#microtransactions banned

[existentialsurvivalist-blog]

Microtransactions should be banned, or should they?

“Microtransactions should be banned” is a sentence that I saw quite a lot when I was writing my series of articles about microtransactions and on one hand I can see from where this is coming. There are a lot of microtransactions that should be banned but not all of them are this horrible big beast that is destroying the industry we all love. 

I agree that some microtransactions should be banned, for instance, the ones that are gambling like, like the latest Call of Duty ones. When you open the box, there is an animation similar to that of a slot machine. Other games do the same. And I do agree, these microtransactions are bad and should not be allowed. But are they all bad? My answer is no. 

In my microtransactions series, I talked about the Overwatch microtransactions and that they are actually good and do not harm the player. With some more research, I found out, that this is not necessarily true. What they do is stimulate your pleasure centers of the brain every time you open a box. Now there is no harm from the items themselves, pure cosmetics, that cannot be traded or used any way outside the game, but the process of opening the box itself should be changed in my opinion. 

I based my opinion of Overwatch on my own experience, and that I never felt the need to purchase any boxes to get the items I wanted since I don't care much for cosmetics but a younger mind that can be easily influenced may not see it that way. They might feel something while opening the box thus making it more likely to purchase it in the future. 

So should microtransactions be banned then? Still, the answer is no. If they would change it up a bit and allow players to just purchase the skins and cosmetics they want to this would eliminate the psychological aspect of it. Sure, Activision / Blizzard would be losing money in the process and I not talking about their sales going into negatives I am talking about them having a smaller profit but the gaming media exposure would be huge and they would get a lot of positive press for it. Will this offset the long-term profit loss? No. Will this create a better landscape for gaming? Yes. If a big publisher or dev takes steps like these to improve their business practices then a smaller dev or publisher might follow. 

The issue of microtransactions has been talked to death already but I believe that we should continue to have the conversation for as long as the business landscape does not change regarding this question. Some microtransactions should be banned, I agree, but not all of them are bad and not all of them are made to pressure you into purchasing them. Sometimes they are the only way to monetize the content devs are making and as long as they do not take advantage of the player they should be fine and allowed.  

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Most popular issue in gaming as of now - microtransactions (Conclusion)

By now I hope, that you all have an understanding about microtransactions and what harm they bring to the gaming community, but I wanted to conclude the article series with a summary.

It is no secret, that game publishers and developers are business owners and they need to make money somehow and as long as it is ethical, its fine, but the problems arise with predatory business practices and other people using these business practises to keep harming the community, like loot boxes, pay to win microtransactions and content gating. And there are a number of things that we as a community can do to counter this. 

What we should do, is distance ourselves from these business practices. This does not mean, that game devs and publishers will stop employing this kind of business, but this distance can hinder these practices and maybe make the publisher and developer to rethink their inclusion of microtransactions and additional monetization options. 

We must distance ourselves from individuals, who promote and make content around loot boxes and gambling sites. If we hit them, then gambling sites lose their potential for promotion, thus hindering them as well and in turn, make loot box sales decline. This could create a chain reaction and maybe we could improve the games we love. And all of this is up to us, the gamers. We are at fault here, we are the ones, that encourage developers and publishers designing and making choices around bad business practices. 

Stop buying and consuming content, that should be in the base game and this does include some DLC's as well. Not all DLC content should be included in the base game, for instance, if a DLC adds a new mechanic. If this mechanic fixes an issue with the game, then this could be considered as a bad business practice since it should be patched, but if it adds value and gameplay, then this should be ok. Those are the guidelines I follow when purchasing additional content for my games, but this does not mean that you should do this as well. You can set your own guidelines, but I do strongly encourage you all to avoid content, that does not add value to the game, like loot boxes. 

In conclusion, I just wanted to say, that the gaming industry is growing and the sooner we take action to stop problems, the better our beloved games can get. We as players can add value to our games with enough feedback and I am not talking only about written feedback, but with monetary as well. If we stop taking part in microtransactions, then this feedback should encourage developers and publishers to lessen the predatory business practices.

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Most popular issue in gaming as of now - microtransactions (PT4)

The last piece of the microtransaction puzzle are content creators and I believe that these people are the worst regarding this. They actively promote microtransactions and gambling sites and make a huge profit off of people, that believe in them. They not only exploit their content consumers but also engage in predatory marketing actions.

