Pay for play – Behavioural patterns of pay-to-win gaming

Lelonek-Kuleta, Bernadeta; Bartczuk, Rafał P.; Wiechetek, Michał

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2020.106592

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Taylor and Elam, 2018), and point towards a number of hypotheses for the future of this area. With the rise of pay-to-win games (Lelonek-Kuleta et al, 2021) and the ability to use real-world money to pay for advancement (or simply guaranteed success) in many blockbuster or mobile phone gaming titles, a similar trend can be observed on Twitch. Confronted with an endlessly growing number of games to play, many viewers turn to platforms like Twitch (and YouTube ) to get a sense of a game without having to commit the time and effort to actually playing it themselves.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Twitch, Fish, Pokémon and Plumbers: Game live streaming by nonhuman actors

Johnson

Jackson

2022

Convergence

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In this exploratory paper, we consider the phenomenon of gameplay live streaming by nonhumans. The live streaming of games, exemplified by the platform Twitch.tv, has emerged in recent years as a major and growing component of gaming culture. Although previous research has addressed some agential dimensions of streaming, scholarship has yet to examine the unusual phenomenon of watching streams lacking any kind of human agent. Ordinarily a human streamer operates gameplay and directs the flow of conversation, curating the content of the stream and mediating the agency of other participants. Removing the central figure of the human streamer thus creates what we call an ‘agency gap’ to be filled by other users. In this article, we explore different ways this occurs through four case studies involving the broadcast of gameplay by biological and digital nonhumans. These range from random number generators and automated controller inputs, to a live fish with a motion tracker observing its movements around its tank (with these movements then being used to attempt completion of a digital game). Through these case studies, we argue that the absence of a human streamer democratises video game play through ways of experiencing games which were not possible until the emergence of game live streaming. To this end we interrogate when and how nonhuman streamers can also be influenced by the agency of human spectators, and how the stakes of these streams are understood in relation to the game being played and spectator motivation. We further characteristic the distinction between human and nonhuman agencies in terms of affective intentionality. Game streaming allows for an unprecedented visibility of nonhuman play which merits close attention; this paper consequently problematises current understandings of nonhuman play in an era of gameplay streaming, and extends and challenges scholarship in both of these areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Twitch, Fish, Pokémon and Plumbers: Game live streaming by nonhuman actors

Johnson

Jackson

2022

Convergence

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“…It presents what they consider to be not suitable for children. One concept mentioned in the framework is P2W, which is also addressed in the paper by Lelonek et al [29]. In the study of the latter ones [29],…”

Section: General Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…In the long run, developers expect players to purchase virtual goods such as boosters or power-ups that remove the time restrictions or advertisements. These features are examples of Pay-to-Win (P2W) features (Lelonek-Kuleta et al, 2021). P2W is a criticized aspect of F2P and considered as dark design (Alha et al, 2018;Fitton and Read, 2019).…”

Section: Reasoning Behind the Use Of Different Monetization Features In Free-to-play Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards Suitable Free-to-Play Games for Children

Melzer

Roarsen

Hagen

et al. 2021

Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2021

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“…A similar taxonomisation has been carried out by Windleharth & Lee [51] of 65 mobile games, who, by playing their sample identifed methods which companies use to drive engagement. More specifcally, certain mechanics have been addressed in more depth with the aim of understanding their potential for damage: for example, pay-to-win, which refers to being able to pay to gain an advantage towards proceeding in the game [30], and battle passes [22,38].…”

Section: Background 21 'Problematicness' Of Microtransactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence and Salience of Problematic Microtransactions in Top-Grossing Mobile and PC Games: A Content Analysis of User Reviews

Petrovskaya¹,

Deterding²,

Zendle³

2022

Preprint

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Microtransactions have become a major monetisation model in digital games, shaping their design, impacting their player experience, and raising ethical concerns. Research in this area has chiefly focused on loot boxes. This begs the question whether other microtransactions might actually be more relevant and problematic for players. We therefore conducted a content analysis of negative player reviews (n=801) of top-grossing mobile and desktop games to determine which problematic microtransactions are most prevalent and salient for players. We found that problematic microtransactions with mobile games featuring more frequent and different techniques compared to desktop games. Across both, players minded issues related to fairness, transparency, and degraded user experience, supporting prior theoretical work, and importantly take issue with monetisation-driven design as such. We identify future research needs on why microtransactions in particular spark this critique, and which player communities it may be more or less representative of.

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Pay for play – Behavioural patterns of pay-to-win gaming

Cited by 14 publications

References 35 publications

Twitch, Fish, Pokémon and Plumbers: Game live streaming by nonhuman actors

Twitch, Fish, Pokémon and Plumbers: Game live streaming by nonhuman actors

Towards Suitable Free-to-Play Games for Children

Prevalence and Salience of Problematic Microtransactions in Top-Grossing Mobile and PC Games: A Content Analysis of User Reviews

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