Do you keep track on how much real money you spend in FIFA? Don`t worry too much about it, neither do we nor do most players. An Englishman named Michael (32) certainly didn`t and when he finally checked he was shocked to find out that the sum was actually over £10,000!
People are more concerned about getting the competitive edge or having their favorite player (or players) on their roster than they are about the money they put in, but how much is too much?
More importantly, is it really worth all that money? If you spend enough will you become a FIFA legend guaranteed? Well, the simple answer is no. FIFA is a game of skill and while better players on your team will give you an advantage in the game if the opposing player is that much better you can have an all-star legends team and you will still be beaten. So the key is to develop your skill and then complement it with a few smart purchases that will really put you on top! This sounds like a real-life team management and that is exactly the point and this is why we love to play (at least me personally)!
In the pursuit of the perfect combination of players, your spending can get a bit out of hand. That is ok all the great managers have bought duds in their days. You need to implement a bit of financial management. We know that adulting sucks but if you are old enough that your finances are not strictly controlled by your parents you should be able to control yourself and spend wisely.
According to a recent Ladbible article, Michael had an epiphany (or maybe he couldn’t afford rent or bills anymore) and decided to check how much he spent in FIFA during the last two editions of the game so 2017 and 2018 and he found out that the number was substantial, over 10000$! As he told Eurogamer he also wanted to check if there was any correlation in the amount of money he spent and the players he got in his packs. Basically, he wanted to see if the game would give you better player packs if you spent more money. All this leads me to believe that he may not be very good when it came to the actual game but hey that is just a personal opinion!
So, let’s explore how you can check exactly your spendings to FIFA and will you get your money’s worth in amazing players that will boost your squad.
GDPR
First things first. Let’s just brush on the topic of just how you can get all the information any company has about you. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect globally (mostly) on May 25th, 2018. The GDPR largely came into effect as an initiative to better regulate and protect the information big companies have on their users. Since the beginning of its usage, you have probably noticed that you were getting emails from the companies you have subscriptions with where they claim that they value your business and that they are using your information with absolute responsibility and with the sole purpose of bettering your experience with them. Or at least something similar in that tone.
What this means for you as the user is that you are within your rights to officially request to see all of the information a certain company has about you and they are obligated to comply to your request and this is exactly what the main protagonist and our FIFA hero did!
Just to let you know that if you would like to get your information from EA Sports or any other company that uses your data you simply need to call or write to their customer service and make an official request for your information and that is it.
The Aftermath
Ok, in accordance with the GDPR regulations, Michael requested that EA Sports provide all of the information they had on him. To say that there was a lot would be an understatement. Naturally, EA had a detailed transaction history about every single purchase, audio logs with every single call he had with their customer service department, you name it they had it!
The most shocking revelation came when he realized that he had spent over £10000 within two years buying packs. It is a substantial amount of money to be spent in a game so let’s explore if he got his money’s worth!
I do want to emphasize that EA did not disclose if his overspending had any effect on players he got in his packs. To be perfectly honest this is logical since no company would like to disclose intricate information about their business algorithms and this information is not about him so they are not obligated to disclose. Whether there is an algorithm that values players who spend more and rewards them with better players is up for debate but there is absolutely no evidence that anything like this is being done. As it currently stands you are rolling the dice every time you get a pack.
Is it worth it?
Anyone who has played FIFA Ultimate team mode can say a couple of things about it but most of all it’s amazing fun! I personally think about it as a FIFA RPG mode, you are leveling up, you are building your team, there is a bit of grinding and there and later on there as amazing online player vs player. So what do you need to know? Well, a lot actually! There is team management, squad management, contract management and trading with other players. Now, trading for packs. The opening of packs has gotten so big it can basically be its own game it’s unbelievable!
The Ultimate team mode really gives you your money’s worth when it comes to FIFA with all this managerial content added to it along with gameplay so if you are really looking into a mode to sink your teeth into, give FUT a try! You can also spend actual money in the game, and a lot of it, which is the point of this article and this is why Ultimate Team is the primary FIFA mode in EA`s eyes.
We all want the likes of Ronaldo, Messi or a legend of the yesteryear in our teams. The reality of it is that even with a price tag of 10000$ there is no guarantee that you will get a single player with a rating of 90 or higher (god forbid). Basically, the goal in FIFA Ultimate team is that you level up as high as you can so you would be on the same playing field with other players with elite squads and then it will just come down to pure skill. This is why you will see people getting objectively amazing players with a rating of 86 for example and be downright disappointed by it. So, once again please be aware that spending any amount of money won`t guarantee that your team is jam-packed with legends it is just not how it works.
What we can say play the game! Of course, treat yourself to a pack here and there and just try to use the cards that have been dealt with in the best way possible (wow, this article just got super real and super meta about life itself)
I believe that if you ask any seasoned Ultimate Team players that they will have legendary stories on both sides of the coin. How they got an absolute stellar player in a somewhat modest pack or how they spread and spent big bugs but they got a dud they could barely use for transfer afterward!
Conclusion
Spending that amount of money on in-game purchases is objectively too much. In trading and spending money on packs, it should be quality over quantity and you should play the game and get as much from the game as possible. What we mean by this is that there are so many ways to get coins by simply playing the game. You should also play smart and not hard for example very often there will be two challenges that will be complementary with each other which you can combine and get them both done by playing just one game. Also while playing offline be smart don’t overreach. Don`t play a team of the weak on legendary if your team is objectively bad and stacked with bad players for the moment. But this is exactly the point, just writing this makes me want to pick my joystick up and go right into it. Ultimate team is an amazing mode where you can custom build your team and compete online with the best in the world, who knows maybe you don’t need an amazing roster maybe you just know to play that good!
Tell us some of your worst and best experiences with FIFA Ultimate Team. Did you get some legends with a silver pack or did you spend a whole lot of money at one point and got nothing for your investment?
As always, see you on the pitch!
