As someone with a literal Master's degree in this exact subject and who runs a design firm based on these principles, this is all spot on. The tricks and techniques that the industry uses to manipulate users these days are deep, advanced, and insidious.
ATMs are legal on casino floors in the US. I live in Las Vegas (and work in the free-to-play gaming market). Every casino has ATM machines on the casino floor (with fees that are double any other location). In addition, the slot machines don't give cash, they give tickets that are redeemed at the ATMs, so the are integral to the way the casinos work.
I work for a credit card company and one time I helped a guy dispute over $2k worth of microtransactions in some Marvel gacha. And this was a guy in his 20s who spent all that money hoping he’d pull a character he wanted. I’m a supervisor now, but I’ve had agents get calls where a kid put hundreds of dollars on a parent’s card for an f2p game. Gachas are so predatory and need to be regulated. I miss the days of pay once and play mobile games, especially RPGs, but the market is dominated by gachas and it sucks. I do play two, but I’ve allowed myself to spend money on one of them because it’s actually really good and the gacha system takes a backseat to the content. But it’s essentially gambling and someone needs to step in, especially when it comes to kids and teenagers.
I completely agree, gachas are gambling and should probably be regulated as such. When I was a kid, my parents set a very strict rule on never spending any money on anything that didn't impact your life positively. Still following that even though I've moved out already.
This would probably be an unpopular opinion but there should be a way to verify age; I know ppl don't like the idea of using their I.D online to do so, so maybe there could be a 3rd party system connected to the gov't branch that Already has our I.D info that can be used to verify us online (without collecting info on the sites we visit of course, I know that is a slippery slope if not properly executed). As a side benefit, I just love the idea of less kids being able to play whatever game they want without their parents first having to go through the effort of signing something online saying they gave permission to the kid's account to play CoD or something 🤷
@@3randomtrippycolors215 I'll have you know that China does this and it doesn't work.... All it lead to is the proliferation of online database and generators. The only way to make ID check work is to expose enough info to cross reference which will become a serious privacy concern.
1:33 types of free to play games 3:29 statistics 5:34 in game currency 8:14 dopamine 10:52 logarithmic thinking 12:46 reciprocity 14:08 ego depletion 15:14 data science
The sad reality of it all is that Sideprojects shouda included this from the start, instead of just yeeting another video into the aether. Wouldha saved Mr. Stallard from interupting his experience and everyone else watching would have had the stamps from get go.
This is one of the most important videos Mr Whistler has ever posted. Thank you, sir. (although I would have considered posting it in Into The Shadows instead)
Nice video. Would like to have seen the "sunk-cost fallacy" included. Once you start spending, it becomes easier and easier for your brain to "justify" further purchases.
Thanks, Sideprojects, for this topic. Although having some idea, I've long been curious about the extended scope of how the "free-to-play" model works.
One thing you didn't mention was alliances. The thing that got me to keep playing a couple gatcha games for a few years was that they get you to join a team of players early on to get team-only rewards and then I liked my team and didn't want to let them down by quitting. That was also the thing that got me to spend a bit. I was fine with the slow grind for myself, but I didn't want to hurt my team's competitiveness.
Exactly why I played a few games long after I lost enjoyment from the actual game. I wanted to spend time with my friends and didn't want to let them down. Despite not knowing their real names or anything about them!
Sure, I like that thinking but what do you base the worth off of? I've downloaded a few I haven't got to play yet, but it seems a lot of them are cheaper to develop than I would know, but who's to say? In the mid-90's, there was Donkey Kong for SNES and that still seems more advanced than some free games...
There is one thing that really surprises me in all of this: In my country, Gambling is HEAVILY taxed and regulated... yet the government hasnt catched on that there are probably millions of untaxed revenue siphoned away trough gambling games (yes all that f2p shenanigans with micro transactions is 90% just flat out gambling) ... i hope they crack down on that soon. Some countries already did.
Hey Simon, howsabout you do more videos about video game related things, given how culturally significant video games are? E.g. a Biographics about Jerry Lawson (who invented video game cartridges), Ralph H. Baer (credited with the first home video game console) or a Side/Megaproject about the 1983 video game market crash?
