I would say ‘no’ on principle. No child of mine will EVER receive virtual currency as a present for Christmas. I would sooner buy them £120 worth of games than even £5 in Robux.
The current landscape of gaming is so foreign to me. Gaming for me has always been an experience to get lost in a fantasy world — something akin to reading. Nowadays everyone seems obsessed with the online and competitive sides of it. It feels like you can’t have a conversation about videogames without someone bringing up Fortnite and the new skins they unlocked by treating it as a job.
Well, some people just treat it like playing sports. Wanna go play ball? Wanna play CSGO? Hey, this ball/shirt/skin looks fancier! It’s foreign, but understandable to me.
It also seems to be as many people as it was back shooters became a big thing. Out of the few people I know who video game, one only does FPS, one sticks to a few different games (Ultrakill, TF2, Peak to name a few), one either plays co-op with his gf or does Single player, and one mostly plays single player like me. Chatting up random people about games, that ratio seems similiar.
Most people don’t treat sports like that, though. Even those who do, know to shut up about their stats when talking about their sport with someone who isn’t that into it. You don’t say “oh, I went golfing with some friends last week” and immediately hear “I can score an 85” because that’d be obnoxious. I know there’s always been people like that but it honestly feels like “competitive” play has become the norm and it didn’t use to be like that.
because that’s what the majority of people play.
the majority of people buy 1-2 games a year and play them all year. COD, sports games, the big popular shooters or whatever is trendy at the moment.
they are casual fans. they don’t give a shit about stuff like Expedition 33 and would be totally uninterested in a game like that as boring and stupid. these are the same people who only watch marvel movies or hollywood action crap.
all my friends/family who play games think I’m a gay weirdo for liking non sports, non military, non racing games.
Its partially lack of marketing. You have to have the time to be at least somewhat keyed into the gaming community to even know what exists and is good.
For example I don’t have a lot of time to play, so I am ideally looking for something like 15-30 minute increments. All the mass produced things marketed on tv or whatever are that type of game. God forbid I find a game and then realize it has some punishing save system.
Hey I got an idea: what if we get all the kids addicted to smoking, gambling, and drinking!
Very environment friendly:)
Oof.
Society peaked in 1999 and no one can tell me different.
there was no fortnite in 1999 tho 🥺
Fun fact: On December 31st, 1999 at 11:59 myself and my cousin were sitting in my bedroom playing the first Medal of Honor.
…and the world was a better place for it.
sad panda
If that ain’t proof microtransactions are a bane on society, then we’re already too corrupt to care.
Not to mention there’s hardly any micro transactions left, a lot of these micro transactions are the prices of full games or more!
Macro transactions 😎
This is what I don’t get, why would you get some in game currency or item that will help you for like five minutes for the same price as a game that will give you tens of hours of fun. Cosmetics I somewhat get, you wanna show off. Still think it’s kinda dumb but I get it since I’m tf2 player.
Nah it’s worse, because you can trade TF2/Steam items. You can’t do shit with games like Fortnite, Overwatch, Valorant, etc…
Doesn’t the trading kind of encourage the gambling aspect of it though?
In a roundabout way, yes, because it allows a player to player economy to form (outside of valve’s purview), which other games prevent by preventing trading.
However, the ability for items that have been purchased or acquired to be traded to people has a great effect of making common things more accessible to players as a whole, even those who don’t spend money (Craft hats or unique weapons in TF2, for instance).
I think that as a buyer, you would want to have something that isn’t permalocked to your account, but I could see the argument from an abuse standpoint.
because FOMO
someone else has it and you don’t. that’s a huge motivator for most people, and super important for kids.
If it isn’t proof they target children, I don’t know what is.
Microtransctions prove they should be illegal every time I read any article about them
And here my kid wants a tamagotchi for christmas.
whatyearisit.jpg
90s are retro cool now.
another few years and the 2000s will be retro cool
I wish they just made up their mind.
who, kids?
it’s all relative. anything before the living memory of teens is retro. that’s why it takes 20 years for stuff go to become cool again.
when i was a teenager everything 70s was retro and cool. around 2005 it became the 80s.
for my teenage nephews anything more than 1-2 years old is ‘ancient’. they think elden ring is a super old game, for example. it came out in '22. last year they wanted to show me this ‘cool old game and had i ever heard of it’.
I hope you said something like, “oh, that looks cool, can I try?” And then go around easily killing some enemies you already know and then comment on how easy the games kids are playing these days are.
And my kid wants a fingerboard. What’s next, pogs?
Kids my age: Remember when you could just download a skin for Quake from a website, install it, and still have other players see it? And it was free?
My brother got minecraft to play with my niece and there are two versions now, from what I can tell one that’s like what I was playing a decade ago but updated, and one that has microtransactions. The old one lets you download skins and mods for free. It seemed like a no brainer but he went with the microtransaction one, and now my niece keeps asking for cosmetics.
There must be a reason to yoke yourself to the pay-for-skins version, but I’m really not sure.
There must be a reason to yoke yourself to the pay-for-skins version, but I’m really not sure.
The MTX-filled version is the only thing you have on console.
Remember the custom warehouse level filled with crates and everyone wearing a crate skin?
You also learned some valuable PC navigation and troubleshooting skills in the process of adding the skin to your game.
Kids today: why wouldn’t I spend $20 to be able to dance the running-man as Goku in Fortnite?
I made my own Quake skin for my clan!
