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Virtual Goods in Online Games a Study on Players’ Attitudes Towards Lootboxes and Microtransactions in Online Games

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Virtual Goods in Online Games a Study on Players’ Attitudes Towards Lootboxes and Microtransactions in Online Games Virtual Goods in Online Games A study on players’ attitudes towards Lootboxes and Microtransactions in Online Games Author: Daniel Nielsen Examiner: Tina Askanius Examinated: 2018/06/11 Media and Communication Studies, one-year thesis 15 credits, Spring 2018 Advisor: Julia Velkova Abstract The aim of this thesis is to investigate players’ attitudes towards microtransactions within online games. The thesis is based on a multi-method approach combining the following methods: focus group-interviews, interview questions posed to hosts of a podcast, for then to discuss in their episode, and a survey. The results of this study are a categorization of players’ attitudes towards microtransactions consisting of: Activist, Idealist, Agile, Pragmatist, Enthusiast and Compliant. By adopting de Certeau’s concept of strategies and tactics, I have elicited distinctive reactions and ways of meaning making towards microtransactions, associated with each proposed category. Apart from categorizing player attitudes, this study has also identified microtransactions to have brought the broader player base into the symbiosis that previously existed exclusively between fan-programmers, socialized players, and game companies. Meaning, feedback from the whole player-base is crucial for success in implementing microtransactions. In turn, this is perceived as a strategy that surrenders power from the producer to the user. Keywords: Games, Players, Game Design, Microtransactions, Lootboxes, Tactics, Strategies, Attitudes Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background.............................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Research Questions and Aim ................................................................................................................... 6 2. Previous Research ......................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Research on the Digital Economy and the Creative Industries, and the Place of Games in it ................ 7 2.2 Research on the Game Industries ............................................................................................................ 8 3. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................................................. 9 3.1 De Certeau: Tactics and Strategies .......................................................................................................... 9 3.2 Liboriussen: Craftsmanship ................................................................................................................... 11 4. Method ......................................................................................................................................................... 12 4.1 The Structure and Collection of Material .............................................................................................. 14 4.1.1 Focus-group Interviews & Individual Interview ............................................................................ 14 4.1.2 Survey ............................................................................................................................................. 15 4.1.3 Podcast ............................................................................................................................................ 16 4.2 Validity & Limitations .......................................................................................................................... 17 4.3 Ethics ..................................................................................................................................................... 17 5. Analysis ....................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.1 Establishing Categories ......................................................................................................................... 18 5.2 Categorization of Player Accounts ........................................................................................................ 19 5.2.1 Activist ........................................................................................................................................... 20 5.2.2 Idealist ............................................................................................................................................ 21 5.2.3 Agile ............................................................................................................................................... 23 5.2.4 Pragmatist ....................................................................................................................................... 24 5.2.5 Enthusiast ....................................................................................................................................... 25 5.2.6 Compliant ....................................................................................................................................... 26 6. Discussion & Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 28 6.1 Final Remark ......................................................................................................................................... 30 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................... 33 Appendix 1 – Survey Results ...................................................................................................................... 36 Appendix 2 – Categorization of Survey Results ......................................................................................... 42 Appendix 3 – Focus-group Interviews, Individual Interview and Podcast Details & Questions ................ 45 Appendix 4 – Focus-group Interviews, Individual Interviews and Podcast Transcripts ............................. 48 Appendix 5 – Survey Questions .................................................................................................................. 62 List of Abbreviations MTX – Microtransaction DLC – Downloadable Content RRM – Random Reward Mechanism PS – PlayStation MMO – Massive Multiplayer Online 1. Introduction In the recent years a range of online games, on PC, console, and smartphone, have been adopting new economic models for extracting value from gameplay. Where the conventional understanding of game companies generating income has been through selling the product in a hardcopy (also called premium games), alongside merchandise related to the game, the gaming economy is now experiencing the initial conventional purchase cost of a game, followed by an on-going requirement for purchasing downloadable content (DLC), if the player wishes experience the full game/product. In this context, the game industry has been introducing even newer economic vehicles for profit generation, in the form of so-called lootboxes and Microtransactions (MTX). MTX is a business model for games, where players can buy virtual goods through micropayments.1 MTXs are often adopted by free-to-play games (also called freemium), as in free of initial charges upon download, as an alternative way of generating revenue. The purpose of MTXs is to close the gap between players that have a high amount of leisure time to spend on the game and players that have little leisure time to spend, as it provides the players with little leisure time the option of acquiring items and/or customizations through purchases, instead of spending time obtaining them through gameplay. Lootboxes are an expanding form of MTX. Lootboxes are consumable virtual packages that can be redeemed to receive a randomized selection of virtual items or content, which can range between items featuring avatar customization, to items that have a game-changing impacts such as virtual weapons and armor. Lootboxes is one of the latest trends in a monetization development within the online game economy. And the randomized reward element2 of the lootboxes have been criticized over a long period of time by the gaming community which has set up the homepage Microtransaction.zone for players to quickly categorize games according to monetized content, to help assess purchasing calls (Simon, and Taylor). Microtransaction.zone can be seen as a collaborative media (Löwgren & Reimer, 2013) that represents the player community taking action against the new monetization model within games. Many see it to be a predatory business practice, as it is argued to be exploiting underage children and individuals with a tendency to develop an addiction for gambling (Knaus, 2017). This has received attention from authorities and governmental entities in The Netherlands (Kansspelautoriteit, 2017), Belgium (Huijbregts, 2017), France (Durain, 2017), the United States (Makuch, 2017) and Australia (Knaus, 2017). In addition, the Netherlands and Belgium as of April 20, 2018, have banned a number of games from offering the lootbox services to players in their countries (Lawson, 2018). Some of the main directions that the debate has taken are the concerns of players, is whether these micro-purchases
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