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?
Until recent years, I haven't seen MTX's being a topic of discussion. And, as you stated, that's probably due to a rise in "free-to-play" games available on smartphones. This post, being mostly exploitative, is from Wikipedia, which down the line in the research process, will be more scrutinized than at this point. I guess my main question I have is what direction are you heading in terms of your stance? Are you in favor of or against MTX's? Do they help or hurt gameplay?
ReplyDeleteIs there anything from your own research that could help augment their research? Please include a link or a suggestion.
What kinds of questions do you have about their research?
What gaps are there in the research? - give at least one direction the research could potentially take.