'My son spent £3,160 in one game' (BBC article looking at exploitative MTXs)

[NimbusCub]

Has any major news outlet ran a story on the types of resources and amount of money companies have been investing into the development of microtransactions?

Stories like this can always lose some impact because the parents didn't utilize systems designed to prevent unauthorized purchases.

Calling out the fact that these companies are employing teams of Psychologists to help improve the "stickiness" (adictiveness) of some of these gameplay loops may better paint the picture.

 

[Sheepinator]

Some weird replies in this thread. The parents are responsible, yeah, but the developers of these games are scum and are using predatory practices to exploit children.

My 13 years old cousin spent roughly 1.200€ buying Fortnite skins in less than a month. My aunt bought him the 5€ starter pack and she didn't know she had to manually remove the payment information from the system. My cousin doesn't read anything while he's playing, so he kept buying stuff every day thinking he was using the V-Bucks he was earning with the Battle Pass. My aunt fucked up, but Epic knows perfectly what they are doing with their demographics.

But hey, it's always the parents fault, right? ;)

Click to shrink...

I find that hard to believe. Your aunt didn't know that entering payment details means it's stored in the system? That's like every online transaction from every company. And the 13 year old didn't know he was spending money? Hmmmm. I bet he knew full well. To get V-bucks means going through a screen which shows the dollar amounts. You don't think the kid was bragging to his friends at school about all the cool skins he was buying, and they were asking how he was doing it?

Again I'll point out that the specific example in the topic title is most likely the financial power of attorney for their adult son, which means they are legally responsible to manage the sons finances over the 15 month period mentioned.

 

[Corporate Clown]

I have zero empathy for parents who just handover their phones to kids because it's easier than doing any real parenting. However, I do agree that microtransactions in these games are bullshit and need to be regulated. Hell, I wouldn't shed a tear if they're banned altogether!

 

[s_mirage]

What stops kids from doing the same for gambling sites?

Click to shrink...

Pretty much nothing, and there's pretty much nothing to stop kids buying alcohol online either if the accounts are left logged in with funding methods attached (in the UK at least). The only barrier in the case of gambling is that the kids couldn't easily get access to potential winnings.

This is why it utterly baffles me that some people act as if parents shouldn't have to take any action to prevent spending by their kids on electronic devices; apparently it's everyone else's responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen. I'm in favour of 18 ratings for games with microtransactions, but it won't matter if parents just bypass any safeguards intended to prevent unauthorised transactions.

A potential solution would be to require authorisation for every transaction, but then I bet quite a few people would complain about how inconvenient that is.

 

[JustinP]

Off the top of my head

- You can only spend a maximum of $100 on a game and that's it
- You could enforce all refunds on MXTs when this situation arises
- You could enforce a 14 day window where any MXT can be refunded before it's final
- You could make games that use exploitative tactics adult only
- You could stop games from using predatory tactics to get sales

I'm not saying these are all good ideas, but if the industry won't regulate themselves, then someone has to

Click to shrink...

Most of your solutions don't treat this like a 'manipulating kids' problem (the only one that does, doesn't explain how games would actually know the player is a child and not an adult).

 

[Alek]

When I was 16 I spent about £700 on FIFA 09 Ultimate team.

I don't know what I was thinking, but I was playing it every day. My friends and I would play together and talk about the game every day, and our teams and how well we were doing, it was a big social thing at college. Then it go to the end of the year, and I realised that it amounted to nothing. That in FIFA 2010, I would start all over again, with no value carried over from those previous purchases. I didn't pay for any more packs, and while I would still play kick-off matches from time to time, largely dropped off the game.

Ultimate team is a really cool mode, but it's bogged down by MTX. A managerial mode like that could be really fun, if it's goal wasn't driven to nickle and dime its players.

In any case, it was my decision, it was my savings money, and I was dumb. Still, that MTX in FIFA, was the first real MTX system I'd ever seen in a game. At the time, it was pretty exciting to be a part of, but I look back on it rather shamefully.

 

[Sheepinator]

Off the top of my head

- You can only spend a maximum of $100 on a game and that's it
- You could enforce all refunds on MXTs when this situation arises
- You could enforce a 14 day window where any MXT can be refunded before it's final
- You could make games that use exploitative tactics adult only
- You could stop games from using predatory tactics to get sales

I'm not saying these are all good ideas, but if the industry won't regulate themselves, then someone has to

Click to shrink...

