Welcome to the game. You are now one of the millions of Australians who play video games every day.
Like this game, many are free but include repeated payment prompts.
Gaming is a global business worth around $175 billion. That’s more than Hollywood and the music industry combined.
As business booms, so does the competition for your attention and money.
We’ll show you how some games are deliberately designed to extract maximum time and money.
Persuading players to pay for additional benefits or features is a key part of the game’s business model.
You are offered a certain color or type of weapon because an algorithm made a prediction on how you might perform in the game.
Some games can take data from your social networks and determine, for example, which sports team you support, then offer you articles in the colors of the team.
You decide to buy the mid-range weapon. It’s probably because there’s a deliberately overpriced weapon out there to skew your perception of value.
Payments like this, often made using invented game currency, are called microtransactions or in-game purchases.
This is how three-quarters of all gaming revenue is made, or about $117 billion last year.
But these predatory techniques set back experts and some players.
In late 2020, Four Corners launched a crowdsourced video game survey and received over 3,000 responses.
Many players have told us how much they enjoy playing, but others have expressed concerns about how the game has become profit driven.
Games played on mobiles, consoles and computers have become extremely sophisticated, often with artificial intelligence and data collection built into the platform.
Game researchers warn that gamers often don’t know “how much the game is actually playing them.”
“A lot of these games use machine learning, they track what players are doing using people’s information and within their social network, to make very robust predictions about people’s behavior,” said Daniel King, a clinical psychologist from Flinders University.
Microtransactions started appearing in games in the mid-2000s, encouraging people to repeatedly make small purchases to keep them engaged.
Of the 20 best-selling console and computer games in Australia last year, 18 included some type of microtransaction.
The in-game currency trick
Student and mother-of-two Kat McDonald started playing the free-to-play mobile strategy game Legend of the Phoenix during the COVID lockdown.
Players take on the role of a young courtesan and complete quests to climb the social hierarchy.
“Once the kids fell asleep, I wanted to find something to play with,” she said.
“It was just really good to be on top of something, because of that time in my life. COVID was a really sad time for a lot of people. It was nice to actually achieve something.”
The more she spent on Legend of the Phoenix, the more she progressed.
She bought in-game currency called ‘Ingots’ to spend on outfits and to increase her character’s power.
Dr King said in-game currencies were used as a tactic to trick players into spending more than they realize.
“The intent behind an in-game currency is to change the psychological value of money that has been spent on gambling,” he told Four Corners.
“Game developers sometimes use multiple currencies so players have a hard time keeping track of how much they’re spending.
“[They] disguise or mislead the player about how much money they really need to spend in the long run until they are already engaged in the game.”
Kat became so immersed in the game that she lost track of how much she had spent on several small purchases.
“I had thought it was around the $2,500 mark. I didn’t know how to set up a detailed account because on your bank account it just says Apple.
“I sat down with a notepad and a pen and wrote down each transaction and added it to $4,000.”
She said the achievement was “mind-blowing”.
“I felt a little sick. I was a little afraid to tell my husband, because we share funds in our house. I felt like it was money the family could have spent. And I hadn’t even noticed that I was spending about that much. “
Kat said she realized she was being manipulated by the game.
“But I was still participating because it still gave me that dopamine rush,” she said.
“And you’re like, ‘Well, that was money well spent.’ It is not really. “
In 2019, Australians spent nearly $3.2 billion on video games.
Ron Curry, who represents the Australian game development and publishing industry (IGEA), said it was difficult to enforce spending warnings across all games.
“With the array of different games, publishers and players in this market, there will always be those who are unlikely to be as upfront as they should be,” he said.
Pay to win or skip
You can either wait for your oxygen to fill up or pay to instantly advance in the game.
Video games have evolved from shorter, more contained experiences to much longer game worlds that often encourage people to keep playing for very long periods of time.
This includes characters performing the same tasks over and over again.
This is called “grinding” – repetitive play is required to progress in some games.
In some cases, players have the option of paying real money for faster or easier access to certain parts of the game.
Rob Leming has been acting his entire adult life.
“The pay-to-win model is pretty much what it sounds like, two people can play and they can follow the same set of progression rules to improve,” he said.
“Or you or I could spend the money on the spot and reap all the benefits of having progressed.”
He was addicted, losing himself for weeks in hit games like World of Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed.
