Mobile Gaming Economics

<rant>

I’m pretty old. Old enough to remember a world before home computers and gaming consoles. My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. It was a sad little computer that hooked up to your (analog) TV set. I did some programming on it using BASIC, but mainly to play games. I had some game cartridges and the rest were stored on cassette tape. I then moved up to a used Apple ][+, which I used in college, and then a Mac Plus. That computer was crazy expensive at the time for what you got and again, I mainly bought it to play Dark Castle (OMG, there is an emulated version online). Anyway, I’ve changed computers a lot over time, and also bought a few gaming consoles. Currently, I have:

• Alienware R7 gaming computer
• HP 9480M laptop (work computer)
• Apple Mac Air (Mid 2012)
• Chromebox (attached to TV)
• Raspberry Pi 4
• iMac (old hand-me-down from my sister for treadmill)
• Sony Playstation 3
• Sony Playstation 2 (with DDR dance pads!)
• Nintendo Switch
• Nintendo Wii

These are just the items that are hooked up and turned-on once in awhile. My parents each have a pretty current PC plus a bunch of obsolete stuff in boxes.

Anyway, I played a lot of games. Not really good at anything specific but I probably have 50+ games for the consoles and countless games for the PC. What I didn’t take into account is mobile devices. Like computers, we have a bunch of smartphones and tablets at home, mostly Apple iPhones and iPads. Since everyone is stuck at home due to COVID-19, we’re spending a lot of time on mobile games too.

I’ve noticed something different about mobile games. A lot of them are FTP (free-to-play), but then nickel-and-dime you to death. I know A games for PC and consoles are ~$60 but typically you buy it and you’re done, except for some DLC later. One type of mobile games seem to be designed to hook you in, then irritate you enough that you pay a dollar (or more) here-and-there to continue to make progress in the game, often spending hundreds of dollars. Kind of like drug dealers giving out “free samples” of crack and heroin. The other type embeds a million 30 second ads between different levels so you spend more time watching ads for apps you already have than playing the game.

Recently, I’m been playing two mobile games. One that falls into the first type is Age of Z Origins. The games starts out fine and lets you do a lot of things. Of course there is a wait timer on everything little task but you get to speed them up for “free”. As you move up the levels, the wait times become exponentially longer. Right now, one of the upgrades take 24 hours. You basically have to sit there and wait that long for the game to progress, unless you spend $$$ to purchase speed-ups. I guess pretty soon the game becomes unplayable unless you spend real money. The other is Plants vs. Zombies 2. It was published by a small company called Pop Caps but now taken over by Electronic Arts, famous for putting in microtransactions even in $60 games. There was a fiasco awhile back regarding Star Wars Battlefront II that actually affected EA revenues and stock price. Someone from EA was making excuses about asking for more money after charging $60 for the game. That comment has 668k downvotes, which is supposed to be a Guinness World Record or something.

It does seem like we’re stuck with the crack cocaine of the gaming world with mobile games. If you look in the iOS app store under games, almost all of them are “free” but with “in-game purchases”. If it is a permanent addition to gameplay or functionality, that’s fine. But for “spendable” items like gems, gold bars, etc., it’s just like getting more drugs for your habit until you quit cold-turkey or go broke. Sad.

</rant>