6 ms·

Genuine question out of curiosity - what do you get out spending that much on a game? I’ve heard some whales spending 10-20k a week and that’s probably not even

Genuine question out of curiosity - what do you get out spending that much on a game? I’ve heard some whales spending 10-20k a week and that’s probably not even the highest. Do you get genuine enjoyment out of it or do you ever feel fleeced at all?

Kiro 5y ago
It depends on what kind of loot box. For cosmetics it's pretty random. When the game itself feels stale I want a new outfit to make it feel fresh. For P2W it's a treat after I've been grinding freemium for a while. It's like opening a beer on Friday after work. I don't spend 10-20k a week but I do occasionally spend that amount on one game during its whole lifetime. However, that also means I've gotten thousands of hours of enjoyment out of it. But yes, while I'm only a 1000x (1000x compared to someone who just pays $20 upfront) there are certainly people who are 1000000x and much bigger whales than me. I can't speak for them.
- wellthisisgreat 5y ago
  The beer on Friday metaphor resonates with me (even though I don’t drink beer), that’s how I perceive buying in game items. Out of curiosity which game(s) did you spend 10-20k on?
- dvlsg 5y ago
  I think that's part of the problem. Because skipping the grind by paying money is seen as a treat, game companies now have the incentive to turn their games into a chore on purpose to convince people to treat themselves.
yomly 5y ago
I think those numbers are all relative? If you're a bored prince with billions of liquid cash and even more billions of yielding assets, do you really care about 10-20k of weekly outlays? Or reduce the scale, if you have 100k annual salary, do you miss that $3 a day you spend on coffee or $5 a week you spend on mobile gaming? ... or $15.99 a month you spend on Netflix? Everyone has a thing and a threshold they are comfortable spending on. Some people want 4 wheels that will take them from A to B and other people are willing to spend $500 a month to get a Tesla. We focus on digital goods because they have a perceived cost of zero to manufacture and are transient (one day the game will no longer work) but fail to spot that the value we heap on many material goods are social and most of us do not buy goods for life (hence why r/BuyItForLife is a subculture rather than conventional wisdom)
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  Just to follow up on what you said, one of the things I've learned after a couple of years in online retail is that a huge proportion of people genuinely enjoy spending money. They don't consider the opportunity cost or feel the pain of lost potential, but get a rush of "feeling rich" whenever they spend $50 on a T-shirt they'll wear once. It's cross-cultural, natural psychology, and I doubt it'll go anywhere.
  - Beltalowda 5y ago
    A lot of people have this; I certainly do: when I buy something new it feels good, for a short time. I actually live a fairly frugal life, and I think acknowledging this is important: "do I really want or need this or am I just making myself feel better for a few hours?"
- HWR_14 5y ago
  Some people have enough money that they don't care about the money. But other people become addicted and end up spending money they don't have. Just like some people dropping 100k in Vegas in a weekend are paying for the experience and VIP treatment and others just need one more bet to replenish Johnnys college fund.
  - yomly 5y ago
    sincere question - how big of a problem (in terms of #people suffering) is there of people spending beyond their means on online cosmetics? I could see <18s getting into trouble but are there adults legit bankrupting themselves from paid-for cosmetics? How common is the pattern for paid-for lootbox cosmetics (as compared to buy-it-now) cosmetics? Wouldn't say I'm particularly deep in either the RL/Fortnite ecosystem..!
    - Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
      Paid for cosmetics? Not likely to be very many people bankrupting themselves. But Pay-To-Win games like Clash of Clans? I don't have any research, but if I was a gambling man, I'd bet at least a few thousand.
foobarian 5y ago
I don't spend near as much as GP but I found that I am OK spending a comparable number (or a little more) to a classic boxed game such as a console title, so around $50-$100, if I enjoy the game enough. Two examples: Roblox and Genshin Impact. Me and the kid got into Roblox entirely for free. Beyond all the games she enjoys even without any paid features, we got a dead-simple game creation platform with world-class MMO built in. I thought that was nice enough to warrant buying a few gift cards for her and the peers. We got into GI for free as well. I was apprehensive at first because I heard from friends that GI is an evil gacha game preying on addict personalities. But once we started it we enjoyed the artwork and the game so much through the hours of main quest lines and beautiful content that I thought it was as good or better than Zelda BOTW so why not kick back at least the BOTW purchase price?