Great video...As an ex War Thunder Player I spent about £20 in total as I was trying to help myself team, whilst chatting one day online I was mooaning that I had spent said £20 and was a bit taken aback when others said £500 plus (500 was the minimum quoted). Funnily enough I don't play it any more, I wasn't going to bee spending the money so the grind became tedious.
My will is directly linked to my pocketbook. It takes a lot of effort to pry open my pocketbook now days lol. Denying myself things is ingrained into my soul. Also I grew up in the era where you bought a game and owned it. Hard to come back from that. It is bad enough to not have a physical copy of a game - You have to drag me with wild horses to jump into a system that does not allow me to own a physical copy of a game and/or require an internet connection to play. Yet when I was younger I would willingly pay so much per minute just to access the internet or to talk on the phone. We used a lot less internet back in those days and talked a lot less on the phone lol..
Mine is similar. I'm a semi-reformed Master Troll and I love running rings round the amateur trolls at times. I don't go after normies I'm not a complete loser. Just mostly.
With my super bad ADHD, I also got super bad impulse control and for some time I had real real bad issues with spending literally hundreds of Euros on a game per month. the solution is: delete all apps that will make you spend no matter how much you love the game. and I have a VPN that actually blocks the purchase button so that's neat
Whenever I think of mobile games, I think of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Game", where a new game that gives you a dopamine hit every time you win makes addicts of nearly everyone on board.
I don't mind free to play with microtransactions model of today. Back in my day Jekle and Hyde for the NES sold for about $40. Kool-aid Man for the 2600 was also $40. Keep I'm mind this wasn't my money being spent, it was my my mom using my my dad's credit card. Me? I was collecting cans to get the $52.50 for the latest Mega Man release.
Would love a sideprojects episode about collectible card games, and their economy, and how these games are transitioning to online games. There is a MASSIVE difference in the economies of the two versions of the games. As when you own a rare card you can sell it. But online, you literally sign an agreement that you DO NOT own this card and it has no value. Online collectible card games are one of the worst pay to win games ever made, simply because people that play offline with real cards are used to buying packs or cards to make their decks.
That's one reason I stay with physical card games. Also, there just seems to be a disconnect with having the card be on a screen and not in your hand. It makes the games feel like you're just going through the motions. And sitting down at a table, desk, outside area, and so one, face-to-face with another human being playing game of MTG just feels good. I just can't do the online stuff, and seeing how predatory it is, I'm glad I can't.
Also makes it sad where you can't have face to face interaction, I like playing modern but it has died recently in magic makes it so you can't do anything or other people switch to other stuff
Did you guys get a new editor? The quality is dropping. Simon says the same thing twice (editor forget to delete the bad take) and the audio varies wildly. It goes from low while Simon is taking to incredibly loud during the chapter titles.
I wonder how much I've spent at arcades when I was growing up in the 80-90s; easily hundreds. I'm pretty sure a lot of the same psychology went in to the design of those games, thought I guess I couldn't carry those home in my pocket.
Same, would have been quite a lot in the money of that time. You could get deluded into thinking that Tekken or Samurai Showdown were skill-based, but the opportunity was always there for the designers to be dicks. We probably all know this now but Konami, who were huge in that arcade space, have always been a gambking company first in their native Japan, and employed every trick of the casino in their game design.
When talking about the pity timer in hearthstone one of the developers said the only one they actually have is the guarantee legend in one of your first 10 packs of a new expansion. That was a year or two ago so they may have added it, but the one people talked about 1-40 wasn’t real even though people had thought it was for years.
He said that there was no definitive answer as to why women play more free-to-play games then men and then followed that by saying that the most logical answer is that the PC and console gaming space is more hostile towards women. That is a very large leap to make and one that should require more thought. Although some female streamers and players have experienced hostility I don't think that is a reason for the gap. It could be that some women just prefer those kinds of games. I don't think those kinds of conclusions put forth by an educator should be taken lightly.
This is a awesome video. It helps to teach younger people that money is NOT free. Don't think that for one minute spending money for any one free game will pay off. It's a scam when people tell you your getting something for free. Car salesman, House salespeople , appliance people, fast-food restaurants, even Costco and Walmart are trying to make you think your getting something for free. IF you hear that statement FREE you better run. If you can't run then get what you can for free and move on as fast as you can. Be smarter than the overeducated deadbeats that are trying to steal your money. This is what makes America great. P.S. all politicians lie, same with lawyers. It's you against the world. You and your family. Don't waist.....Support your family. It's your JOB.