It’s 43% of 60% of US kids. So more like 25%. Still pretty bad.
i have four nephews. 3 of them want fortnight/roblox money. the other one doesn’t care about games at all.
i try to get them into different games and they won’t have it. they are addicts for these freemium bullshit games. the concept of buying a game is weird to them. they expect them to be free, but they have normalized paying money for in game items.
and they have been playing these games for years now. 6+ years playing the same game. probably 10,000+ hours in them. but all they care about is playing with tehir friends and competing over who is best at fortnite.
Terrifying how when they grow up they will influence the gaming landscape to become even more hellish.
Ill go back to my games before 2008 now bye.
They probably won’t play games once they go to college. They are very concerned with popularity and being cool, and once playing games isn’t cool they will stop.
They don’t really care about video games as a genre/hobby anymore than they do about movies outside of Marvel films. They like what is popular because other people like it.
they are the epitome of filthy casuals, but that’s where the money is. they play games on mid level laptops and think i’m a weirdo nerd for having a ps5.
I stopped at consoles when they became another enshittified always online tool of theft.
I stick with pc, old consoles, or my old 360 as a new Gen console.
OK, must be nice? I don’t care about that. I just want to play games on my couch. PC gaming is a huge pain in the fucking ass so I stopped PC gaming like 5 years ago. I am too old to be spend hours try to fix broken games.
Video games aren’t a part of my political or moral beliefs. they are just entertainment.
Good for you! I find modern consoles to be a cesspool of data theft and annoying logins that I dont want (in, Microsoft account for xbox), plus not owning any of my actual games is a red flag, as well as needing internet to even play a single player game.
However I get it for ease of use if youre already in that space. I also enjoy making things much harder than they need to be, hence my 15 year old cpu linux gaming pc I keep hobbling along!
If we’d have known this would happen then we could have killed the gig who came up with those armor and everyone involved in its conception and release.
Company scrip is back lads
I worked hard to make my kids understand why that stuff is bad. They got their highs, crashes, and understanding, now they’re not attracted to stuff like that any more 😅 but man, it should totally be illegal.
Especially for kids ffs.
Probably a decent investment. Haven’t checked, but the value is probably going up due to the amazing us economy and dollar.
Damn this one stings.
Instead of wanting a video game as a present… They want a bunch of resources for the video game they already play.
And here i was assuming that with all the gamer parents, kids where going to be guided towards actually good games.
Kids want to play the games their friends are playing more than what their parents play.
I will play Fortnite and Roblox and Rocket League with my son and I’ve never had a skin or a battle pass and have tried to show him you can have fun with out wasting your money but that doesn’t stop a kids FOMO.
Publishers know kids have undeveloped abilities to delay gratification and are susceptible to peer pressure
Yeah, for this reason i don’t plan to outright ban roblox and the like. I don’t want to be a fun-dictator.
Its also important that kids learn to deal with the reality that these games/practices do exist around them, and at some age i wont be there to guide every decision.
But there will definitely be “a talk” before i install anything remotely like it. Being capable of understanding the dangers is a requirement to get acces.
Gamer uncle of kids with non-gamer parents here.
I did what I could.
My niece’s taste in games is impeccable. She’s 13 and among her favorites are Hollow Knight, the Ori games, Inscryption, Cult of the Lamb, and of course big mass kids appeal games like Pokemon and Mario.
My nephew (9) is a lost cause. It’s all Roblox and mobile child casino garbage and he doesn’t have even the slightest interest in anything else. I’m pretty sure my partner and I are the only people in his life who have never given him Robux.
I went with my son to his friends house a few years ago, about 9. Me and his mom were hanging out while the kids gamed. Her son played roblox. I never liked the game, and know there are thousands of other games to play that aren’t so predatory, so my kid was never introduced to it. Anyway, his friend was playing so I let my son play too for this day.
After a time, her son asked for $10 for Roblox. Mom said not today and the child had a full meltdown. It hurt my ears he was screeching so loud. My son just froze and stared at his friend. It looked similar to a panic attack crossed with a toddler temper tantrum. Once he calmed down, she let him back on the game, but we went home.
Certain games turn smaller children into addicts. Roblox is definitely one of those games, it seems.
My nephew has talked about how lucky some of his friends are because they get more robux from their parents than he does and how he wishes his parents would give him more “nice things” like that.
This is a kid who has been to disneyland multiple times and has gone on multiple cruises before he was a decade old. They have a big trip basically every summer, but he doesn’t want any of that, he just wants more robux.
he’s a child. he has no idea want things cost or what they are worth.
all he knows is the intense urge to get more robux
and disney was probably more about his parents. my parents made me go to disney twice even though i had no interest and told me what an ungrateful shit iw as the entire time. it was never about me. it was about them.
i was happier hanging out win the woods with my friends, or even alone, than going to disney. i hated it.
ironically i wanted to go six flags but my parents never took me, even thought it was in driving distance and way cheaper… because everything was about them. the rides were so much better.
Kids want to play what their friends/community are playing.
This. When all of your kids friends are playing the same game and it’s all they talk about, forbidding it will just lead to them being left out. It fucking sucks
“Hey look at this loser he’s using a Jonsey skin!”
I thought so too. I try with my boy I really do. Ive got him understanding that mtx are the work of Satan, but beyond that I cant help him.
There aren’t 50% of gamer parents anyway.
I didn’t see a link to the survey in the article so I found it on the ESA website.
The survey says that 58% of kids want games, but it doesn’t seem to specify what percentage of kids want in-game currency?; it simply says that in-game currency is one of the top five video-game related requests, at 43%. But 43% of what? 43% of kids who want games? It’s not specific, which would make the news article meaningless.
Clickbait
