2nd Miscellaneous Article

Ali, Jawad. “Belgium Has Declared Loot Boxes As Gambling And Will Impose Huge Fine With Five Years In Prison.” SegmentNext, 25 Apr. 2018, segmentnext.com/2018/04/25/belgium-lootboxes-gambling/.

I came across this article when I began searching for a real world reaction to the increasing problem of microtransactions. It all started with a Hawaii state representative Chris Lee discussing the predatory behavior of loot boxes and calling for action. This call for action was responded by some European countries including Belgium and the Netherlands. Netherlands had declared loot boxes as gambling and now will require a gambling license into order to implement them in that country. Belgium took a more hard-line route enforcing more penalties saying," Mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for mental health’, says Geens. ‘We have already taken numerous measures to protect minors and adults against the influence of gambling advertising. Then we also have to make sure that they are not confronted with games of chance when they are looking for fun in a video game." These measure includes a fine up to 1.6 million Euros for different games that Belgium has found to have microtranscations which they now consider gambling by law (Overwatch, Fifa 18, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive). Another measure is the removal of these microtransactions from existing games within Belgium, a measure that a particularly gaming company has refused to comply with (more discussed on this in next entry). Places like Belgium are an increasing trend in this world that are beginning to address the problem of microtransactions. Its  sad that governments are having to step in and deal with the gaming industries problems but when companies refuse to self regulate themselves a change must occur and this change so happens to come from the government.

2nd Physical Source

Seliukas Gvidenis."Microtransactions as a Business Model in the Video Game Industry". GRIN Publishing, 2015.

Microtransactions continue to show up time and time again, usually being a point of contention and a direct concern for fans. Being constantly implemented they clearly generate enough revenue for a publisher or developer to decide to put them into their game. Seliukas Gvidenis in his bachelor thesis wrote about microtransactions as a business model. He stated in regards to if they are a success or not,"The microtransactions business model has proved very successful in the past and it will likely continue to be successful in the next few years, as companies seem to be developing games with this model in mind and mobile gaming is continuing its fast growth." Throughout his thesis he describes the most successful mobile games like League of Legends which has "27 million daily players, 67 million monthly" calling it  "doing free to play right". But he also brings what seems like a reoccurring antagonist throughout this topic having a section of his thesis called "When big publishers can’t get the model right - the case of EA". In this case EA continues to amaze with the inclusion of a huge number pay-walls and not listening to their play base in the case of  Dungeon Keeper” for mobile platforms. Seliukas says,"Marketed as a free to play game with microtransactions, however the gameplay was so hindered by the pay walls that players felt like the game was essentially unplayable unless they made several in app purchases." Microtransactions as a business model if done right can bring in millions that enjoy the gameplay and don't mind spending a couple of bucks to support a well deserved game. But if done wrong whether its through pay walls, or ignoring of a game's player base can cause destruction in the form of a lower reputation or a decreased number of players. Luckily (maybe) something is becoming more and more common, governments are beginning to take notice and are taking action.

1st Miscellaneous Article

Yin-Poole, Wesley. “Now FIFA 19 Discloses Pack Odds, the True Horror of FUT Is Laid Bare.” Eurogamer.net, Eurogamer.net, 29 Sept. 2018, www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-29-now-fifa-19-discloses-pack-odds-the-true-horror-of-fut-is-laid-bare.

