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Fears over game microtransactions and the birth pangs of a post-stuff age Fears over game microtransactions and the birth pangs of a post-stuff age
(6 months later)
Video games aren't just fun to play, they're also the perfect seed for an enjoyable moral panic. They're hot news today because the Office of Fair Trading is conducting a review of the way that in-app purchases target young players.Video games aren't just fun to play, they're also the perfect seed for an enjoyable moral panic. They're hot news today because the Office of Fair Trading is conducting a review of the way that in-app purchases target young players.
It's increasingly common for games, especially games for smartphones and tablets, to be free (or very cheap) but for manufacturers to sell additional content "inside" the game. The extra content can range from mere cosmetic enhancements to deal-breaking essentials without which progress becomes impossible. And it's not just the 69p iPhone games either. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was the biggest-grossing entertainment launch of 2012. It made over $500m (£325m) in its first 24 hours.It's increasingly common for games, especially games for smartphones and tablets, to be free (or very cheap) but for manufacturers to sell additional content "inside" the game. The extra content can range from mere cosmetic enhancements to deal-breaking essentials without which progress becomes impossible. And it's not just the 69p iPhone games either. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was the biggest-grossing entertainment launch of 2012. It made over $500m (£325m) in its first 24 hours.
The standard edition for the Xbox is a shade under £40. But within a few months the cohort of players using just the standard maps diminished when its Revolution map pack arrived. That added four new maps and a spiffy new gun to murder your opponents with. If you were wise you didn't buy the map pack alone but a season pass entitling you to all four map packs due this year. That's priced at 4,000 Microsoft points. That's about £15, but wrapping the purchase up in points makes the transaction feel somewhat unreal. You're paying almost half as much again as you did for the core game. But if you don't, online matches become harder and harder to come by as more lobbies feature the new maps in their rotation. There are some new brightly-coloured "camouflages" too, also available as a separate purchase. Nobody needs them – but my, they're pretty.The standard edition for the Xbox is a shade under £40. But within a few months the cohort of players using just the standard maps diminished when its Revolution map pack arrived. That added four new maps and a spiffy new gun to murder your opponents with. If you were wise you didn't buy the map pack alone but a season pass entitling you to all four map packs due this year. That's priced at 4,000 Microsoft points. That's about £15, but wrapping the purchase up in points makes the transaction feel somewhat unreal. You're paying almost half as much again as you did for the core game. But if you don't, online matches become harder and harder to come by as more lobbies feature the new maps in their rotation. There are some new brightly-coloured "camouflages" too, also available as a separate purchase. Nobody needs them – but my, they're pretty.
It doesn't bother me too much, it's not a huge amount of money. But I can tell from the in-game chatter that a huge number of Call Of Duty players are markedly younger than the Entertainment Software Rating Board rating of 18+ suggests. Some parents have made a positive value judgment that their pre-teen child can cope with playing a violent videogame. But I'm willing to wager that a fair percentage just don't know. And if they don't know about the big things like a £40 video game it's unlikely that the more trivial transactions are on their radar.It doesn't bother me too much, it's not a huge amount of money. But I can tell from the in-game chatter that a huge number of Call Of Duty players are markedly younger than the Entertainment Software Rating Board rating of 18+ suggests. Some parents have made a positive value judgment that their pre-teen child can cope with playing a violent videogame. But I'm willing to wager that a fair percentage just don't know. And if they don't know about the big things like a £40 video game it's unlikely that the more trivial transactions are on their radar.
