kid racks up £4000 bill on fifa, this is the problem with microtransactions

its not really bad parenting, bad parenting is shouting at your child or letting them play on the street etc, its not endangering the child so its not that bad, its the companies taking advantage of everything they can and that to me is irresponsible, they
know there is a chance of these youngsters buying their product without their parents permission, isnt that bad practice?..alot of parents have never been on a console in their life so dont even know what exists on it and most children are more computer literate
than their old fashioned parents, we need proper rules in place, common sense

:)

 

Buying but not Receiving

im havin the same problem I bought 4000 points and it downloaded it but the points was put on my fifa 14 account.

xbox and EA need to sort this out !!!!!!

 

Brink Discussion

just got the game today and looking for mature players

am 38 and fed up with whining kids moaning because i want to play the game properly and not just rack up points

tag is skatetramps

 

No, bad parenting. If parents don't know anything about a console or the games they buy for their children then they should take time to research it, it's very easy.

 

i once got a phone bill for $700 for txt messagin and data usage when i was 14. i blame my parents and myself. that was 9 years ago...

 

That's not the fault of microtransactions. That's the parents fault. There are so many ways to prevent a kid from using the card.

There are no problems at all with microtransactions.

 

That kid killed himself? For crying out loud, what parent 'cancels Christmas'? That's their guilt ridden future sorted then.

As for the topic in hand: FIFA Ultimate Team is like legal gambling for kids. No control, and it's up to the parents to cap it.

 

Eggnogga. You already have that now, With what you can and can't do. within your family, Just take the child smacking laws. But hey..... You don't want the government intervening in that. Or the new law, which says you cannot smoke in your car, with the
kids in there.

But again, Hey....... It's only you and your families life.

Perhaps we should have no governments. No rules concerning everything. The Government is there to protect you, (as well as rip you off, and generally take money from you). And it should be seen to be addressing these issues. Which are quite widespread.

www.bbc.co.uk/.../technology-25748292

www.tuaw.com/.../your-child-make-an-in-app-purchase-by-mistake-apple-will-refund

A big company like Apple would never have agreed to issue refunds on in game MT if it was all the parents fault,.

My opinion is not against the games makers themselves alone, and said it was the parents fault as well, but I gave you an example of a prime game, specifically targeted at children, Angry Bird Racers, Is a game aimed at children, advertised on TV for children,
and is free, until you want to get anywhere. It is a cynical approach that a lot of Mobile/console/pc games makers are taking now, Just look at the horrendous MT on Forza 5, when it launched. Or warframe on PS4. (£109.00 for a boat load of credits)

There has to be some sort of limit/restriction put in place, to protect the child/Parent/company in these transactions, and hopefully that is what will happen. A lot of companies understand that this happens. But they still try to get away with it.

Parental locks should be put on the game itself, with password protected purchasing, so if the child goes to buy something, it needs the password from the adult. This seems like a logical idea, to hit this nail on it's head

 

I'm putting it out there. This "holier than thou" attitude is the worse. I know quite a few parents who would be caught in this same situation with their kids. Only thing is around these parts soccer is not popular at all. Alot of parents just don't have
the idea they should even be on guard about something like this. The most they know of videogames is the arcade from back in the day.

That's why there's a thing called "Consumer Protection" and it should be in effect here if the potential for someone to rack up 6 grand in bills playing a 59.99 dollar game exists. Everyone's about "it's your fault" until it happens to them then it's "I
had no idea... let's do something about it".

 

Without the whole who should be blamed I think the ethics of making a $60 game that lets you buy enough extra content with a combined sum 110 times the initial cost of the game in the entire lifespan of the game let alone several days is pretty unscrupulous.
To me this is something no console game should be allowed to do.

Wanted to know more and Googled Fifa 14 player packs. This was the first result. Link

Now I know why so many people were getting their accounts hijacked because of this game.

 

"its not really bad parenting, bad parenting is shouting at your child or letting them play on the street etc, its not endangering the child so its not that bad, its the companies taking advantage of everything they can and that to me is irresponsible, they
know there is a chance of these youngsters buying their product without their parents permission, isnt that bad practice?..alot of parents have never been on a console in their life so dont even know what exists on it and most children are more computer literate
than their old fashioned parents, we need proper rules in place, common sense"

I couldn't possibly disagree more. It IS really bad parenting... just because it's not 'endangering' the child doesn't mean it's 'not that bad'.

Of course companies are going to take advantage of any opportunity to make money... that's what businesses do. There are always, always, always, going to be things out there that our children shouldn't be exposed to, shouldn't be responsible for, etc. until
they're old enough to understand the consequences of their decisions. There are always going to be products out there that our children will want, regardless of whether they shouldn't have it or if they shouldn't have free reign on how much they spend on it.
That's a fact of life and it isn't any company's responsibility to teach our kids how to be responsible, that job falls on us as parents.

The truly bad practice would be for a parent to hand over full control of a console (or any other product for that matter) and/or credit card or purchasing power to their kid without knowing what the product is capable of.

There absolutely should be rules in place. Those rules should be made by and enforced by parents. That's common sense. If I handed my kid a credit card and told him he could go into a toy store on his own and get just one thing, it would be at my own discretion
if he is responsible enough to do as I say. No one else would, or should be in a position to make that call but me. And no one else would, or should be held to blame but me if he didn't listen to me because it would be my mistake.

 

Forget who is to blame its about morals, its clear that some on here have none

a company is out to make money, how they make that money is the big question

game developers are exploiting a market that has opened up due to practically everyone being connected to the internet in some form or another, its like what @hairylovespuds has tried to point out, games aimed at kids, for kids, is an immoral practice when
micro transactions are concerned, take this child who has racked up a £4000 fifa bill, had he been an adult no one would bat an eye lid, but had he been an adult with psychological problems, or perhaps gambling issues, who is to blame then?

its a moral thing, not a blame thing! But if a company can not see that, someone then has to step in and make that moral choice

 

its the same as these day loans whatever you call them, and its the adults who take out those loans obviously and those companies are taking the pi**, but now they are being regulated, these games developers are doing exactly the same..exploiting children
or trying to but are they being regulated, do they have rules?

 

It's *a* problem with microtransactions, I wouldn't say it is *the* problem with microtransactions.

 

I have a 4 and 7 year old boys who play on my ipad/Iphone and 360 and have played Fifa on X1. This has not happened because i set them up and turn off inAPP purchases on the Apple devices and created Profiles on the X1 with no purchasing rights. Responsibility
is on the Adults here.