Free to play (Freemium) games have always been popular in Asia. A possible reason might be smartphone usage. I think the highest earning game is currently 王者荣耀 (Honor of Kings) and I was happy to spend at least $40 a month on it until WePay decided it hated foreign credit cards...
I'm playing this now and so far I've been able to keep it at $15 or less a month. That's about what I spend on an MMO, so that's what I spend on GI. And honestly, I think it's a huge and great looking game.
@@AndrewPrinster it's not even finished since they have to release 3 more nations and expansion zones similar to dragonspine, chasm, and enkanomiya, then they have khaenri'ah and Celestia. This is probably bigger than Final Fantasy.
I play a few games that classed as free to play, a couple of them stand out. World of Warships:Legends is free unless you want a legendary tier ship but I'd say that Warframe is truly free to play, you can even get the Prime items for free. When starting you get a limited number of weapon and warframe slots but you are under no obligation to buy any more or to even buy the ingame currency, platinum. You can get extra slots for free, usually at a login milestone and platinum can be gained from FREE DLC (at least on console) or sell a mod in game or, if you're really lucky as a prize from a twitch dev live stream
Oi stop telling porkies you don't need to pay to get legendary tier ships they're totally free and any potato can unlock them without having a clue how to play the game and then ruin my game by being on my team and not doing their job. Premium ships however do cost money but you can still be competitive without the them.
03:06 except, that visual changes to give advantages and disadvantages. there are skins that are even banned from pro play because of the advantage they give
not sure which is more annoying. the pop up ads of the past or trying to do anything on a mobile phone and not being able to browser any side because of the pages having so many banner ads if you can even browse the site in the first place because of the "accept cookies" prompt that pops up and doesnt allow you to refuse it just accept the cookie or close the tab altogether and blacklist the site entirely which leads to 90% of sites being blacklisted
As a gamer with 5 rigs, and two of those having 3090's, I very rarely play anything unless it's free to play. To stop yourself buying in game stuff, retrain yourself to think as those "currency" popups as an Ad. I've never spent a penny for myself but have admittedly bought my daughters in game stuff and the wife buys Robux alot 🤦🏻♂️
Casinos in Nevada have atm machines. And they also go with the prepurchase for coins in the slot machines so people spend more money. At least in the larger casinos not really sure about all of them but being a local I dont gamble.
Can I just note that the bass sound in the intro is absolutely kicking (whoever did that: great job!). I don''t game, but my phone is littered with in-game purchases (thanks 14yo).
As a 1k day+ player of RoK. I'm a very very low spender, but some of there's whales, and there's also Krakens. Krakens typically have spent over $1mil and spend at least a couple of $k a day. Knowing a few of them, they are mainly men in their 30's to 40's, business owners or high net worth and it's a hobby and their disposable income.
This is exactly right. The other major audience is, believe it or not, retirees. Well-off senior citizens who are bored and are looking for a way to kill time. So they play around on their phones and spend their retirement money on the shiny stuff.
I started playing Cats and Soup, in which it is possible to get quite some way without paying real money if you suss the mechanics. Now, I’ve reached the stage where I estimate it is impossible to progress at any reasonable pace without a cash outlay. No, thank you. It’s scary how creators can monetise so many people, so easily.
Actually (🤓, I know), in simplistic terms, dopamine is the hormone released to make you crave something. Seratonin is the "feel good" hormone released upon satisfying the desire caused by the release of dopamine. The cycle, then, repeats.
Thanks Simon and Side Projects. I really needed this six months ago before I was suckered in. Helping me break the habit. Now to sell my gaming account.
I do hope, Simon, that you will cut back on some of your sponsors, such as War Thunder, World of Tanks. After all, being required to deal with their ads is a payment we are stuck with.
