Micro transactions
micro transactions are usually through games. they are usually for premium currency in a game. an example of this is in clash of clans. on this games you spend real money to get gems and gold in game. which in turn can be used to upgrade your base and the gems can speed up building times. a different example is Battlefront 2. in this game you have 3 main currency's. you have credits which are earned from playing the game on solo (one time deal) and multiplayer. with credits you can buy loot boxes, scrap and sometimes more credits. the next currency you have is crystals. crystals are a premium currency only. premium currency only means that you can only obtain it from buying it with real cash. crystals can buy you loot boxes, credits and scrap. the next currency is scrap. scrap is mainly used is to upgrade your star cards and to craft star cards. i know your curious about these star cards so here is an explanation. there are two types of star cards. you have boost cards and ability cards. boost cards make your player stronger. then ability cards are used to change what you have. like trading a cookie for a brownie or they can be used to have a upgraded or improved version of an ability you already have.
Research question
what drives people to purchase premium currency
during my research i want to find out what drives people to spend money in games
Evidence #1
supply and demand
what games do is they make it so that you have to spend either a lot of time or spend money to get something that you would derive utility from. in a way they trick you.
"that's where the video game purchase model comes in. The foggier the connection is between what we're buying and its real cost, the more likely we are to spend our money. By using virtual currencies, the designers are engaging in price shrouding, a psychological marketing technique than goes back decades."
https://www.seeker.com/how-video-games-trick-you-into-spending-money-2030209020.html
Evidence #2
incentives
like i said above they trick you but they also make it so that you can only fully enjoy the game
"That means they pay nothing to download and play the game. If they get hooked, though, and want to increase a character’s power or jump to the next level, they will have to spend 99 cents here, 99 cents there."
Evidence #3
trade off
im talking about if you gain happiness from spending money in a game.
"Many games use loss aversion to encourage spending. The idea behind loss aversion is that players would rather enjoy the satisfaction of winning rather than losing. This goes a long way toward leading players to impulse buying. The crux of a player’s decision to pull the trigger on a micropayment centers on not wanting to lose the game. The belief that players can continue to win with the item they acquired drives them to pay."
http://www.tuw.edu/content/psychology/psychology-behind-microtransactions/
Economic conclusions
research question: what drives people to purchase premium currency
During my research, I found that supply and demand is a big part of this. the demand side is tricky because the games make the demand. the way the games make the demand is trickery and denying you the fun of a game. what i found was they trick you into thinking you need the currency to advance. the other thing they do is get you into the game and get you enveloped in the story, then they make it so you have to pay to continue with the story. that's what i have found in my research. that's what drives people to buy these premium currency's.