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Dad horrified at £4,642 gaming app bill

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Dad horrified at £4,642 gaming app bill

#41

Post by BearOso »

1MachineElf wrote: post #37

Being a long time Elder Scrolls fan, I was disappointed yesterday upon trying out Elder Scrolls Online for the first time. The constant stream of reminders and up-front placement of things to spend money on is extremely immersion-breaking. I'm going to put more hours into it just to see if there really is a hidden kernel of fun in there, but so far it hasn't done anything to hide the fact that it's a brazen cash-grab…

There won’t be any fun hidden in there. Once a game developer passes the barrier of accepting cash for progress it won’t be balanced in any way that makes it fun to play.

Re: Dad horrified at £4,642 gaming app bill

#42

Post by Sarah_Giggs »

kevin_b_er wrote: post #2

> But he says he's amazed that in a game designed to be played by children it would even be possible to spend thousands of pounds across a thousand transactions over the course of just a few weeks. These games are designed around this. The dark patterns are intentional. > "We encourage parents to review their payment settings on third-party services, such as Google Play, as they typically have an option to require a…

It's the app's fault they were scammed, I think this is more a case of pointing out that there are ways of mitigating this through the app store. Whether that's enough though is another question entirely.

Re: Dad horrified at £4,642 gaming app bill

#43

Post by JackMorgan »

BearOso wrote: post #41
1MachineElf wrote: post #37

Being a long time Elder Scrolls fan, I was disappointed yesterday upon trying out Elder Scrolls Online for the first time. The constant stream of reminders and up-front placement of things to spend money on is extremely immersion-breaking. I'm going to put more hours into it just to see if there really is a hidden kernel of fun in there, but so far it hasn't done anything to hide the fact that it's a brazen cash-grab…

There won’t be any fun hidden in there. Once a game developer passes the barrier of accepting cash for progress it won’t be balanced in any way that makes it fun to play.

Not always, due to shutdown I revived my old WoW account, and the latest content is far more engaging for me than the original content. But that's a game you're already expected to pay monthly.

Re: Dad horrified at £4,642 gaming app bill

#44

Post by wilde »

notwhereyouare wrote: post #3

It’s not the app stores fault, but I think the App Store could start throwing up notifications if you go from spending 0 to 500 in a small period of time. That is crazy how the girl managed to spend THAT much in a period of a month.

Don’t let the app stores off the hook. They collect 30% and dictate tons of less meaningful design choices. They could make this go away. But then Apple would have to explain to it’s shareholders how a majority of it’s services revenue is actually generated by gambling addicts and children.

Re: Dad horrified at £4,642 gaming app bill

#45

Post by michaelmrose »

occamschainsaw wrote: post #25
apsanz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which of course is the same reason why android and ios will never show you data on how often you use your phone and allow you to send less time on your phone... They don't want kids sending thousands of dollars. It is bad PR for pocket change for them. They already have options in the OS to prevent this. They just need to change the defaults and a few additional features.

Both iOS(Screen Time)[1] and Android(Digital Wellbeing)[2] show how much you use your phone and let you set limits for smartphone usage. 1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208982 2. https://wellbeing.google/

Is a reasonable spending limit set by default?

Re: Dad horrified at £4,642 gaming app bill

#46

Post by Shared404 »

1MachineElf wrote: post #37

Being a long time Elder Scrolls fan, I was disappointed yesterday upon trying out Elder Scrolls Online for the first time. The constant stream of reminders and up-front placement of things to spend money on is extremely immersion-breaking. I'm going to put more hours into it just to see if there really is a hidden kernel of fun in there, but so far it hasn't done anything to hide the fact that it's a brazen cash-grab…

Well, I had been looking at joining that. I was afraid it would be something like this though, thanks for the warning.

Re: Dad horrified at £4,642 gaming app bill

#47

Post by Shared404 »

Kuinox wrote: post #35
runawaybottle wrote: post #12

How can a game developer ethically justify a $4500 price tag for a game? Yes, we can put in limits on spending, but let’s say we didn’t, does that mean a game could be worth that much money? Ever?

Devil's advocate: It's not 4500$, but a lot of microtransactions. A lot of mobiles games make most of their money on "Whales" that represent less than 1% of their playerbase.

That doesn't make this pricing model any more ethical.

To Roblox's credit however, they did refund the money when asked.

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