I used to platoon with a guy in world of tanks console. I reckon I've spent 300 quid over 6-7 years, easily. He told me had spent over £2,000 (yes, TWO thousand) and that was 2-3 years ago when he was on the brink of stopping playing. The irony is that you don't really get that much of a P2W push from ploughing cash in, it just helps with grinding.
i despise how games have gotten more and more monetized over time. Constantly pushing you to buy stuff while you're playing. I do enjoy a good deep dive into this topic as it is one close to me personally, i game alot so i'm interested to see these discussions pop up. I hope, at some point, there can and will be more laws protecting gamer consumers. Most recently i played lost ark, over 2000 hours and mostly free, i did spend about $500 buying all of the founders packs at launch plus some skin packs over the past 6-7 months but other than that i havn't spent. I know some people who have spent thousands on the game. For me to keep up to those people, i was grinding 7-8 hours a day every day and then they were still ahead of me. i didnt like that, so i've since stopped playing that game, which sucks as the game is incredibly fun.
I think of the instance in this video Simon says "a bit douchey". People like you, talking about laws, is the reason in myopia, why anarchism is a rational choice. What if you looked at your own psychology and understood that your standards for deciding what games are worth your time, have been distorted by some novelty the game presents when you could otherwise spend the money elsewhere on a platform once, and not have it conveniently with you at all times? I'm not defending the practice of charging fees I'm saying that in this days' age, we need to reduce and in some instances redefine, what laws mean. I'm saying that in this days' age we need to look at the things that captivate us, more discerningly.
Very interesting topic. I play a couple of F2P games on my phone and I've played others in the past on the newest game i spent $11.99 on last spring as a thanks for producing the game ( just as noted in video) and have no plan to spend further. The older game has been around for a long time ( 2012?) and I've been playing since then. I spent about $50 near the start of playing and nothing since. For both i could afford to spend more but just have no desire too. I do watch a LOT of ads though LOL. I also play a F2P game on my computer that is definitely a little P2W and i have spent about $120 over 3 years on that and expect to pay more when things I'm interested in are for sale. I could have spent Hundreds on all of them luckily I'm cheap and have learned not to spurge on things like this.
I would like to say, just for the record, that Warframe does a pretty damn good job of monetising a free-to-play game without being predatory. World of Tanks is also not too toxic.
"Not predatory" is relative. As a game designer and psychologist, you can trust me when I say they are ALL predatory. It's just a matter of how much. Even this video just barely scratches the surface on how this stuff works.
For Heathstone, I've always considered it a pay to have fun game. As long as you are a reasonable active player(clear all daily quest, no more) for at least 2 years (to wait out a full set of standard cycle), the amount of free resource earned can ensure that you can have one competitive deck at all times. In fact, you can in theory make 2-4 of them every "season" but... due to balance patch that might destroy a deck but only refund some specific card and not the whole deck, one at any given time is what you should go for to not exhaust your resource. But obviously, playing the exact same deck day in and day out would be really boring. So very basically, you won't be allowed to have any fun unless you either grind, gets really good at arena/duel or pay. It is often mistaken for a pay to win game due to the either mismanagement of resources (i.e. to have fun) or for the fact that for the first 1-2 year, it is true that if you don't pay to hasten the progress, you won't be winning.
@@maxpayne2574 Maybe you should stop assuming things. I'm just highly technical about things. I will point out things that are wrong when they are... wrong. I barely play the game, and mostly battleground w/o the pass even when I do. I'm actually quite old school and like physical things. I spent way more on blu rays than on games(bought or microtransaction). Hell, I've spent about as much on SSD to store the rip of said blu ray than I do games. Games constitute... about 3-5% of my "entertainment", with 90% being physicals good of some sort, mostly collectibles and physical media.
@@circleviii1801 Yeah? I never said it was a good model, just that it isn't pay to win. It's like turd, you ain't gonna eat it, but it also isn't radioactive.
I have the image in my head they were prepping the ad read and realized it would have be a bit awkward to put in one of the game sponsors and a non-game sponsor would barely be less awkward.
