It’s 2022 and as a gamer, the term micro-transactions is probably a concept that you’ve grown to be familiar with over the past few years. It’s probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, developments in gaming that has significantly impacted the way games are played in the modern gaming generation.
However, newbie gamers or non-gamers, in general, may not have a clue about what micro-transactions actually are, what examples there are of micro-transactions, and why it’s such a controversial topic.
In this article, we’ll be delving deeper into how micro-transactions have impacted gaming and how it’s changed the economics of the industry as a whole.
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Now, back to micro-transactions.
What are micro-transactions, anyway?
In a nutshell, micro-transactions are small in-game purchases, paid using real money, which grants a player in-game items, in-game energy, rewards, in-game abilities, loot boxes, collectibles, and other similar items.
As you can see, there are numerous ways that micro-transactions have been applied in games. Even more so, the gaming mechanic has started to become a staple of modern gaming with the continued divergence of games and the internet.
How do these micro-transactions impact gaming exactly?
First and foremost, we have to recognize that each game uses micro-transactions differently. As mentioned above, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all type of micro-transaction and each game developer uses the mechanic differently.
One thing’s for sure though, micro-transactions provide an additional revenue stream for the game company even after the initial purchase of the game (either physically or digitally).
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This is probably one of the more underrated effects of micro-transactions. Not the fact that the game developers make money, of course, but that they’re able to make money even after the game has been bought by the end user. This means that even if a game was released way back in 2018, for example, it could still be making as much money as it did when it was first launched all through the power of micro-transactions.
This effect is even more evident now as many of the micro-transactions in games today are found in titles that are free-to-play, to begin with. Developers take advantage of the larger game audience they could have with their game being free and capitalize on making a profit from the in-game transactions, items, abilities, etc. that players could buy in-game. Games like this that come to mind are Genshin Impact or League of Legends—free-to-play games that have made tons of cash all through micro-transactions.
What do they mean for the gamer, then?
For the gamer, micro-transactions provide a way to bypass putting in hours and hours of work and gameplay to achieve or attain certain items, level-ups, upgrades, and abilities. If back then, you would need to put in a hundred hours just to get a particular sword or weapon, micro-transactions will allow you to buy them right then and there if you have the money to spend.
Now, this trend has understandably caused divisiveness among gamers. One side would say that micro-transactions taint a game’s integrity and competitiveness, given that players would now need not rely on skill and hard work to gain level-ups in their particular game. They would only have to have the willingness to shell out the cash in order to do so.
However, one could also argue that the emergence of micro-transactions has allowed games to reach a broader audience given that they have been instrumental in developing the free-to-play genre. More and more people are playing games now because companies need not attach a price tag on the initial game acquisition anymore to make a buck. The more gamers, the merrier, right?
Micro-transactions also add a unique dimension to the gaming experience in that it significantly develops in-game economies and takes them to newer heights because there’s real value and money involved. In-game items become all the rarer because they can be purchased, the development of innovative in-game micro-transactions is incentivized, and more ways of playing our beloved games become reality.
That is all to say that there is no right or wrong answer to the impact of micro-transactions in gaming. There are pros and cons and it’s up to both how game developers create them and how gamers receive them that these micro-transactions will become a mainstay or a fad in the gaming world. Only time will tell, perhaps!
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