Do you spend any money for online gaming?

[disneysteve]

There are a few games that I play regularly on my phone. They are all free apps and can be played just fine for free but do offer in-app purchases. I'm amazed by how many people spend gobs of money to play these otherwise free games. I could kind of understand it if the extras were inexpensive but they're not.

For example, the one game has a daily bonus round that is free. After you play the free bonus, you have the option of purchasing a second bonus round where the prizes are multiplied by 10. How much is this bonus round? It's not $0.99. It's not $1.99. It is $34.99! For one bonus round to win extra coins to play the game. It doesn't even give you any kind of advantage in the game. I just can't comprehend spending that kind of money on a free game.

I have spent money on this particular game twice. Both times it was because they had a special promotion. If you bought a $10 coin package, they gave you a $15 Amazon gift card. So I got the coins and made a $5 profit each time. I was okay with that purchase. But beyond that, I can't see any reason why I would ever spend real money to play the game.

[HundredK]

The most I've ever spent is 99 cents, because there was a game I was obsessed with, and I could buy a 99 cent character that would help me get farther in the game faster. That seemed worth it to me for the many hours of pleasure I got from it.

As for how people get roped into spending crazy amounts on online gambling, well, I'm just picturing all the zombies I see when I'm in Vegas, the ones sitting at the slot machines playing for hours on end. I guess if they can do that on their phones, they would probably love it and be happy to fork over the $$.

[Singuy]

I believe they did a study and only about 2.2% of the people who downloads the game actually spend money....but this 2.2% are fanatics. They don't just spend 0.99 or 19.99..they spend hundreds and thousands.

I can't bring myself to spend money on digital items..it doesn't compute to me.

[JustDave]

I'll occasionally use my Google survey rewards to make a small purchase if I like the game and want to support a fellow developer. But we're talking $2.99 max ... some of those in-app purchases are ridiculous, even if I am using "free money".

[MonkeyMama]

-$0-

I think it's easy to get sucked in and so it's best to just have a zero dollar policy. That is what we do in my household. My kids *may* have spent 99-cents here and there, but I know we strongly discourage that. (& I could be wrong. They've maybe spent $0. Since they are very responsible with it, we leave it up to them).

[Tabs]

OK so this yeah this isn't going to be good for me, but I do currently pay a monthly subscription for a MMO that costs roughly $11 and change. I am seriously considering canceling it, but it is never that easy as I am a social gamer, and MMOs are naturally the ultimate platform for social gaming.

Generally speaking though, gaming can be very cheap these days. Even with MMOs, there are decent free alternatives or at least ones with a low one time pay and no monthly fees....

It depends on who I plays with though. For me, it is less about what we play and more about who I am playing with.

[disneysteve]

The most I've ever spent is 99 cents, because there was a game I was obsessed with, and I could buy a 99 cent character that would help me get farther in the game faster. That seemed worth it to me for the many hours of pleasure I got from it.

I can see that kind of purchase. It's a nominal amount and actually benefits you in the play of the game.

In all the years I've had a smart phone, I have purchased one app, a baseball game, for $4.99. I played the free version for a while and really enjoyed the game. The paid version eliminated the ads and offered many more features so I finally bought it. I still play it regularly today so it was well worth 5 bucks.

As for how people get roped into spending crazy amounts on online gambling, well, I'm just picturing all the zombies I see when I'm in Vegas, the ones sitting at the slot machines playing for hours on end. I guess if they can do that on their phones, they would probably love it and be happy to fork over the $$.

There's at least a key difference with casino gambling - you can win real money. You probably won't but you can.

I believe they did a study and only about 2.2% of the people who downloads the game actually spend money

I'm glad to hear that. I'm in a Facebook group for this particular game and lots of people talk about spending within the game but I guess there are tens of thousands of people playing it so it might still only represent a small percentage of players.

OK so this yeah this isn't going to be good for me, but I do currently pay a monthly subscription for a MMO that costs roughly $11 and change.

I think that's a little different. A subscription-based game can't be played for free. There might be similar games that are free but that one isn't. So if you want to play it, you need to pay.

[GoodSteward]

Free games with pay-per-extras are the new thing. Why charge 30$ once for years of game time if you can give the game away get people to spend 5-10$ several times a year, year after year.

I play an online FPS game that is free, but you can buy more "money" in the game with real money to buy new weapons and items. I have spent probably 50-60$ over the life of this game. I barely play anymore, but if I had bought the game outright it would have been half. I am a PC gamer, so this was justifiable to me.

I think this goes back to the payments thing I mentioned in the other thread. People don't think about small, repeated purchases as much as the same amount all at once.

As for mobile games I barely spend any money buying the ad free, but I refuse to spend any money to advance in the game. One time my child got my phone and was playing angry birds. He bought a bomb pack for 30$ and I didn't realize it. I emailed the company and requested a refund, which they granted. I setup a code after that to avoid a repeat. Crazy! I never knew they even offered something that much in a free mobile game.

[bjl584]

No. I currently don't pay any money for online gaming.
I used to play a few free games and just dealt with the ads.
Most of those games on your smartphone are fairly basic, which caused me to lose interest fairly quickly.

[disneysteve]

One time my child got my phone and was playing angry birds. He bought a bomb pack for 30$ and I didn't realize it.

I've heard so many stories like this. On my phone (iPhone), in order to complete a purchase, you need to enter the iTunes password. If I was letting my kid play on my phone, I sure as heck wouldn't tell her what the password was.

[JustDave]

I've heard so many stories like this. On my phone (iPhone), in order to complete a purchase, you need to enter the iTunes password. If I was letting my kid play on my phone, I sure as heck wouldn't tell her what the password was.

On Android devices you can choose to have the password remembered so it won't prompt you every time. I don't have that enabled to prevent against my own foolish purchases, let alone the kids'.

[disneysteve]

On Android devices you can choose to have the password remembered so it won't prompt you every time. I don't have that enabled to prevent against my own foolish purchases, let alone the kids'.

I guess that explains it. Yes, you should definitely disable that. It is quite easy to accidentally make a purchase if you don't have to do anything to confirm it. I've accidentally hit the purchase prompts plenty of times but then I just hit cancel when the password window pops up. If just hitting the "buy" button was all that needed to happen, that would be really bad.

[bjl584]

I've heard so many stories like this. On my phone (iPhone), in order to complete a purchase, you need to enter the iTunes password. If I was letting my kid play on my phone, I sure as heck wouldn't tell her what the password was.

You can have the "in app purchase" feature disabled by your phone provider.

I had Verizon disable this feature for me. Now, none of the phones on my family share plan can buy any in app purchases from the phone itself. It can only be enabled by Verizon if I would choose to call them and have them switch this feature back on.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Once accidentally i didn't mean to push the button but i was playing and then it said continue and I did.

I have purchased apps for my kids. For myself? No. But the kids I admit to buying some.

Oh yeah my kids i had to put password protection on their kindles. Once my kiddo tried to buy stuff during their games. I was like no way. And my phone now has it on fingerprint which makes it easier.

[Leo]

Not sure if this counts but I play video games sometimes so I buy $60 dollar console games occasionally. I also spend money on a card game as a hobby. One rare card cost as much as $100 each.