When Cosmetics was earned and not bought

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I miss the days when you had to do fun and interesting things in a video game to unlock special cosmetics/armor instead of just swiping your card for it. Things like the Hyabusa armor in Halo 3 where you had to find all the skulls in the campaign, or the EOD armor you got for beating the game on Legendary difficulty. 

It's way cooler to see somebody with an armor set and know that they spent 10 or more hours to earn it than to know they simply pulled out their card and spent $20 on it. I understand that microtransactions help sustain a game long-term, but give gamers another reason to grind your game with achievement-based unlockables and easter eggs!