Surveys
My field research proposal is definitely focusing on the survey aspect. This could include surveying large amounts of people, certainly gamers but also seeing if the general people have any opinions on microtransactions in video games. The methods used for the survey can take on many different forms. These could include taking online surveys like google or even making a Reddit comment asking people for their opinion. Now of course these might be bias so in order to counter act this I can go to the video games themselves. By entering different lobbies and servers I can directly ask the gamers themselves, maybe even focusing on people who have brought microtransactions. Many different people exist in these lobbies from all over the world so the data can be varied, instead of just being Americans I can also get European opinions or even other countries. With these I can compare American views to European views of microtransactions, maybe to see if we see it differently or generally the same. Other data can include just your average joe, I could see if they have an opinion at all or maybe they don't but maybe they are concerned for their future child. Who knows if these predatory practices might have some kind of an affect now the line? With all of the different kinds of responses I might get, I can formulate all of the data into different forms. By creating graphs or pie charts I can show a visual representation of the opinions of not only gamers but your average joe. Another way is just to show the survey results, x number of people put they don't like microtransactions or visa versa including maybe a couple of comments on why or why not. In general I feel that the most effective field research I can do with my topic is surveying, gaining a large number of opinions and finding what people generally think.
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Monday, March 4, 2019
Background Info For Mircotranscations
Wikipedia contributors. "Microtransaction." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 Feb. 2019. Web. 4 Mar. 2019.
In order to obtain general information about microtransactions (MTX) I first did a Wikipedia search. This website gave some basic info the why companies do it, the general impact of microtransactions. It mainly focuses on mobile devices and free-to-play games with their in app purchases. I didn't really know the specific statistics in the mobile market so I was surprised to see that in June 2011 65% of total revenue came from these mobile games making free to play games the single most dominant business model. This business model can be seen as "milking their games for profit", as the company continues to push harder and harder seeing how far they can go to monetize their own games. It also went in detail about the ethics, in generally its considered to be unethical. It talks about how companies are selling the data from microtransactions purchases to other companies in order to turn an even larger profit, and to use this data in the future to continue to push microtransactions. Obviously the whole goal is to gain a higher revenue and growth for a company, but it comes at the expense of the games that are created. I was wondering why in the whole article there is nothing that talks the psychological effects,especially because studies are now coming out showing more and more people are looking at microtransactions (loot boxes) akin to gambling with slot machines. Why do companies continue to push these microtransactions even though most of the gaming community and audience at large consider them unethical, and a scummy business practice?
In order to obtain general information about microtransactions (MTX) I first did a Wikipedia search. This website gave some basic info the why companies do it, the general impact of microtransactions. It mainly focuses on mobile devices and free-to-play games with their in app purchases. I didn't really know the specific statistics in the mobile market so I was surprised to see that in June 2011 65% of total revenue came from these mobile games making free to play games the single most dominant business model. This business model can be seen as "milking their games for profit", as the company continues to push harder and harder seeing how far they can go to monetize their own games. It also went in detail about the ethics, in generally its considered to be unethical. It talks about how companies are selling the data from microtransactions purchases to other companies in order to turn an even larger profit, and to use this data in the future to continue to push microtransactions. Obviously the whole goal is to gain a higher revenue and growth for a company, but it comes at the expense of the games that are created. I was wondering why in the whole article there is nothing that talks the psychological effects,especially because studies are now coming out showing more and more people are looking at microtransactions (loot boxes) akin to gambling with slot machines. Why do companies continue to push these microtransactions even though most of the gaming community and audience at large consider them unethical, and a scummy business practice?
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