Discussing Trends in Online-gaming Payment Style
This week’s discussion is good for practicing using presentation English words.
Before you read: some questions to help you think about the topic and the words you might need.
Do you play online games? How do you like to pay?
How safe do you feel about giving your personal information to a gaming company?
Nearly one in ten Americans has purchased an online good in the past year. So if you create online games then there are some things to think about for how you will accept payment. And this is changing the future. Traditional forms such as credit and debit cards continue to be popular, but other payment methods are rising in popularity depending on how comfortable gamers feel with giving away their personal information online. Other forms that are increasingly popular are closed loop pre-paid cards, smartphone payment apps, and electronic payments from bank accounts. These alternative methods are expected to rise dramatically in the near future.
What do these trends mean for game developers?
Mobile, PC and other computer forms are converging, and there’s no longer a single, one-size-fits-all solution. As consumers move between games, devices and environments, they need their payments to move seamlessly with them and work reliably from any device. Preferred methods of payments are as different as players’ interests and preferences in games. As player behavior f, so too must developers make their games suitable for these users. In the acceptance of new technologies, gamers have in the past offered a good way for game developers to test how gamers like to do things. Now developers have the power to learn and make money from this trend and provide the choices necessary to help more effectively make money from game content.
With other payment methods and digital wallets becoming more popular, especially for those games with global popularity, it’s important for game developers and publishers to think about accepting an open payment approach. That is, they need to provide choices.
Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning.
The answers are below the table.
|
rising in popularity |
A |
1 |
Coming together |
|
increasingly popular |
B |
2 |
Getting more and more favored or wanted by people. |
|
alternative |
C |
3 |
A different way or solution to solve a problem |
|
rise dramatically |
D |
4 |
One solution that is the same for all the problems |
|
trends |
E |
5 |
Join in a way that is smooth, fit together well |
|
one-size-fits-all |
F |
6 |
Increase at a very fast large rate |
|
converging |
G |
7 |
change |
|
seamlessly |
H |
8 |
Getting more and more favored or wanted by people. |
|
evolves |
I |
9 |
Fashions, upcoming changes |
A=2, B=8, (A&B have almost the same meaning), C=3, D=6, E=9, F=4, G=1, H=5, I=7
Some example sentences using the new words to help you to better understand their meaning.
1. Learning to speak Chinese is rising in popularity with Korean students these days.
2. Meeting at cafes has been increasingly popular in Korea for ten years now.
3. Studying English online has become a good alternative for people who have no time to go to a language class.
4. Psy’s song Gangnam Style rose dramatically in popularity in 2012.
5. One of the fashion trends for 2013 will be red shoes.
6. Airlines are offering different types of service because they have found that a one-size-fits-all approach of full service isn’t ideal for everyone such as people with no bags or don’t care about food in the flight.
7. This week U.S. Airlines and American Airlines will converge into one big airline.
8. Going from being a high school student to a university student can be seamless if the student is prepared for the freedom of university life.
9. Park Ji Sung evolved into becoming one of the greatest soccer players from Korea.
Some discussion questions using the new words to help you better understand the word meaning and how to use them correctly. Try to use the words in your answer.
1. Why are alternative payment methods are rising in popularity?
2. Do you think one payment method that is becoming increasingly popular will become the most popular method?
3. rise dramatically
4. What has caused this trend away from using only credit cards for online payment?
5. Why is it not a good idea for a company to use a one-size-fits-all approach to customers?
6. What does it mean, “PC and other computer forms are converging” mean? What will they converge into?
7. Why do customers want their payment forms to move seamlessly between devices? Do you dislike having to use different passwords and ways to pay all the time? How do you think they could be more seamless?
8. Comment on how smartphones have evolved? How do you think they will evolve in the future?
ECK Education
