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> Apps are merely doing what has been happening in full on computer games for years. [Citation Needed] I have never seen IAP in any computer game until the ri

> Apps are merely doing what has been happening in full on computer games for years. [Citation Needed] I have never seen IAP in any computer game until the rise of micro-transactions. Even then IAP has been restricted to MMOs and other niches. The prevalence of IAP on mobile is several, several orders magnitude different than on PC. > The difference is that many purchases are made by children because insufficient parent oversight. So instead of putting the blame where it belongs we go after those who sell it? Saying "the user is to blame" again is not helpful. To be clear I would like my platform of preference to be free of "bad IAP" altogether, because it encourages a style of game design that is distasteful to me. I'm cognizant that some people love this type of game. That's fine with me, I'd just rather they go somewhere else.

dragonwriter 13y ago
> I have never seen IAP in any computer game until the rise of micro-transactions. IAP is, arguably, no different than "expansion pack" + "purchase online". But for the online purchase part, computer games have been doing that before most people had even heard of the internet. Even the "free-2-play (but play for full experience)" model goes back to at least the 1980s (in the form of shareware). Sure, the reduction in transaction processing costs and latency of the modern online world have facilitated adapting those models to ones with more, smaller, and more frequent purchases, but the essential characteristics of the models are, in computing terms, ancient.
- bentcorner 13y ago
  Maybe we have to agree to disagree on this point, but where IAP is different today is the existence of consumable IAP. Only until recently was it possible to spend money on a game and, at some point later, have game content and state be identical to before you spent that money. "Paying for the full version of Doom" vs "buying some gems in Dungeon Keeper" may be conceptually the same, but the long term result is vastly different. I'd argue that the value you receive from the former utterly blows away the latter, but customer and developer trends are sadly proving me wrong.
  - dragonwriter 13y ago
    > where IAP is different today is the existence of consumable IAP. Sure, consumable IAP is a different thing than mini-expansion style IAP. I think that its at least as old as the MMO world an may have earlier precedents, but its certainly taken off. > I'd argue that the value you receive from the former utterly blows away the latter, but customer and developer trends are sadly proving me wrong. Consumable IAP is, in a sense, a highly efficient rental scheme that takes from each user according to their willingness to pay.

dragonwriter 13y ago

> I have never seen IAP in any computer game until the rise of micro-transactions. IAP is, arguably, no different than "expansion pack" + "purchase online". But for the online purchase part, computer games have been doing that before most people had even heard of the internet. Even the "free-2-play (but play for full experience)" model goes back to at least the 1980s (in the form of shareware). Sure, the reduction in transaction processing costs and latency of the modern online world have facilitated adapting those models to ones with more, smaller, and more frequent purchases, but the essential characteristics of the models are, in computing terms, ancient.

bentcorner 13y ago
Maybe we have to agree to disagree on this point, but where IAP is different today is the existence of consumable IAP. Only until recently was it possible to spend money on a game and, at some point later, have game content and state be identical to before you spent that money. "Paying for the full version of Doom" vs "buying some gems in Dungeon Keeper" may be conceptually the same, but the long term result is vastly different. I'd argue that the value you receive from the former utterly blows away the latter, but customer and developer trends are sadly proving me wrong.
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  > where IAP is different today is the existence of consumable IAP. Sure, consumable IAP is a different thing than mini-expansion style IAP. I think that its at least as old as the MMO world an may have earlier precedents, but its certainly taken off. > I'd argue that the value you receive from the former utterly blows away the latter, but customer and developer trends are sadly proving me wrong. Consumable IAP is, in a sense, a highly efficient rental scheme that takes from each user according to their willingness to pay.