In case you didn't know, kids bullying each other over cosmetic items in games like Fortnite or Roblox is now a thing. See this Polygon article for example. I find this infuriating, because I feel like this is mainly the fault of my generation. Let me explain.
With the advent of smartphones, the market of mobile games experienced incredibly rapid growth. However, publishers and developers quickly realized that people were far less willing to spend money on purchasing mobile games. In addition, the previous model of one time purchases was not really feasible for the rapidly evolving hard- and software landscape of mobile phones. They needed to find different ways to monetize their games, which led them to discover the pay-to-win model.
You are probably familiar with this. Spend 19.99 in real life money to receive 20.000 gem stones, or whatever, to skip the annoying, grindy, gameplay you'd have to do otherwise. You effectively pay to play the game less but progress more. It was quickly discovered that the vast majority of players in these games never buy anything. Still, these games generate a lot revenue because of a few players, called whales in the business. They spend huge amounts of money and developing these games is entirely focused on "catching" those whales. Frankly, this results in very bad games. They are designed to hook you at the beginning, often with grand promises that are never fulfilled, and slowly become grindier and grindier, until you either start spending money or stop playing. Obviously, everyone hates that.
Among gamers, the term "pay-to-win" is like a swear word. Especially when it comes to competitive games, it is particularly hated if competitive advantages can be bought for real life money. However, most gamers do understand that game development is not free and that these games need to be financed somehow. Hence, a general consent has developed that micro-transactions are fine, as long as the effects are purely cosmetic. Some gamers see it as a form of donating to the game developers if they enjoy a game and getting a cool skin for it is an added bonus. This is the opinion on the matter that I believe most gamers (or former gamers) in my generation hold to this day (I attribute this mainly to my generation, as it is essentially the first to grow up with video games. I know that older people play them as well, but I don't think it's very many).
However, this opinion developed in an environment where cosmetic items would not be seen as very valuable and purchasing them was usually quite cheap. This is unsurprising, since there were many games available and you and your friends generally picked a game to play and moved on if you got bored. However, for the younger generations, life takes place in those games. It's where they meet their peers and where they make friends. It's where they establish their identity and their status. It's like a virtual school yard.
There was such a good opportunity here. Imagine the social life of our children took place in a world where social status doesn't mean anything. Where your identity can be expressed freely, only limited by your own skills and creativity. Where the child of a CEO would hang out with the child of a McDonalds employee and envy the skill of the child of a dump truck driver, without ever having to think about race, gender or religion. Yet, we allow those mechanisms that separate our society to penetrate the world of our children, simply because of beliefs we acquired in a very different context.
So, what's my suggestion? We need games that are as expressive as Fortnite or Roblox and are equally loved by children, but without micro-transactions whatsoever. Just a monthly subscription. And we need society to accept that providing our children with a virtual hangout spot is worth good money. I know this is probably a pipe dream. The CEO probably doesn't want their kid to hang out with poor people. Game studios will not put as much effort into designing cosmetic items for a game if it doesn't allow them to make more money. And even if such a game existed, it would probably not be as cool as those other games with micro-transactions, because there's always gonna be more money in that.
Maybe equality is not actually what society wants after all.
