"Games basically love-bomb you at the beginning and then take it away once you are acclimatised to that level of progression and pay to get it back,"a 20-year-old female said.
"Whereas a lot of these games, they might have a dragon overlay, they might have honey bees, they might have different cute, animated features, but they work exactly like gambling."
"Companies can't lie to us, but they can take advantage of us,"she said.
- When a gamer hands over money or in-game currency for a mystery box with unknown items in the hope of receiving a reward. The contents of the boxes are randomised and give players an advantage or slick looking feature — like a new weapon.
- When players earn in-game currency through performing repetitive tasks which can be so hard to achieve its dubbed "grinding".
- A design feature that allows a player to pay for access to exclusive content. Researchers found there was a lack of transparency around what the player would receive prior to paying.
- A small payment with in-game currency like gems, tokens or real money to buy items in virtual shops. Players might buy something for their video game character known as an avatar or get a shortcut in the game or an advantage.
- Attract huge numbers of users because they start out as "free". Commonly, developers make money from ads or users who move to a paid version to "unlock" extra features.
- These trick players into thinking it's part of the game. Some games ask for payment to play without ads or required in-game purchases to continue.
- Terminology that is difficult for children to understand.