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Years ago, you would buy a game for an agreed upon amount of money, and that was the terminate of the transaction. Then, equus caballus armor happened. Paid downloadable content (or "microtransactions") has only gotten more than popular in the games industry since then, culminating in the current raft of costless-to-play and heavily monetized "premium" games. The now-common "loot boxes" might not be the ultimate form of microtransactions. Activision has been granted a patent for a arrangement for encouraging in-game purchases that sounds positively game-breaking.

activision

The patent, titled "system and method for driving microtransactions in multiplayer video games," was filed in 2022, but has simply recently been granted. It'southward basically a way to reward players who purchase content and subtly punish those who don't via the game's built-in matchmaking algorithms.

Allow's say you lot haven't been buying content in a shooter that stresses the importance of boodle crates. According to this patent, a game could be designed to put y'all in matches with college-level players or those who take been ownership content. Thus, you get crushed and think, "I should purchase some upgrades."

Activision also proposes several ways a game could incentivize players who have only paid for an upgrade. The first part is just the flip-side of the to a higher place scenario. When you buy content, you lot might be matched with lower-level players, who you could soundly stomp. Alternatively, after getting an upgrade, the game could place you in a match where that detail weapon or item was highly effective. This all reinforces the satisfaction you lot get from buying the upgrade, making it more likely y'all'll buy more in the future.

Destiny, on the PS4

Destiny has been criticized for relying heavily on microtransactions.

Some less-deplorable features of the patent also telephone call for tracking player purchases and attaching that data to profiles. For example, if you never purchase certain types of items, the game could begin crafting a more than enticing gear up of offers that might get y'all to buy more content. It's essentially automated marketing driven past player choices.

The result of all this could be more money in a game developer's pockets, but a great bargain more than frustration for players who only want to play a game without beingness nickel and dimed constantly. Activision has released a statement confirming none of the features of this patent have been implemented in its games. It'south all theoretical for at present, but you tin can bet gamers will be watching for this sort of behavior and calling developers out for any appearance of impropriety.