The Psychology of Mobile Game Monetization and Player Spending

[00:00:01]hey guys today we're going to be doing something a little bit different I want to talk about how much money I've spent on this game and then I want to get into some of the psychological factors that can drive someone to spend money on this game or any game for that matter and quick disclaimer I am not a psychologist I am studying to be a psychologist but I am not so don't take my what I say say as a fact these are my opinions I will have references for everything that I say all the claims and they'll be linked down below so you can read those resources if you want to and I encourage you to because they are uh valuable resources that can help educate yourself on the topic is a pretty interesting thing so the title of this video will probably be how much did I spend on Evony so let's get into that now the reason I'm doing this whole thing is recently I discovered uh Google Play has a history of my transactions so I went through added up all these transactions and here's the numbers if you want to fact check me total I spent $474 on evany now from the poll that I've been running for the last like 12 hours um a lot of y'all have spent a considerable bit more and would probably consider this not to be much but for me this is a lot for a game I normally don't spend this much at all now let's talk about how this how how this works how the gaming industry monetizes their games and how they pray on people and I went through some articles looked at some predatory practices and these are the practices that I noticed that evany most definitely does use and I included some examples of these the first one is loot boxes uh if you've heard of loot boxes before a couple years ago there was some big controversy over it with gambling and especially with encouraging kids to gamble in the form of loot boxes like locking items behind well loot boxes that you pay for you open the box and you have a chance of getting an item heavan aren't as clearcut uh visually as loot boxes but the mechanics that they have are the same they are loot boxes the next one is fear of missing out now fear of missing out is is it's basically when a gaming company will release something this out for a limited time normally like a couple of months maybe a year and once it's gone it's gone forever or it's going to be gone for a long time so it encourages people to get that item now cuz you're not going to have it in the future and it helps encourage spur of the- moment spending in which you uh don't really think about your decisions and when you buy it the next one is spending to keep up with other players and I'm sure all of y'all have seen this before and eony especially you really have to keep spending if you want to stay on top of your server if you want to be competitive you have to spend a lot and a lot of the spending is just spending to keep up with other players and the last point is entament now entament is essentially just You're In Too Deep to get out and you're kind of Trapped in the game and all expound upon that a little bit more when we get to that point because there's no actual examples of it in game because it's um more of a personal thing that you yourself feel now all these examples I just went into the game like 10 minutes ago and found them right off the bat the first one is this one here The Voyage to civilizations it's literally just a loot box you can earn a couple attempts every day to uh open it but if you really want it you're going to have to buy it and over on the right side of the screen you'll see they even include the percent chances for the items you're going to get which if you didn't know they are legally required to do that by law any uh chance-based purchase has to include the percentages and I've noticed that they are they do forget to do that in some events so they better watch out for that but this is literally just a textbook definition loot box and the odds on this one aren't too terrible about a 8 to 9% chance of getting something actually that you want so that's not as far as loot boxes go that's not horrible this next one though is pretty bad this next one is this General Skin that I just saw so this one breaks down to if you buy 40 torches that's $100 US dollar if you use a x three coupon that'll get you $120 torch 120 torches each uh drop is five torches so you don't divide 120 by 4 that's 24 drops now I'm not too great with math sometimes so I just use this calculator I found online and I linked it below so if you're looking at some of their loot boxes in the future this is a great tool to see what your actual percentages are so according to this calculator if you spend $100 with a times three coupon you have a 4.69% chance to get this skin which is really what you want out of this and that is pretty abysmal that's that's not good odds at all and that's for $100 spent so if you want to get that skin you're definitely looking at thousands of dollars just to get it and this is kind of what it prays upon cuz these uh drop chances aren't they're not there where you can see them you have to click the little icon and look at them and even then you don't really know unless you put it into a calculator what that actually means as far as how much money you spend and how much percent chance you get and so that's kind of how they get you they get you into thinking oh oh I'll spend $100 and I'll get this easy but no not really you have a 4.69% chance the next point is fear of missing out and they do this with literally every single General like they'll release a new general that's super strong and then you're not going to be able to get them after they're gone they might come back in an event but who knows when that'll happen who knows that if it'll be a way that you can actually get them fully maxed out they really prey on the fear of missing out a lot when they release new generals just look at Napoleon Prime he was here once they made big money on that so they brought him back and we're probably not going to see him for maybe ever because it was because of the movie so I wouldn't expect to see him back anytime soon so they really do prey on that fear of missing out spending to keep up with other players perfect example the subordinate City I mean you're literally gambling against other players to get it it's a raffle against other players so whoever can spend the most money gets the subsidy so you're literally spending to keep up with them and that's in pretty much every facet of the game with the way that it works and finally uh entrapment it's basically when you feel like you can't quit cuz you spent too much money you spent too much time you're just into too deep it's like an investment that you have and if you quit now you feel like you lose it all it's uh similar to the sunk cost fallacy and I would recommend looking into that because that is an interesting thing and I have found myself thinking along the lines of the sun cost fallacy in the past like you're working on a project and you're just put so many resources in it and you know you should probably quit it's uh it's not worth it but just because you've put so much into it so far you just keep going even when it doesn't make sense to do it so I think that entament is really like a personal barrier that a lot of people have to get through themselves and I felt the same way with Evony until I got to a point where I was just like I'm not enjoying this anymore and I just [Music] quit now is this a problem now I was looking at the psychological side of it and seeing if there any like psychological disorders that could be associated with these and there's two that I think can be Associated now these disorders both come from the dsm5 which if you familiar is essentially the uh the handbook for psychiatrists whenever they diagnose someone with a illness or disorder that's what they use and in a second we'll take a look at that from the dsm5 itself the first one I think is more applicable is internet gaming disorder