These microtransactions are attractive to manufacturers because, in part, they deter piracy – new content often won't run on a compromised copy of the game, but also, all those little buys add up. There have certainly been a few headline-grabbing cases. Last month, five-year-old schoolboy Danny Kitchen, from Bristol, managed to spend over £1,700 of real money inside the imaginary world of Zombies v Ninjas on his parents' iPad. The money has since been refunded by Apple. Also last month, 13-year-old Cameron Crossan ran up a £3,700 bill on his dad's credit card with a mixture of conventional downloads and in-app purchases. His father Doug has reported the transactions as fraudulent. Chances are he'll get his money back too. In the US, a lawsuit brought by the parents of a nine-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who bought $200 of "virtual money" from three "free" games from Apple's games market resulted in refunds to multiple customers worth a total of $100m.These microtransactions are attractive to manufacturers because, in part, they deter piracy – new content often won't run on a compromised copy of the game, but also, all those little buys add up. There have certainly been a few headline-grabbing cases. Last month, five-year-old schoolboy Danny Kitchen, from Bristol, managed to spend over £1,700 of real money inside the imaginary world of Zombies v Ninjas on his parents' iPad. The money has since been refunded by Apple. Also last month, 13-year-old Cameron Crossan ran up a £3,700 bill on his dad's credit card with a mixture of conventional downloads and in-app purchases. His father Doug has reported the transactions as fraudulent. Chances are he'll get his money back too. In the US, a lawsuit brought by the parents of a nine-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who bought $200 of "virtual money" from three "free" games from Apple's games market resulted in refunds to multiple customers worth a total of $100m.
So, if manufacturers crumble when we complain, doesn't that mean they were wrong to offer in-app purchases in the first place? Or is it just that none of us have adjusted yet to a new way of doing business? Not us parents, who imagine that an iPad or an Xbox is a benign babysitter in the same way that a book might be. Nor the children who have never needed to learn the explicit relationship between stuff and money.So, if manufacturers crumble when we complain, doesn't that mean they were wrong to offer in-app purchases in the first place? Or is it just that none of us have adjusted yet to a new way of doing business? Not us parents, who imagine that an iPad or an Xbox is a benign babysitter in the same way that a book might be. Nor the children who have never needed to learn the explicit relationship between stuff and money.
It feels unnatural to my generation, raised to value the acquisition of record collections, box sets, cars, houses and other stuff, when our offspring don't place as much value on it. That assaying of the record collection, an essential rite of familiarisation for teenagers of the 1970s and 1980s, is a vanishing custom in the era of Spotify. The grown-up version, scanning the bookshelves at a dinner party or running a thoughtful finger over the spines of the new neighbours' DVDs at a housewarming, seems quaint when our kids are happier with the evanescent charms of Kindles and Netflix.It feels unnatural to my generation, raised to value the acquisition of record collections, box sets, cars, houses and other stuff, when our offspring don't place as much value on it. That assaying of the record collection, an essential rite of familiarisation for teenagers of the 1970s and 1980s, is a vanishing custom in the era of Spotify. The grown-up version, scanning the bookshelves at a dinner party or running a thoughtful finger over the spines of the new neighbours' DVDs at a housewarming, seems quaint when our kids are happier with the evanescent charms of Kindles and Netflix.
And let's face it; the next generation are far less likely to be able to own their own homes than my lot. We live in a culture soup now – games, books, films and music all downloadable with minimal fuss. I'm at the older end of the video game fanatic demographic but I am still slightly seduced by these new services that will let me rent my culture, rather than possessing it. It's getting harder for me to justify keeping an archive of other people's creativity in a house that isn't getting any bigger.And let's face it; the next generation are far less likely to be able to own their own homes than my lot. We live in a culture soup now – games, books, films and music all downloadable with minimal fuss. I'm at the older end of the video game fanatic demographic but I am still slightly seduced by these new services that will let me rent my culture, rather than possessing it. It's getting harder for me to justify keeping an archive of other people's creativity in a house that isn't getting any bigger.
It's tough for me, and even tougher for someone who has never handed over a sheaf of notes for a foot-square, triple live album. Culture is changing. In 20 or 30 years, people will be as tickled by archive footage of people proudly displaying their record collections as we are by people smoking in the office on Mad Men. The current concerns about in-app marketing are just the birth pangs of the post-stuff age.It's tough for me, and even tougher for someone who has never handed over a sheaf of notes for a foot-square, triple live album. Culture is changing. In 20 or 30 years, people will be as tickled by archive footage of people proudly displaying their record collections as we are by people smoking in the office on Mad Men. The current concerns about in-app marketing are just the birth pangs of the post-stuff age.
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