So what exactly are microtransactions? Microtransactions can be defined as the exchange of real money for virtual goods. It is a system where “users can purchase virtual goods via micropayments.” hence the term microtransaction (“Microtransaction” 2017.) This type of business model is common in free to play games and is typically used to speed up progression within the game itself. However, some developers have decided to incorporate microtransactions despite customers already paying the full price for the game. While this is not necessarily an issue if the goods are cosmetic and have no effect on the core gameplay, it is an issue if it provides users who pay for offered goods with an unfair advantage over free to play players. One might …show more content…
In my opinion, this was a blatant money-grab by EA and in no way ethical because they were not acting in the interest of their clients (the users) and utilizing us as a means to an end. They could have made the same game sans the microtransactions and have made a reasonable profit from the cost of the base game itself, but instead chose to make a greedy decision to increase profit margins for what would have been a successful game regardless. Had I been the one to make the decision, I would have lowered the time-sink required to unlock heroes by a substantial amount, and limited the microtransactions to cosmetic items. That way, the needs of the customers would have been satisfied, but the company would have still made more profit than it normally would. In summary, the decision was not ethical because they acted against the interest of the customers and instead decided to further their own profits. To understand why microtransactions have become so prevalent one has to understand the history of them first. Microtransactions date as far back as early 2005 with the release of the Xbox Live Marketplace. Back then, players could purchase virtual goods such
The ethical issues surrounding free video games are the same, with game developers and publishers claiming that game torrents are taking money out of their hands and the hands of their staff. Games are widely available for purchase and once purchased become property of the gamer. A game can range in price from a few dollars to around 60 dollars for AAA games (Games created by large companies on massive budgets). Video games are also almost exclusively downloaded through torrents as game files are usually very large and directly downloading can be cumbersome and time consuming. This is all very straightforward, but what happens if the user misplaces or loses the game disc? Since the game is already that person’s property, would there be harm in downloading another game for free? The game developers say no, and that the game would have to be purchased once more. Many gamers, on the other hand, believe that they are entitled to a free download as they have already purchased the game once and the manufacturer will not be losing any revenue. This debate has been around for the last decades and as of late some developers (mostly indie) have started exclusively selling their product as a downloadable file. Sites like Steam and GOG.com provide the customer with a code after purchase that allows many, and sometimes unlimited, downloads.
Microeconomics analyzes economic decisions on the micro or small level. This includes how a household or consumer will spend their money. One of the crucial aspects of microeconomics is that a business owner needs to have the basic understanding of demand. Demand seems to be the most basic and yet a necessity for small business to be familiar with. The basic concept of demand is that if a consumer sees the price of something rising, they will look for substitutes. Quality demanded is an important aspect of understanding demand as a whole. The quantity demanded on a market depends on many factors. Some of which quantity demanded plays a role in is the price of a good, the price of competitive goods, consumer income, consumer's preferences, and the length of time period. Having knowledge about quantity demanded allows one to one to really understand the relationship between a price and the
The price of $15 per month or equivalent in other regions, are a standard set by previous successful developers within the market. The pricing structure provides foresight of future profits based on subscription levels. Increased monthly subscriptions have become more unattractive as other platforms for massive multiplayer games have moved towards free to play gaming and focus their revenue earning on selling in game items. Consumers have steadily started to consider other games that have no cost to play. Free to play games have been known to rise quickly in subscriptions while still generating revenue from frequent players. Repeat players often seek out premium items paid for with cash. These items create a virtual market for virtual items and provide value by making them premium items or services.
Micro enterprising has helped African women in many ways. New machines make it easier for them to work. They raise money to support their large families and themselves. Some also hire workers, which creates more jobs. Micro enterprising also gives women more opportunities to work and inspires them to start their own business. They help their economy little by little. But most importantly, it gives them pride for being a women; one that went from unable to do anything to working and saving their family.
