How We Now Get Power in Video Games
From Skill to Wallet: How We Now Get Power in Video Games
Until fairly recently, it was standard practice that boosting your character or gear only came after hours of effort. Grinding was the only way to get the items or hero stats you needed to shift up to the next level. Now, loot boxes, gacha mechanics, and direct purchases of the things you need are what rule the day. And with Open Banking and Trustly’s system, you don’t even have to leave the game. Today, we’re breaking down how this shift happened and how the gaming economy changed from skills to wallets.
The Economy of In-Game Progress
Early RPGs demanded skill, endurance, and even sheer willpower from the player. You had to farm the items or hero stats you needed for a long time. Some people shared useful secrets with friends, and later, the tricks for beating tough levels started getting posted online. Now, whatever you can’t manage yourself, you can buy. Though even here, things aren’t quite so simple.
Models of Character Progression:
- There are still games where every reward is earned purely through skill. You have to beat difficult minigames and extra levels to get what you want.
- Mixed. It’s the most popular of the modern formats. You can still farm for the things you need. But if you feel lazy, you just spend gems, tokens, or some other in-game currency – and buy boxes, chests, and so on.
- Instead of a long grind, developers offer instant purchases that save time. What’s payable isn’t just Gacha or loot boxes anymore, but season passes too.
Mixed and modern models became possible not just because players got lazy. It also has to do with the fact that players use fast payment systems, with no need to switch over to a bank’s website or mobile app. All purchases happen right inside the game. Today, many gamers benefit from Open Banking Payments, in particular Trustly technology. It enables direct bank transfers where funds move immediately, so there’s no long wait for the upgrade.
The beauty of such payments is that the middleman is excluded from the scheme so that money does not get stuck somewhere but arrives at the specified account. The best Trustly casinos use the same principle – deposits and withdrawals take mere seconds. What’s more, the cost of instant bank transfers is far less than credit/debit card processing.
When Grinding Was the Only Path to Power
Let’s rewind a little into history – back to when the only way to get more power, gear, or skill was farming.
Diablo II – 2000, Blizzard Entertainment
Buying power in Diablo II was impossible, so the only thing left to do was run endless Mephisto runs in Act III. Over and over, you had to do “Baal runs” and “Meph runs” because that was the only path to collecting the runes for the legendary Enigma set. Sometimes this task took years – hundreds of hours on the very same locations, which you already knew by heart and could describe with your eyes closed. But a complete rune set was worth it.
World of Warcraft – 2004, Blizzard Entertainment
WoW didn’t hand players any shortcuts either. There was no option to fast-track your way to the Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros weapon. So to get what you wanted, you had to hone your skills week after week in Molten Core raids. You had to run raids of at least 40 people and wait around for a rare drop from the Ragnaros boss. If the one you needed didn’t drop, you did it all over again. There was a special atmosphere to it – hurrying unhurriedly.
Pay With Your Time, Or Pay With Your Money
Time costs money. That rule applies to those moments, too, when you compress hours, weeks, or years of grinding down into a few minutes. For all the time you save that way, in some games you simply pay with real money via Trustly, PayPal, etc. It’s less atmospheric, sure, but it’s simpler, and you’ve got less chance of giving up along the way to victory.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – 2018, Ubisoft Quebec
No need to waste much time. You just buy the levels and gear you need — all in one click, straight through Steam or the PSN Store. You can still play through the story on your own, but exploring Greece, hunting down legendary weapons, and boosting your XP will go slowly. So buying the Time Saver Bundle, which has everything you need, looked like a solid plan.
NBA 2K20 – 2019, Visual Concepts
You could pay for character progress with the in-game currency VC. All you had to do was switch to MyCareer mode. The alternative looked like playing through dozens of matches to gradually make your basketball player stronger, more skilled, more experienced.
Gacha and Loot Boxes: Paying for One More Shot
Some games went further. They theoretically let you simplify the gameplay, get valuable items, unlock the character you want, and so on. Obviously, this option also costs real money. But there’s one more catch – nobody guarantees you’ll get exactly what you want out of that magic box. You’re paying only for a chance, not for the 100% outcome.
Genshin Impact – 2020, HoYoverse
Genshin Impact is a popular, widely known action-RPG, and it’s known above all as a striking example of the Gacha model. Through its “Wish” system, you can obtain interesting characters like Hu Tao. You pay via Trustly or any other convenient method for this with in-game Primogems, which you can either earn in-game or buy with money. But if you spend that “currency,” it’s roughly a 1-in-90 chance that you’ll get exactly the 5-star character or higher-tier weapon you wanted.
EA Sports FC 24 – 2023, EA Vancouver
Want to build a star-studded football team? You can get one in one of the cards you buy with FC Points. Though nobody guarantees you’ll end up with a highly rated player. Besides regular athletes, you might also pull heroes, icons, or Team of the Week cards – whether you want them or not.
The Technology of Impulse Buying
Technologies that let you buy things in video games without needing online banking confirmation or entering all your card data every time are the basis for impulse purchases. It is even easier now, as open banking, illustrated by Trustly technology, is available throughout the UK. So, game developers see a chance to capitalise on players’ desire for exclusive items without trying too hard. Actually, that’s what they do.