Nearly half of US kids want in-game currency this Christmas
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/nearly-half-of-us-kids-want-in-game-currency-this-christmasOpen linkView original on piefed.social296
Comments108https://www.gamesindustry.biz/nearly-half-of-us-kids-want-in-game-currency-this-christmasOpen linkView original on piefed.social
If that ain't proof microtransactions are a bane on society, then we're already too corrupt to care.
Not to mention there’s hardly any micro transactions left, a lot of these micro transactions are the prices of full games or more!
This is what I don't get, why would you get some in game currency or item that will help you for like five minutes for the same price as a game that will give you tens of hours of fun. Cosmetics I somewhat get, you wanna show off. Still think it's kinda dumb but I get it since I'm tf2 player.
Nah it's worse, because you can trade TF2/Steam items. You can't do shit with games like Fortnite, Overwatch, Valorant, etc...
Doesn't the trading kind of encourage the gambling aspect of it though?
In a roundabout way, yes, because it allows a player to player economy to form (outside of valve's purview), which other games prevent by preventing trading.
However, the ability for items that have been purchased or acquired to be traded to people has a great effect of making common things more accessible to players as a whole, even those who don't spend money (Craft hats or unique weapons in TF2, for instance).
I think that as a buyer, you would want to have something that isn't permalocked to your account, but I could see the argument from an abuse standpoint.
because FOMO
someone else has it and you don't. that's a huge motivator for most people, and super important for kids.
Macro transactions 😎
If it isn't proof they target children, I don't know what is.
Microtransctions prove they should be illegal every time I read any article about them
I see it as as much of a problem as cheap toys from Toys r' us. The kids love them for about 30 minutes, then they break and that's it (the toys that is). But does it really matter? Just because something is digital, does it really make it worth less to the children?
It's less about the value to children and more about exploiting that to extract money without any regard to the children's wellbeing. Crappy toys would be purged in a more ethical state of the world instead of being allowed to thrive and take over.
That's just every single thing ever sold and marketed to children. No company has ever given half a shit about children's wellbeing. With that said, what part about them buying a skin to show off to their friends hurts their wellbeing?
The part where they buy a skin to show off.
Kids my age: Remember when you could just download a skin for Quake from a website, install it, and still have other players see it? And it was free?
Remember the custom warehouse level filled with crates and everyone wearing a crate skin?
My brother got minecraft to play with my niece and there are two versions now, from what I can tell one that’s like what I was playing a decade ago but updated, and one that has microtransactions. The old one lets you download skins and mods for free. It seemed like a no brainer but he went with the microtransaction one, and now my niece keeps asking for cosmetics.
There must be a reason to yoke yourself to the pay-for-skins version, but I’m really not sure.
The MTX-filled version is the only thing you have on console.
There's two editions of Minecraft, Java edition and Bedrock edition. Java is the original version that just gets updated with the new features, but is only available on PC. Bedrock edition is available everywhere but has microtransactions and bonus Microsoft garbage
You also learned some valuable PC navigation and troubleshooting skills in the process of adding the skin to your game.
Kids today: why wouldn't I spend $20 to be able to dance the running-man as Goku in Fortnite?
I made my own Quake skin for my clan!
I worked hard to make my kids understand why that stuff is bad. They got their highs, crashes, and understanding, now they're not attracted to stuff like that any more 😅 but man, it should totally be illegal.
Especially for kids ffs.
What did you do?
I explained how it works, that it's just artificial scarcity, with vark patterns like FOMO, that they'll lose it all on day (when switching game for example or the game stops existing), but also that for a small game it could help the creator (they loved a sand digging game and bought a better shovel lol) etc. I also put the money in perspective , like remember that candy we bought, it was 5€, are you sure you want to buy a skin for 8€ (they did)? But I didn't outright forbid them to do so, they got to chose and they were quite happy about it. I very rarely gave them anything (maybe 20-30€ during like 3 years) but they hit the gramps :-) and eventually the house of cards went down and they were outraged that all their skins and "rare skins" were just useless now. They got a single skin for the next shooter IIRC so to not have the newbie skin, but then it just stopped.