These people create unboxing videos, provide content around gambling and betting sites and make the consumer believe, that this is ok, loot boxes are fun, gambling is fun and you can win big and so on. Some of these content creators are sponsored by gambling sites, and these sites provide them with the currency to gamble with. For a gambling site to provide 100 USD or even 1000 USD to a content creator is nothing. They shill out this money, the content creator can gable on the site for this money, promote the video and keep whatever they won. For the site owner, this kind of money is nothing and the content creator makes money from the site, from the video and other sources after that, like doing giveaways to promote their content.

These people often have made a reputation with other content, like making entertaining videos, gameplay, strategy and other. They have built up a following and they are exploiting their followers. I can understand the need to monetize your content, but I believe this is not ethical by any stretch. Casino gambling is strictly regulated, but skin gambling is not, thus the advertisement and other shady business tactics can be employed. 

This ties in with microtransactions mostly by promoting box openings. They sometimes spend a lot of money on their box opening videos and film only the good opens, thus creating the illusion, that anyone who buys the loot boxes can get cool skins or other content, but this is not the case. Most people will lose a lot of money on loot boxes and still not get what they want. 

Don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with other sources of revenue for games if anything I praise how Activision/Blizzard have gone about their monetization for Overwatch. You can purchase loot boxes for real-world currency, but you cannot exchange them, you can not transfer them in any way or do anything, except showcase the skins and other items in-game. This helps the game in the long run since the devs can cover any server and development expenses. And I believe that this is the ethical way to go about microtransactions, but once a real-world value is put into the picture, this gets shady.

You might say, that there is still real-world value in digital content, and I do agree, I just believe that this value should not be transferred outside of the game. This opens up the content to be abused. Developers may or may not have expected that but whatever they did or did not, they still open themselves up to abuse. 

To counter this, I encourage you to unsubscribe and stop following any content creator, that puts up any content regarding loot box openings, promoting gambling sites and openly is sponsored by gambling sites. You might enjoy their content or commentary and they might have an interesting character or personality, but by following them and helping them make money off of this content, you are contributing to the problem. You might not think this is a big deal, but content creators live off of their earnings from their content and if their income will suffer, then they might rething their content and maybe create something with actual value or entertainment value.

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Most popular issue in gaming as of now - microtransactions (PT3)

Last time we talked about how we can persuade others to not take part in microtransactions and that we should stay away from them ourselves and this time I wanted to talk about, what we as a community can do about the issue outside of games and our inner circle. 

There is a huge market around microtransactions and loot boxes and some of you might not even think about it that way, but I will explain the issues I see and how we can change the landscape. The biggest part around microtransactions are the gambling sites and this is such a huge problem. These gambling sites are poorly regulated and they are making a ton of money by exploiting people and the systems, that the developers have put into their games. The way this works is you can deposit skins from games to the gambling sites or purchase some sort of currency and take part in casino games on the site. You cannot withdraw cash from it, but you can withdraw skins, that have some value if you win. Then you can either use the skin in the game or cash it out by another site. You might think, that it's not a problem, but if real money gets involved in this, then this is pure gambling. No matter the way you spin this or try to excuse this, this is gambling. And the worst thing about this is that minors get involved in this. They see their idols playing on these casinos, and they think, hey, I can buy some skins, deposit them, and make big bank on this. 

The problem with this is that the games are designed the same way casino games are designed. They are targeted at the pleasure centers of the brain. You get flashy lights when you win and sound effects, winners lists are provided, biggest winners are displayed and so on, giving the illusion, that you can win big if you just keep at it. And most of the sites do not provide the return to player statistic, that most casinos and online casinos are required to provide, so you don't even know your odds. For instance, European roulette tables have a return to player percentage of 97.3 %. So in the long term, everyone will lose, because of the house edge. But players are informed about this. They can win in the short term, and they have a chance to lose money. They decide if they want to take the risk. But with these gambling sites, they do not provide this information, so most of the player base is misinformed about their odds of winning and thus cannot make an informed decision to take part or not take part in this. 

We as a community, need to avoid these sites at all costs. They push microtransactions since the money goes to the publisher or game developer first hand. You need to purchase something with a microtransaction, thus giving your money to the publisher first. And then an additional value is added, the market value (in chance-based microtransactions) based on the rarity of the item. After that, it is basically laundered through the gambling site. So what can we do about this? Don't take part in the system. Simple as that. Do not engage in these gambling sites. If you play on them, you are part of the problem. If you stop, you can become part of the solution.

Next time I will talk about another industry, that is around gambling sites and how it plays a role and contributes to the problem in general. 

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Most popular issue in gaming as of now - microtransactions (PT2)

Last time we talked about how microtransactions are hurting the industry with publishers no longer caring about the games they publish and that quality is starting to decline in AAA gaming. This time I wanted to talk about how can we improve the situation and what we as a community can do about this. There are a couple of things, that we can do in games and outside of games.