If someone buys AC Odyssey Gold Edition for the game plus season pass at $99.99 then they see a skin they like for $2.99, they aren't allowed to buy it?

Allowing 100% refunds at any time opens up the potential for abuse. An adult might spend, play for a few months, then call up and say, "My little kid [person doesn't have kids] bought this stuff and I just found out. Full refund please."

 

[pswii60]

I've spent 0€ in MXTs, feels very good!

Click to shrink...

Have some empathy.

The problem with lootboxes, MTX, V-bucks etc, is that it's the most vulnerable people who are targeted, and it's the most vulnerable people who get sucked in. Just like gambling.

 

[SephLuis]

Why blame developers for selling a product?

Do you absolve all companies from the negative impact of their products?

Tobacco companies are not to blame for the pitfalls of smoking?

If this isn't a concept you're able to follow, then let's agree to disagree

Click to shrink...

Again, reaching for a horrible analogy.

Tobacco companies are required by law (in here, at least) to show what smoking can do to you. Every pack has some pretty horrible photos showing the effects of nicotin.
Yet, customer's still buy it. Tobacco still has an active quimical component that can cause dependency on anyone so it's not unlike a drug, even if it's legal.
You are seriously tring to argue that selling digital data is the same as this ? Can the risk of addiction also be extended to drinks, food and pretty much anything else ? Or is there an addiction level where you draw the line what should be and shouldn't be allowed ? Enlighten us please.

If you want to curb consumption of anything, you attack both supply and demand chains. If there's a market that is selling harmful products, it's because there's a chain of suppliers and buyers sustaining the whole operation. Just blaming one part of it, ain't gonna solve nothing.

 

[AllChan7]

While indeed parents need to be more educated about this kind of stuff, companies literally aim these microtransactions and loot boxes at vulnerable individuals. They are predatory by nature. Literally no defending them whatsoever

 

[oni-link]

Most of your solutions don't treat this like a 'manipulating kids' problem (the only one that does, doesn't explain how games would actually know the player is a child and not an adult).

Click to shrink...

Apologies the ideas I thought up in 30 seconds didn't solve the issue entirely

If someone buys AC Odyssey Gold Edition for the game plus season pass at $99.99 then they see a skin they like for $2.99, they aren't allowed to buy it?

Allowing 100% refunds at any time opens up the potential for abuse. An adult might spend, play for a few months, then call up and say, "My little kid [person doesn't have kids] bought this stuff and I just found out. Full refund please."

Click to shrink...

You could also add a caveat that the spending limit could apply only to free to play games, but again, I'm not trying to pretend I have all the answers. I don't. I was asked for ideas and I gave a few off the top of my head

A more interesting question is why aren't people spending £2,000 on MXTs in a game like AC:O?

What does that game do differently in it's design compared to those that cause people to endlessly spend on tat?

Why do we hear stories about people spending thousands on FIFA packs and mobile games, and not those vast sums on Ubisoft games or Bethesda games?

Maybe people are, but they don't feel cheated at the end of it, or maybe those games are not entirely designed around getting players to lower their defenses and spend forever on shite

 

[Raide]

This will always be a hard subject to deal with. Without all the MTX, cash shop stuff, Mobile gaming would be way, way smaller than it is today. Some of those games have been driving billions into the mobile market.

Of course many of these games feed into OCD/self control/other issues that some people have. Devs would not make those type of games if they did not work. They should certainly have way more options within the game for parental control.

On the other side is parents leaving their kids with computer/mobile babysitters and not caring what they play until it hurts their wallet. Parents need to educate themselves and keep an eye on their kids.

 

[Musubi]

Almost all devices have built in password or even fingerprint protection on phones you can setup to auth transactions. Its 2019 there is a wealth of information out there to help parents with these exact things. There is like zero excuses on the parents ends here. A 12 year old kid shouldn't have ready access to your finances.

 

[Reinhard]

I feel sorry for the kids being exploited and exposed to shitty free to play games designed by psychologists to foster addictive purchasing of microtransactions. I have absolutely 0 sympathy for parents who didn't take the 5 seconds to set up parental controls or require a password for every purchase. Make your kid use Itune giftcards or PSN cards to buy anything on their iPad or PS4.