How old were they, when they had those experiences? I've been thinking I need to have them feel they've wasted "their own" money to develop a sense of regret, too.
Starting around 10-11 I guess, Roblox and that popular shooter with a bus dropping the players was all the rage.
I don't know if they got the value of money back then, the lesson was taught, but I guess learned way later. The skins and the super shovel etc. "Was" the "money" for them and poof it all went away when they didn't want to play that specific game any more.
The current landscape of gaming is so foreign to me. Gaming for me has always been an experience to get lost in a fantasy world — something akin to reading. Nowadays everyone seems obsessed with the online and competitive sides of it. It feels like you can't have a conversation about videogames without someone bringing up Fortnite and the new skins they unlocked by treating it as a job.
because that's what the majority of people play.
the majority of people buy 1-2 games a year and play them all year. COD, sports games, the big popular shooters or whatever is trendy at the moment.
they are casual fans. they don't give a shit about stuff like Expedition 33 and would be totally uninterested in a game like that as boring and stupid. these are the same people who only watch marvel movies or hollywood action crap.
all my friends/family who play games think I'm a gay weirdo for liking non sports, non military, non racing games.
Its partially lack of marketing. You have to have the time to be at least somewhat keyed into the gaming community to even know what exists and is good.
For example I don't have a lot of time to play, so I am ideally looking for something like 15-30 minute increments. All the mass produced things marketed on tv or whatever are that type of game. God forbid I find a game and then realize it has some punishing save system.
Well, some people just treat it like playing sports. Wanna go play ball? Wanna play CSGO? Hey, this ball/shirt/skin looks fancier! It's foreign, but understandable to me.
It also seems to be as many people as it was back shooters became a big thing. Out of the few people I know who video game, one only does FPS, one sticks to a few different games (Ultrakill, TF2, Peak to name a few), one either plays co-op with his gf or does Single player, and one mostly plays single player like me. Chatting up random people about games, that ratio seems similiar.
Most people don't treat sports like that, though. Even those who do, know to shut up about their stats when talking about their sport with someone who isn't that into it. You don't say "oh, I went golfing with some friends last week" and immediately hear "I can score an 85" because that'd be obnoxious. I know there's always been people like that but it honestly feels like "competitive" play has become the norm and it didn't use to be like that.
Damn this one stings.
Instead of wanting a video game as a present.. They want a bunch of resources for the video game they already play.
And here i was assuming that with all the gamer parents, kids where going to be guided towards actually good games.
Kids want to play what their friends/community are playing.
This. When all of your kids friends are playing the same game and it's all they talk about, forbidding it will just lead to them being left out. It fucking sucks
Hey, I got left out of things kids my age were talking about the old-fashioned way, by being a gigantic fucking dork, and it was free, goddammit!
"Hey look at this loser he's using a Jonsey skin!"
Kids want to play the games their friends are playing more than what their parents play.
I will play Fortnite and Roblox and Rocket League with my son and I’ve never had a skin or a battle pass and have tried to show him you can have fun with out wasting your money but that doesn’t stop a kids FOMO.
Publishers know kids have undeveloped abilities to delay gratification and are susceptible to peer pressure
Yeah, for this reason i don't plan to outright ban roblox and the like. I don't want to be a fun-dictator.
Its also important that kids learn to deal with the reality that these games/practices do exist around them, and at some age i wont be there to guide every decision.
But there will definitely be “a talk” before i install anything remotely like it. Being capable of understanding the dangers is a requirement to get acces.
Gamer uncle of kids with non-gamer parents here.
I did what I could.
My niece's taste in games is impeccable. She's 13 and among her favorites are Hollow Knight, the Ori games, Inscryption, Cult of the Lamb, and of course big mass kids appeal games like Pokemon and Mario.
