Going Into the World of Microtransactions.

Talking to people that fell into the trap of microtransactions.

 

By Andre Cunningham

November 19, 2018

 

     The year is 2018 and the virtual world of video games are flooded with these in game purchases called microtransactions. These purchases are usually in game items or passes that are bought with real life currency in order to unlock cosmetics or to progress further into the game. In order to see how people are being caught in this trap, I decided to find some gamers using the voice and text app, Discord, who have spent tons of money.

     The first person I was able to talk was a man named Isaiah, age 19. He goes by the name 2090 in the online MOBA game, League of Legends with 81 million active players. He says that he has played the game ever since it came out and has probably spent tons of money on the game. “I didn’t understand why everyone bought skins at first if they don’t give an advantage” he says, “but after playing the game for a few months I found myself always buying cards at the pharmacy or using my new credit card on a new skin that came out.” We decided to look deeper into it and talked to someone from the support team to see if they could find the amount of money he spent on in-game purchases. Within an hour, someone responds saying that he has spent a total of 1,110 dollars on the game. “I’m not even surprised to be honest. I expected it to even be double or even triple that number.”

A picture of the results given to us after asking the support team for account details. Numbers below shows different in game numbers for things such as wins and kills.

 

     The next person that I decided to interview was a girl name Kate. She was a fan of the mobile game, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. This is a RPG where you summon characters to help you fight in order to defeat enemies. Sounds pretty simple right? It honestly is but the addiction is a different story. Allies are earned through packs which can be opened and have very small chances in order to get rare and legendary characters. The packs can be earned from playing the game but since the chances are so low and people don’t have patience to get packs slowly, most people end up buying the packs. This usually slowly turns into an addiction where people end up spending all their money to get a character they want. This is the story of Kate, a 17 year old girl that usually spends any money she receives on the game immediately. “I was like everyone else. Just downloaded the game just so I had something to play on my free time” she says. “In a matter of no time, I find myself always trying to get money in order to get some packs like it was a drug or something.” She claimed to even look for a job at 16 because she wanted an income so she felt less bad about spending money on the game but that did not help. It only fed the addiction more.

A picture Kate likes to use when she talks about her addiction. She claims this screenshot was when she got 300 euros on her birthday plus another 150 bonus from doing such a good job at her supermarket part time job. Starting from 450 euros, it quickly drops to 85 as she blows it all on packs. She was able to stop herself before it got worse.

 

     Talking to 10 people, aging from 15-23, these are the two that stood out to me the most. The other stories do not vary though. Everyone that I spoke to basically fell in the same way. Starting off wondering why people would spend money and then doing the exact same thing. People just have different extremes of what they spend depending on their living conditions. It is clear that something needs to be done in order to get rid of microtransactions or at least a warning that tells people that addiction is possible, kind of like cigarettes or gambling. Also if you can, spread the word of microtransactions and if you see someone already in the trap. Treat it the same as a drug addiction because in reality, both are on the same scale.

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     The purpose of the blog is to create awareness for microtransactions in video games. This is done by giving the audience some video games that they might be able to relate to in order to show that most people come into contact with microtransactions. Microtransactions were not as popular in the past but in today’s times, they are everywhere in today’s time. Many people believe microtransactions are nowhere to be found but most of them never know how to actually identify one so I briefly go over that as well.

     The audience for this blog can be a lot of people because both hardcore gamers and people who have 1-2 games on their phone can take a lot from this blog post. The hardcore gamers can see which microtransactions they would want to dodge and would not want to dodge. The people that do not really touch video games can learn more about microtransactions and see if they ever interacted with one before. I tried to make this blog reach a variety of audience members.

     My stance of this blog was not really picking a side as I did not dismiss or accept the idea of microtransactions. The only purpose was to create attention towards it so I decided not to take a side and just give a warning not to let microtransactions take over and create economical problems.

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#21: How to identify microtransactions and where they reside

By Andre Cunningham

November 19, 2018

 

It is not hard to identify microtransactions as they are almost everywhere in video games. Whether you are playing on a computer during your free time at work or playing on your phone while riding on a subway, knowing it or not, you have most likely came into contact with an in-game purchase.

A microtransactions can be used to receive a variety of different virtual items but all purchases fall under one trait.  All microtransactions are purchased with real life currency. Even if the purchase is only cosmetic, it still counts as a microtransaction.

Microtransactions reside in many genres of games but there are certain types that hold them more than others.

Free-to-play. Free to play games are pretty self-explanatory. These are games that you don’t have to pay to receive it but these are also the main games that hold most microtransactions. As soon as you begin to play, you get bombarded by many in-game purchases to receive in-game currency faster, to remove ads, or to unlock new items only available through real life purchases. Free-to-play games that hide microtransactions which gives advantages are usually referred to as pay-to-win games because if you don’t spend money on the game, you end up never winning against people who have.

Sport games. Everyone has heard of video games where you can play as your favorite basketball or soccer team but people usually don’t see the deeper modes the games have to offer. Most sports games have a game mode where you can make a team of existing players or create your own player to compete in the professional league. People playing these modes usually use in-game purchases which either help you unlock the best existing players or help your player becoming one of the greatest in only a short amount of time.

Card games. Many strategy based card games have certain cards that work well with each other in order to be victorious over your opponent. The main problem with these games is the obtaining of the cards. All cards are received from packs where players can obtain by playing the game for long periods or using real life currency. Most people end up spending tons of money as this game also has legendary cards which are rarer than the regular common ones.

Shooter games. Games dealing with gun combat are usually the least of worries because most microtransactions here are purely cosmetic where you can make in-game purchases in order to customize your weapon, whether it is a gun or knife, and your soldier. The only microtransaction that is not cosmetic is when the game wants to charge you for limited time weapons and/or new, upcoming battlefields to play on.

So next time you come into contact with a microtransaction, remember this article and if you decide to make an in-game purchase remember that you should only spend money you can afford and try not to make it a habit.

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     The purpose of the newspaper article was to show the audience examples of people who let microtransactions take over their economical spending. I wanted to show what late term effects of microtransactions can cause of young people. I decided to do this through real interviews I had with people that I met over the years of playing video games. I also used images in the article to help support the text throughout.

     The audience for this newspaper article are mainly for people who support microtransactions. This article can apply to other groups of people but I focused on this group because this article gives me great evidence to why microtransactions are bad and why people need to do something in order to combat it.

      My stance on this newspaper is strongly stating that microtransactions are not good. Throughout the article, it is clear that I am using stories, pictures and dialogue in order to show no good but only the bad microtransactions cause to people.

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