Talk:Microtransaction

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Requested move 28 April 2015

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. EdJohnston (talk) 23:53, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

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Microtransaction → In-app purchase – Per WP:COMMONNAME, with evidence including:

1. Several of the references on the page do not actually mention the term "microtransaction" but refer to an "in-app purchase".[1][2]
2. Apple and Google both refer to them as "in-app purchases": [3][4]
3. Google books results: "in-app purchase" 20,000 results, "in-app billing" 1,190 results, "microtransaction" 561 results
4. Google news results: "in-app purchase" 12,300 results "in-app billing" 460 results, "microtransaction" 3,060 results.

Note that the target is currently a redirect to Glossary of video game terms#In-app purchase --Relisted. George Ho (talk) 05:30, 6 May 2015 (UTC) — Amakuru (talk) 14:08, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

• Oppose. The term "microtransaction" is more broad and refers to non-iOS/Android purchases, while the term "in-app purchase" implies exclusivity to the iOS and Android platforms. ONR (talk) 14:06, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
• I agree with Old Naval Rooftops and oppose the move, but I support redirecting In-app purchase here. Red Slash 17:33, 2 May 2015 (UTC)
• Oppose, as the suggestion would seem to substantially change the scope of the article. —BarrelProof (talk) 23:23, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
• Comment - this article is currently entirely about in-app purchases. I think I wrote it on this page because I felt microtransaction had a more encyclopedic name. This article should probably be merged with micropayment in some way. Some guy (talk) 18:23, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Problem: Microtransactions and in-app purchases are confused as being the same

I feel there is a fundamental confusion about the relationship between microtransactions and in-app purchases. The current page presents them as one and the same. The page even directly claims Apple and Google refer to microtransactions as in-app purchases and in-app billing respectively, but the word "micro" does not appear even once on the pages linked as sources for the claim. Now that even a rename request (Microtransaction -> in-app purchase) has appeared, I think this would be more than a good time to tackle the issue.

While microtransactions as a business model is very commonly implemented through in-app purchases, the two are distinctly separate. The first is mostly used as a way to break the full price of a product into small separately purchaseable chunks of low cost. The latter is a way of providing or making a purchase. Saying they are the same is like saying cosmetics and department stores are one and the same because cosmetics are very commonly sold in department stores. You can also have microtransactions that are implemented with something else than an in-app purchase, just like cosmetics can be sold through other channels.

Examples:

• If you have a game with an in-app purchase that unlocks the full version of the game, isn't it the exact opposite of a microtransaction (a "macrotransaction"? classically referred to as shareware) even if it's implemented as an in-app purchase?
• You can offer a magazine subscription for a year and implement how the purchase is made using in-app purchases. The price might be $50 and includes the whole service. There is nothing micro about it in any sense of the word. Full product, full price -- but still an in-app purchase.
• In the same fashion as a magazine stand app, everything on the Steam store is technically bought inside the Steam application. However, most of the items are full products, not microtransactions -- However, microtransactions for "bunny slippers" and "new machine guns" (which Valve uses as examples) are also sold. These can co-exist.

I believe the correct approach would be to mention "Microtransactions are often implemented as in-app purchases" and leave it at that. If there was a separate in-app purhases/in-app billing page, it should have the same in reverse, "In-app purchases are often used to implement microtransactions".

I don't believe we should treat them as synonyms simply because one is so often used to provide the other.

(If, on the other hand, you take the stance that "microtransactions" refer to all purchases of little cost (like alluded to by the Micropayment page), then almost every purchase on the various app stores is a microtransaction, whether purchased directly through the store or through an in-app purchase. In this scenario, limiting the term to in-app purchases only would again be wrong.)

Plikrg (talk) 09:12, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

I would have liked another point of view on this before editing, but oh well. The guidelines document sums up in-app purchases (on the first page) as a tool to support "a variety of business models", and lists both "additional game levels", "digital books" and "magazine subscriptions". The first could be easily classified as a microtransaction, but in the spirit of this article, the latter two very much not.

Based on this, I'm rewording the article so that it does not directly equate microtransactions (a business model) with in-app purchases/billing, a tool/framework commonly used to implement it and provide them.

Plikrg (talk) 18:30, 17 May 2015 (UTC)