The Dopamine Slot Machine Jargon Buster

We know how hard it is to keep up with the jargon of videogames. Even we, as lifelong gamers, struggle to keep up, so what hope do parents who have never played a video game have? With that in mind, we’ve put together this Jargon Buster together. Don’t know what a Microtransaction is? What is a Robux or Vbux? We’re here to help!

Microtransactions
Microtransactions are small, real-money payments within a game. These can be buying new content, such as level packs, buying in-game outfits, or temporary power ups.

These aren’t necessarily predatory, but many games include microtransactions that are designed to pressure players into purchasing them, or even worse, tricking players into paying. If you have your credit or debit card linked to your devices, then you need to check if your child can make purchases using your card.

Robux / Vbux
One of the questions I’ve heard the most is – “My son has asked for Robux for their birthday, but what are they?” Robux and Vbux are the in game digital currencies for Roblox and Fortnite, respectively. Rather than buying items directly, in these games players are encouraged to buy these currencies that they then use to buy items. This is a major problem, particularly for children, as it makes the link between money and its value even harder to grasp.

In-App Purchases
This refers to all purchases that can be made within an app, and has a huge overlap with microtransactions. However the term In-App Purchases normally does not include games on consoles.

Loot Boxes
Loot boxes are a particularly dangerous feature in modern video games, where players can buy a container with a selection of in game items in, without knowing what’s in them. If that sounds like gambling, that’s because it is! Governments around the world are tightening regulation on loot boxes, but developers and their lawyers are finding new ways around the legislation.

Downloadable Content (DLC)
Downloadable Content is additional game content that can be added to the game. Sometimes it’s free, sometimes you need to pay for it. As with Microtransactions, the term has a huge range of what it can refer to, from massive expansions to single additional items.

Free-To-Play (F2P)
Free-To-Play refers to games that are….Free to Play! These include household names like Fortnite, Roblox, but also includes games that have a premium element. I always ask, if your child is playing a free game, think about how it is making money!

Freemium
Freemium just means that there’s both free and premium parts. This could be a game that is free up until a certain point, or a game which has a load of features locked behind payments. Pokemon GO, or Hearthstone are good examples of this.

Pay-To-Win
The dark side of freemium type games, are games that are free to play, but where winning comes down to how much money you have put in. That might look like overpowered items locked behind a microtransaction, or your performance in a game being directly tied to how much in game currency you have. Clash of Clans, Candy Crush, and Marvel Snap are all great examples of this type of game.

Boosters (a.k.a Power-Ups)
This is one way that Pay-To-Win games operate. To take Clash of Clans as an example, to stay competitive you have to buy ‘Gems’, with real money, that can then be used to buy upgrades or resources in game. The game greatly encourages you, both through the game design and prompts in game, to buy Gems.

Subscriptions
A subscription is simply a recurring payment to access content. Stop paying the subscription, and you’re no longer able to play.

Whales
The industry term for players who spend extraordinarily large amounts of money on a game. We’re talking about thousands, or tens of thousands, of pounds in a game. Interestingly, research shows that many whales don’t spend large amounts in single transactions, but instead make many small transactions.

Whilst headlines on children accidentally spending thousands of their parents money on games might be attention grabbing, there will be many families out there where the weekly pocket money spend is going straight into game companies wallets, and adding up to equally eye watering sums.

Flow State
A Flow State is mental state where you are completely absorbed “in the zone”. Similar to being utterly absorbed in a book, or a playing an instrument. A darker example would be how Casinos operate. Video games use techniques to try and get players in a flow state, and this isn’t inherently a bad thing

Matchmaking
Matchmaking is the process games use to pair or group players with, and against, each other. Normally this is to group similarly skilled players together, but this is another lever that developers can configure to maximise addictive potential, as it’s easy to get the data on how minor changes to matchmaking impact playtime.

Exclusive
An exclusive is a game that is only playable on a single platform, i.e, it is ‘exclusive’ to that platform. For instance, Mario Kart is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, Astro Bot exclusive to the Sony Playstation 5. There is no way to play Mario on a Playstation, or vice versa. If you know that you or your child your child have a specific game in mind when thinking about buying a games console, it’s worth considering whether those games are exclusives.

Discord
Discord is a text and voice chat app popular with young people, particularly gamers. There can be open, and closed, groups, so if your child is using Discord there’s a good chance they are speaking with people they’ve never met, discussing topics you wouldn’t approve of.

Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMO)
We’ll talk a lot about online games, but MMOs are on another level. A full World of Warcraft server might have 4000 people playing at once.

Gacha Game
‘Gacha’, which comes from Gashapon, a type of vending machine that gives a random toy, is a type of game that heavily uses gambling mechanics. They might not need you to take part in the gambling elements to play, but will typically strongly encourage players to. Genshin Impact and Akknights are popular Gacha games.

Battle Royale
A Battle Royale game is a game with many players competing at once, typically in a single area.

PVP / PVE
PVP = Player versus Player, and PVE = Player Versus Environment. In short, in the former players are competing with each other, in the latter, players are working together on an objective.