I think Apple Arcade is a good compromise for high quality gaming access.
In game purchases are banned. Games can't track you as heavily, so they are lighter on your device. They are some genuinely good games, and you pay with your wallet and play time.
I don't like ads and to be nudged to purchase stuff to be able to kill some time. Game developers need a roof, the ability to pay their bills and eat.
Also, it's a universal membership. macOS and iOS games are all included.
> I’ve struggled with gambling issues in the past, and the more I look at this, the more it feels like the same pattern playing out again
This is a common theme: Someone has a recognized gambling problem, but they don’t realize that a game like this is feeding their gambling habit.
A similar thing happens with stock trading apps like RobinHood: People who know they have a gambling addiction don’t recognize (or won’t admit) that their usage patterns are just gambling in a different format. These are the stories that end up on /r/wallstreetbets where someone traded their $30K account down to $20 through options trading before they admitted that they had a problem.
I wonder what would happen if the app stores posted info on the app page like "the top 1% players of this game spent an average on $5,000 on it last year". Would that do anything to help people avoid getting into this form of quasi-gambling?
Such people are called “whales” in mobile gaming industry, they pay all the game developers’ salaries, they are the reason for many private jets.
I played this game briefly and jumped before I got hooked. It's a game of progressively longer timers, resource crunches and anything to make you feel stuck so you will spend. What's more, it's not fun, imho.
It still shocks me how we all look for time sinks when we have so much we could be doing. I'm no better.
That game developer has quite the catalog:
Insert coin(s) to continue. 29, 28, 27…
I had a similar experience on a smaller scale (but it was huge to me). Spent around $300 on a mobile game that was on top the charts at the time. Before that I didn't think I was the type of person who could fall prey to such a thing. A bigger mistake was thinking that there was "a type of person". (Or maybe there is and I'm in denial!)
It was humbling to realize how warped and blind I became.
Had to google it, but the game was Game of War: Fire Age. At the time they had a gambling mechanic where you'd buy chest with say 1000 gems and, for a time, it would be guaranteed to grant you well over 1000 gems. That hooked me and I felt really smart. Then they set the real plan into action --gradually and silently nerfing the payouts. And I played right into it, spending a little more and a little more to keep up. This was 2018, or so, I think.
So, for me, it was my pride and ego combined with seeing a rise in leaderboards and esteem in my clan that hooked me.
The core game mechanic was one where everything you built up would be utterly destroyed by someone much stronger every day or two, but you'd be left with just enough that you felt like you could rebuild and get stronger. And just another IAP or two would prevent it from happening again. It would help, but it only meant that you were an even juicier target for an even bigger whale.
The game was slick, but not too slick. It had some rough UI elements which perversely made me less alert to how well-engineered the IAP psychology was.
It seems like the mobile ecosystem is the most user-exploitative of all software ecosystems.
Outside apps for accessing useful services or doing work, everything seems designed to addict, manipulate, or drain bank accounts: most games, social media doom-scrollers, payday loan in your pocket apps, crypto and stock trading apps that are built like casino games on purpose, and now sports betting.
Everything is also loaded with as much spyware as possible, and given that it's a phone and users say 'yes' to permissions it can often do very invasive things like track the user's location in real time.
So many criticize gambling when the same patterns pop up in so many other places. I would argue gambling is far more ethical considering the odds are posted and the systems are regulated, with the ability to self exclude.
F2P games and loot boxes are just unregulated black-box gambling. And beyond that, the people who implement dark patterns in so many things, would certainly increase their morality if they switched to building slot machines. Terrible
Unbelievable, but such guys exist in nearly every game.
pay to win is cancer.
What is special about Whiteout Survival?
And this is why even with all the calls on gambling I hate Valve's model on CS2 and TF2 lot less. At least you might be able to extract some money in one form or other. Instead of all of it being just gone.
Clickbait. I thought he was getting ready for The Day After Tomorrow.
Last I checked it's trivial to not spend your time and/or money on such stupid apps.
checks his pixel 8a yep, there's no games installed here
The amount of people in both this and the reddit thread treating the poster like some minor without responsibility for their actions is pathetic.
This is a grown ass adult pissing their time and money away on mobile games. Then when they realize how totally reckless they've been, seek a f*cking refund? And people are calling for laws protecting this grown ass adult from themselves? We're clearly not talking about some eight year old people.
Quit expecting some nanny state to do your adulting for you and grow the fuck up.
I'll defer to the late George Carlin:
I truly hate the F2P mobile gaming industry. Clone a quality (and reasonably priced) PC game, add dark patterns and microtransactions, then make money hand over fist by taking advantage of people like this.
FOMO marketing, gambling mechanics, and unrepresentative ads really need to get self-regulated by the app stores, otherwise it's going to become necessary to legislate this.