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It's astonishing that the developers of games like this can sleep at night. Do they lie to themselves and pretend all the kids spending thousands of dollars a
by darkpuma 7y ago
It's astonishing that the developers of games like this can sleep at night. Do they lie to themselves and pretend all the kids spending thousands of dollars are the children of Saudi royals or something? They must know that they're exploiting people who can't afford it.
Edit: these developers know damn well if their target demo is children, and they know damn well that the phenomenon of children running up huge debts without the informed consent of their parents is all too common. They know what they're doing; they can't plead ignorance. At best they are self-deluded, but it's more likely they are morally corrupt. Blinded by their love for money, totally indifferent to the suffering their business model causes.
It's absolutely revolting, and so is anybody defending it by implicitly asserting that it's okay for developers to exploit children if their parents happen to be careless or neglectful. "The parents are to blame for allowing it" does not absolve the developers who knowingly profit from it. Should it be legal for me to sell cigarettes to a child if their parents were foolish enough to give the child a credit card? Of course not, fuck off with that shit.
- o_p 7y agoOne would assume that children spending was authorized by their parents.
- eitland 7y agoSomewhere before we cross >£3000 I guess most developers can understand this is not authorized by an adult mind.
- megous 7y agoWho spends the price of an iPhone (per month, for months on end) on some stupid game? One (game dev) would have to be very much full of it, to assume this is legit. And, that they never responded to the parents tells it all.
- sdwa 7y agoAnyone who spends several thousand pounds on a single video game is in all likelihood vulnerable, and quite possibly a child.
- la_barba 7y agoPersonally.. I don't really like the idea of an application developer knowing my age or gender or any other personal details.
- aurea 7y agoIt even goes beyond children. I was recently approached by a mobile gaming company that is looking for statisticians for their data science department. The large companies have entire task forces dedicated to figuring out how to extract even more money out of the ~1% that pays in these games. But of course they put it in slightly different terms.