First, we can avoid microtransactions. You might think, that you cannot change anything, by not purchasing microtransactions, but hear me out. Have you heard about Six degrees of separation? It's the idea that all living things and everything else in the world are six or fewer steps away from each other so that a chain of "a friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps (definition taken from Wikipedia here). How does this connect to microtransactions? By influence. You (yes you) have the ability to influence at least 1 person in your personal circle, then that 1 person can influence another and so on. You see, if you do influence at least one person, by persuading them to not take part in microtransactions, that one person can pass that on. And this action can be done any number of times. But what will it change and how to go about this persuasion? 

I would say, do not push it. If you push too hard, people will start to think, that you have some sort of an agenda, but you can try and explain to people, that microtransactions are hurting the industry. Give them examples of games, that are built around this monetization model, give them examples of game quality suffering and most importantly, give them examples of publishers making a fuckton of money JUST from microtransactions and not game sales. This should be your main argument. But again, do not make this your agenda. Don't take this as a personal cause, because we all play games to have fun, and if someone is having more fun by buying something with microtransactions, then you have no reason to tell them otherwise. You can explain, how it is hurting the industry, but do not tell them what to do. 

But the question still stays, what will this change? Remember the six degrees of separation? The principle applies. You explain to someone how microtransactions are hurting the industry, they take note, explain it to someone else and so on. This, in turn, might shift the microtransaction market. By taking away some money from publishers, they might look at different ways to monetize the games, but if no one will take part, then publishers will lose money. This might hurt studios in short term, but we are looking for long time solutions. I agree, its bad that studios will suffer, but if we improve the whole market, then devs will be able to work with more passion since quality will be a factor, that the publishers require. 

Next time I will be talking about solutions outside of games. Some of you might not like them, but I believe that they can help the industry in a major way. 

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Most popular issue in gaming as of now - microtransactions

Lately, all I can see in the gaming media is microtransactions or bad business practices in general. There is a good reason for this, and I love that the community is talking about these issues, but I fear like some people do not understand why these issues are brought up. Most casual gamers think, that these issues, mainly bad business practices, are just a part of the industry, but the funny thing is, these practices are fairly recent. For instance microtransactions. They were, for the most part, a part of the mobile gaming market and also for a good reason.

The mobile gaming market needed to monetize their content somehow, so most of them used some form of microtransactions. Some were harmless, like extra turns in a single player game, or remove some time gating, but they do tend to get predatory. For instance, when any form of competition is involved, people will always look for ways to get ahead. We are competitive creatures, so we need to be better. Some game developers introduced microtransactions, that could get you a bit ahead, like removing the build times in some strategy games, or buying extra units or resources to crush your enemies. For the most part, this is not bad, but it does get worse when these microtransactions are pushed heavily. In my opinion, this is just not ethical. If a developer has some sort of microtransaction in their game, that is fine. Let the player know, that this is an option, but don't overwhelm the player. Most of these developers will put reminders of the microtransactions after almost every action, that requires any form of input. You click a button to build a unit and BAM, a full-screen banner is presented with information about how you could build the unit instantly, if you had some premium currency, that you can purchase. And the mobile market got flushed with this practice to a point, where some games are designed around the model. 

The microtransaction model was making so much money, that console and PC devs took a note and started to think of ways to do a similar thing. First came the horse armor for Oblivion, then came the micro DLC's, that added little content, then card systems for online sports games and the list goes on and on. Publishers are making so much money on these systems, that they stop caring about the quality of their product altogether. Look at the latest Mass Effect. The game was rushed, unfinished and just painfully average. All because the publisher was pushing the teams to work on a new IP, that I think will be another cash cow for the publisher. Anthem will be a multiplayer game and I already see, based on Battlefront 2, how it will be full of microtransactions. Sure, this is not a guarantee, but knowing EA's track record, there is a high possibility of this happening. 

But the biggest problem with all these systems taking place in our games are the players. Yes, the players. The casual gamer, the one round gamer, the gamers, that just don't have enough time to play and grind, the player, that is a little worse in online games, than his opposition. The previous sentence might seem a little controversial, shifting the blame from the publisher to the consumer, but think about it. Publishers and game devs would not push microtransactions so hard if no one would be buying them. Once they saw how much money is involved in this, they experimented and found ways and practices where players pay for microtransactions. And if the player is paying, then they will keep doing this. I saw and took part in the Star Wars Battlefront 2 boycott because I thought it might make a difference if enough gamers would not buy the game, but the truth is, it made no difference. 

Join me next time and read my thoughts and what can we as a community do to improve the situation.

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