4 ms·

It sounds like we're just coming around full-circle to the days of video game arcades. Except instead of going to the mall and possibly seeing other people, we

by douche 10y ago

It sounds like we're just coming around full-circle to the days of video game arcades. Except instead of going to the mall and possibly seeing other people, we've all got the arcade in our pocket. Inflation-adjusted, these in-app purchases on freemium games are still cheaper per-play than the quarters I fed the machines as a kid.

DanBC 10y ago
Talking Tom Gold Run: 5400 dynamite costs £79.99 To unlock a track costs 3999 dynamite. There are 6 unlockable tracks. There are some characters that can be unlocked. Some are premium: King Tom costs 5399 dynamite; Cyber Angela costs £39.99; Hyper Tom costs £29.99; Super Angela costs £22.99; etc etc. The characters have power ups. You can increase the duration of the power ups by collecting in game items from vaults. You can open vaults early using dynamite. You don't need these characters, you can probably complete the game without them. You don't need the power ups, and you could slowly grind your way through the upgrades. And you can unlock the tracks via playing the game. But it's baffling to me that you could pay > £100 and not have the complete unlocked content.
- douche 10y ago
  Yikes, that is rather staggering. I wasn't thinking about that kind of Creative Assembly-level DLC extortion on mobile games. My experience has only been with something like Candy Crush, or the bubble shooter one, where, if I recall correctly, you got three lives a day, and could pay a dollar or two for more if you lost - thus being relatively on the same paradigm as arcade games or pinball. I don't remember if there were other whizz-bangs and powerups you could buy, but I never bothered.
- kefka 10y ago
  The other lesson these kinds of things teach is "This is how piracy and hacked APKs work. This is where you download them, and this is how you keep your device safe." I learned about piracy/copyright infringement when I was 7 years old, using "Fast Hackem" for the C64 for getting around disk sector errors. Those lessons stuck with me up to today, where pretty much anything is available, at any time. Is it wrong? Is it right? I'm not going to moralize. Not my place to. But one thing I can say, is stunts like what these skinner-box designers do, and what a lot of content companies do, end up hurting them in the long run. Relevant comic: https://xkcd.com/488/ https://xkcd.com/488/
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
tetraodonpuffer 10y ago
video game arcades were skill-based gameplay, if you were good at gyruss you could play a LONG time on your quarter; yes, it was expensive while you were learning, but that promoted skill acquisition, the better pattern recognition, memory and hand-eye coordination you developed, the more you could play with the same amount of money. IAP and coin-based gameplay is not skill based, it's addiction based, which is NOT something you should encourage: the reward loop is completely different, fear-of-missing-out and scarcity-based gameplay do not create any positive effects, save maybe training your child to be a future patron of casinos and similar establishments

by douche 10y ago

DanBC 10y ago

Talking Tom Gold Run: 5400 dynamite costs £79.99 To unlock a track costs 3999 dynamite. There are 6 unlockable tracks. There are some characters that can be unlocked. Some are premium: King Tom costs 5399 dynamite; Cyber Angela costs £39.99; Hyper Tom costs £29.99; Super Angela costs £22.99; etc etc. The characters have power ups. You can increase the duration of the power ups by collecting in game items from vaults. You can open vaults early using dynamite. You don't need these characters, you can probably complete the game without them. You don't need the power ups, and you could slowly grind your way through the upgrades. And you can unlock the tracks via playing the game. But it's baffling to me that you could pay > £100 and not have the complete unlocked content.

douche 10y ago
Yikes, that is rather staggering. I wasn't thinking about that kind of Creative Assembly-level DLC extortion on mobile games. My experience has only been with something like Candy Crush, or the bubble shooter one, where, if I recall correctly, you got three lives a day, and could pay a dollar or two for more if you lost - thus being relatively on the same paradigm as arcade games or pinball. I don't remember if there were other whizz-bangs and powerups you could buy, but I never bothered.
kefka 10y ago
The other lesson these kinds of things teach is "This is how piracy and hacked APKs work. This is where you download them, and this is how you keep your device safe." I learned about piracy/copyright infringement when I was 7 years old, using "Fast Hackem" for the C64 for getting around disk sector errors. Those lessons stuck with me up to today, where pretty much anything is available, at any time. Is it wrong? Is it right? I'm not going to moralize. Not my place to. But one thing I can say, is stunts like what these skinner-box designers do, and what a lot of content companies do, end up hurting them in the long run. Relevant comic: https://xkcd.com/488/ https://xkcd.com/488/
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

tetraodonpuffer 10y ago

video game arcades were skill-based gameplay, if you were good at gyruss you could play a LONG time on your quarter; yes, it was expensive while you were learning, but that promoted skill acquisition, the better pattern recognition, memory and hand-eye coordination you developed, the more you could play with the same amount of money. IAP and coin-based gameplay is not skill based, it's addiction based, which is NOT something you should encourage: the reward loop is completely different, fear-of-missing-out and scarcity-based gameplay do not create any positive effects, save maybe training your child to be a future patron of casinos and similar establishments