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Many F2P apps prey on people and something should be done. I was on the train the other day, the girl sitting next to me was playing one of those games where y

by gaius 9y ago

Many F2P apps prey on people and something should be done. I was on the train the other day, the girl sitting next to me was playing one of those games where you have to watch an ad to get to the next level. Just as she was about to level up the train went into a tunnel so the ad wouldn’t play. Within seconds literally she was frantic, eyes staring, pounding the screen with her finger, I almost thought she would crack the glass. If that’s not addiction I don’t know what is. Makers of these games need to take a good hard look at themselves in the mirror.

yomly 9y ago
I've had a regular end-user who is not in the industry plain-face defend this as an inevitable progression of the improvement of content rather than shady dark-patterns and cynical psychological manipulation. "And what's the big deal that X wants to play candy crush all the time cos it's fun." "And what's the problem in putting heroin in Coca-Cola if it makes everyone feel good?" is my usual stance on that matter, unfortunately not everyone shares my view of the link between UX dark-patterns and addictive substances.
- cableshaft 9y ago
  I know you just used it as an example, but personally I thought Candy Crush wasn't that bad of an offender as most modern games. You could play pretty far into the game without spending a dime (except $0.99 after every 20 levels or so if you didn't want to bug your friends to log in and help get you the ticket to unlock the next section...). I'm pretty sure I got to like level 128 without using any of their consumable items except in one level where I was forced to as a tutorial, and another level where I used one I was given for free because I had replayed the level too many times and was sick of it. You do have limited 'lives' per day (and then they try to sell you on getting more to keep playing), but I saw that as a daily challenge of how far I could get before the lives depleted, since as long as I kept beating levels I didn't lose lives, and once it did, I quit for the day. All in all, I got a lot of enjoyment out of that game and only spent less than $10. And that money spent was easily worth it. That being said, I have heard that the later levels are absolutely brutal, and are nearly impossible to beat without using the consumables or getting damn lucky with the types and patterns of candy that appeared, so it may get more predatory at that point.
  - SerLava 9y ago
    You heard right- they do t just get harder though. They get far far more random- often times you only have one or two possible moves, or you have one okay move and a couple useless moves near the top of the screen. That turns it into literally a slot machine. So it becomes absolutely a matter of trying 20 times, and the game only gives you three free lever pulls per 24 hours.
- s73v3r_ 9y ago
  I always feel that the, "What's the big deal?" argument to defend things like this is just a way for the person making the argument to not think about the situation at hand, and the negative consequences of it.

by gaius 9y ago

yomly 9y ago

I've had a regular end-user who is not in the industry plain-face defend this as an inevitable progression of the improvement of content rather than shady dark-patterns and cynical psychological manipulation. "And what's the big deal that X wants to play candy crush all the time cos it's fun." "And what's the problem in putting heroin in Coca-Cola if it makes everyone feel good?" is my usual stance on that matter, unfortunately not everyone shares my view of the link between UX dark-patterns and addictive substances.

cableshaft 9y ago
I know you just used it as an example, but personally I thought Candy Crush wasn't that bad of an offender as most modern games. You could play pretty far into the game without spending a dime (except $0.99 after every 20 levels or so if you didn't want to bug your friends to log in and help get you the ticket to unlock the next section...). I'm pretty sure I got to like level 128 without using any of their consumable items except in one level where I was forced to as a tutorial, and another level where I used one I was given for free because I had replayed the level too many times and was sick of it. You do have limited 'lives' per day (and then they try to sell you on getting more to keep playing), but I saw that as a daily challenge of how far I could get before the lives depleted, since as long as I kept beating levels I didn't lose lives, and once it did, I quit for the day. All in all, I got a lot of enjoyment out of that game and only spent less than $10. And that money spent was easily worth it. That being said, I have heard that the later levels are absolutely brutal, and are nearly impossible to beat without using the consumables or getting damn lucky with the types and patterns of candy that appeared, so it may get more predatory at that point.
- SerLava 9y ago
  You heard right- they do t just get harder though. They get far far more random- often times you only have one or two possible moves, or you have one okay move and a couple useless moves near the top of the screen. That turns it into literally a slot machine. So it becomes absolutely a matter of trying 20 times, and the game only gives you three free lever pulls per 24 hours.
s73v3r_ 9y ago
I always feel that the, "What's the big deal?" argument to defend things like this is just a way for the person making the argument to not think about the situation at hand, and the negative consequences of it.