Brawl Stars

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Brawl Stars is a multiplayer mobile game created by Supercell. Supercell has made many successful mobile games in the past, such as Clash of Clans and Clash Royale. Brawl Stars was released in 2017 and is their most recent release. While Brawl Stars has been just as fun as Supercell’s past games, there are some ethical concerns regarding its business model.

Gameplay

Picture from gamewith.net

Brawl Stars is considered a third person hero shooter game. Each character, also known as a brawler, has unique abilities, thus making it a hero shooter game. Even though Brawl Stars is a mobile game, it has quite a few game modes. The main game mode is called Gem Grab. This game mode is played with two teams of three. The objective is to collect the gems in the middle of the map. The first team to hold 10 gems wins the game. The other popular game modes are Brawl Ball, Bounty, and Showdown. Brawl Ball and Bounty are also played in teams of three while Showdown can be played individually or in pairs.

Brawlers

Through 5 seasons, the game has gone from its original 15 brawlers to 44 brawlers. While each brawler has their own unique abilities, they all fall into certain class types. The different class types are: sharpshooter, thrower, support, heavyweight, and fighter. All of these classes have their own strengths and weaknesses. Because most game modes are played in teams, having brawlers from class types that compliment each other well is very important.

Sharpshooter

Sharpshooters are essentially the snipers of Brawl Stars. All Sharpshooters have incredibly long range, but have a below average amount of health points. Sharpshooters also have one of the highest damage output of all the class types. While the game is quite balanced, never count out a Sharpshooter to change the flow of the game.

Thrower

Throwers are brawlers that throw projectiles. Similar to Sharpshooters, they have great range, but have very little health points. What sets Throwers apart from Sharpshooters is their ability to throw projectiles over walls. This makes throwers very versatile and playable on almost any map.

Support

This class type has the most variety in terms of unique skills. Some Support brawlers can heal their teammates while one brawler can create a sandstorm and make his teammates invisible within a certain area. Support brawlers compliment any other type of teammate, but they typically lack in their attack power.

Heavyweight

The Heavyweight brawlers all have a considerable amount of health points, but have extremely short range. Most can only hit a smaller range in front of them. Because of this, Heavyweights heavily rely on hiding in bushes and sneaking up on the opposing team.

Fighter

Fighters are the all-around class type. Most Fighters have above average health points and are above average in terms of damage output or attack range. While a Sharpshooter fighting a Heavyweight would heavily favor the Sharpshooter because of their superior range, a Fighter has no matchups where they clearly lose. A Fighter is always a reliable class type to strengthen your team.

Ethical Concerns

Business Model

Like Supercell’s previous hit games, Brawl Stars follows the freemium game model [1]. The word freemium is a combination of the word “free” and “premium.” These games are free to begin playing with in-app purchases as you play the game. These in-app purchases revolve around purchasing in-game items or currency that gives the user an advantage over users who do not buy in-app purchases. In Brawl Stars, an in-app purchase can be used to obtain one of the three in-game currencies, gems. Using gems, a player can exchange for gold, buy loot boxes, or even buy a new brawler.

At first glance, the freemium model seems mutually beneficial for both the consumers and the creators. Consumers can still play the game free of charge, but can purchase items to make the game more fun. However, the hidden motives behind this business model are what makes it dangerous. Freemium games rely on microtransactions, which is another word for in-app purchases. Since the player is not paying for the game, the creators of the game earn revenue through microtransactions. Recently, Brawl Stars has accumulated over $1 billion in lifetime revenue and around $526 million revenue from 2020 alone. [2]

Exploitation of User

If the creators of the game have the sole intention of monetizing as much as they can from these microtransactions to increase revenue, it becomes likely that the user may get exploited monetarily by the company. One item that many freemium games have, including Brawl Stars, is the loot box. These boxes contain a collection of items and the user receives random items from the collection upon purchasing it. Loot boxes contain inherent ethical issues with them. [3] An issue relating to these loot boxes is the algorithm used to determine what item the player receives and how transparent the company is with the algorithm to the user. There is a great deal of transparency in this aspect as the percentages of what tier item the user will receive is listed in the app. [4]

Gambling Addiction

While the percentages are explicitly listed, loot boxes can be very easily compared to slot machines as they offer a random prize to the user of varying worth. With slot machines, the outcome is a range of money values while in Brawl Stars the outcome is a range of items with corresponding value in virtual currency. Then, the concern of gambling addiction is raised. Gambling addiction, also called problem gambling, is "the urge to gamble continuously despite negative consequences or a desire to stop". Gambling addiction occurs because the actions "activate the same reward circuits in the brain as drugs and the clinical characteristics of gambling disorder are the same as those of drug addictions or alcoholism"[5]

Video Game Addiction

Similar to gambling addiction, Video game addiction, or problematic, compulsive use of video games that results in significant impairment to an individual's ability to function in various life domains over a prolonged period of time, is prominent in apps such as Brawl Stars. The app follows a design that allows for constant play as there are short matches(under five minutes) and constant upgrades to the users' brawlers and account as a whole. Additionally, the user can make microtransactions, as specified above, to further gain progress in their game or account. This encourages playing the game for longer, potentially leading to video game addiction. Video game addiction can lead to a sedentary lifestyle, lack of social engagement, problems with concentration and attention, avoidance of developmental tasks, and increased aggression or violence. [6]

References

</references>
  1. Li, Keyan Kelly. “Why Freemium Games Are Ethnical Problematic.” Medium, Medium, 29 Jan. 2017, medium.com/@haishili0105/why-freemium-games-are-ethnical-problematic-8582ffff77b4.
  2. Ahmed, W. (2021, January 30). Brawl stars surpasses $1 billion in revenue. Retrieved from https://dotesports.com/mobile/news/brawl-stars-surpasses-1-billion-in-lifetime-revenue
  3. Neely, Eric L. “Come for the Game, Stay for the Cash Grab: The Ethics of Loot Boxes, Microtransactions, and Freemium Games.”
  4. Brawler (and items) drop RATE (2019 Updated): Brawl Stars up! (2021, January 26). Retrieved from https://brawlstarsup.com/brawler-drop-rate/
  5. Chóliz, M. (2018, January 31). Ethical gambling: A necessary new point of view of gambling in public health policies. Retrieved March, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5797763/
  6. Edited by Meredith Watkins, M. (2021, February 08). Video game addiction symptoms and treatment. Retrieved from https://americanaddictioncenters.org/video-gaming-addiction