Interviews With Parents and Carers in Relation to Digital In-Game Spending and Games Designers Who Develop In-Game Spending Systems, 2022

The data comprises of in-depth interviews with two groups. The first is 20 parents and carers of children and young people who spend money in digital games and have purchased loot boxes (or similar). These interviews explored how parents view their child’s gaming and in-game purchases, how they understand paid reward systems in digital games, and what would help them navigate these systems with their children. The second group are 10 game designers who have experience of designing and developing digital games that contain paid reward systems. The focus here was to investigate how designers make decisions and how they understand the effects paid reward systems have on players. The aim of this data collection was to provide in- depth qualitative evidence of how children and young people engage with, understand, and experience paid reward systems in digital games (across console, mobile, and PC). Commonly called loot boxes, card packs, or spins, these digital items give randomised rewards of uncertain value in exchange for in-game currency purchased with real world money. Their success is largely predicated upon the use of techniques borrowed from regulated gambling to engage players and encourage repeated use of these mechanisms. The motivation for the study was therefore to collect data to investigate the link between paid reward systems in digital games and their relationship to techniques drawn from regulated gambling. These interviews were supplements to video ethnography with 42 families in the North East of England that were conducted in the family home to understand children and young people's practices and activities involving paid reward systems. These files are not uploaded to ReShare due to ethical considerations of recorded footage of children and young people in homes, as per our institutional ethical approval.