 

[Matty H]

Politicians just need to start banning games with 'Microtransactions' that end up costing vulnerable people a hundred times more than the initial price of the game.

It is clear that they are designed to trick people into spending more than they wanted. Until heavy handed regulation kicks in, developers/publishers are incentivised to hunt whales and bleed them dry. It is unacceptable and they have been getting away with it for years.

 

[mael]

Politicians just need to start banning games with 'Microtransactions' that end up costing vulnerable people a hundred times more than the initial price of the game.

It is clear that they are designed to trick people into spending more than they wanted. Until heavy handed regulation kicks in, developers/publishers are incentivised to hunt whales and bleed them dry. It is unacceptable and they have been getting away with it for years.

Click to shrink...

They won't ban shit but they certainly can tax it to hell and back.
Politicians absolutely love a good sin tax.
Doesn't help that you have giants like ATVI and EA dodging taxes so they're like prime targets for a good ole taxman retribution.

 

[Keldroc]

Politicians just need to start banning games with 'Microtransactions' that end up costing vulnerable people a hundred times more than the initial price of the game.

Click to shrink...

Unconstitutional, since games are protected speech. What needs to be done is to pass a bill that makes any game using lootbox mechanics automatically fall under the purview of the gambling commission. You'd see lootboxes vanish overnight if that happened. No publisher wants to give the government more of a cut than they already do.

 

[mael]

Unconstitutional, since games are protected speech. What needs to be done is to pass a bill that makes any game using lootbox mechanics automatically fall under the purview of the gambling commission. You'd see lootboxes vanish overnight if that happened. No publisher wants to give the government more of a cut than they already do.

Click to shrink...

Not even any need for that.
Just tax wholesale any kind of ongoing after initial transaction a specific surcharge tax.
It's easy to do and you can tax it however much you want without impacting gambling or anything.
They can keep their little gambling thingy and not call it gambling if they want, they just have to pay through the nose to get any cent of it.

 

[kiguel182]

The games industry has built their hole and if they get buried in it it's deserved.

Loot boxes might not be gambling but they do use similar principles and turning games
into a way to just sell you stuff is the worst. The game is almost secondary. It's a way to get you into that market.

Hopefully it gets regulated but I don't think it will.

 

[RexNovis]

This thread makes me absolutely furious. Before it was "well this sort of stuff isn't all that common there aren't that many examples." Now when more and more examples start getting publish it has shifted to being the parents fault.

NO! It is not the parents fault that games are designed to entice and trick vulnerable people into spending as much money as possible. The idea that it should even begin to approach the realm of accepted or normal for anybody to be able to spend $1000+ on a single game over the span of a few months is ASININE. Especially when so many times they seem totally and completely unaware of just how much money they actually spent because the systems have been designed in a way to keep you from really seeing or thinking about the totals only the next purchase. Seriously. What the hell is wrong with some of you?

 

[Galactic Specter]

I wonder if we're gonna come to a point where there are drug-like PSAs about excessive spending in games for children.

Developers are already paving the way with MTX's designed to goad the player into addiction even if the game is already $60.

 

[Deleted member 26746]

Every credit card should be tied by default to a phone number to validate any purchase.

This companies trying to whale kids is disgusting.

Every game with "surprise mechanics" should have a pay X to unlock everything... so we all will be aware of what the companies value their games.

 

[SchroDingerzat]

Yeah it's the same in every thread

Click to shrink...

Sadly I think it's because a lot hate the idea of any regulation, regardless of whether it can be a good thing for consumers overall.

 

[Scratches]

I find that hard to believe. Your aunt didn't know that entering payment details means it's stored in the system? That's like every online transaction from every company. And the 13 year old didn't know he was spending money? Hmmmm. I bet he knew full well. To get V-bucks means going through a screen which shows the dollar amounts. You don't think the kid was bragging to his friends at school about all the cool skins he was buying, and they were asking how he was doing it?

Click to shrink...

She uses Amazon and that's it. She didn't have any previous experience with a digital store.

Like I wrote, she fucked up. When a user enters their credit card info in the PlayStation Store, there's a small disclaimer at the bottom of the screen telling them the data will be stored and will be used in future payments. She didn't read the text and lost money in the process. She didn't blame anyone but herself tho, so why would she be lying?

