I love video games. They allow me to connect with friends, talk on a headset, strategize to eliminate the opposition, and so on. But there’s trouble in paradise. A recently adopted business model involving microtransactions mixes poorly with video gamers. Microtransactions are small online financial transactions. They’re useful to some industries, but in the world of video gaming, they’re often exploitative and distracting. The problem deserves more attention.
The birth of microtransactions came from Downloadable Content, or DLC. DLC is additional content released after a game’s initial release, and it costs money. In some cases, it’s relatively harmless. For example, 2011’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim offered around 300 hours of gameplay and catered to various playstyles. This kept the game fresh and encouraged replay value. The base game alone was a polished product that later offered additional paid-for content for the base game. Skyrim’s DLC offers a fair package that gives the consumer optional extra content.
However, some game developers have devolved DLC into slicing off a portion of the original DLC product and later selling that portion as DLC. This often impedes a narrative or storyline at the consumers’ expense. Unless they purchase the DLC, they won’t have a complete game. As Ryan Lizardi explains, “What the DLC model does is create a cycle in which users are given the choice to purchase just a ‘small’ addition to enhance a game they enjoy, but adding all of transactions highlights that there is nothing small about the investment into a single game.” This greedy practice should stop.
DLC succeeds or fails depending on its implementation. Usually, a smart consumer can (and should) determine which games are worth purchasing extra content for and which games just drain their wallets. DLC isn’t always a significant chunk of content. In fact, smaller increments of it have seeped into almost every single game. The video gamer must consider this when confronted by microtransactions.
Microtransactions intertwine with most modern games because of the sheer amount of cash they generate. Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5), the best-selling video game of all time, demonstrates competent microtransaction usage. It has earned roughly 2 billion dollars since its release. Given these astounding global sales, other companies rushed to examine what the game did right. GTA 5’s success relied on hype, as fans of the previous titles were very excited. But microtransactions represented a huge part of the game’s sales. The game’s online portion includes weapons and vehicles that can be unlocked by in-game cash and earned by completing in-game tasks.
The developers of Rockstar also made in-game currency accessible by real money called “Shark Cards.” The largest Shark Card costs around a hundred dollars. As a result, this game acquired an additional eight million dollars from microtransactions alone. Naturally, most games coming out after this game have microtransactions in some form. Thus, “Pay To Win” can ruin the fun of a game that offers better resources to a player who pays additional money to own a tactical advantage over poorer opponents. Then, when players see they lost due to better resources only accessible through microtransactions, they’re naturally inclined to purchase them when possible.
Sometimes, the “Pay to Win” strategy meets fierce gamer resistance. EA’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a case in point. It was a widely anticipated video game. Given the Star Wars brand, the game seemed failsafe. Yet upon it’s release, it received relentless criticism from fans and analysts for its predatory Pay-to-Win policy. Pushed to their limit, a growing number of fans said, “Enough is enough.”
Microtransactions allow gamers to purchase content unlockable in the game itself. In its purest form, unlockable content becomes accessible only when the player performs something successfully to get access to it. However, unlocking these items in-game takes upwards of 72 in-game hours. EA designed nearly unreachable in-game unlockables to force players into purchasing them with real money. Developers stated, “The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.” The reply made the most downvotes in Reddit’s history. Ultimately, the developers shut down their microtransaction system. The backlash grew so big that Belgium investigated the microtransaction issue. The system EA implemented was so heinous that users rebelled en masse.
Put simply, microtransactions damage the gaming community. Because they are often cheap, gamers buy them. In many games, microtransactions come in the form of “Loot Boxes.” These are in-game vessels filled with randomized resources. Uproxx writer Jason Nawara states, “Gaming loot boxes have evolved from a supplementary and unnecessary part of a game to a near-mandatory money-sink for consumers if they hope to get the most out of their usually full-price purchase.” This unethical business model has flooded the market. Greedy game developers continue to push consumer boundaries to squeeze every cent from their pockets.
Adults can boycott or avoid these microtransactions. But developers know that children compose a big demographic. And children don’t consider the ethics of microtransactions in their online video games. They just want to have fun. So they don’t see a problem in asking their parents for a two dollar in-game item.
Some adult gamers have challenged this marketing strategy. The widespread backlash against Star Wars Battlefront 2 drew so much attention that lawmakers around the world noticed. Legislators found microtransaction abuses unacceptable. They considered gambling worse. Loot boxes represent base-level gambling. Many video gamers love the thrill of unlocking a loot box. If their treasure proves inadequate, they’ll buy more.
Reddit user Kensgold admitted to having spent over 10,000 dollars on microtransactions. He had gambling issues, and games with loot boxes and pay-to-win features proved especially tempting. He said, “At first it was 10 bucks every other week. Then the game shifted again.” Kensgold described how every purchase triggered a sense of instant gratification that fueled his addiction. Something needs to change.
Solutions do exist. Overwatch, a widely popular team-based product, has loot boxes. But they only hold cosmetic items like skins, emotes, etc. What you get from them won’t affect gameplay or give other players advantages. The game also grants lootboxes by completing challenges, meaning all players are granted these loot boxes and don’t have to pay for them with real-world money.
When is enough enough? The Star Wars Battlefront 2 backlash forced change, and EA removed microtransactions entirely. Still, unchecked growth creates more problems. Some technological advances seem to come straight from science fiction movies. The film Ready Player One intertwines this theme directly into its plot. In a future virtual world called the Oasis, an evil corporation tries to strip people of their freedom by embedding microtransactions into virtual life. This means taxing players for just about everything in the game.
A time may come when something like the Oasis exists in real life. If microtransactions remain unchecked, things will only get worse. Thankfully, games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 met such opposition that EA gave in to consumers’ demands and change was made. The chain reaction from fan criticism, all the way to a government investigation, got attention.
Still, a little negative press won’t end corrupt microtransactions. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) should make new policies to educate consumers (mainly parents) on what a game’s content has to offer. The ESRB states, “We will be expanding our efforts to educate parents about the controls currently at their disposal to manage in-game spending before their kids press ‘Start.’” More changes must follow.
Overwatch and Fortnite serve as ethical designs. Both include microtransactions, but they only offer cosmetic items that in no way make the game unfair. The gaming community can make a difference. When Battlefront 2 came out, the collective backlash put EA in its place and set an example for what not to do with microtransactions. Consumers have much more power than they realize. If we stand united, we have nothing to worry about regarding the future of microtransactions.
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Jaden Knowles is a musician, writer, and actor from the Colorado Springs area.
