Pay for Skin or Pay to Win? On Monetization in Free-to-Play Games | Lies van Roessel | TEDxUniHalle

Covering a wide range of topics, styles, and genres, digital games are a multidimensional and complex cultural phenomenon. One specific kind of games that emerged with the introduction of connected mobile devices and app stores are so-called free-to-play games. These games can be downloaded and initially played for free but will try to generate revenue by offering in-game purchases or microtransactions. Free-to-play games often have easy-to-learn game principles that appeal to large audiences from all genders and age groups. Casual free-to-play games are not often (critically) addressed in the public debate, as their graphical styles are typically colourful and harmless. But these games are highly popular and commercially successful and, due to the profound connection between gameplay and monetization, deserve academic and public attention as well. This talk sketches different kind of monetization techniques and how they are assessed by developers of free-to-play games: How do game professionals differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ monetization? I argue that, in judging and picking games, we should not only account for game content and graphics but include monetization mechanisms in order to make informed decisions about which games we want to play. Lies van Roessel is a game production scholar and currently a PhD candidate at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. Her doctoral research is about the development processes of free-to-play games, including the connection between monetization and design and game developers’ norms and values. Lies has formerly worked at the University of the Arts Utrecht (HKU), the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) and the Digital Opportunities Foundation in Berlin, as well as the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research (Hamburg), where her teaching and research topics included serious/applied games, imitation and innovation in the games sector, algorithmic decision making and media education in early childhood. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx