Microtransactions. Gacha games. Pay2Win DLCs... Gaming in recent years noticeably suffers from predatory practices. Mobile games, and those inspired by them in general, suffer the most.
These games use every weak point in human psychology to squeeze every single dollar out of your wallet!
I talked about Skinner Box tricks in one of my older posts. It's a topic I should revisit in the future. What I'll talk about below mostly fall under these tricks.
Lately, I watched a video by LowBudgetGaming talking about this topic. I already posted the video on DBuzz a while back It's below if you haven't watched it.
In the video, the speaker talks about microtransactions and how they're structured, giving two games as examples Diablo and Apex Legends, and why they're both examples of the industry's strategies that make players spend more money than they should or initially want.
The Video
Step One ! Confusing Currency Systems
The similarities between these games and gambling are endless!
First, these games use Multiple Currencies and the conversion rate between these currencies isn't straightforward. Let's say in an imaginary game of this type, there are three currencies: Orbs, Jewels, and Shiney Crystals. The Orbs can be obtained easily during the gameplay, the jewels are rare commodities in the game, and Crystals are only given as special prizes or bonuses at rare times.
Playing the game normally, there are ways to earn each of these currencies, but they're intentionally designed to take too long.
The game constantly shows you Bundle Packs you can purchase with real money, along with limited-time discounts, it's no wonder the Bundle prices feel cheap after spending so much time on the game. That's the sad part.
If the game had a reasonable progression in terms of obtaining its currencies, the player would find the prices unreasonable. It's because the time/effort required to earn Crystals is juxtapositioned with discounted prices for them, you feel it won't hurt to make one purchase.
These games are designed to make you feel like you're getting a bargain when you buy the next skin or weapon. For gamers who aren't interested in these types of games, this is absurd. "You're paying for something you should expect to come with the game for free," in our opinion.
Step Two !! Arbitary Time Limits
Have you noticed? Many of these games apply the strategy of limited-time offers. They show you a special item as soon as you open the game, (usually cosmetics,) that can only be obtained during a certain time period.
Most of these games don't allow trading with other players either, which urges the player who wants the item to spend more than they should, trying to obtain it. (Usually, the player who succumbs to this trap will try to rationalize spending that much money on virtual items he never needed in the first place.)
It's even worse in Gacha games because getting the character/item you want isn't guaranteed even if you paid, which can lead to a dangerous case of sunk-cost fallacy.
These time-limited items usually stay trapped at the time they were released. If you've missed 2021's Winter Holiday in Fortnite, you'll never be able to get the items you missed in any way.(Examples Here) This creates a FOMO effect that makes people (again) spend more than they should on the game.
Step Three !!! Re-skins and Loss Aversion
One of the problems with this mentality by publishers to maximize earnings is releasing the same items and characters but with different colors, at full price! Sometimes, even at a higher price than the original, even though it costs virtually nothing to introduce different colors of the same assets.
One strategy mentioned in the video is selling Skins as bundles. Developers deliberately prevent you from buying 'the good stuff' by themselves. They bundle the most wanted items with undesirable ones. Advertise the package as a deal or bargain, but the price is ultimately higher than the expected price of the item everyone wants if it was sold alone.
Another strategy the video explains is how Skins are always priced in a way that you'll always have left-over money in your balance. There are many reasons people would spend more if there's already money in their balance. From mental accounting to Sunken Asset Fallacy. When I realized this, I felt disgust over the times, I've seen that kind of pricing and didn't notice it.
Another Step !!!! Content Creators will Buy Anyway
"They realize they can sell the recolors for money and they started doing this sort of thing. People keep buying them, so why should they stop so anyway?"
Finally, the video mentions the role content creators, especially on Twitch and Youtube, play in sustaining this problem. These guys earn money because of their viewers. Some people enjoy watching them spend money on these packs even if they got
That's the problem... Even if the only people who'll pay for a new Item in the game's store are the content creators who do that, it'll still be worth it to the company to release reskins!
Considering how easy is to develop and change most of them. Developers are exploiting the very nature of game streaming to squeeze more money with minimal effort. Or maybe that's just how I see it. I only spoke about the negatives of this type of gaming so far, but I can't deny a lot of these games are actually fun, and the ones that aren't, tend to die quickly.
What do you think?
In conclusion, there are many tricks these games use to make you pay, or waste time grinding if you don't want to pay or can't. The tricks they use are often subtle enough that the only way to not fall into them is to not play the game.
A lot of these games are still enjoyable even with these flaws, but no matter how much you complain about something. When it comes to companies, your wallet speaks louder than your voice!
That's all I have for today. I hope to see you in another article. If you're new, I mainly write fictional stories and post art online. Check my "Where to Start?" Post for more information. For now, I wish to meet you in another article.
Salam~ (Peace.)
- The post's image is made with Clip Studio Paint. The line divider is made with iBisPaint.
- *I don't own the linked videos. Watching them enhances but isn't necessary to this post.
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