For as far as I understand, the disparity between women and men being spenders on such thing is a much broader phenomenon. According to the numbers I've heard, women make up roughly 80% of all consumer spending on the market, which is most likely attributed to them being more prone to negative emotion once they reach puberty, which increases their likeliness to be impulsive (this is on average, across the whole female demographic). Men on the other hand, being more inclined to try and become, what they percieve, the "leader of the pack" is also a thing, so for those few whose perception of status becomes linked to the game they are playing, it is more likely that they will invest into it. Once invested, there is also the sense of attachment to said investment and not wanting it to go to waste. The over-attachment to the game and its dopamine inducing effects have the implication that players would rather keep on looking for said dopamine hits within the games, rather than from the satisfaction of working out or improving themselves, which leads to a very unhealthy lifestyle as even properly preparing food becomes too much of a deal and working out is for most completelly of the table. The reduction of testosterone production and, due to its reduced presence in the body, reduced suppression of stresshormones (among many other things), makes the male player more prone to negative emotion in turn, turning them more impulsive as well. It's a downward spiral effect that is hard to get out of. The combination of modern day popular naratives, cognitive dissonance and the companies best interest being in promoting this state of mind, makes these kinds of games rather dangerous towards susceptible people. The common thread of depression within those circles can be linked to these things, especially to the very high peak of dopamine, which doesn't reset to 0, but actually dips you below 0 once it wears off, in a rebound effect.
Every casino I've been to in the US had an atm on thr casino floor. Dunno where you got that it's illegal cuz it's not. Hell you can apply for a line of credit without ever leaving
I used to play Runescape for years, started back in mid 2006 and spent a week playing the freeplayers, then got a monthly sub for £5, with my 30,000k I had scraped together i made it to 2m in a day by trading and never looked back. When Bonds (after years of on-off play in 2013) came out which in effect killed 'illegal' gold sellers as anyone could sell a set amount of gold (up and down depending on the economy) you could effectively play for free all the content if you had a way to come up with the cash, as I could easily make 10-20M a day through mining, not an insignificant amount I never had to pay out of my own real world money again. I was posted my bank after a year of playing, and everyone on my old forum Sals oohed and aahed at the value of it. Most players are lazy, but if you set goal and work towards it slowly and surely you generally get better. There were far far richer players knocking around, some with trillions in value to my modest 3b, but it was still a hefty amount and much envied. I quit the game finally last year and gave EVERYTHING away to random players, streamers and clan friends. If I ever returned to the game in the first couple of days I would have enough to buy 14 days of membership from (0gp to around 50m currently) through the knowledge and knowhow I have built up. I don't think of it as predatory, some players have VAST cash reserves they can never spend and if those players (such as myself) got it in their head to donate 6 months of members to a couple of streamers who were talking amongst themselves while playing that they cannot afford members why is it a bad thing that someone donates in that way?
Well to be honest it depends on which side of this age you are on. Want to make millions? Make a Free-to-play game. Want to spend millions? Play a free-to-play game. You use to have to be a bully to get a kids lunch money... Now just make a free-to-play game!
I feel like 2003-2009 was the golden age of gaming. We got incredibly games like GTA 4, Crysis, Mass Effect, Oblivion, etc. where the devs kept adding tons of content and depth to their games. By the 2010s devs started switching focus to simplifying games to make it easier for casual gamers to get involved and they started getting more and more shallow like Skyrim and Mass Effect 2.
There is more money spent on games now than any other time in history because there are more people gaming than any time in history. The mobile game market is bigger than the console and PC game market COMBINED. You can be elitist and nostalgic all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that right now, games are more accessible to more people than ever before. And frankly, as a gamer since the 80s and a game designer, all this gatekeeping and trash talking is bullshit and all yall need to stop. You should be welcoming people into the hobby. If you don't like the games... don't play them. Or put your money where your mouth is and make your own. But as someone who has a literal Master's degree in Games, I can tell you that games are better now than they have ever been.
On and off i've fiddled with free to play games for probably 5 years. In that time i never spent a dime on one. I can never justify spending real $ on a game that requires an internet connection to play and there are several non-ftp games i have passed on entirely because of their always online requirements alone. But when i was doing free to play games (mainly summoner's war and black desert mobile) people were usually surprised to learn i never spent a dime in them because i had progressed just as fast and well as them or even faster. And with a few very minor and purely cosmetic exceptions, had just as much of stuff as them. So basically, there's no real reason to dump $ into them. It might speed you up a bit in the first few weeks to month or 2. But in the long run it always levels out.
