Disturbing psychology of games with the pay-to-loot system

“In behavioral psychology, this random reward system is the most addictive,” says Emil Hodzic, who runs a video game addiction treatment clinic, Video Game Addiction Treatment Clinic . "It is she who causes the main trouble."

This comment is taken from an interview about microtransactions linked to a random number generator (RNG) - what is called “pay-to-loot”, payment for trophies. This system exists outside the genres and is not related to the cost of the game. And it is becoming more common. It can be found in Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Gears of War 4, Dirty Bomb and Hearthstone - these are just a few examples of the names of games that are constantly in sight in the study of this phenomenon.

Publishers will tell you that such RNG microtransactions are voluntary, and to some extent this is true, but they are built into the games we are considering, and they can be accessed in many ways. Of course, you can spend a few (or a lot) real dollars, but you can also use artificial game currency - and all in order to buy something uncertain. This is how the RNG systems work. The fact that once could be a great trophy, is unlikely to reappear, because its value drops according to given formulas. And this chance and uncertainty, apparently, is the reason for their gradual spread.

Pay-to-loot is a relatively new microtransaction system borrowed from applications for smartphones and tablets. As a result of an interesting psychological phenomenon, the user will gladly spend hundreds of dollars on a new smartphone, but will not buy the application, finding it too expensive. The microtransaction system in free or low-cost applications has already become a business model. By itself, it is worth discussing separately, but the point is that in this ecosystem the user is motivated to waste money, and some of them spend thousands, or even much more; in this system, these users are called "whales". It makes sense that the publishers of games on consoles and PC saw this model and decided to transfer it to themselves, despite the large difference in the initial investment by the player.

On the Internet, there are disputes over whether such RNG systems are tied to random events affecting the gameplay - ridiculed pay-to-win, pay-to-win systems. Although it is interesting to study these disputes, I believe that pay-to-loot is not the same as pay-to-win. Pay-to-loot is thinner and inherently more harmful.

According to Hodzic, these systems “can be unambiguously compared with the sets of cards purchased for playing Magic: The Gathering. In fact, this is the same thing, there is both an accident and a perception of what is happening, comparable to a machine for playing poker. ”

The perception associated with the poker machine, refers to the random nature of the trophies obtained in games, and is associated with primitive parts of the brain. The effectiveness of the system is based on our susceptibility to such incentives. Details are described in the article " Scientific explanation of our love for trophies ."

Hodzic uses the boxes from Overwatch as an example of a trophy effect. “One of the topics that I bring up in conversations with people, whether they are 12-year-olds or adults, is trophy boxes in games,” says Hojjic. - If you played Overwatch, then at each transition to the level you are given a new trophy box, and although you are not told to “buy trophy boxes for $ 20,” you are forced to get used to the expectation of a reward.

This dynamic gambling - the motivation of the poker machine - leads to the fact that once you get some valuable trophy, you will want to get more. Over time, interest, addiction, and excitement from getting trophies can increase, especially when publishers use seasonal promotions like Halloween. ”

In another interview, Ph.D., psychologist Jamie Madigan, the leading website on the psychology of video games , reasons why Blizzard could use the example of Overwatch to choose a random trophy system associated with microtransactions.

"I believe that people from Blizzard and Activision conducted internal testing and found that this system attracts people for longer periods of time," says Madigan. - They either play longer, or spend more money on in-app purchases, if they have to rely on chance, and every time they pull the handle of the slot machine, if they want to get something, and not just pay for it.

Even if they get a premium account as a result, it will still be exciting to get one of these trophy boxes, open it, and see what you get. I think that this exciting feeling serves as the main stimulus, and it does not exist with ordinary purchases. You would not have the incentive to play a game to get to one of these boxes, which can give you something amazing, or some kind of garbage.

And most often there will be garbage, but sometimes there will be something really amazing. In many ways, this psychological mechanism is the same as the other one that works when something accidentally drops you in games like Diablo: you kill a monster, and something drops out of it. ”

Part of this “psychological mechanism” is in the work of our brain, which perceives a fixed reward and random trophies differently.

