What is some very predatory, sneaky and popular among children game?
What is some very predatory, sneaky and popular among children game?
I'll be doing a workshop in a few weeks, and I wanna raise awareness about predatory lootbox paytowin games. I wanna play live, an easy to start playing and understand game, that is so sneaky and predatory that some kid would very easily buy some microtransaction or lootbox without even realizing what they just did.
Basically I wanna play it like "Ohhh, look at this game, looks so fun, oh, what is this? more gems? lets see, Nooooo!!!!! I just bought a microtransaction, I won't be able to eat for a month"
Do you have some recommendation for that purpose?
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Another factor is how addictive the game is designed to be. A quick search led me to https://www.video-game-addiction.org/what-makes-games-addictive.html which covers some of the things. For example:
Games that hook players are often designed to be just difficult enough to be truly challenging, while allowing players to achieve small accomplishments that compel them to keep playing. In that respect, the design of video games is similar to the design of gambling casinos, which will allow players to have small “wins” that keep them playing.>
Going over addictive design elements like this can at least let people be more aware of why they keep wanting to play.
I mean, that quote just described game design for fun games though. A game that is fun will be addictive, but not in the same way gambling is. To most people, gambling isn't fun. The act of sitting at a machine and repeatedly pressing the same button or pulling the same lever is not fun. The same repeated graphics are not fun. Repeatedly losing money? Also not fun. But, the prospect of winning big is exciting. This feeling, the desire to feel like you traded a small value for a large value and won big, greed, is exploited in many modern games.
A fun game presents a challenge, something just difficult enough for you to not steamroll it, but not so difficult that you want to quit the game. A fun game gives players rewards to incentivize them to keep playing, and generally, the best games reward players with better items or further level progress or additional story content. The reward never comes from the player spending real world money, but rather the time the player has spent in the game, or achieving some task, or being highly skilled. This is fun game design, and fun is addictive by design.
A game that exploits greed typically does so in ways that are hidden at a surface level. Generally, mechanics that are obfusicated from the player which involve rewards such as loot boxes that are purchased with a premium currency, this is the most obvious. Nobody blinks an eye if a blue uniform for your army guy is 400 crystals, because you can buy a pack of 200 crystals that gives you an extra 250 for free for $5 on your first purchase. But show that the blue uniform is $11, and people will complain. And I mean, yeah. Its the color blue. But now there is a problem. You have 50 crystals left. But nothing in the store is 50 crystals. Not to worry, you can buy another pack that gives you 550 more for only $10. So you buy it and get that cool golden scope that cost 350 crystals. But now you have a problem. You have 150 crystals left, and nothing in the store is... Wait, what is this? Lucky Chance? I can spend 10 crystals for the chance to get a legendary golden uniform? 0.01% drop rate? Yeah, I will just try 15 times. I didnt get it, but now the second pull costs me 15? No, Im good. But now what do I do with 140 crystals? You can see where this goes.
Also, the developers add a notification icon to the store page that doesn't go away unless you click on something in the store. This is one of the big differences between a game that is fun and a game that exploits greed to make it feel like fun.