Prepaid game cards cut bill 'surprises'

Players of Facebook's Farmville must pay to expand game options. Photo / Supplied

A new prepaid gift card for online games such as Farmville is aimed at cutting back credit card bill surprises for parents.

New Zealand gift card company Ezi-Pay has teamed up with the largest United States gift card provider, inComm, to launch a card that allows anyone to give online gaming as a gift.

The online gaming market was last year worth $170 million in New Zealand and is growing rapidly through games including Zynga, Disney Club Penguin and Nexon, and Facebook's Farmville and Mafia Wars.

Farmville is free initially but once at a certain stage players - mainly children and teenagers - pay to expand game-play options and speed them up. This often involves using their parents' credit cards.

It is estimated about 10 per cent of Facebook's 500 million users play the game, which involves cultivating imaginary crops and "buying" livestock and farm implements.

The card can be used on 1000 other games from Club Penguin, including children's and flight-simulation games.

Ezi-Pay says use of parents' credit cards can lead to overspending or misuse of the card and surprises when the credit card bill comes through, whereas a prepaid card means less risk and it's easier to encourage children and young adults to manage their spending.

It is also useful for adults who don't wish to have a credit card but want to play games online and keep within their budget, the company says.

The cards will be sold at up to 4500 retail outlets, including EB Games.

Research by Queensland's Bond University for the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association show that 91 per cent of New Zealanders aged between 6 to 15 years and 43 per cent of those over 50 play computer games; probably helped somewhat by Facebook and other social networking sites.

The research found 88.5 per cent of New Zealand households and all homes with children under the age of 18 have a device for playing computer games. In New Zealand households, the internet is the preferred medium for entertainment and leisure.

The average age of computer game players in New Zealand is 33. Non-gamers are 40 years old, on average.

The research found females were heavier consumers of puzzle, board/card, family and educational games and males were heavier consumers of action, strategy, racing, adventure, RPG and fighting games.