Pay-To-Win in Video Games

I love videogames, and you love them too, but recently it felt more less "enjoying" and more like paying, what happened?

First, we have to understand that videogame studios are corporations, and therefore as corporations their legal (keyword, legal, not moral) obligation is to maximize profits for their shareholders, artists, videogame designers, and writers are a secondary concern for them.

Origins in the Arcade Era

To understand the roots of pay-to-win, that is, why studios are finanically motivated to fleece their users, we have to travel back to the 1980s and 90s, when personal computers were expensive, the average "user" (that is, children, young adults, and the likes) who considered videogames as a hobby went to once place - the arcade.

Players back then would have to feed quarters into their machines for playtime - and while this was not inherently P2W, it was a simple rule - the more money you had, the longer you could stay in the game, and that was the core principle being established, with direct monetary investmen t by the player they had an advantage - continuation and progress.

The Rise of Free-to-Play and Microtransactions

But technology advanced, and arcades became obsolete, personal computers, laptops, and phones capable of running games came into the market and were relatively cheap, and so in the 2000s in East Asia, they had an idea - to monetize their videogames.

South Korean and Chinese games were among the first to embrace this model, often using it to great success in multiplayer MMO titles, like MapleStory and Mu Online, and initially it was cosmetics, but by time they offered items that boosted your stats or experience gains, swords, "potions" and the likes blurred the line between cosmetic purchases and direct gameplay enhancements, and were usually the first recorded cases of "pay-to-win" in the 2000s

It was not only limited to MMOs, mobile games like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush introduced time-based restrictions that could be bypassed with just a few dollars, therefore giving users clear advantages of - that is besides the online store Clash of Clans had, and it was here that the P2W term came into full usage, critizing the unbalance that they felt.

Pay-to-Win in Competitive Online Games

Players felt that games were becoming less reliant on skills and more on whos wallets went deeper, and while the model started in East Asia, it was eventually exported to Western markets, and the first to apply that model on a big title was EA Studios

EA Studios reputation by 2017 was not exactly rosy, they were criticized of prioritizing shareholders interests, a drastic reduce on the quality of videogames, and generally being corporate and greedy.

Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), developed by EA Studios, solidified all these accusations.

The game featured a loot box system that allowed players to purchase randomized power-ups, and they had gameplay advantages, and it was quite the terrible system

For example, people could not play as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader because they were behind a 120,000 credit price, this would require over 80 hours of gameplay "just" to be able to afford either one of them, or you could simply purchase 120,000 credits with your real life dollars.

Although loot boxes had exsted before, Battlefront II linked them directly to gameplay advantages. The outrage was swift and severe. Accusations of gambling (by European Union officials), manipulation, and unfair play flooded forums and news sites. Following intense criticism and regulatory scrutiny, EA eventually reworked the system, removing the pay-to-win elements entirely,

EA Studios was voted the worst company in America, twice, in a row for two years, perhaps such a title is deserved.

Another example is the game known as "Warthunder", the "whales" in the game purchase tens of thousands of golden eagles and proceed to buy what are objectively the best vehicles and aircrafts in the game, while it is F2P, the premium model is very noticeable.

The Ethical Debate

So, why is P2W bad? afterall, man has a right to use his money in whatever way he wishes, right?

Well, not exactly. First one has to see where the balance between the two lines, in multiplayer environments P2W models can undermine the competitive integrity of games, and there is no level field between those who are F2P and P2W if the P2W users can simply point and click their way out of every match they get thrown in.

Secondly, there is the issue of transparency, this is already criticized upon by the EU and other governments, and governments such as the Netherlands or Belgium have sued EA over what they consider to be deceptive practices and gambling for minors.

Thirdly, game design is heavily impacted by introducing a P2W model, the developer is no longer incentivized to create an environment where skill is rewarded, as a matter of fact he is incentivized to create an environment to specifically tire out the user to coerce him to pay money.

Regional Differences in Acceptance

Cultural differences, of course, plays a role, in countries such as Japan, South Korea, and China, a P2W model is not considered a taboo, on the opposite, spending money is considered a way to show dedication and investment into these games, this is probably why internet cafes and a "gaming culture" is very common in East Asia, and why E-Sports are taken quite seriously there.

In contrast, Western markets—particularly North America and Europe—have generally been more critical of P2W. Players in these regions often place a higher value on merit-based progression and are quicker to criticize systems that appear to undermine it.

What about Today?

While EA Studios are demonized, other studios try to keep their legacies clean, such as Riot games and Valve by avoiding P2W models, while other games are rather notorious for it, such as Raid Shadow legends (this article is not sponsored by them)

Some games and services are instead trying to rely on a subscription model to lessen microtransactions, but it can not be denied that P2W has become quite spread across the videogame industry.