“I’d wake up, basically do the basics. Borderline get dressed if I had to, put some food in my belly. Definitely make a coffee, usually strong. And sit down and start playing,” says- he .
“At that time, everything in the day revolved around the game.”
It sank deep into the creak as it played for hours.
“I’ve spent days hopping across rooftops in some ancient lands picking up feathers, and I’m sitting here now and I’m like, ‘Huh? For what?’ Maybe they gave my character a new sword or something, but the game didn’t depend on it. It’s not Assassin’s Creed Fight For Feathers.
“[These games] have a lot of work loaded into them that if you were to really look back on them, you start to think, ‘Why does this exist?'”
Dr King said the more money a gambler invests, the harder it can be to quit gambling.
“The idea of these games is to get people a lot more hooked on the game, to spend less time away from the game, and to feel a lot more invested in the game as they progress,” he said. he declares.
“A dodgy car, for example, that you’ve already spent thousands of dollars on, and you justify continuing to spend money on it, because you’ve already spent so much money so far that you’re trapped by experience.”
But the industry association simply describes it as an “in-game purchase” to enhance the experience.
“Whether it’s buying a new skin or creating a new home, the vehicle you drive,” Mr. Curry said.
“In fact, some games are more like a service than a game. You buy it once, and that game continues to evolve and grow as you go.”
Rewards keep you coming back
Daily rewards can be used to keep you playing. If you miss a day, you don’t get the accumulated reward.
The game tries to get you into the habit of playing, which makes it harder to quit the game.
Psychiatrist Kim Le treats children and adolescents struggling with their gambling habits.
“I see a lot of kids showing up in distress, self-harming, thinking life isn’t worth living,” he said.
“Paediatricians have referred children to me who have soiled themselves…the child will come to my office, I will ask them, ‘What do you do when you soil yourself? They’ll tell me they’re playing a video game and they can’t stop. “
He knows how hard it is to quit because he is a player himself.
Over the past five years, he’s been hooked on Pokémon GO, a $4 billion mobile game.
“You love receiving the reward when you got there, but look back and regret the time you spent. You wonder how I could have spent my time in a more worthwhile way,” he said. told Four Corners.
“I went through at least two different 90 day detoxes, so my very first self imposed detox with the help of people, using online forums, journaling my entries… I tried quitting Pokémon GO and during the first week, I failed.
“The game gave me an opportunity, a reward that I just couldn’t refuse. I had been waiting for this particular reward for a long time and so I relapsed.”
The social meeting place
You can compete online with players from around the world and have a live leaderboard to track your progress.
You are also encouraged to share your score on social media to get extra points.
It’s all part of the game becoming a “social meeting place” where peer pressure can normalize spending.
Nae Jackson has been acting since she was a child.
For years, she’s dedicated her life to a multiplayer fantasy game called Rift, where players come together in online teams or “guilds” with players from around the world.
“I think the ultimate kill I did with my home guild was a giant octopus and we spent months killing the giant squid, but the feeling of accomplishment when we finally killed it, we didn’t ‘We didn’t recruit any semi-professional players to help us kill this, we did it ourselves,’ she said.
“It was amazing, and just the joy that came when we finally killed that little scroll and the little scroll at the bottom, ‘Achievement Unlocked,’ there’s nothing like it.”
But playing for so long has taken its toll.
“For a full day, you could easily do eight hours a day of raiding, and there would be two to three days of raiding a week.
“Getting the kids ready for school was definitely a problem, I was really tired. I accidentally fell asleep and once missed a school bus because I was sleeping.
She ended up with stress injuries to her hands.
“I lost a lot of muscle tone when I started playing a lot. My shoulders hurt, my neck hurt, my wrists seized up,” she says.
“I actually had to quit the raid team with the guild for a while there because my wrists were so bad.”
On one occasion, she organized her entire family life around a 24-hour frenzy.
“I had to write down all the lists so that I was organized and could give 24 hours straight. I bought energy drinks, dinners were prepared and prepared,” she says.
Looking back, she said she was hooked.
“Organizing schedules around gaming…it’s pretty safe to say that either you’re overly, fiercely competitive, which I’m not, or you’re addicted. And you’ve become so immersed in the world of gaming and what’s going on, what’s your world and that’s your priority.”
Kat McDonald was recruited into a guild through Legend of the Phoenix’s in-game messaging system.
“I was definitely identified by the guild, because of my regular gameplay and the fact that I had increased so much power and it was by spending money,” she said.
