In-app purchases, do you?

Mena

This will probably be seen as a thinly veiled 'look how much money I have' thread with a bunch of judgemental comments (probably deserved tbh!) but here goes.

What's the most you've spent on in-app purchases for your phone/tablet?

I'm pretty addicted to a certain game and have become pretty competitive, part of a large online community etc. Doing pretty well however this morning I decided to check just what it's costing me. So far, in June, I've spent €1800.00.

Pretty stupid when you think about it. Though I don't regret it I will likely slow down as frankly, there's better things to spend cash on than pixels (I think).

So, how much do you spend (if any), in this way? Am I totally out of whack with reality or are there other really stupid people like me out there?

somesoldiers

Mena wrote: »

This will probably be seen as a thinly veiled 'look how much money I have' thread with a bunch of judgemental comments (probably deserved tbh!) but here goes.

What's the most you've spent on in-app purchases for your phone/tablet?

I'm pretty addicted to a certain game and have become pretty competitive, part of a large online community etc. Doing pretty well however this morning I decided to check just what it's costing me. So far, in June, I've spent ?1800.00.

Pretty stupid when you think about it. Though I don't regret it I will likely slow down as frankly, there's better things to spend cash on than pixels (I think).

So, how much do you spend (if any), in this way? Am I totally out of whack with reality or are there other really stupid people like me out there?

Jaysus- what's the game?

I don't spend anything. I only play Candy Crush and reset my clock so I get new lives each time. If I have been playing one level for 6 weeks and I could pass it by spending 89c on 1 extra move I'd sooner spend another 6 weeks passing it than pay, am far to mean to spend any money!

Mena

somesoldiers wrote: »

Jaysus- what's the game?

Star Wars Galaxy of Heros /blush

BBDBB

No, never have done, never would.

I have to confess Im struggling not to get a bit judgemental on you for spending that much on a game on your phone. To me that looks like an addiction vs its your money, why not spend it how you want. Fair play for having the balls to bring this up as I suspect you aren't alone even if some won't admit it

Winterlong

No I have not but my 5 year old managed to spend €39 on power ups in Angry birds once.
Took a while but I got it refunded.

Yourself isit

Yes I occasionally pay for more features. Or buy a pro version. Developers gotta eat

Mena

BBDBB wrote: »

No, never have done, never would.

I have to confess Im struggling not to get a bit judgemental on you for spending that much on a game on your phone. To me that looks like an addiction vs its your money, why not spend it how you want. Fair play for having the balls to bring this up as I suspect you aren't alone even if some won't admit it

I don't mind you getting judgemental, we all do. I will say it's all perspective though. 1800 is a lot to some and nothing to others, though being digital does give serious pause for thought.

Also, it's not addiction, it's competitive. Or maybe wanting to win is the addiction.

Yourself isit

I played that for a while until it started to cost. Fairly dull but I can see how they ramp up the cost fairly quickly.

How much game time does 1800 a month get you?

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

It's a dopamine addiction, most normal people take up football or something, most normal people don't spend two grand a month on Star Wars phone game stuff.

That's not normal. You have a problem. Go to addiction counselling.

The Diddakoi

If you are happy enough spending that sort of money on something you enjoy, and are not leaving yourself (or your family) short of money for other things, I don't see a problem.

How does it leave you feeling after you play? If you feel happy, content and fulfilled after you have played, whether you are winning or losing, I'd see it as a good thing. If it leaves you annoyed, frustrated or stressed over the money you have lost, then I think that would be more of an indication of an addiction problem.

I enjoy games on phone or console, and have played them for years. Have spent real money on add-ons or upgrades, but not to the level of the OP, but then I don't have that much to spare.

DefinitelyMarc

I buy apps, but I've never had money in my play store account to buy IAP's.

It's just not something that comes to mind when I'm out in Tesco's or whatever.

mad muffin

I occasionally do. A few euro here and there.

Sabre0001

Mena wrote: »

This will probably be seen as a thinly veiled 'look how much money I have' thread with a bunch of judgemental comments (probably deserved tbh!) but here goes.

What's the most you've spent on in-app purchases for your phone/tablet?

I'm pretty addicted to a certain game and have become pretty competitive, part of a large online community etc. Doing pretty well however this morning I decided to check just what it's costing me. So far, in June, I've spent €1800.00.

Pretty stupid when you think about it. Though I don't regret it I will likely slow down as frankly, there's better things to spend cash on than pixels (I think).

So, how much do you spend (if any), in this way? Am I totally out of whack with reality or are there other really stupid people like me out there?

In June?! How much has the game to date cost you? I hope you're getting a massive leg up on the competition. Is there a competitive scene (and are there any sort of prizes so you're getting a reward for this investment)?

I've spent a couple of euro here and there, but try to avoid the pay-to-win mechanisms and apps where possible.

