Ethical/Unethical to implement micro-transactions in a video game

I think that it is a practice that is being used in today’s time, An episode from south park showed an example of this being used in a mobile app. The addiction from the app seems unethical but that isn’t something an app developer would control. An example from my real life experience would be improving the gameplay. If I’m investing time into something and have an opportunity to improve, it would be worth a few extra dollars to tell the developer that you enjoy their work and appreciate their time creating the app.

An ethical micro-transaction system would be limiting the time the progress happens. I think that mobile apps already do this pretty well, for example, A farming game will give you an appropriate time to come back and check on your crops when you play the game for a long period of time the only option to speed it up would be to spend real life currency. A way to remove that is charge a one-time fee or a monthly fee and give them a monthly limit of what they can get for free that way they’re tied to spending a certain amount they are comfortable with.

Regulation between mobile app should be by the mobile app store. I think the app store has a system in place and credit card company along with mobile carriers to protect the user, and they offer return policies if you haven’t made a transaction or you feel like you were wronged by the app developer.