And regarding my cousin, he claims he didn't know, but even if he fully knew he was spending real money every time he bought something with the in-game currency, he has ADHD, so I don't think he could keep track of the total amount he was wasting. But we should blame him too, because everyone is at fault except the companies ;)

But hey, it's cool you find the anecdote hard to believe.

 

[elenarie]

What I'm saying is that the system is designed to obfuscate the link between the apps and the bank so that parents that have other shit to deal with do not suspect the link.
Not the most complicated of cons and certainly not the easiest to spot either.

Click to shrink...

There is literally nothing of a "con" here. Adults themselves link their financials to their phones, knowingly, and knowingly give said phones to their kids.
All of this is preventable by using many of the parental controls that are already in place.

 

[OmniStrife]

How do kids keep getting their parents' credit credentials?

 

[Deleted member 26746]

A way to stop compulsive buying could be that evey paiment should have a cooldown before you can purchase it again.

 

[Mr_DyZ]

How are users being duped, tricked, and exploited when most of these games have a clear "Buy" button listed lol? Or in other cases, clear MX shops where users can make purchases for items?

Also, don't you usually havw to double-tap (or go through two flows) to confirm a purchase on most of these platforms?

As for users abusing their parents CC's, I mean yea, i'm sure companies could have safeguards (doesn't Xbox?). But I don't understand blaming companies because of this abuse.

 

[apocat]

There is literally nothing of a "con" here. Adults themselves link their financials to their phones, knowingly, and knowingly give said phones to their kids.
All of this is preventable by using many of the parental controls that are already in place.

Click to shrink...

The fact that you obviously work for a company producing games containing lootboxes doesn't only mean you don't have an objective stance in the discussion. It also means you're likely surrounded by people who are very literate in how these things work. That is not representative of everybody, and a lot of people are simply both totally uninterested in technology and naively trusting that companies wouldn't have mechanisms for immediate and limitless purchases of inherently worthless virtual items. But as we both know, companies do have those mechanisms, constructed in a way that is designed to make purchases both effortless, enticing and habitual.

And parents does not necessarily know these things even exist, not to mention "parental controls." You need tech literacy for these things. It might seem alien to someone in the tech industry, but I know highly educated people who are not even comfortable with how to make an amazon account to buy books. Even though it pains me to use him as an example, the goddamn president of the USA by all accounts doesn't even know how to use a computer.

Though he unfortunately managed to figure out how to make a twitter account.

 

[Deleted member 25671]

This thread makes me absolutely furious. Before it was "well this sort of stuff isn't all that common there aren't that many examples." Now when more and more examples start getting publish it has shifted to being the parents fault.

NO! It is not the parents fault that games are designed to entice and trick vulnerable people into spending as much money as possible. The idea that it should even begin to approach the realm of accepted or normal for anybody to be able to spend $1000+ on a single game over the span of a few months is ASININE. Especially when so many times they seem totally and completely unaware of just how much money they actually spent because the systems have been designed in a way to keep you from really seeing or thinking about the totals only the next purchase. Seriously. What the hell is wrong with some of you?

Click to shrink...

I agree that companies design games to have that effect to squeeze money out of people, and ignorance is fine, even wanted for them, they don't care. Parents do have to be on guard, in the end the kids get access to this stuff because of the parents (unless the kid is stealing their parents stuff, which would be a whole other thing.), and parents need to be involved to see what is going on. Things are moving into new places, and it can be hard for parents to know everything, but this is part of being a parent, it's not easy. It's not 100% the parents fault, but parents do have part of that responsibility.

 

[Mr_DyZ]

This thread makes me absolutely furious. Before it was "well this sort of stuff isn't all that common there aren't that many examples." Now when more and more examples start getting publish it has shifted to being the parents fault.

NO! It is not the parents fault that games are designed to entice and trick vulnerable people into spending as much money as possible. The idea that it should even begin to approach the realm of accepted or normal for anybody to be able to spend $1000+ on a single game over the span of a few months is ASININE. Especially when so many times they seem totally and completely unaware of just how much money they actually spent because the systems have been designed in a way to keep you from really seeing or thinking about the totals only the next purchase. Seriously. What the hell is wrong with some of you?

Click to shrink...

I don't get how "BUY THIS SKIN FOR " (for 'x' amount of money) is tricking people. Maybe kids don't know any better, and that's fair. What are studios supposed to do, disable MTX stores for people under a certain age? Too many outliers.

