Making in-game purchases has become one of the main factors of modern online gaming. Players around the world spend billions to purchase skins, tokens, more lives, and other content every year. These virtual items help them with different things within the game. But why do we, as gamers, spend money on in-game purchases? Understanding this psychology will help us learn and make better decisions while spending real money to buy virtual in-game items. In this article, I am going to discuss some main factors related to this psychology for you. Let’s start.
What are In-Game Purchases?
In-game purchases are the purchases people make from within the games to buy different virtual items. These items include things like player skins, power-ups, coins, tokens, or additional characters. The nature of these purchases depends on the nature of the game itself. Each game has either an in-game or web-based store where they allow people to buy items. Some titles even have both of them.
For example, Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes has both a web-based store called the SWGOH Web Store along with an in-game store as well. On the other hand, some games only have an in-game store or they deal with third-party platforms to sell their items. An example of this is eFootball which sells items with an in-game store as well as through other parties like Steam.
The Psychological Factors Behind In-Game Purchases:
There are several factors behind the psychology of in-game purchases. Some of the top ones are mentioned below:
Avail scarce items:
Game developers persuade people to buy items by making them scarce (or exclusive). They only release a limited number of these items so that more people would compete to buy them. When items are scarce, it makes people think that these items are available only in a limited number of times which creates the Fear of Missing Out. So, it is essential for them to get these items. As a result, they make purchases of these things.
Social pressure:
Many times, players are lured into buying game-related things because of social pressure. Some players tend to buy items and show them off on social media communities. It builds a standard that spending money on games is a part of the culture. So, people empty their pockets because of the pressure of fitting into the gaming society.
Sunk-cost fallacy:
The sunk-cost fallacy is another major psychological factor affecting people to spend money on games. People purchase a few items and then later on spend more money to justify their initial investment. They prefer putting in more money so that their earlier investments in the game don’t go to waste.
Fear of losing:
There are some items that make people perform better in games. It is known as the Pay-to-Win phenomenon. Players, because of their fear of losing, get to make purchases to buy better characters or items so that they can win. Because of this fear, some players even cross the limit and make false purchases or try to manipulate in-game stores. As a result, their accounts get banned by the game authorities and they have to use a ban appeal to get their accounts back.
Dopamine release through rewards:
Another major reason why players spend money on in-game items is the release of dopamine. Some games have carefully designed their reward system to give satisfaction to the players. They get satisfaction whenever they earn rewards. As a result, they keep on spending money in order to keep getting this dopamine and feel good.
Strategic pricing:
In order to keep people spending money constantly on the games, developers set the pricing very strategically. It allows them to make players think that they’re saving money or buying more affordable items. One of the biggest strategies involved here is the anchoring strategy. In this strategy, the developers place an item with an extremely high price along with one with a lower one.
It persuades players to pick the cheapest one quickly. Similarly, some games offer bundle offers including a few free items. Players think that purchasing the bundle is a more valuable option because it comes with a few items as well. It results in them spending big bucks to purchase items just because they’re looking affordable.
Should You Spend Money On Games?
Now that I have discussed some psychological factors explaining why people purchase in-game items, the question here is should you spend your money in this way? Well, it completely depends on you. However, I’d recommend thinking clearly before making a purchase. Buy things just because you like them instead of any social pressure or fear of losing. Gaming is all about fun so don’t forget to have that.
Conclusion:
To sum it up, there are a bunch of different reasons why people prefer spending money on in-game items. Most of these reasons are based on psychology. Players face different psychological factors that persuade them to spend real money on virtual items. As for yourself, it is important that you avoid making purchases just because of any fear or social pressure.