My nephew (9) is a lost cause. It's all Roblox and mobile child casino garbage and he doesn't have even the slightest interest in anything else. I'm pretty sure my partner and I are the only people in his life who have never given him Robux.
I went with my son to his friends house a few years ago, about 9. Me and his mom were hanging out while the kids gamed. Her son played roblox. I never liked the game, and know there are thousands of other games to play that aren't so predatory, so my kid was never introduced to it. Anyway, his friend was playing so I let my son play too for this day.
After a time, her son asked for $10 for Roblox. Mom said not today and the child had a full meltdown. It hurt my ears he was screeching so loud. My son just froze and stared at his friend. It looked similar to a panic attack crossed with a toddler temper tantrum. Once he calmed down, she let him back on the game, but we went home.
Certain games turn smaller children into addicts. Roblox is definitely one of those games, it seems.
My nephew has talked about how lucky some of his friends are because they get more robux from their parents than he does and how he wishes his parents would give him more "nice things" like that.
This is a kid who has been to disneyland multiple times and has gone on multiple cruises before he was a decade old. They have a big trip basically every summer, but he doesn't want any of that, he just wants more robux.
he's a child. he has no idea want things cost or what they are worth.
all he knows is the intense urge to get more robux
and disney was probably more about his parents. my parents made me go to disney twice even though i had no interest and told me what an ungrateful shit iw as the entire time. it was never about me. it was about them.
i was happier hanging out win the woods with my friends, or even alone, than going to disney. i hated it.
ironically i wanted to go six flags but my parents never took me, even thought it was in driving distance and way cheaper... because everything was about them. the rides were so much better.
I thought so too. I try with my boy I really do. Ive got him understanding that mtx are the work of Satan, but beyond that I cant help him.
There aren't 50% of gamer parents anyway.
It's 43% of 60% of US kids. So more like 25%. Still pretty bad.
i have four nephews. 3 of them want fortnight/roblox money. the other one doesn't care about games at all.
i try to get them into different games and they won't have it. they are addicts for these freemium bullshit games. the concept of buying a game is weird to them. they expect them to be free, but they have normalized paying money for in game items.
and they have been playing these games for years now. 6+ years playing the same game. probably 10,000+ hours in them. but all they care about is playing with tehir friends and competing over who is best at fortnite.
Terrifying how when they grow up they will influence the gaming landscape to become even more hellish.
Ill go back to my games before 2008 now bye.
They probably won't play games once they go to college. They are very concerned with popularity and being cool, and once playing games isn't cool they will stop.
They don't really care about video games as a genre/hobby anymore than they do about movies outside of Marvel films. They like what is popular because other people like it.
they are the epitome of filthy casuals, but that's where the money is. they play games on mid level laptops and think i'm a weirdo nerd for having a ps5.
I stopped at consoles when they became another enshittified always online tool of theft.
I stick with pc, old consoles, or my old 360 as a new Gen console.
OK, must be nice? I don't care about that. I just want to play games on my couch. PC gaming is a huge pain in the fucking ass so I stopped PC gaming like 5 years ago. I am too old to be spend hours try to fix broken games.
Video games aren't a part of my political or moral beliefs. they are just entertainment.
Good for you! I find modern consoles to be a cesspool of data theft and annoying logins that I dont want (in, Microsoft account for xbox), plus not owning any of my actual games is a red flag, as well as needing internet to even play a single player game.
However I get it for ease of use if youre already in that space. I also enjoy making things much harder than they need to be, hence my 15 year old cpu linux gaming pc I keep hobbling along!
If we'd have known this would happen then we could have killed the gig who came up with those armor and everyone involved in its conception and release.
Guys those are peak games for kids, they are free, all their friends have them, thats why they want to imvest in them and their characters, its all they play, it allows them to play with friends in many different games, everyone can afford it
Hey I got an idea: what if we get all the kids addicted to smoking, gambling, and drinking!