I'm fully aware what studios are doing with their games. Personally, I want to ability to purchase things that I view enjoyable in a game. If I like a skin, i'm going to buy it. I don't want people telling me what I can and can't spend my disposable income on, which is what this'll all lead to inevitably.

 

[mael]

There is literally nothing of a "con" here. Adults themselves link their financials to their phones, knowingly, and knowingly give said phones to their kids.
All of this is preventable by using many of the parental controls that are already in place.

Click to shrink...

If the parents aren't savvy enough to use hidden in config parental controls, they're probably not savvy enough to know that silly games for their kids could use money from their virtual wallet.
There's more and less complicated ways to extract cash from marks but the victim is still a mark.

 

[elenarie]

The fact that you obviously work for a company producing games containing lootboxes doesn't only mean you don't have an objective stance in the discussion.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for educating me.

 

[MrH]

It really is disgusting how hard they're trying to keep gambling mechanics in games, I know why, it makes them a fortune but still. I don't know how anyone could say it's not gambling and exploitative. I have a friend with autism who's on benefits and if he's playing a game with MTX his monthly cheque will go on them. He put about £2500 into Hearthstone, at least £1000 into Warframe, about £500 in Overwatch etc.

 

[apocat]

Thanks for educating me.

Click to shrink...

The point I was trying to make was primarily the one in the next sentence, that you are active in a social sphere where high tech literacy is the norm. I just couldn't resist the part that you quoted, which I admit was low hanging fruit. Sorry about that.

 

[Deleted member 29464]

I imagine most parents don't imagine it's possible that some free game (or hell a game they already spent money on) could clean out their bank account. That results in a lack of foresight and that means the mistake of letting kids on a device you saved your payment details on for convinience.

 

[Zem]

These companies hire psychologists to make the most addictive pack opening animation possible and we still get people blaming parents.

I dunno how you were as a kid but if gaming now was like this back when I was a kid I'd be a disaster with FIFA points because I'd be playing off my parents not really understanding mtx. Not a great thing to say but that's how kids work. They get manipulated by EA and whoever then manipulate their parents and it's so much easier now when you don't need the physical card. Not in the cases in the OP but it goes on a lot.

 

[icecold1983]

Lmao one of the kids even had a child bank card or whatever. I can understand the cases with autisim or other conditions, but generally the kids know what they are doing. Maybe be a better parent

 

[ShiningBash]

It's so wild to me that we have thread after thread about how horrible microtransactions are whenever Era members are the ones making purchases, and yet the minute an unsupervised minor falls prey to the same garbage these threads go full social-Darwinism.

In other words, microtransactions are the worst....unless I can prove that a parent could've stopped them. Then you got what you deserved, you unthinking, horribly lazy spendthrift.

 

[Nanashrew]

This thread makes me absolutely furious. Before it was "well this sort of stuff isn't all that common there aren't that many examples." Now when more and more examples start getting publish it has shifted to being the parents fault.

NO! It is not the parents fault that games are designed to entice and trick vulnerable people into spending as much money as possible. The idea that it should even begin to approach the realm of accepted or normal for anybody to be able to spend $1000+ on a single game over the span of a few months is ASININE. Especially when so many times they seem totally and completely unaware of just how much money they actually spent because the systems have been designed in a way to keep you from really seeing or thinking about the totals only the next purchase. Seriously. What the hell is wrong with some of you?

Click to shrink...

Sadly not even new. I remember in the old "what drives people to defend lootboxes?" thread, many kept doing the whole "it's the parents fault" crap, as well as the whole "won't someone think of the children?" mockery.

Here's more material for the thread.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/01/17-year-old-uses-his-dads-credit-card-to-spend-7600-playing-fifa

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...tor-discovers-son-spent-usd4500-on-fifa-packs

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-blasts-ea-sports-after-3185676

FIFA continually has this problem and you could probably find at least a couple of these types of articles for each year in the past 5+ years.

 

[Deleted member 4274]

The fact that there are not similar issues with Amazon's 1 click purchase or eBay and other online shops out there should show how this issue is not just bad parenting.

Click to shrink...

lol, what a misinformed post.
Do children browse Amazon and eBay for fun? Would the parent of a disabled child hand them an iPad and tell them to go to Amazon?

