How do you feel about free (in app purchase) apps?

[Ludikhris]

I recently played The Smurfs Village game and thought i was a decent free game until I saw the prices on the smurf berries and just about smurfed in my pants. I considered buying a few, but then as I played the game i just felt dirtier and dirtier knowing that there are people out there throwing down for the $100 barrles of berries. This actually took away from the game for me. That sad part was that the game is not so bad, I kinda liked it. Only everytime I started to enjoy myself a little devil smurf would jump on my shoulder and say "buy some smurfberries" and then a little angel smurf would come and say "that's a gateway drug, stay the smurf away!"

How does everyone else feel about these types of in game purchases? Do you feel that people are being ripped off here? Do you think this is a shady practice? Or do you think "Whatever stupid person buys those berries deserves to not have his money."

 

[nyydynasty]

i dont have a problem with it. I dont think we're getting ripped off because its still up to the user to purchase the items. I think in-app purchases is a way for the devs to get around piracy issues. Since the app is free, there's nothing to pirate.

 

[Ludikhris]

I hadn't thought of piracy, that's a good point. At the same time though $100 for a wheelbarrel of berries is a but much for the justification of "anti piracy". I'm all for people having the right to make their own choices, it just feels kinda icky. Like if Heroin were legal, sure you can CHOOSE to use it, but it doesn't mean I'm going to like the dealer.

Piracy is good though.....

 

[nyydynasty]

ignoring piracy for a second, charging $100 for the app versus offering it for free and charging people $100 for an in-app item? you tell me which you'll opt for if you had to choose between those two. The devs will get more people to buy an in-app item once they get attached to the free game. They wont get anyone to buy an app for $100 without knowing anything about it

 

[jerofld]

If Google could track the in-app purchases and give a receipt for them, I'd be less concerned.

 

[Ludikhris]

ignoring piracy for a second, charging $100 for the app versus offering it for free and charging people $100 for an in-app item? you tell me which you'll opt for if you had to choose between those two. The devs will get more people to buy an in-app item once they get attached to the free game. They wont get anyone to buy an app for $100 without knowing anything about it

That's what I'm wondering though... if this is ethical behavior from developers. Let's flip it though, if Smufs Village was a $100 app, what would we say about the dev? "They're crazy if they think anyone would buy that! What a rip off!" However, if they use that price as in app purchases we all seem to say "Buyer beware" Which is kind of interesting. It seems like flirting with the line of predatory business practices.

My view comes from the point that I see video games as art, and pricing schemes like this seem gauged less towards enriching the medium and more towards turning a buck. Now I believe all devs should benefit from their work, and in game item purchases can be great when they add to the experience. However, apps that simply speed up gameplay (like Smurfs) through purchases are not adding to a game through pricing schemes and I'm leaning towards the idea that these games are not a step forward.

 

[tretherio]

Did you feel like they should have told you there are expensive items to buy before you downloaded it? (Are these items necessary to have a good time playing the game?)

 

[obsidianwings]

I don't make any in app purchases, but that seems like a rip.
If things are going to cost that much it should be mentioned in the description so we can make a decision whether to get the game or not.
Is the game particularly playable without the $100 item?

 

[obsidianwings]

I would think with the amount of people likely to pay $100 for an in app purchase they probably would've been better off charging say $3 for the game, with no in app purchases, I bet heaps of people would've bought it, and I doubt many are buying the $100 item.

 

[djheadshot]

I'm not a fan of them at all almost all of these games are being designed to suck out as much money as possible from the user far more then can be considered reasonable. Glu mobile games are a prime example of this take contract killer zombies where the weapons you can save up to buy early on become useless after a couple of levels and to progress you have to spend real money and the guns add up to alot you will end up spending around $50 if you want to beat the game which is crazy for a mobile game. The sad part is there games are some of the highest quality android games with nice 3D graphics and are fun to play and if I could buy them for $5-$7.50 and get access to the complete game that is balanced in difficulty and pacing to let you buy new guns when needed simply by playing through the levels I would. For now I'm avoiding these "free games" that rely on in app purchases. I'd much rather have free games using ads instead or offer a lite ad supported version the game and let us pay to unlock the full games if we want to.

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[djheadshot]

Also would like to add I'm not against all in app purchase games just those that charge absurd prices and are required to progress through the game. Defender is an example of in app purchases done well game is free with ads and if you want to pay your way to victory you can but its optional I've made it through loads of levels without paying and the game so far is pretty balanced towards free users and you can alway keep replaying the levels when you get stuck in order to gain more money for upgrades. Other good types of in app purchase are those that add enough new content to be worth it like adding a bunch if new levels to the game.

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[jcarsw04]

Did you feel like they should have told you there are expensive items to buy before you downloaded it? (Are these items necessary to have a good time playing the game?)

+1. I hate downloading these games to find out that I have to pay money to continue my progress. It wouldn't be such as waste of time if they let you know ahead of time that there's in app purchases. It's a cheap way to lure you into the game. I rather pay one up front cost for the game then to be surprised by a whole bunch of charges later.