game monetization

In a couple of recent episodes guests have mentioned concerns about battle passes.  So, in this episode we decided to explore how they work, how they differ from traditional  subscription models or microtransactions, why they’re so popular today with game companies, and whether they raise any serious ethical concerns.

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Daniel Joseph is a Senior Lecturer of Digital Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University where he researches internet infrastructure, platforms, apps, and games. He’s also written for a number of publications, including Briarpatch Magazine, Motherboard, and Real Life Magazine.  Follow Daniel on Twitter at @DanjoKaz00ie.

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- If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it!  You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

- Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

- If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know! 

Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at contact@ethicsandvideogames.com.  We’d love to hear from you!

Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

Music and graphics by Daniel Sher

This is part 2 of our first two-part exploration of predatory monetization.  Our guest, Elena Petrovskaya has been researching player complaints about monetization and has categorized them into 35 different types of potentially predatory monetization techniques – from pay or wait to the use of battle passes to aggressive advertising and dark interface design patterns.  In part 1 we went over all of them.  If you haven’t listened to it yet, I highly recommend going  back and checking it out.  This time, we evaluate.  We ask what is supposed to be predatory in these techniques, which ones we think are not actually problematic, which ones we think are particularly problematic, and what, if anything, should be done about them in terms of regulation.

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Our guest for this episode is Elena Petrovskaya, a PhD researcher at the Centre for Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence in the UK. She specialises in predatory monetisation in digital games and its consequences, and is particularly interested in the links of game design to gaming disorder. She uses her background in psychology and human-computer interaction to take a player-centric perspective: developing knowledge bottom-up and working directly with players as the primary stakeholder. Her work spans ethics, wellbeing, and the lived experience of technology and its use. Elena’s work has been published in high-impact venues, she has given invited talks, contributed to written evidence calls by the UK government, and engaged with the public through media outlets such as The Conversation.

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JOIN THE ETHICS AND VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY:

- Follow/like/share us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube 

- Explore our website and check out our Video Games Ethics Resources Center: https://ethicsandvideogames.com

- If you're game to lend us your financial support, we'd love to have it and can definitely use it!  You can do that here: SUPPORT OUR PODCAST!

- Give us a review whereever you listen to podcasts

- If you've got an idea or an ethical issue involving video games that you think would make for a good podcast, please let us know! 

Contact us at ethicsandvideogames.com or email us at contact@ethicsandvideogames.com.  We’d love to hear from you!

Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

Music and graphics by Daniel Sher