An example of vertical integration here in Florida is the new medical marijuana industry. Florida lawmakers created one type of license that allows the owners to cultivate, process, and sell medical marijuana. With less than 10 licenses granted the industry will be easy to observe and control. The licenses owners also benefit because they have a larger control over the Florida market and can sell their products cheaper because they avoid transaction costs that occur from business to business interaction. Vertical integration is a management tactic that benefits policy makers and firms in this situation,
Micro Center is an electronics store that opened in 1979 by two former Radio Shack employees (Wikipedia, 2015). With 23 stores across the United States, Micro Center had an estimated annual revenue of $1.84 billion in 2012 (Eaton, 2014). The company primarily focuses on selling computer parts, computers,
Earlier, all businesses produce goods and then market them broadly to the general public without considering the needs of specific consumers in the market. However, in the current situation companies are adopting more targeted approach. In this regard, they advertise and market their product primarily to their target market. Companies now are increasing their reliance on niche marketing and specialization which is also refers to micro market. This phenomenon of micro market is creating change in the marketing environment and possessing challenge to the marketer.
I. The blockchain makes a strong case for micropayment due to the low transaction cost and ability to break payments into very small units and keep an accounting of those
If the game is not enjoyable due to the developers having to incorporate ethical standards into the development of the game, then that could decrease the amount of games sold. It also takes time to thoroughly check every area of the game to make sure it is up to code. It would be easier for the company to ignore ethics all together. They could make the game as fun and addictive as they want to, which would bring in superior revenues. That would increase the happiness of the company and the developers. With the rating system in place, as long as the individual purchasing the game understood the type of content within, they could also have a great time enjoying it. This approach would likely get much backlash from the media. Depending on how popular the game is, this backlash could be
Vertical integration is the merging together of two businesses that are at different stages of production—for example, a food manufacturer and a chain of supermarkets. Merging in this way with something further on in the production process is known as forward integration (The Economist Newspaper, 2016). We often see this at gas stations for example, many Shell’s gas stations now have a Churches Chicken inside their store. Vertical integration often approaches great capacity that gives many businesses the ability to control quality, differentiation, cost, and delivery times, which can be a benefit to the company. I would say vertical integration is more common and is the best approach. Diversification is the procedure of infiltrating one or
Commerce/E-Commerce - In addition to the sales and commerce that exist publicly for the gaming industry there are other types of commerce that exists within games, what I will refer to as gaming e-commerce. This e-commerce exists in a couple ways, both within the games, from advertisement revenue when streaming such games and from the creation and selling of modifications (mods), which are ways to cheat the
Xbox was later replaced by Xbox 360 and it is still being sold today. I personally was included in on the fast addiction to this gaming system. People can buy different types of games to play and they can also pay a membership fee and play Xbox live online with people from all over. The games are very life like and fun to
What are the reasons for online shopping sudden growth and use in current society today?
What is microlending? In simplest terms microlending is the lending of very small amounts of money at low interest, to low income people in urban and rural areas. It started forty years ago, when a person named Muhammad Yunus was visiting his family and his country Bangladesh which had recently become an independent country. Muhammad Yunus had left his home country then –East Bengal- when he was a child with his parents in search of a better future. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, with a PhD in economics. Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, the first non-profit organization to offer microfinance services in Bangladesh and in the world (New York Times). This bank showed the world on how little
According to the website Product2Market “micro marketing is a strategy used to target a small segment of consumers with specific needs for products in the market. In micro marketing, all advertising efforts are strongly focused on a small group of highly targeted consumers” (Mello, 2014). Micro marketing is used in businesses to study their customers’ characteristics. By doing this businesses learn how to match their products or services to their customers resulting in a likelihood they will return. The website Wise Geek provides multiple scenarios involving micro and macro marketing. For example, micro marketing can be found in the real estate industry. A realtor who develops a reputation for working with properties within a certain price range can better understand the needs and wants of potential buyers who can afford homes within that price range (Tatum and Harris, 2016). Coming from my personal experience