Microtransactions in Video Games Are Not Inherently Bad

A microtransaction is a transaction that a player can make from within a game. Originally, they were mostly found in free mobile games. Now, they can be found in almost any game with an online component. These purchases can allow players of the game to buy things to improve their gaming experience. This can include cosmetic features, such as costumes or emotes. It can also make the player stronger by granting them better weapons, or allowing them to play more often in the case of games that have an energy bar. However, the most controversial form of these microtransactions is that of loot boxes. Loot boxes, when purchased, will give you a random item in the game. Usually you have no influence over what you get in those loot boxes. Many gamers are against microtransactions because they can be unfair an promote gambling.

I don’t think microtransactions or loot boxes are a bad thing for games. The main reason is that the money is more support for developers. As consoles have gotten more powerful and graphics reach new heights, games get more and more expensive to make. Team sizes have also been increasing. The first halo game was made by a team of around 30 developers. Games today will have teams numbering in the hundreds. More people need to get paid now. Yet despite, the increasing cost of producing games, the buying price of games has stayed stagnant. Games have and still go for $60 at the most. Microtransactions are how developers make up this difference. You don’t have to buy microtransactions, but those who do support developers a little more.

Another way microtransactions help is for ongoing games. Games like Overwatch and Fortnite, despite releasing long ago, still release new content for free. They keep their game fresh for players that have been playing every since they first released. When asked for his opinion on loot boxes and microtransactions, the lead designer on Overwatch, Jeff Kaplan, said that “loot boxes allow our game to remain a profit so that we can keep delivering new content to our players”. These days, games are having longer lifetimes. This wouldn’t be sustainable if not for the support of microtransactions. This is especially true of free games, where most if not all of their money comes from these microtransactions.

While many players shun the presence of microtransactions, they aren’t forced to buy them. They can ignore them if need be. But there are players who do want to spend their money on extra items in game. By including microtransactions, you give players the choice of whether they want to spend their money or not. You can provide them with additional content that they may not have had otherwise. Many argue that they shouldn’t pay full price for a game and then be locked out of content unless they pay more. However, due to the added cost of said content, it likely wouldn’t exist if there weren’t microtransactions to support them.

Another area that microtransactions can help in is time. As an example, Brave Frontier is a free mobile game for IOS and Android. You summoned units to fight alongside you and each action you did in the game cost energy. You could purchase gems, a currency that you could use to have a better chance of summoning good units or refill your energy. When I played this game, it wasn’t too hard to get gems without paying money. I typically had really good units to fight with and felt like I was caught up with the game power-wise. But the reason for that is that I was always playing the game. Whether I was in class or doing homework, I always had the game running on my phone so that I could make good use of the energy I had. But not everyone has that amount of time. A game like Brave Frontier can be very grindy and if you don’t have the amount of time needed to really play it and progress, you’ll fall behind really quickly. However, by being able to purchase gems, you allow those players who don’t have a lot of time to play, to keep up with others. The game is being opened to a wider audience of people who may have turned away if they didn’t have the opportunity to progress faster.

The biggest problem that this presents for people is that it promotes gambling. In fact, Belgium has recently put a ban on loot boxes in games for this very reason. While gambling is a problem, removing loot boxes from games will just be removing one method of gambling. Someone could easily go gamble their money away elsewhere. In the cases of kids using up a bunch of their parents’ money on loot boxes, parents should be keeping a closer eye on their spending habits. The gambling aspect can be an issue, but I don’t think it’s an issue that is solely reliant on the game’s choice to include microtransactions. It’s a sign of broader issues that may be occurring outside of the game.

Another problem people have is that it can make games unfair. Some games are described as Pay to Win because the people who spend money on the game are always at the top of the leaderboards. Admittedly, this isn’t a good thing as it discourages free players from putting more time into the game if they’re just going to be outclassed anyway. Pay to Win comes as a result of bad design. While there are a few games that are notable for this, not all games suffer from this. The presence of microtransactions doesn’t necessarily cause a game to be Pay to Win, especially if they’re purely cosmetic.

While controversial, microtransactions are not a bad thing to have in games. Many developers are capable of adding microtransactions to the game without ruining the game for the players involved. Games like Overwatch and the ever popular Fortnite do just this, and are still able to create remarkable gaming experiences for their large player bases.