Crazy stuff. Just brings to mind how many kids are playing fortnite and the like. A lot probably just goes onto skins
I would say 'no' on principle. No child of mine will EVER receive virtual currency as a present for Christmas. I would sooner buy them £120 worth of games than even £5 in Robux.
$120 wouldve been more valuable for me as in game currency then a game as a kid, idk why id play aqworlds over everything, my imagination carried, that game felt better than everything and its lowkey just an auto battling 2d dressup game, you could fr just spam skills with minimal difference
And here my kid wants a tamagotchi for christmas.
whatyearisit.jpg
90s are retro cool now.
another few years and the 2000s will be retro cool
I wish they just made up their mind.
who, kids?
it's all relative. anything before the living memory of teens is retro. that's why it takes 20 years for stuff go to become cool again.
when i was a teenager everything 70s was retro and cool. around 2005 it became the 80s.
for my teenage nephews anything more than 1-2 years old is 'ancient'. they think elden ring is a super old game, for example. it came out in '22. last year they wanted to show me this 'cool old game and had i ever heard of it'.
I hope you said something like, "oh, that looks cool, can I try?" And then go around easily killing some enemies you already know and then comment on how easy the games kids are playing these days are.
And my kid wants a fingerboard. What's next, pogs?
Oof.
Society peaked in 1999 and no one can tell me different.
there was no fortnite in 1999 tho 🥺
..and the world was a better place for it.
sad panda
Fun fact: On December 31st, 1999 at 11:59 myself and my cousin were sitting in my bedroom playing the first Medal of Honor.
Help us European Union, you're our only hope.
Who are the parents of these kids ?? They clearly failed in life
Its not the parents fault, its just how its going.
As a kid I wanted pokemon cards, because all the other kids had pokemon cards and were showing off how many pokemon cards they had and it was on TV that you GOTTA CATCH EM ALL and the cool kid had a shiny raichu and I was a loser because I didnt have one so I really wanted one so I needed pokemon cards.
It didnt mean my parents failed me. It means toy manufacturers have all but weaponised marketing/propaganda and children are especially susceptible.
In my example, replace shiny raichu card with Peter Griffin skin.
yeah. it's like saying you shouldn't give you kid a smart phone.
you will basically destroy their social development because literally every kid has one. and the worst thing for a kid is to be socially excluded. children desperately crave peer acceptance.
When exactly does it switch over to be weaponized? What is the line?
South Park pretty much nailed it in the chinpokomon episode
Probably the same parents that buy their kids GTA and then complain games are too violent. They just don't care that much to look into what their kids like.
What a fedora screeching nerd take.
THE KIDS WANT VIDEO GAMES! THE PARENTS ARE FAILURES!
Jesus Christ 🤦♂️
Fucking ruined generation, awful parents, 🙄
Really? Your parents never bought you worthless junk meant to be throw away like fart putty or those rubber bubbles you blow up with a straw that barely work or packs of Pokémon cards or baseball cards?
I don’t think it should be up to the parents to tell the kids what’s valuable to them. If the kid wants a vbucks card over a game then you can tell them that’s why they didn’t get a new game.
(I do recognize that the current monetization models have ruined modern gaming which is why I only play games that are 15 years old or older)
Actually my parents never bought me anything, PERIOD
Very environment friendly:)
I didn't see a link to the survey in the article so I found it on the ESA website.
The survey says that 58% of kids want games, but it doesn't seem to specify what percentage of kids want in-game currency?; it simply says that in-game currency is one of the top five video-game related requests, at 43%. But 43% of what? 43% of kids who want games? It's not specific, which would make the news article meaningless.
Yeah that's insanely fucked.
I worry about how I would raise a child in this landscape. Two of the people I know with kids, the kids don't care about video games. One of the kids is super into iPad games, and that feels like a haazrd brewing.
Maybe I'd try to stick to real games for any child I was responsible for, but I don't think that would survive impact with peers.
I mean I can understand it. What do kids have these days? Arcades died, malls died, "why won't kids play outside?" the outside old people built
I mean.
