01/12/2022; event: The World Cup Conference, MultiPlay The video game FIFA (Electronic Arts) is an annually released title with a very profitable “FIFA Ultimate Team” (FUT) game mode played by a large community of gamers. This has led to the emergence of celebrity FUT content creators on Twitch and on YouTube, yet also tensions between these individuals, the “average” player, and the game’s developers. The chapter explores players’ attitudes to and issues with the more powerful actors within the FUT ecosystem, offering us an incisive case study of ongoing changes and tensions in the relationships between players, developers, and content creators. In study design and analysis, the qualitative directed content analysis approach was used, as the chapter extands the project conducted over three years on the official FUT forum by one of the authors. Key categories of gamers’ criticism of content creators are indicated, keeping in mind biases that could result from this deductive approach. The players see content creators on Twitch and YouTube as a source of numerous frustrations related to gameplay, as reinforcing the game’s micropayment, and even as solely self-interested profit-makers with little “true” interest in the game. This even extends to what can only be termed conspiracy theories about the relationships between EA and FUT’s most visible content creators, with players proposing numerous surreptious connectinos between the two. The chapter hence shows what happens when successful game content creators, and the “average” player, clash, and how FUT is a valuable case study of emerging power dynamics within gaming and game culture more broadly.

1. Microtransaction Politics
in FIFA Ultimate Team:
Game Fans, Twitch Streamers,
and Electronic Arts
World Cup Conference
December 1, 2022
MultiPlay

2. Building dream teams and starting anew with each FIFA game.
What is FIFA and FUT and why study it?
Criticism: microtransactions and gambling accusations.

3. INTRODUCTION
PREVIOUS STUDY
Three years (2017-2019) on official FUT forum.
Gamers as subversive consumers who “clash”
with producers.
A paradox: the criticism does not stop gamers
from playing and does not limit spendings.
GAMERS’ DISSATISFACTION
“Wash, rinse, and repeat” strategy.
Conspiracy theories („a system designed to
encourage people to spend more money”).
Microtransactions demonstrates the
company’s greed.
Piotr Siuda, Sports Gamers Practices as a Form of Subversiveness – the
Example of the FIFA Ultimate Team,
Critical Studies in Media Communication 38(1): 75–89.

4. Explore the ongoing changes and tensions in the relationships between the
FUT players, content creators on Twitch and YouTube, and the game’s
developers.
More political-economic consideration of the ecosystem the players are a
part of – and how these players see that ecosystem.
The Aim

5. METHODS
THE PROCEDURE
Official most “populated” FIFA forum run by EA.
Searches: June/July 2021; searching for threads
related to content creators – 2,307 threads.
Reducing the data to include post on streamers
and using the predefined categories.
DIRECTED CONTENT ANALYSIS
Deductive and structured approach which
validates or extends existing studies, and
these help focus the research question.
Using prior research to identify key
concepts and determine initial coding
categories.
C1: Streamers as a source of frustrations
C2: Streamers as reinforcing micropayment
C3: Streamers as profit makers

6. 1. Streamers’ in-game strategies.
2. Perceived detrimental effects on the game.
3. Perceptions of luck exhibited by the
content creators.
Youtubers are just bell ends in general but ea needs to start taking
blame for most of the problems.
They turned this game from a casual game into a super sweaty get
your sweat bands ready competitive (…)
Implemented overpowered tactics system ea giving people the
tools to abuse the game even further (…).
Ea and youtubers can both get fisted for all i care
107 THREADS
REASONS FOR FRUSTRATIONS
C1: Streamers as a source of frustrations

7. Perception that creators are playing an
undesirable role within the game’s financial
ecosystem (EA’s “agents”).
Wow now I understand why ea shows the love to the streamers
Bateson87 in his latest video clearly says he spent 800,000 fifa
points so almost £5200 quid wtf on a single promo this guy has
almost spent £20,000 by my calculations (…)
Another streamer hits 5 icons in a week !! After spending 2k (…)
It’s crazy as people and kids see this type of hype put money in
and pack no one I see almost every streamer
seems to have packed a toty or two lol (…)
172 THREADS
THE MOST HATED SIDE OF THE GAME
C2: Streamers as reinforcing micropayment

8. A perception that both the
developers and streamers
are responsible for the
game’s perceived problems
and that these actors
mutually reinforce and
promote what are seen as
the undesirable elements of
FIFA games.
A perception of EA favoring
content creators over
“average” players.
C1 and C2
CONSPIRACY THEORIES

9. Further blurring of criticisms of streamers and
the company.
Anxieties about both the motivations and
practices of content creators.
He's making a fortune streaming on Twitch. If he stopped spending
money on Fifa, he'd stop getting viewers. (…) a kick in the teeth to
people who spend their money on packs (…).
Most of them built their platform by opening packs with a sick
amount of fifa points. But as long as there are kids who watch their
"content", they are making a living.
44 THREADS
STREAMERS ARE “IN IT” FOR THE MONEY
C3: Streamers as profit makers

10. Additional category (searching for positive
cases; 65 threads):
1. “Who the best streamers are”?
2. Apprisal for the style, personality, or charity, i.e.
for things for which they are also being criticized.
3. Streamers are considered skilled, “extremely
good players”, and informative about the game,
tactics, etc.
Positive
opinions
C4
An older FIFA streamer - actually has good football
knowledge as opposed to others, is good at the
game and doesn't scream every two seconds.
He does football news segment at the start of each
stream where he goes over what's been happening -
was great during the transfer window as he pretty
much showed all the rumours from multiple sources
and had a big chat about it.

11. FUT tells a lot about both other sports games and games of other genres.
A starting point for a more in-depth analysis of streamers’ place in the community,
and community management in game development.
More research is needed, as it could help the industry to treat gamers with
appropriate business ethics.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

12. THE BOOK
Piotr Siuda and Mark R. Johnson,
Microtransaction Politics in FIFA
Ultimate Team: Game Fans, Twitch
Streamers, and Electronic Arts.
Other contributors: John Markoff,
Raiford Guins, Michael Pennington,
Carlin Wing, Mel Stanfill,
Anastasia Salter, Henry Lowood,
Abe Stein, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal,
Matt Bouchard, Emma Witkowski,
Rune K.L. Nielsen, Christopher A. Paul,
Mia Consalvo.

13. Thanks for listening!
piotrsiuda.com
piotr@ukw.edu.pl
markrjohnsongames.com
mark.r.johnson@sydney.edu.au