OP - you're the 0.0001% of players that the developers set out for, the reason why say, candy crush made over 1 million dollars a day for a long time.
I'm sure that you get enjoyment out of it but €1,800 in 3 weeks is a lot!
Then again, a gambling addict could easily lose €10,000 in a day if he/she had the money.
Maybe call it a day sometime soon.

Hercule Poirot

Surely we all know that in-app purchases were invented by Satan?

gramar

Mint Sauce

No, might explain why I can never get them high scores on Angry Birds, and why my 'Sim City' City has not expanded in over a month. Does mean I have more to spend on actual stuff though.

WhiteMemento9

Never really paid for much apart for some premium versions of products I really liked but recently have paid for plenty of content in Virtual Reality. It is an area where unlike current app space there are very few free alternatives for apps/games/experiences in VR and very little in the way of piracy currently exists so paying is your only option. Generally though the content feels worth the $ spent which isn't the case outside of VR in my experience.

I would say the $ conversion rate for people actually using VR is crazy high hence why Google seem to be really pushing into it with the release of their own standalone headset soon. I have no problem paying 5-10 quid for a decent app/game in VR as usually you get at least a few days entertainment from it which is akin to buying a cinema ticket in my eyes. I have never regretted spending money on the any of the well reviewed things I have downloaded in VR.

Mena

gramar wrote: »

Thank you, I loved this

sbsquarepants

I come from the generation who seen the arrival of the internet, with all it's promise of free shít for all, a techno hippy revolution to kill capitalism stone dead and usher in a glorious era of cyber sponging.

As such I point blank refuse to pay for anything.

In app purchase...would you fúck right off:D

EDIT: Jaysus - just re-read your post OP. You spent €1,800 in June? Are you fúcking retarded?
I thought you meant in your whole life and I still thought it was mental!

Mr. Incognito

Not really.

I spent €5 on Royal Revolt 2 once.

That was it.

You need to seek therapy as if you are spending that much you have an addiction, that you are playing on your phone probably to the detriment of everyone and everything else in your life.

It's not the money.

Ubbquittious

Never paid for a phone app or paid for in app purchases. If there is no open source or free version I don't bother.

marcbrophy

Jesus, I spent €35 on a shark card the other day for GTA, and I've been having buyers remorse. I paid for it with my leftover phone credit, so it was technically free and I still had remorse. How have you spent 1800 beans in 3/4 of a month OP?

Glenster

I find it game breaking and frustrating for there to be a certain kind of in-app purchases.

It feels like "pay €0.50 to skip this bit of the game"

I pay for games on my phone, the ones I enjoy are games like Football manager or Plague inc.

These are games which cost money but you can unlock things by either playing through the game or paying money, I can understand that sort of in app purchase.

Grayson

Glenster wrote: »

These are games which cost money but you can unlock things by either playing through the game or paying money, I can understand that sort of in app purchase.

yep. I hate games which have better weapons etc which are only available to subscription holders or people who buy them with money. Even if it takes a lot of effort in game, everything should be available. Otherwise it creates a two tiered system of people with money and people without.

I can understand having non essential items on pay only. Things like weapon skins etc which don't affect how you play the game.

ScumLord

Mena wrote: »

1800 is a lot to some and nothing to others,

It's a lot to spend on a game made by a company taking advantage of people.

These are games people got bored of back in the 90s, and now you have the people who missed the whole gaming scene getting addicted to a game that's worth nothing now, is basic and crap and paying through the nose to do it. The company that charged you over €1800 to pay a remake of an obsolete game are taking advantage of you. €1800 to play a computer game, that's insane. If someone told you they were spending €1800 a month on cocaine we'd all agree they've got a problem, or hang around with them more, but we'd agree they have a problem.

The company making this game are as bad as drug dealers, at least with drug dealers you get some drugs out of it, your left with nothing.

€1800, You could buy a top of the range gaming PC for that and be playing modern games with things like plots and 3D graphics.

Please do something else with that €1800, some knob is making a killing off you.

Mena

Have we removed Multi Quotes? Can't find them and don't want to reply to everything individually. 
On the addiction topic, over the space of a year it's been roughly 2.2 grand, so around 183 a month on average, however the bulk of that was in June due to an event I wanted to compete in. I don't view it as an addiction and at the end of the day, its only money (yes, I'm fortunate enough and worked hard enough that I can say this). 
As for time spent on the game someone raised, it's probably around an hour or two a day all told, when you add it all up. So again, nothing excessive. 
There was also a question on prizes. Yes I got a massive leg up (3rd globally in arena matches) but no, there's no physical prize other than nerd glee. 
There are a few guilds out there that require proof of over $20k spent before entry so 1800 is not a lot by comparison in this realm (though sorry, that's just super nuts). And to be clear it's not 1800 a month, it's that over 2 years (bulk of it in June). 
Someone asked if I am retarded (guess that word will get censored) - I guess that depends on your point of view. It's not a lot of money for me so from my perspective it's fine (though I am now struggling with the decision to go that route - 1800 is 1800). I am more curious to see if any others out there are the same but it seems likely very few (here at least).
As to how it's spent - it's a game of time or money. Take time to get to where you need to be, or pay to shortcut. I chose to shortcut and the 1800 saved me around 6 months effort.
I doubt i'd do it again soon, events like these come around roughly every 6 months and it's the first time I committed. I may do so in the next one again, who knows. 
Thanks for all the candid feedback though, it's interesting reading.