“Many studies have shown that fixed rewards do not so effectively affect behavioral change, learning a new pattern of behavior, or shaping habits, as random rewards do,” explains Madigan. - Our brain is sharpened to seek out the meaning of surprises. If the quality of the trophy determines a random number, then the result is, by definition, unexpected. ”

“Whether you get this reward by sitting in the game at the right time, winning the right amount of matches, or spending five dollars to buy a set of cards or a chest with good, it will be the same thrill, the same perception, the same anticipation, the same expectation result with the thoughts “will I guess this time what will be there?”. And although the frontal part of the cortex of your brain - rational and slowly working - knows that everything will be completely random, and you have not penetrated the secrets of the system according to which you are given belongings. But the rewarding brain contours are built into it rather deeply, they are extremely strong and effective. ”

To be honest, our brain reacts and strives for such random systems in many cases not limited to video games. According to Hodzic, problems begin when contact with random systems becomes periodic. “The excitement mechanics are also found in other things,” admits Hodzic. “If you play cards, it doesn't seem like a terrible thing.” If you play “twenty-one” with your family, there seems to be nothing wrong with that.

But repeated meetings affect us almost like commercials. Maybe not this week, maybe not this month, but in the end you will start spending money on it, be it small or large sums. ”

Personally, I see a problem in those cases when RNG monetization systems offer you to purchase something more than just cosmetic changes. If the previously mentioned pay-for-win systems guaranteed results in exchange for money, the random nature of pay-to-loot systems affects the balance of the game and creates unfair game conditions - luck does not depend on the player’s skills. But Hodzic says that cosmetic skin type trophies may seem as attractive as trophies affecting gameplay.

“Skin will seem attractive to a person who loves everything new,” says Hodzic. - If it is their currency, it will lure them. Many people just want to fool around and they do not take what is happening seriously, but, oddly enough, they want to look good. Of course, for those who want to improve their skills, getting a random captured weapon will be a good incentive. And there are problems with this, because in this case you are motivated to spend money and return to this system in the hope of getting something valuable, unlike other game companies that reward you for your efforts. ”

Madigan believes that there is another factor worth considering in the dispute between cosmetic improvements and the impact on gameplay. “I think people regard them differently,” says Madigan. - When you are fond of the pay-per-win system, and get items or opportunities that give you an edge, you start thinking about fairness and justice. Suppose we are doing the same thing, but since you have the opportunity to spend five dollars, your reward will be higher, or it will be easier for you, or you will often succeed. It seems to me that this area needs to be carefully studied. ”

But we need to move from finding potential problems for pay-to-loot systems to finding solutions to these problems.

“It would be much safer, especially for minors, if the reward for raising the level and a good game were expected, and not random,” Hojjic says. - If, for example, you play Call of Duty and reach Prestige One, you will receive a certain emblem. If other events had occurred in the game through such a system, young minds would not have been influenced by gambling mechanics.

In an ideal world, game developers would build an age check, and if there are children in the game who are under the age of gambling, then the reward system becomes structured and expected rather than random. This may seem more boring to many, but it seems to me that in terms of obtaining equal chances this would be fair. ”

Madigan does not see problems in pay-to-loot systems until they begin to influence a person’s life in the same way as gambling addiction does. “Even if you are very keen on games with the pay-to-loot system, problems with this hobby start only if it interferes with your life,” says Madigen. - When people start spending money that could be spent elsewhere. If they just threw off a couple of bucks and got pleasure from the game, then there are no problems with that. ”

But Madigan believes that digital platforms and vendors could be more transparent. “The best solution would be to somehow mark the games in which in-game purchases are practiced, as is done in the Apple App Store. So when you go to buy a game, she would tell you that there are built-in purchases in it and that they buy there most often.

If such things were described there, or if there was some kind of standardization - for example, the game offers to buy in-game items - this would greatly help all people who want to avoid such purchases and those whom they don’t care about. I would like to see more consumer information from such games available before purchasing them. ”

But in reality it turns out that pay-to-loot systems are becoming more and more popular, and they are not indicated in the list of features of the game. Increasing transparency about such features and a better understanding of their influence on players will help us make informed purchasing decisions and calm the passions around these games.