I know someone who was spending $1000 per month on Candy Crush several years ago. I was absolutely, and completely shocked when she shared that revelation with me. All of the sudden her Facebook posts about needing to quit candy crush made a lot more sense. She talked like an addict, which was very confusing to me for a little Bejeweled game, but she was in fact addicted, and addicted very hard.
It’s surprising to me because I play, what I think, is a lot of mobile games too, but I can’t even remember if I’ve ever paid any actual money into any of them besides buying a $0.99 game or two.
If I get put on hold because I don’t enough jewels, I put the game down and go to another game. Even in Clash of Clans, I got up to Town Hall 11 and never out a dime into that game.
I’ve never understood why anyone feels the need to buy anything in the games.
It’s no different from VLTs and other gambling products. Not everyone will become addicted, but they are designed to addict. You and me might drop a dollar here or there and move on, but for every ten of us, there is 1 who gets addicted and drops a paycheque a month on this stuff.
I know someone who was spending $1000 per month on Candy Crush several years ago. I was absolutely, and completely shocked when she shared that revelation with me. All of the sudden her Facebook posts about needing to quit candy crush made a lot more sense. She talked like an addict, which was very confusing to me for a little Bejeweled game, but she was in fact addicted, and addicted very hard.
It’s surprising to me because I play, what I think, is a lot of mobile games too, but I can’t even remember if I’ve ever paid any actual money into any of them besides buying a $0.99 game or two.
If I get put on hold because I don’t enough jewels, I put the game down and go to another game. Even in Clash of Clans, I got up to Town Hall 11 and never out a dime into that game.
I’ve never understood why anyone feels the need to buy anything in the games.
It’s no different from VLTs and other gambling products. Not everyone will become addicted, but they are designed to addict. You and me might drop a dollar here or there and move on, but for every ten of us, there is 1 who gets addicted and drops a paycheque a month on this stuff.
Since a lot of it is marketed to kids, I’d bet it’s more than 1/10 who have bought into useless microtransactions (with or without parental consent).