Sixth Journal Entry

Luis Lopez

GD 201 

Professor Richmond

4/4/2022

Journal Response

The video provided discusses the different ways to monetize games. There are numerous ways from paying outright for a complete game or paying for a game but having additional content to pay for whether it be in the form of an expansion which adds more playable content to the game or something akin to a battle pass where there’s a free track for everyone to earn rewards or a paid track which in addition to the free track also has more desirable rewards. Prior to the internet most games would be completed and whatever you paid for would be the entire game with no additions or expansions being needed in the future unless a sequel came out. Once online stores on different hardware came out this caused a massive revolution in how games could be monetized from paying for full games online or downloading a free game and paying for any other content the player may desire whether it be cosmetic pieces or a way to reduce the in game time needed to earn something. Some forms of monetization tend to receive more criticism than others such as subscriptions and loot boxes since the players more often than not feel that the money they invest isn’t rewarded enough. Even more upsetting than that could be when a game is paid full price but feels very underwhelming, especially in the recent case of Battlefield 2042. Some more well received forms of monetization are paid expansions (especially when they add a lot of worthwhile content) as well as battle passes since theta player can have some rewards in the free track and if by the end of a given season they’re a high enough rank then they can be incentivized to purchases the pid track as well.