Power creep in videogames, an analysis of the competitive scene in Pokémon games
Mannström, David (2022)
Mannström, David
2022
Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022112867480
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022112867480
Tiivistelmä
There are many factors that influence the development of modern videogames, one of these is the economics behind them. As with any business the main goal of videogame developers and publishers is to make a profit. Depending on the type of videogame the avenues that are used by the developers to generate revenue vary significantly.
With the rise of mobile gaming the use of micro-transactions has risen significantly as well, and this is especially true for online games where the players interact with each other more actively. Micro-transactions have also made their way into many competitive games such as League of Legends, Dota or Counter Strike. While most of the micro-transactions are focused on the cosmetic side with for example skins being a big part of especially online games, there are also some games that lock content behind an in-game currency that takes time to collect. In most cases this content can also be unlocked using real-world currency. This means that there is a monetary incentive for developers to make the newest content worth the monetary spend for players that do not have the time to grind out the in-game currency.
This in turn has the potential to lead to power creep, the tendency for newer content to be better or more powerful than the older content. This study will focus on the Pokémon series of games and try to establish a pattern for whether power creep exists. By comparing the usage rate and share of viable Pokémon in the VGC format over the years the study will attempt to answer to three main questions. If power creep is present, if it is present is it bad for the metagame and how power creep affects the development of the videogames.
Data for four different VGC formats was analysed with the Pokémon divided into groups based on the generations that they belong to. The study focuses on the VGC format as it is the format used for the official world championships which is sponsored by the publisher of the videogames. The result of the study shows that there is a tendency for the newest generation to be severely overrepresented on the teams used by the competitive players of the VGC format.
With the rise of mobile gaming the use of micro-transactions has risen significantly as well, and this is especially true for online games where the players interact with each other more actively. Micro-transactions have also made their way into many competitive games such as League of Legends, Dota or Counter Strike. While most of the micro-transactions are focused on the cosmetic side with for example skins being a big part of especially online games, there are also some games that lock content behind an in-game currency that takes time to collect. In most cases this content can also be unlocked using real-world currency. This means that there is a monetary incentive for developers to make the newest content worth the monetary spend for players that do not have the time to grind out the in-game currency.
This in turn has the potential to lead to power creep, the tendency for newer content to be better or more powerful than the older content. This study will focus on the Pokémon series of games and try to establish a pattern for whether power creep exists. By comparing the usage rate and share of viable Pokémon in the VGC format over the years the study will attempt to answer to three main questions. If power creep is present, if it is present is it bad for the metagame and how power creep affects the development of the videogames.
Data for four different VGC formats was analysed with the Pokémon divided into groups based on the generations that they belong to. The study focuses on the VGC format as it is the format used for the official world championships which is sponsored by the publisher of the videogames. The result of the study shows that there is a tendency for the newest generation to be severely overrepresented on the teams used by the competitive players of the VGC format.
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