That's in part how ea makes those record profits and why you are seeing random packs in a bunch of games. They really nailed it with ultimate team. There really should be esrb warnings so parents aren't inadvertanting increasing the chance of their kid developing a gambling habit.
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Dad gets nearly $8,000 bill after son racks up charges from microtransactions in FIFA
- Thread starter Enter the Dragon Punch
- Start date
That's in part how ea makes those record profits and why you are seeing random packs in a bunch of games. They really nailed it with ultimate team. There really should be esrb warnings so parents aren't inadvertanting increasing the chance of their kid developing a gambling habit.
For a child account, the defaults are pretty restrictive depending on the age of the child. I know for my son I needed to manually go in make custom security preferences for him as he got older. It's might be a nuisance to manage since there are many granular controls, but it is worth it.
I could also go on amazon and purchase 1000 packets of oreos at the moment by jacking up the quantity at the checkout. It's an even easier process than buying $8000 worth of micro transactions, but just because I can do something, doesn't mean I should.
Because there's nothing wrong about providing a service or product people are willing to pay for.
Unless you're trying to make some analogy to an inherently dangerous or addictive substance; but then you've equated video games to booze, drugs, or gambling, and that's a Pandora's box of resulting legal obligations.
Fact is this kid seems like a complete moron. A smart, or even barely aware, 17 year old doesn't accidentally spend $8,000. Its his own fault.
Pathfinder
Member
If decades of children pumping quarters into arcade machines for hopes of a free play didn't increase the chance of them developing a gambling habit, stuff like this won't either.
We survived just fine. The Millenials of the world can survive, too.
sono
Gold Member
stargateheaven
Member
I hope Microsoft does nothing.
If that was me, my dad would tell me to get a job and pay back that card.
If that was me, my dad would tell me to get a job and pay back that card.
Not the same. The gambler's high & games of chance != Asteroids high score.
SolicitorPirate
Member
My first ever job was in the credit card division of a mid sized bank and looking back at our clients, I'm a little doubtful of your claim.
Pathfinder
Member
Oh no? That's definitely debatable.
Goddamn you Nabisco!!
They are knowingly killing people with their predatory and tasteful cream filled discs. The government should do something to keep me from buying too many of them.
Far too similar to be dismissed off hand like that. Whats the substantive distinction you see?
Outcomes. Gambling addicts can end up dead (suicide) or in hospital, they lie and steal, and require treatment with drugs and therapy. Chronic gamers do not, even when going cold turkey.
I'm telling you, research will be done and show the habits of things like this and how unhealthy they are. I'm fully against microtransactions that can accumulate a debt of over $8,000. That's ludicrous and hate that gaming has reached a point where you can spend that amount
Should collectible card games also be banned?
The only difference between things like that and digital games like FUT, Hearthstone, etc. is that one is physical and the other digital.
RNG.
Say there are 10 amazing players you can unlock and 100 Decent/OK/shit players, someone may spend hundreds or thousands of dollars trying to get 1 of those 10 players, but end up with 10-20 copies of some of the common players.
Collectable card games and Gachapon have been doing this for years. But the change from physical items (Piece of card or plastic) to digital items has people riled up as they think because they have no material gain it should all be free.
Militant17
Member
Of course that kids lying to try and mitigate some of the responsibility but you can obviously tell the kid has an underlying issue there. But irregardless I still think it's disgusting that addictive mechanisms are being coupled with micro transactions to try and encourage a lot of spending within retail games these days. It's the type of shit the makers of slot machines use to get people addicted and it has no place in gaming imo.
SolicitorPirate
Member
But that's an incredibly important difference. Its a lot easier to process how much you're spending when dealing with cash and physical goods.
Pathfinder
Member
I take it you've never heard of those people who are so obsessed with gaming that they neglect their children, lose their jobs, and even sometimes die right there at their keyboard.
Bunch of sad stories there. You should really look into it if you truly feel there is no correlation.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/boy_killed_mom_and_shot_dad_ov.html
Gaming addiction has terrible consequences too. There's still little to no substantive difference.
PodcastFips
Member
The max amount you can spend at a time within FUT is 99.99$, right? That means his son got to see the purchase screen at least 80 times.
Well...
Well...
TheHolyTurnip
Member
Also with physical goods you have a high chance of getting a refund for anything unopened/unused, not to mention the ability to resell it you can't go that route. Digital goods are just "You bought it, it now has no value, you're welcome."
Tesseract
Banned
for the same reason i could easily go out and spend $8000 CDN on Magic: The Gathering booster packs, which is actually what this system is setup to be. This isn't FIFA the soccer game he was playing, it was FIFA the trading card game. He bought $8000 worth of booster packs trying to make the best deck he could. trying to get the Black Lotuses, if you will.
i'm not sure why people are so confused about this part of it. do you not understand the mechanic of trading card games? or do you think there should be a limit on how much money i can go to a store and spend on Magic cards?
Pathfinder
Member
Actually, there's eight thousand dollars to bail.
It's a big topic, too big for boards.
But yeah, any extreme addiction can have horrible outcomes. I still think kids playing Mario != kids betting on the gee-gees.
Most definitely relevant since the son claims he didn't realize they were real purchases.
Sure, but we're just talking different degrees of addiction in the case here.
