There’s been a lot of talk in the gaming community about the harm that “loot boxes” and/or Microtransactions are doing – and one recent Reddit user may have posted one of the most convincing arguments to date.
A user by the name of “pissendhelppls” recently took to Reddit to discuss how he’s been spending 150 pounds a month on the game’s Ultimate Team mode, resulting in a debt of over 8,000 pounts by the end of 2016. But since then, it’s gotten much, much worse, and it’s to the point that the man’s girlfriend could be leaving him.
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Here’s the full post:
“I’m a 25m from the UK. I’ve been addicted to spending my money on FIFA Ultimate Team ever since I had a job when I was 18, I would get my salary and as an Admin Apprentice (About £400 a month Full Time) and after my board and bus fare, spend the rest of FIFA, about £150 a month. Then as soon as my apprenticeship finished and I was put onto a more standard wage of about £800, I was spending roughly £500 monthly on the game. This is where I got myself a credit card (worst decision of my life), and got into Payday loans and asking for advances every month. This carried on for a while.
During this time I met my current gf in March 2013 and I had nearly gotten myself out of trouble. Due to a having a broken xbox 360, so no access to FIFA. But come to September 2013 and I was being made redundant and left with no source of income. It took me until April 2014 to find another job, this time an accountancy apprenticeship. That August in 2014 I bought myself an Xbox One and slowly but surely I got back into spending my money on FIFA again, only little bits for the moment.
Fast forward to November 2015 and I’m now 23. I’ve applied for a credit card and approved for a large amount of £3,800. This proved to be far too much for me to handle, I immediately spent large amounts on FIFA over the next coming months, going straight to my limit in a little over 3 months.
This is where my gf comes into the picture. She found out about my money troubles and paid off the full amount (She had money from family).
I tried to ignore the credit card and I should have closed the account. But come the next year (November 2016) and I had maxed out the card again on FIFA. This is where it gets much, much worse. The other smaller credit card from the beginning of this story was also maxed for £1500, I had a £2000 overdraft and a payday loan of £300.
At the end of 2016 I had a total debt value of £8000.
I couldn’t tell her I was in such a bad position.
It got to the point where my family were starting to notice and my dad asked to see my accounts. I was reluctant, but I showed him. He was mad and took all control of my bank from me, taking my bank card and changing my online banking password. He took out a loan to pay it off all my debt, as I couldn’t get any credit to pay this amount off. I agree to pay him back at £200 a month, going up to £300 a month when I had a pay rise in September 2017.
This is where it gets bad for me (deservedly so). I hadn’t told my girlfriend about my money trouble, and now she has started looking at houses to buy (she has a large deposit sorted so a mortgage isn’t a problem). But in order for us to do this she wants us to have a joint account, which would show me paying my dad £300 every month.
Jump to this morning where I’ve told her everything. I will 99% lose her due to my own stupidity. She is the love of my life and I don’t know how I can fix this.
I think I should let her go, to find someone worthy of her. As I certainly don’t deserve to be with her.
TL;DR Got into bad debt and didn’t tell gf, she now knows and will 99% leave me.”
This definitely notes an argument in regards to addiction to good such as this. Now the real question is if game publishers may be listening.