Mena

Apologies for the wall of text, was formatted nicely when I hit submit... And editing makes it worse so I'll leave it.

Edited to add: 

Scumlord, I didn't miss the gaming scene, been doing it sense the early 80's. They're not taking advantage of anyone, I made my own decisions thanks very much.

ScumLord

Mena wrote: »

Scumlord, I didn't miss the gaming scene, been doing it sense the early 80's. They're not taking advantage of anyone, I made my own decisions thanks very much.

You might think they're not taking advantage of you, but they likely have board meeting on how to take advantage of their customers, hire special behaviourists to come up with better ways to take advantage of people using everything from the colour scheme to the music.

Any of these games that have in app purchases are using a game to extract money from people using whatever means they can come up with. You may be a willing participant but make no mistake their intention is to take advantage of you.

sbsquarepants

Mena wrote: »

Someone asked if I am retarded (guess that word will get censored) - I guess that depends on your point of view. It's not a lot of money for me so from my perspective it's fine (though I am now struggling with the decision to go that route - 1800 is 1800). I am more curious to see if any others out there are the same but it seems likely very few (here at least).
As to how it's spent - it's a game of time or money. Take time to get to where you need to be, or pay to shortcut. I chose to shortcut and the 1800 saved me around 6 months effort.
.

That someone was me - sorry about that, but I was genuinely shocked!

I think even if you're Ronaldo paying 1,800 to play a game on your phone is insanity. You could have dragged your ass off somewhere beautiful for that - but all you actually done was look at a phone!

_Kaiser_

Your money and all OP, but €1800 in 3 weeks on a mobile game is lunacy. Even if you were/are a millionaire, there's no way a mobile game is worth anything like that kind of outlay.

I occasionally pay for a Pro app or extra features if I get a lot of use/value out of an app/game, but no more than maybe a fiver at a time. All told, I might have spent €100 over the last few years.

I'm sorry, but that kind of spend is just crazy..

Mena

Scumlord, I know exactly how they do it, and support it. It's how business run, creating user personas and targeting them. No complaints from me, they found exactly what I wanted I went in eyes wide open.

And no worries SB

Your point is 100% valid. 1800 is 1800.

osarusan

Paid for the pro version of a couple of apps for the kids - a jigsaw + colouring one, and a spelling one. Cost was between €1 and €2 each time. That's it.

I play some games on my tablet and you could advance through the levels very quickly if you paid money, but I'll never do it.

pawrick

As much as I like playing these games i refuse to pay in to them. Most have a shelf life of a couple of years before the next big one comes along and the community moves or you find yourself threading water to maintain the earlier gains from buy buying your way in as new add ons etc are brought out to extract more money. The relentless gauging put me right off all of these in the same way that some pc game makers are taking the p*ss with DLC these days.

ScumLord

Mena wrote: »

Scumlord, I know exactly how they do it, and support it.

It's your money and all but I don't think you should be supportive of it, it's all really underhanded selling techniques. It's like being supportive of con men and saying it's the victim's fault for being conned.

I wouldn't support them on principle, they break down human behaviour and take advantage of it. It's a predatory move, like the kind of tools we would have used against other animals to kill them for food.

I don't think those kind of companies deserve your money. Supporting them just gives them the ability to go after more people, and while you may be able to afford it others can't and these companies will use your money to get better at taking advantage of those other people and won't care if they're ruining some people lives in the process.

They've sold you a product that's probably not worth a fiver and got €1800 out of you for it. That's a con, you should be pissed off about it.

citytillidie

If the game i want to play has adverts i will turn off the data/wifi to play it until my lives are gone then leave it to refill for free.

In app purchases are almost as bad as DLC. I will not buy them if i have already paid for the app. I may pay a small fee to turn off the ads if the game did not have lives or energy. New Star Soccer used to be good when you could get decent things with in game money. They have since updated that now to use real money instead of in game money to buy things so playing it less than I used to.

lawred2

Mena wrote: »

This will probably be seen as a thinly veiled 'look how much money I have' thread with a bunch of judgemental comments (probably deserved tbh!) but here goes.

What's the most you've spent on in-app purchases for your phone/tablet?

