 

Overall, the opinion expressed is one of concern over children being exploited using addictive designs through lootbox systems. For adults, however, he feels that this isnt something that the government needs to concern themselves with.

Politics aside, theres something funny about this moment in time. There are a lot of things you could call Ted Cruz. And now, by his own admission, that includes a Wallet Warrior. Meanwhile, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is breaking Guinness Book world records for their Among Us livestream.