1-click purchases increase conversion, period. All of these features are intended to get you to spend more.
If you put them in the hands of a person who doesn't understand the significance of money, then you will get a disaster.

Click to shrink...

plus he's not even right. A simple google search could tell you that.

 

[Sheepinator]

Sadly not even new. I remember in the old "what drives people to defend lootboxes?" boxes thread, many kept doing the whole "it's the parents fault" crap, as well as the whole "won't someone think of the children?" mockery.

Here's more material for the thread.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/01/17-year-old-uses-his-dads-credit-card-to-spend-7600-playing-fifa

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...tor-discovers-son-spent-usd4500-on-fifa-packs

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-blasts-ea-sports-after-3185676

FIFA continually has this problem and you could probably find at least a couple of these types of articles for each year in the past 5+ years.

Click to shrink...

I suspect those teenagers knew they were spending real money that they shouldn't have been spending, then when they were caught they pulled the, "I didn't know it was real money, honest guvnor!" defense.

 

[Border]

If your kid steals your credit card information and buys a bunch of bullshit, that's a problem with your kid -- not the videogame.

I have sympathy for people with toddlers who are just mashing buttons and end up buying a bunch of stuff. But this "My kid was tricked into buying things" line is nonsense when you're talking about a 15-year-old.

 

[TheClaw7667]

If someone buys AC Odyssey Gold Edition for the game plus season pass at $99.99 then they see a skin they like for $2.99, they aren't allowed to buy it?

Allowing 100% refunds at any time opens up the potential for abuse. An adult might spend, play for a few months, then call up and say, "My little kid [person doesn't have kids] bought this stuff and I just found out. Full refund please."

Click to shrink...

We shouldn't implement anything that could be helpful to people that may need help because someone out there might abuse it.

Refunds? Nope, someone might abuse it. Welfare? Fuck no, what if someone abuses it!?

 

[Sheepinator]

We shouldn't implement anything that could be helpful to people that may need help because someone out there might abuse it.

Refunds? Nope, someone might abuse it. Welfare? Fuck no, what if someone abuses it!?

Click to shrink...

That's a straw man.

 

[icecold1983]

It's so wild to me that we have thread after thread about how horrible microtransactions are whenever Era members are the ones making purchases, and yet the minute an unsupervised minor falls prey to the same garbage these threads go full social-Darwinism.

In other words, microtransactions are the worst....unless I can prove that a parent could've stopped them. Then you got what you deserved, you unthinking, horribly lazy spendthrift.

Click to shrink...

You can dislike developers hiding content behind paywalls because you feel it should be part of the base game while still feeling that in no way should this ever be controlled or regulated by any government type body

 

[Nanashrew]

I suspect those teenagers knew they were spending real money that they shouldn't have been spending, then when they were caught they pulled the, "I didn't know it was real money, honest guvnor!" defense.

Click to shrink...

And we have streamers spending thousands in FIFA Ultimate Team just for specific high level players. There are videos done by many YouTubers and Twitch streamers simply unboxing a ton of lootboxes they've spent upwards to the thousands because of a short event where you have a chance to get some ultra rares. FIFA has it's own gacha system and banner events.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...-reminds-us-the-odds-are-very-much-against-us

 

[Granadier]

1. Exploitative MTX are the cancer of the gaming industry.
2. Parents give their children unrestricted access to their financial accounts and then are :surprised-pikachu: when their kid spends crap loads of money.

 

[Jebusman]

Can the risk of addiction also be extended to drinks, food and pretty much anything else ?

Click to shrink...

Except that already exists. There's a mountain of studies behind the idea. Gambling addiction is a thing too, it's not like the slot machines are literally injecting drugs into you. And it's very much related to the topic at hand. The psychological aspect of addiction can't just be dismissed so easily.

That's a straw man.

Click to shrink...

It's verbatim the argument you are making. We can't do something good because someone "might" do something bad with it.

 

[zashga]

It floors me how many people take the corporate side in every single one of these threads. These games are intentionally preying upon people like these kids and their parents. People seem to forget that premium currency systems are intentionally designed to obfuscate when and how much actual money you are spending inside the game. Add to that digital storefronts that are designed to make spending as fast and easy as possible and it's a very expensive lesson for a lot of people. That's not a moral or intellectual failure on their part; it's a foreseeable and probably intentional result of how these games and stores are designed.