In regards to the actually percentages (chances) to receive the best players in the games (FIFA in this case) from these card packs is absolutely ridiculously. A new feature was implemented into the game called Show Pack Probabilities. The picture below which comes from the article shows percentages for a chance to get a  increasingly better player through the packs. Wesley Yin-Poole the author gives a really good point regarding that less than 1% in the picture," According to EA, there's less than one per cent chance of getting a Ones to Watch player from a pack in FIFA 19. Less than one per cent. This may be an even more dire situation than it looks at first glance. The wording of "less than one per cent" probability is clearly deliberate - it may be 0.01 per cent, for all players know." This may be one of the first times a game company let alone EA gave our the actually numbers regarding a players chances, which is a good thing but it ended up causing even more backlash. Those Ones to Watch Players include Cristiano Ronaldo,  and Riyad Mahrez very high profile players, yet then can't give specifics on them. Instead they leave it deliberately vague saying less than 1%, who knows how far down it can actually be, but from this chart its clear what EA's intention is from these packs. The chance to get these high profile players is so small and of course there are die hard fans out there who will spend a lot of money to get them. If the chances are lower then players will spend more and more trying to get them, draining the life force (money) from their wallets. But then comes the question what if EA needs the money? What is the business model behind microtransactions, is it actually worth it to implement them?

1st Academic Article

"Microtransactions take play and turn it into pay." UWIRE Text, 18 Oct. 2018, p. 1. Infotrac Newsstand, http://link.galegroup.com.aurarialibrary.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A559273893/STND?u=auraria_main&sid=STND&xid=40010b36. Accessed 17 Apr. 2019.

To delve further into the problems of the FIFA and NFL games in particularity like I mentioned in my last post, I found an academic article within the Auraria Library database. I simply went to the database and searched mircotransactions and FIFA, a couple down the list and I found this one titled  Microtransactions take play and turn it into pay. No where on the article it lists a author but nonetheless it brings up a good point,"Recently, Electronic Arts released their new games "FIFA 19", and "Madden 19" with microtransactions prohibiting the progress of the game itself. Their intentions and their greed are as clear as day. They simply do not care as long as consumers succumb to their bait and purchase overpriced in-game goods." To go more into detail about the in-game goods it mostly consist of card packs which represent every real world football or soccer players. Of course these card packs vary in rarity like in the case of Messi a very top level athlete is one of the rarest to unlock. Because of his rarity his stats are also one of the best within the game and he is very much available in online competitive play. What this does makes the online section essentially "pay to win", a concept no gamer likes to hear. Competitive games are supposed to be skills based and balanced but this card pack system introduces a pay to win mechanic. A player with little skill can fork over hundreds of dollars to receive the best available characters in these games and come to an online game with significant advantage over a player who don't pay for these loot packs. The question to ask now is what are the chances to get these high rarity characters? Maybe some might just say hey its likely to happen just spend a couple bucks and get them, however this is dead wrong.

1st Physical Source-Book

Griffiths, Mark. Gambling and Gaming Addictions in Adolescence. BPS Blackwell, 2002.

In an effort to obtain more knowledge about microtransactions, I headed down to the Auraria Library to find a physical source. In my search throughout the databases of the Library I found a book which seemed to fit the bill. It was called Gambling and Gaming Addictions in Adolescence by Mark Griffiths. While it covers more of just the act of playing games in general, there was one quote that really stood out for me. Marks quotes a definition from Marlatt et al," defines addictive behavior as: a repetitive habit pattern that increases risk of diseases and/or associated personal and social problems. Addictive behaviors are often experienced subjectively as 'loss pf control. These habit patterns are typically characterized by immediate gratification (short term reward), often coupled with delay deleterious effects (long term costs)." I feel as if this quotes sums up what microtransactions are supposed to do. Micropayments generally range from 99 cents to 5 dollars. Companies purposely make the game more of a chore to play through as if a mud is slowing down the player. As it becomes more and more frustrating to try and get through anything, the player turns toward the microtransactions. "It's only 99 cents to get past this chore, that's not that much." This simple thought then begins to spiral out of control. For short term gratification, in this case getting past an object/level, the player spends 99 cents but soon enough he realizes that every level is a chore. As this occurs he is pushed to spend more and more passing everything he doesn't want to play and that 99 cents can become much more. Long term he spends much more then just 99 cents, not only wasting his own money but giving more incentives for companies to continue this practice, after all the more players that do this the more profit is made. This is just one example of that scenario, the biggest problem lies with card packs and loot boxes especially those with different rarity's like common through legendary (FIFA, NFL). 

Field Research Proposal

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. 

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?