about 1.96 to 3.9% of the global population suffers from internet gaming disorder which is pretty high in my opinion I did not expect it to be that high and the second one is gambling disorder this one may or may not apply depending on your specific situation but uh when you spend money on eony a lot of their stuff really is just straight up gambling and 1.2 to 6.2% of the global population suffers from gambling disorder now the ranges on these percentages is because of how these studies are conducted for getting these percentages getting precise numbers is impossible so there is going to be a slight range on it and that's why you see a reasonably wide range with those percentages now that's it for the slide let's jump into the DSM 5 all right now this is the DSM 5 Diagnostic and statistical Manual of mental disorders fifth edition now I have written down the page numbers for these let's go first to gambling disorder and read off some stuff about that now this is a gambling disorder this first part is the diagnostic criteria diagnostic criteria essentially means you need to fit a specific number of these points to be diagnosed with it and we're not going to go across the entire disorder and all the information that's laid out with it I'm just going to look at the diagnos tic criteria now disclaimer I'm not a psychiatrist psychologist I'm not allowed to diagnose anyone with these and I can't and you shouldn't self diagnose but it does help to look at these and to kind of reflect on yourself to see maybe I do have a problem maybe I should talk to somebody about this a professional that can diagnose you and talk to you about it let's see for Diagnostic criteria we have persistent and reoccurring problematic gaming behav gambling Behavior leading to clinically significant impairment or distress as indicated by the individual exhibiting four or more of the following in a 12-month period so we're going to have to meet four of these nine points to be actually diagnosed with it first point needs gambling with uh increased amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling has made repeated unsuccessful efforts to control cut back or stop gambling is often preoccupied with gambl eg having persistent thoughts of reliving past gambling experiences handicapping or planning the next venture thinking of ways to get money with which to gamble often gambles when feeling distressed egy helpless guilty anxious depressed after losing money gambling often returns another day to get even chasing one's losses lies to con steal the extent of involvement with gambling has jeopardized or lost significant relationship job or educational career opportunity because of gambling relies on others to provide money to relieve desperate Financial situations caused by gambling and then you also have to meet four of Li points and B the gambling behavior is not explained by a manic episode now manic episodes uh if you know someone with bipolar disorder or you have it yourself you're probably familiar with Manic episodes uh essentially very simplified that's when someone feels extremely good and will engage in Risky or uh problematic behaviors just cuz they're on that high I'd recommend researching that if you're interested in learning more about manic episodes so I don't think that many players that play are going to have a gamling disorder this seems a little bit extreme and honestly I doubt anybody watching this video would have it but it is good information because there probably are some people that have a gambling disorder that are playing eony the next one which I think is more applicable to this is internet gaming disorder persistent and reoccurring use of the internet to engage in games often with other players leading to clinically significant impairment or distress as indicated by five or more of the following in a 12-month period so for this one you're going to have to meet five of these criteria to be diagnosed and with this one I'm actually going to point out the ones that I think do apply to me because I think that you know I do meet some of these for sure the first one is preoccupation with internet games individual thinks about previous gaming activity or anticipates playing the next game internet games becoming the dominant activity in daily life note this disorder extinct from internet gambling which is included under gambling Disorder so this first point I definitely have in the past felt like you know you're just thinking about games constantly not specifically with eany but with other games the second Point withdrawal symptoms when internet is taking away these symptoms are typically described as irritability anxiety or sadness but there is no physical signs of pharmacological withdrawal yeah I've definitely had this uh when you don't have internet for a few days can't play your online games I definitely feel uh the uh the withdrawal from that number three tolerance the need to spend increasing amounts of time engaged in internet games that one definitely does not apply to me number four unsuccessful attempts to control the participation in internet games uh no I don't really think so for me number five loss of interest in previous hobbies and entertainment as a result of and with the exception of internet games not really for me because I don't really have a lot of hobbies outside of internet games and the ones that I do have I've still participated in regularly number six continued excessive use of internet games despite knowledge of Psych psychosocial problems uh now what this one basically means is that someone has told you that you have a problem and you just said ah whatever and you just continue on with your life the way you were uh not for me number seven has deceived family members therapists or others regarding the amount of internet gaming uh I don't think so maybe in the past without realizing it you know tell a little white lie now and then but not really number eight use of internet games to escape or relieve a negative mood feelings of hopelessness guilt anxiety I most definitely have used games as an escape method which I don't think is necessarily bad and as a point none of these individually are bad it's when they are all cumula cumul cumul cumulatively working to uh degrade your quality of life number nine has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship job or educational career opportunity because of participation in Internet games nope not me so that's I definitely need two of these maybe a third but you need five or more to actually be diagnosed and you know I just wanted to bring some attention to the predatory practices that mobile games use because looking at the demographics of uh the people who actually watch my channel uh let me pull that up now actually okay demographics for my channel 95.8% of you watching this video is male uh the vast majority 37% is from the age range of 35 to 44 29% is from 45 to 54 years old and 16% is from 25 to 34 years old now with this demographic it's definitely on the older side as far as gaming content goes uh most other games are going to be in like the uh 15 to like 30 age range is more for bulk for other games this one definitely has an older audience and that's part of the reason why I think this is important to bring up because with the younger Generations we are more in the know with the way these games work the predatory practices loot boxes were more familiar with it but as far as I can tell uh the older Generations aren't really as uh Savvy with the way that these companies work and I think it's important to bring attention to that and that's pretty much all I have for today if you enjoyed this video If you hated this video leave a comment and let me know why uh leave me a like if you enjoyed it I want to try and make more content like this that's not specific to the game in the future uh because I do enjoy doing this and I do appreciate all the support that I get when I do do this so thank you all guys for watching and I'll catch youall in the next one