I'm pretty addicted to a certain game and have become pretty competitive, part of a large online community etc. Doing pretty well however this morning I decided to check just what it's costing me. So far, in June, I've spent €1800.00.

Pretty stupid when you think about it. Though I don't regret it I will likely slow down as frankly, there's better things to spend cash on than pixels (I think).

So, how much do you spend (if any), in this way? Am I totally out of whack with reality or are there other really stupid people like me out there?

I have never spent one cent on such sh!t.

LLMMLL

Why do you get satisfaction from coming 3rd in a game that sounds like basically a grindfest? And you didn't even grind. You paid to skip it. It's like me buying an Olympic gold medal and thinking I'm the top sprinter in the world.

sbsquarepants

I'm not into games at all, but I have real trouble in understanding the logic here. You're actually paying all this money to basically not have to bother actually playing the game in the first place?
Sorry mena, this just gets madder and madder!:)

Mr. CooL ICE

I've bought some apps and games that have gotten regular use but have ads, such as a guitar tuner apps. I really don't mind paying a modest fee of something like €1.99 for something that will get used regularly. But the pay-to-win model of some games really pisses me off.

I've dabbled in app development but have not tried to monetise them as I was looking to build up a CV portfolio.

PandaPoo

Spent around €50 on a game recently. Felt like such an idiot after.

But then again the zoo isn't gonna run itself!!!

animaal

I spend money on applications for PC and phone, but I decide up-front if I think they're worthwhile and good value (to me!). For that reason, I avoid any product that requires ongoing payment.

With "pay to play", when you start on day one, how can you make an informed decision on value for money? OP, being honest, on day one would you have chosen that game if you knew how much it would end up costing you? Or might you have instead selected a AAA title that costs €50 up-front, without ongoing costs?

Spending that much on a game isn't in itself a bad thing. If you can look back and feel that you received €1800 worth of enjoyment from it, then it's not a waste. But if you think you'd have been happier with a €50 game, plus a foreign holiday (for example), then you can alter your approach to these decisions in the future.

r93kaey5p2izun

I've never heard of in app purchases so I'm obviously not the target market. I can't imagine spending that amount of money on anything non essential other than a holiday maybe. I've paid for one app for work and that's it. I don't think I'd pay for an app for entertainment.

jamesthepeach

I will buy an app or a game.
But if it requires any payment after the initial purchase of it, they can fvuk off.
Would never pay for extras in a game.

wes

Wow :eek:, and I taught console gaming was expensive.

I play a lot of games, and have bought DLC/expansions, but the only time I have come close to what the OP has spent is when buying a new games console, accessories and a couple of games, but still no where near that price.

Always taught freemium games were bull. Rather pay upfront for a game, and not have to deal with micro transactions, but there even seeping into full prices games now :mad:. I know game developers have to make money, but if I pay full price, they shouldn't be asking for more money, unless its decent sized DLC or an expansion.

These games with IAP's at the high-end of development budgets, like the game the OP is into have psychologists employed to build in cues, triggers and reward systems that appeal to humans. cunning stuff.

frozenfrozen

can you post proof.

Not that I don't trust you but this is the internet

ScumLord

frozenfrozen wrote: »

can you post proof.

Not that I don't trust you but this is the internet

He came here looking for help with his crippling addiction. Deep down he knew we'd throw down an intervention, that's why he asked about it in after hours. He doesn't need to prove himself, I can see his pain.

Mena

ScumLord wrote: »

frozenfrozen wrote: »

can you post proof.

Not that I don't trust you but this is the internet

He came here looking for help with his crippling addiction. Deep down he knew we'd throw down an intervention, that's why he asked about it in after hours. He doesn't need to prove himself, I can see his pain.

I don't think so but hey, maybe you're right and this should be in PI

As for proof, I cba. I'd need to blackout all the details on the credit card statement. Sonwith that what you will.

It's been an interesting read though. I probably shouldn't have posted the actual figure and the discussion would have gone a slightly different route.

frozenfrozen

ah well you know the saying tits proof or GTFO so that's the end of that

Yourself isit

Mena wrote: »

I don't think so but hey, maybe you're right and this should be in PI

As for proof, I cba. I'd need to blackout all the details on the credit card statement. Sonwith that what you will.

It's been an interesting read though. I probably shouldn't have posted the actual figure and the discussion would have gone a slightly different route.

Yes.

I paid $10 total max on IAP for a football game where I got more funds to buy better football players. You can grind your way to the top division but I couldn't be arsed.

Don't regret that because I'm still playing the game. The original funds allowed me to be self sufficient as I make game money now from winning. Would have paid more a few years ago on a console.

I do regret paying (just once) to speed things up on simcity mobile though. That game is designed to be crippled after a while. Eventually things slow down unless your continue to pay.

I hate that form of in app purchases. Eventually I abandon them. If a recall the game you played is like that.