Playing the money-grab game by Josh Benoza

PLAYING THE MONEY-GRAB GAME

JOSH BENOZA says gamers are being played through illegal and misleading advertising around their global pastime.

I was introduced to games by my firstgeneration iPad at the tender age of 6.

I ended up spending countless weekends playing endlessly with games we now call classics. Even now, I like to spend a bit of time relishing my old games. Mobile games have been a part of me for many years.

As the industry grew, however, I began to notice the changes that occurred over the years. Over time, mobile games became mass-produced, used only as an easy cash farm. Simplistic, yet quickly boring. I ended up quitting mobile games for a period as I grew tired of the neverending search for an actually well-made game. Today, according to ‘AppBrain’ in 2017, 12% of games on the Google Play store are low quality. This number amounts to over 370,000. Yet this is not even the main problem. These simple-to-produce games are mostly illegal. All because of one main factor. Advertising. A majority of small mobile game companies have spent most of their effort on advertisements instead of working to make their games better. This has skyrocketed recently due to the large amounts of money that can be earned from them. Due to this, different factors have collided in a way that actually makes them illegal. Because of this, the mobile game market has seen criticism by players and independent developers alike, as it gives mobile games a bad reputation. Even through the criticism of players like me, nothing has ever been done about them.

What are mobile game advertisements? What is the problem with them, and can we solve this?

Advertisements have been a staple of promoting products for companies for a long time, with evidence of it appearing even in Thebes, Egypt by a slave owner who was promoting his weaving shop.

Thousands of years later, way before I was born, the internet began to boom. With the introduction of websites, the first internet advert was bought and posted on a website all the way back in 1994, costing the advertiser $30,000 for 3 months. Today, we see advertising in many forms, from print, display, and in our case, digitally. As mobile game companies began to dabble in advertising in the early 2010s, I was introduced to many of the games I play today. As of 2021, the company ‘Technavio’, found that the mobile game market is worth more than the Personal Computer market (PC) and the console market combined.

So what exactly makes today’s games illegal?

It all began in 2017 when users began to notice a brand new genre of games. They emerged and gained traction quickly, and soon, that would change everything. These games were called ‘hyper-causal games’. These games are described as lightweight games with short session lengths and fun game mechanics. They are mainly created due to them being easy to design, create and hook people in for short bursts of time.

Today, hyper-casual gaming has taken mobile game companies by storm. In our case, this storm also left destruction in its path. As of lately, many mobile game developers have been completely untruthful about the actual content of their game in order to lie to their audience, the players. Not just that, but sexualised characters have also been a prime part of the ads that pollute the industry today. This includes characters barely having clothing, and things that cannot even be described as more than distressing. In my case, I felt as if these developers lost any sense of morals, giving into the temptation of profit. Yet what is even worse is that any child can see them as well. This is due to the fact the games that host these ads include nearly every game on any app store.

These acts are obviously illegal in many countries around the world. Here in New Zealand, it violates the children and young people advertising code of the ASA.

The ASA, (Advertising Standards Association), is responsible for advertising in media for New Zealand. As found on the ASA official website, the code states, ‘Advertising must not employ sexual appeal nor include sexual imagery’.

This proves that the actions of these companies are deemed illegal by the government. Although even with this, it might not be enough. These types of advertisements are deemed as not large enough to act upon. Not to mention the rapid increase in these illegal mobile game advertisements that already plague the internet.

As time went on, games evolved to fit the audience, shaping the games we see today. Today, we constantly see companies falling down the rabbit hole. Lost in the pursuit of profit rather than the satisfaction of the public. I believe that things may change when governments might view this as an actual crime. Someday we may see change.

In the United Kingdom, the British ASA made a ban towards the game company ‘Playrix’, the creator of the popular ‘Scapes’ series. This was a company known for its misleading game advertising. Due to this, ‘Playrix’ was forced to ban these advertisements in Britain.

Things seem to be changing. From what I can tell, maybe for the first time, things will finally get better. Though for now, the fight still continues.