Sold my (child's) soul to the company store....
While I agree that this is not a good thing, I have to say it is not much different to for example Pokemon cards. Sure you could sell physical cards - if you're lucky maybe even without loss - but I don't think it is so much different.
Physical cards last for years. Maybe the online game will be around in ten years, but maybe not.
I have most of my magic cards from my youth. They're a thing I own. I can do what I want with them- play the game, use them for decorations, sell them. Digital shit is transient with few options for the buyer.
See: Ubisoft. Pay for gane with own money, sorry fuck you games gone now.
I understand that. But to be honest the value of these cards is in most cases much lower than the purchase price - so the real value is not what these cards are worth but the fun you have / had collecting them and playing with them. And I am willing to believe that the same fun can come from digital assets in a game. You're right that the company in charge can end this any time they want but usually this happens when nobody is playing it anymore. I don't like this development either but I nevertheless can imagine that a Fortnite gift card can bring the same joy as a booster pack of MtG.
I think most games get shut down when they still have players. Plus they could release server code so people could host their own games, like in the olde days of the 1990s. They don't because they're primarily concerned with profit.
That aside, "it brings joy" is not sufficient on its own as a justification. Heroin brings joy, but you likely wouldn't say that's a fine gift for a child. Why is that? Probably because we recognize the potential harms and unhealthy habits. Maybe you accept the risks and harms of digital slop are acceptable. I don't think I'd want to encourage that in children.
I don't say I want to encourage that. All I want to say is that this might be a similar situation to the "satanic panic" in the 80s and 90s which in hindsight feels stupid and a thing of the past.
Probably a decent investment. Haven’t checked, but the value is probably going up due to the amazing us economy and dollar.
Company scrip is back lads
Sickning..
Over half of us kids are really fucking dumb, so this tracks.
No different than buying a game if they get the same amount of playtime.
I think it's a little different. With new games comes novelty. Sticking with a single game and just buying cosmetics doesn't provide nearly as much novelty.
I don't think this is a children only issue either. Its a trap adults fall into as well.
And why does this "novelty" matter if what they spent money on got them the same amount of fun?
Not sure why novelty is in quotes, it's a quantifiable measurement based on differences. Anyway, novelty has shown to have a wide range of mental benefits. This is a pretty good overview, and if you want to dig into specific papers they're listed as well.
Even if you want to ignore any potential benefits of novelty, generally when you have a new experience for the first time, you will have more fun that you typically do. The downside is some new experiences may not be fun, but that's very low risk in the context of gaming.
Currencies often unlock completely new content and the fact that you might not like a new game could cancel out the potential to have a slightly better time. Ultimately, how you spend gaming money is up to you.
I would say the vast majority of micro transactions are cosmetic or time unlocking. Not adding much novelty.
Also the context of this post is about gifting kids on Christmas, so no, not necessarily "up to you". I guess there's an argument to just give kids whatever they want, but I don't think think that leads to the best development outcomes. You can't force kids to do anything either, but there does exist a middle ground.
Clickbait
I get the old man sentiment. But I remember being excited for a gift card to the arcade. Is it very different? Is it bad?
It's also no different than a RuneScape membership in the 2000s, or hell, Roblox Builder Club almost 20 years ago.
Both of those brought me an immense amount of joy and connection to others that I would never otherwise had gotten to experience living in an isolating rural area.
imo a subscription service is far more ethical than the current model. Its a very straightforward transaction. Now I have to convert real money to a fake currency (in set amounts of their choosing), purchase a pack of some kind, and gamble my way to a new pointless cosmetic item.
With the power of math you don’t have to. I’m a data analyst by trade so I take offence to this question every time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_size_determination
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratified_sampling
If you want to know proprietary information that provides competitive advantage like weights applied then you might be out of luck, however publishing garbage would destroy YouGov reputation quick and so they don’t have that much incentive to fudge numbers.
complaining about this one feels boomerish to me like "oh no! dem kids like the [new thing™]!!"