Kiro 5y ago

It depends on what kind of loot box. For cosmetics it's pretty random. When the game itself feels stale I want a new outfit to make it feel fresh. For P2W it's a treat after I've been grinding freemium for a while. It's like opening a beer on Friday after work. I don't spend 10-20k a week but I do occasionally spend that amount on one game during its whole lifetime. However, that also means I've gotten thousands of hours of enjoyment out of it. But yes, while I'm only a 1000x (1000x compared to someone who just pays $20 upfront) there are certainly people who are 1000000x and much bigger whales than me. I can't speak for them.

wellthisisgreat 5y ago
The beer on Friday metaphor resonates with me (even though I don’t drink beer), that’s how I perceive buying in game items. Out of curiosity which game(s) did you spend 10-20k on?
dvlsg 5y ago
I think that's part of the problem. Because skipping the grind by paying money is seen as a treat, game companies now have the incentive to turn their games into a chore on purpose to convince people to treat themselves.

yomly 5y ago

I think those numbers are all relative? If you're a bored prince with billions of liquid cash and even more billions of yielding assets, do you really care about 10-20k of weekly outlays? Or reduce the scale, if you have 100k annual salary, do you miss that $3 a day you spend on coffee or $5 a week you spend on mobile gaming? ... or $15.99 a month you spend on Netflix? Everyone has a thing and a threshold they are comfortable spending on. Some people want 4 wheels that will take them from A to B and other people are willing to spend $500 a month to get a Tesla. We focus on digital goods because they have a perceived cost of zero to manufacture and are transient (one day the game will no longer work) but fail to spot that the value we heap on many material goods are social and most of us do not buy goods for life (hence why r/BuyItForLife is a subculture rather than conventional wisdom)

AussieWog93 5y ago
Just to follow up on what you said, one of the things I've learned after a couple of years in online retail is that a huge proportion of people genuinely enjoy spending money. They don't consider the opportunity cost or feel the pain of lost potential, but get a rush of "feeling rich" whenever they spend $50 on a T-shirt they'll wear once. It's cross-cultural, natural psychology, and I doubt it'll go anywhere.
- Beltalowda 5y ago
  A lot of people have this; I certainly do: when I buy something new it feels good, for a short time. I actually live a fairly frugal life, and I think acknowledging this is important: "do I really want or need this or am I just making myself feel better for a few hours?"
HWR_14 5y ago
Some people have enough money that they don't care about the money. But other people become addicted and end up spending money they don't have. Just like some people dropping 100k in Vegas in a weekend are paying for the experience and VIP treatment and others just need one more bet to replenish Johnnys college fund.
- yomly 5y ago
  sincere question - how big of a problem (in terms of #people suffering) is there of people spending beyond their means on online cosmetics? I could see <18s getting into trouble but are there adults legit bankrupting themselves from paid-for cosmetics? How common is the pattern for paid-for lootbox cosmetics (as compared to buy-it-now) cosmetics? Wouldn't say I'm particularly deep in either the RL/Fortnite ecosystem..!
  - Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
    Paid for cosmetics? Not likely to be very many people bankrupting themselves. But Pay-To-Win games like Clash of Clans? I don't have any research, but if I was a gambling man, I'd bet at least a few thousand.

foobarian 5y ago

I don't spend near as much as GP but I found that I am OK spending a comparable number (or a little more) to a classic boxed game such as a console title, so around $50-$100, if I enjoy the game enough. Two examples: Roblox and Genshin Impact. Me and the kid got into Roblox entirely for free. Beyond all the games she enjoys even without any paid features, we got a dead-simple game creation platform with world-class MMO built in. I thought that was nice enough to warrant buying a few gift cards for her and the peers. We got into GI for free as well. I was apprehensive at first because I heard from friends that GI is an evil gacha game preying on addict personalities. But once we started it we enjoyed the artwork and the game so much through the hours of main quest lines and beautiful content that I thought it was as good or better than Zelda BOTW so why not kick back at least the BOTW purchase price?