Tesseract
Banned
maybe he didn't, either way this shit is grossly predatory and should be condemned
Oh come on now, are you telling me every 17 year old doesn't think a credit card is a magical device that makes fun happen?
If your child doesn't understand that a credit card deals with real money..then don't give them a credit card.
Pathfinder
Member
Back in the day, the arcades near my house used to fill to the brim on the weekends with children pumping their allowance into arcade machines, quarter by quarter.
We could easily spend $10 a day on games like Willow, The Simpsons, TMNT, X-Men... not because we'd never played them before, but because that's about how much it took sometimes to finish the game and get some satisfaction out of it. Some of those old games were rigged to be unfairly difficult at times, so no matter how good we were, eventually we would get the dreaded Game Over / Insert Coin screen. Then we would put in another quarter and keep going, hoping for the best.
I implore you to explain to us how that kind of mentality is so different than someone sitting in front of a slot machine for hours upon hours, endlessly pouring their money in for a chance to win the jackpot.
Hockeymac18
Member
Man... How is this even possible? What is the average price per item?
Lmao
ugh_the_boot
Banned
There is a huge difference here between Magic the Gathering and FIFA. Soccer is the biggest sport in the world and this is a video game based on the biggest league of said sport. EA the biggest gaming company in the world. They know exactly what they are doing and idiots like this dad and his kid are the targets. There needs to be rules in place to stop people who are busy/irresponsible/lazy/addicted from getting themselves into these situations.
The fact that these packs give you a bunch of random players when you buy them should be enough for everyone to see that EA are evil as fuck!! What the hell are they doing making this content randomized? Why can't someone pay $100 and get all the players? Absolutely ridiculous people that are sticking up for this type of shady shit! EA are fucking scum. I know this perfectly well becase the only EA games I have bought since the Bullfrog days are the Dead Space series and even then I feel dirty about it even though the games were incredible. This is a bad company preying on exactly this type of behaviour.
The fact that these packs give you a bunch of random players when you buy them should be enough for everyone to see that EA are evil as fuck!! What the hell are they doing making this content randomized? Why can't someone pay $100 and get all the players? Absolutely ridiculous people that are sticking up for this type of shady shit! EA are fucking scum. I know this perfectly well becase the only EA games I have bought since the Bullfrog days are the Dead Space series and even then I feel dirty about it even though the games were incredible. This is a bad company preying on exactly this type of behaviour.
I'd be surprised if the brain activity and neurochemical responses from gambling were the same, but I've been wrong before. Maybe part of the difference in outcomes is that money lost via gambling has a material effect on people's lives. Whereas, until recently, videogames were limited in how much they could extract from their addicts. The only thing they lost in large quantities was time.
joecanada
Member
Then it's fraud and requires police investigation. The parent clearly knows he gave the son the cc. And with a + 8000 credit limit too! Lol there is no way you can't tell your son is a little slow by the time he's 17, or you just aren't paying attention at all
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
Personally I have no problem with microtransactions getting regulated. The fact you can just spend infinite amounts of money on worthless crap in the games is absurd.
This stuff happens way too often for it to be hand-waved off with "LOL bad parenting".
TheSpoiler
Member
There's that word again.
And he had to have known. The game states that you are buying stuff with real money before you do it. It doesn't just let you do so without any indication at all.
To all those who say "why isn't there some guard against this?!", there is. You can set up passwords. You can force the credit card numbers being put in. The game also states that you are going to buy something when you buy something.
The tools are all there. The parents chose not to learn about them, and the kid abused them. Simple as that
For people who actually play FIFA and know this stuff..Is this basically all the cards are?
http://www.futwiz.com/en/packs/fifa16/raregold
Pack opening simulator.
http://www.futwiz.com/en/packs/fifa16/raregold
Pack opening simulator.
travisbickle
Member
It's a little more nuanced than that. For example, we don't know how long the son has had the credit card for emergencies? He may have had it for a few years without maxing it on non-emergency purchases.
We have to accept opportunities like this are addictive, and businesses have removed normal-societal responsibility with faceless transactions. The "are you sure?" text preceding a purchase is pointless when it's an internalized conversation for the purchaser, compared to a real interaction between two people - a shop owner and a purchaser.
BlitzerRadic
Member
As far as I can tell, these fifa packs are nothing more than digital versions of physical trading cards that have been around for decades.
I don't know what the hobby is like now, but back in the day certain packs of unopened cards would sell for crazy amounts.... like hundreds of dollars.
Here's what I'm saying:
The kid's either a moron, lying, or both. Either way, his failure to understand basic human monetary interaction is not "predatory" behavior by the company.
TheSpoiler
Member
It's not just MT. It's any sort of purchase with an online face to it. He could have done the same thing on Amazon, or Best Buy, or whatever.
In that regard, parental monitoring plus knowledge is the best way to currently arm oneself.
Unopened packs would? Mint condition rare cards I understand, but not sure why anyone would pay a lot for unopened packs, unless they're of a rare printing or something.
I guess the difference is the reselling, you can keep a physical card in mint condition and sell it then, or wait years and sell for more. These digital cards the only real option (unless some sort of trading system is in place, idk) would be to sell your XBL/PSN account to someone.
TheHolyTurnip
Member
Lying, moron or simply misguided aside, a company allowing anyone to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on jpegs is predatory. There's no value to any of this stuff outside of its original purchase, you're buying pictures you can't resell/trade/return.