Her husband Anthony McDonald understands why the guild has been such a powerful influence on her.
“There was a bit of a sense of community and an obligation almost that she had to maintain and help and support her guild to move forward. And that’s when she spent a lot more time, and I guess a bit more money, doing this,” he says.
Dr. King said guilds are a powerful way to keep players online.
“It’s kind of like peer pressure. It’s also friendly competition, kind of a social meeting place where people used to hang out outside of work or at home,” he said.
“They want gamers to experience comfort, to experience a sense of escape from the real world in these experiences, and to normalize the spend within that same setting.”
Players Rob Leming and Kim Le can both relate to this.
“Your personal life starts to exist in the game. You meet friends in the game, you make friends in the game,” Rob told Four Corners.
“It’s about running in games, having adventures and killing creatures and whatever you want to do.”
Dr Le said one of the main reasons he relapsed after trying to detox was because of his teammates.
“They kept texting me, telling me to come back and play,” he said.
Game-like ‘loot boxes’
Loot boxes are the most controversial type of microtransaction. Some mimic the look and sound of poker machines.
They are like a virtual treasure chest that you can buy, with no guarantee of what you might win.
Loot boxes earned the global video game industry an estimated $15 billion last year, and the market is expected to continue growing by another $5 billion by 2025.
Psychologist James Sauer analyzes how video game design affects behavior and has conducted several studies on loot boxes.
“We know that the psychological mechanics that many loot box systems operate on are very similar to other forms of gaming,” he said.
“A disproportionate share of loot box revenue comes from players who score high on problem gambling symptoms.”
The games industry defends loot boxes, saying they are no different from a Kinder Surprise.
“I don’t think they’re similar to the game. With the loot box, you’re investing money to get something back. You’ll always get something back,” Curry said.
“Now whether it’s something you really want or it’s less than you want, it’s always something you can play in your game.”
Dr. Sauer rejects this comparison.
“I think when someone buys a Kinder Surprise, basically they know what they’re getting…chocolate and they’re getting a little plastic toy,” he says.
“In loot boxes…you don’t buy the game for the reward mechanic, but the reward mechanic is there. You buy access to this…and you get a random result, which may or may not be very valuable precious at all.”
Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John is an avid gamer who investigated in-game purchases.
In 2018, Senator Steele-John led a parliamentary inquiry into the potential damage caused by loot boxes.
He is deeply concerned about their use.
“[They allow] especially young people or people in vulnerable situations to come into contact with the basic mechanics of gambling, in particular slot machines, at a very young age and in a context where they are not able to -being unaware of what they come into contact with. “
The investigation acknowledged that loot boxes could normalize play and cause harm.
But after lobbying big players in the games industry, the only recommendation was that the feds do another review of the loot boxes.
“I believe the major parties rejected stronger recommendations because of the influence exerted on them by the gambling industry in Australia,” said Senator Steele-John.
“What we’ve heard from the community and from academic experts, from people who work in the video game industry, is that at the heart of the loot box exist the same mechanics that exist at the heart of the game machine. poker and that these mechanisms are predatory, that they exist to trigger addiction and continual compulsive use.”
Dr Sauer said some countries, including Belgium, had banned loot boxes, while in China games with loot boxes had to reveal the probability of winning every possible reward. Other countries focus on consumer awareness and information campaigns.
“We need to help players understand what’s going on under the hood,” he said.
According to IGEA’s Ron Curry, a similar change in Australia was unlikely.
“We have a fairly old and difficult to change classification scheme in Australia. So to make that change would be quite difficult.”
Laura Gilbert is an avid gamer and streamer who is building a following as a gaming influencer.
She is one of many players disappointed by the game’s focus on microtransactions and profits.
“I think video game developers can have a plethora of different intentions behind their craft. Whether it’s to design a game that will be really wholesome…or there’s an element of making a lot of money off of the product that they produce,” she said.
“There’s a game that I love to play, and it’s actually aimed at a fairly young market, like elementary school kids, and the small amount of money they’re trying to make, ‘Get that other color’ , ‘Characterize it’, ‘I want the cool outfit. How many small transactions do you need to make? “
Video gaming has become one of the most lucrative entertainment businesses in the world.
It succeeded through a combination of immense popular appeal and a business model deliberately designed to attract people.
Players are now starting to realize how they were played.
Credits
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