Okay, Okay- stop me if you've heard this one before. A kid is playing around with FIFA Ultimate team when- Ah, you've probably guessed where this is going, huh? A distinctly English and lad-y website that pops up on my feed every now and then called, Sport Bible, recently flew into my headlights thanks to a few key words that are within my searchlights. Namely; 'FIFA' and 'Points', because we've got another story showcasing the fact that excessive microtransactions are the bane of everybody's collective existences. This particular tale does feature a little bit of a juicy twist upon the usual formula however, and so I'm inclined to address it today.
As the report goes "A furious mother" revealed that she is fed up after an 11 month battle with Microsoft which turned up fruitless. This customer support limbo was spurred on after some 36000 FIFA points were purchased through her credit card due to the nefarious deeds of 'Fraudster Hackers'. This was, of course, only allowed to happen due to the fact that her credit card details were connected to the Xbox account, allowing for anyone who had access to that account to spend anything they wanted willy-nilly. The charges amounted up to three lots of 12,000 point purchases which equal £79.99 each, this totals to just over £200 to those who can't be bothered to whip out a calculator. (Neither could I, to be fair, Sport Bible did the math for me. I'm such a slob.)
The situation has proven to be quite the upset for the family as ever since the incident she hasn't allowed her boys to access Xbox Live. (So that's 11 months of no Fortnite? What manner of sick twisted hell is this?) She issued a PSA in her statement "I am fed up of fighting and I want to warn others. None of this is our fault.", and those are very ominous words to consider for any other family of gamers. Of course, being the nation of cynics that us Brits are, the initial reaction was very much one of incredulity and suspicion. (My first tip off was the use of the term 'Fraudster Hackers' without any specifics for either claim.) A good number of people in the world today have literally no clue what the word 'Hacker' means and I wouldn't be surprised if this was just an unintentional spending spree from the sons which they covered up with the oldest excuse on Xbox Live; "It wasn't me, it was the Hackers! And the one-armed man!"
However the details of this situation, provided that they are true, paint a much more nuanced and interesting picture. The mother recounted being alerted of the card payments after the purchases and tracking down the recipients to two Xbox devices that had been added to her card without her permission. She managed to have them removed and withdrew her card details from all Microsoft accounts but it was too late to save her wallet and, from the sounds of it, Microsoft were none too compassionate to her pleas. So maybe this was the result of 'Hackers' who managed to slip their way onto the family wifi and credit card in order to mooch some FIFA points. (Seems like a very frivolous reason to break the law, but what do I know?) At the end of the day, who purchased the points isn't even really the point, it's the fact that game studios continue to allow things like this to happen.
FIFA is a money printing giant for EA and that is built solely of the back of microtransactions and a system tailor-made to milk as much of those purchases out of the player base as humanly possible. They mirror the tactics of casinos and other gambling-providers but snake out of sharing their supervision through legal loopholes and splitting hairs over terminology. (Which, to be fair, is essentially what the entire legal sector of government exists to do.) Time and time again people have raised the problems with unregulated gambling-hubs like FIFA and purposed middle-ground compromises like the implementation of daily spending limits. (Huh, that would have really helped out our 'hacked' family, wouldn't it?) But these studios would never do that because they know exactly how much such systems would cost them. (Better to let these people wring themselves dry, I suppose.)
This issue had gained such traction over the past year that lawyers have even been drafted to sue EA in France, under the pursuit of getting their practises labelled as Gambling. (Thus making them subject to the regulations of gambling plus prohibiting them from marketing these games to impressionable kids; which they still happily do.) This particular lawsuit is being launched by a player who felt the sting of FIFA's gambling lures once he found himself becoming addicted and spending 600 euros in five months. The man in question shared his paradoxical dichotomy over his addiction. "Whenever I buy a pack, I tell myself that this is the last time, but I always do it again." These are the sorts of testimonials that you expect to hear from a gambler's recovery group, not an avid gamer, and I hate that company's like EA are actively working to blur that distinction through their avaricious actions.
But that is just the latest, and perhaps grandest, reaction from the wider world as the workings of the shadier sides of the gaming industry steadily become unfurled. The Netherlands famously took a hardline stance against EA's preferred from of microtransaction: lootboxes, and insinuated a hard ban. (Bet that went down well at the EA Christmas party.) Over here in England even our apathetic asses are starting to get into the fray, with our director of mental health for the NHS, Claire Murdoch, calling for a straight ban on lootboxes for the sake of "The Children". Unfortunately, she made her plea directly to the gaming industry, as though EA and the like aren't in direct control of all the regulatory boards. (Seriously Claire, do your research!)
I wish I could end this topic by painting a bright picture of the future, one in which the gaming industry suddenly comes to it's senses and starts throwing it's weight back into making games worth the money rather than focusing solely on the monetisation, but I don't think any of us are naive enough to believe that day will ever come. Just as this trend in gaming preys on addiction, it is itself an addiction for the company's who partake, because not a single one of them can possibly envision a reality wherein they let such a lucrative market slip form their grasp. That is why the only way to enact real change is by force, which is why I'm just rubbing my hands waiting for the day when these Shylock-aspirants get the legal sucker punch that they so desperately deserve. (All I can do in the meantime is wish upon a star...)
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