http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20130620/194429/Monetizing_Children.php
Shokrizade has become one of the most outspoken critics of the pay-to-win (P2W) model of free-to-play games and he adds a new layer to his critique here by premising that supremacy goods and easy accessibility to paying for content are unethical monetisation methods for developers to utilise. Shokrizade claims that many developers are currently trying to monetise children in ways that take advantage of their under developed brains (although this is only mentioned briefly, Shokrizade calls on behavioural research to back this claim), by offering the instant rewards of power or social status as bought for commodities on P2W games that have become typical of Facebook.
Overall this critique, similar to the overall P2W criticisms, suggests that a new certificate of quality assurance should be employed by developers seeking to create fairer, more ethical practises in games. Shokrizade suggests a “Child Friendly F2P” tag could be implemented as a way for parents to know what their children are playing and similar to a ‘fair play’ tag for F2P games it could be option in the future.
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