Episode 59 – 35 potentially predatory monetization tactics (with Elena Petrovskaya)
When it comes to monetization in games, what do players see as misleading, unfair, or aggressive? Elena Petrovskaya asked this question to over 1000 players and organized their complaints to create a taxonomy of 35 potentially predatory monetization techniques organized under 8 different domains. There was so much here to talk about, we ended up with our first two-parter episode. So, in this episode (part 1), we go over each of these monetization tactics from unfair matches to how in-game currency can disguise real prices, to the use of aggressive advertising, and much more. Then in our next episode (part 2), we’ll explore whether these tactics are actually immoral and the potential consequences of predatory monetization on the gaming world.
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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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Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft
Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell
Music and graphics by Daniel Sher