There is also something called skin to win. Some cosmetic skins do have small advantages in some games. For example in the game Smite (moba like LoL but 3rd person) there is a loki skin that makes a much quieter sound when you stealth. Making it a lot easier to stealth while out of someone's sight then sneak up on them. Normally you can hear them, but not with the skin. Skin to win
@@mikenee skins come from currency called gems. You get 50 gems every 7 logins. 300 gems from leveling, and rarely 50-100 gems from special events. Or buy them. Lots of skins cost 500-5000 gems
$1 to access all the content of a game I like is about where I'm at. I play free to play games, and have not spent a single, actual cent on any of them, though I do take part in Google Surveys, which earns me cash to spend in the Google Play Store, so when I see some is about to expire, I'll buy something cheap in the game I'm currently enjoying, so maybe that skews my algorithm. All this is to say, I would love a game to offer me everything at $1, but have never seen anything close to that.
You young whipper snappers don't know how good you got it. I remember the days when it cost 25 cents a minute to play PONG. To play PONG. Yep, 25 cents a minute. Some games would kill you in seconds until you figured out how to evade the ghosts. But it would easily cost more than the console version cost to get through the first levels. The first game that used cd rom was made by Disney, didn't use the technology the way it later was used. It was really crummy but looked good because that's all it was used for, and it killed you in the first 10 seconds of play. It came out to huge news coverage so it made millions.
I play a game called Battel of Warships. Its a dead game meaning that the game still existists but theres no updating by the game developer. This means you can play for free and just have fun. You can spend $ but it doesnt mean you have to to advance in the game. Just sign up and play. Its pretty cool.
Okay, last time I went to Vegas I'm like 99% sure there was an ATM on the casino floor. It was right next to the cashier counter (the place where you exchange chips for money (or theoretically vice versa, though you can generally go from money to chips at any table)). It wasn't any specific bank's ATM, and had like a $5 processing fee or something absurd like that, but still, was right there. I'm guessing the rule about "on the casino floor" has to do more with proximity to tables/slots (as the ATM was kinda out of the way a bit, but not extraordinarily so) rather than just on the same floor. Unless the law has changed, that is Edit: so, with a little bit of digging, it seems like the workaround is that the ATMs are not technically owned by the casinos, they're just given permission to be put there by an outside company. So it seems like the CASINO can't have an ATM on the floor, but they can absolutely let a third party put one there instead lol
Simon, I can not hear you. I hear you talking but volume is super low. Some of your channels are loud enough others inconsistent level and there is this one I can barely hear you.
People forget that these games all deal in the most expensive currency we all have access to: *_time._* These games can cost incredible amount of our precious time-the thing we can never get back or earn more of-and even though this can often be worth it for some games, it pays to ask yourself if the cost is worth it.
There is also another reason to have in game currency. If you bought in game items directly with cash, and the item is bugged, you then have a case for refunds etc. But, if you but the currency, then the item with the currency, and the item is bugged... Well the currency worked fine. Sorry about the item, but that's a different issue and you've no refund options....
What someone (perhaps myself) should write up a review of the current state of FTP games. Not only are most of the ads for said games deceptive, leading to a waste of data when you find out whatever game you downloaded, but many are scams. Take the "win real money" casino ads, for example. Every one of them have ads saying "Download our crap, you'll never have to see ads or pay cash!", and every one of them, yep, have ads, and expect you to pay cash for more coins. Oh, and they run full motion video ads, consuming yet more data. Also, so much shovelware, using the same exact engines, the same exact ads, and never ever original. I'd have to video my phone screen to show "the promise" VS "the reality". This is all clearly fraudulent, also known as bait and switch. Considering Google is an IPO, the SEC would be very interested in just what goes on in the Play Store, and how it profits Google.
As someone with a literal Master's degree in this exact subject and who runs a design firm based on these principles, this is all spot on. The tricks and techniques that the industry uses to manipulate users these days are deep, advanced, and insidious.
And mostly based on Edward Bernay's Propoganda
ATMs are legal on casino floors in the US. I live in Las Vegas (and work in the free-to-play gaming market). Every casino has ATM machines on the casino floor (with fees that are double any other location). In addition, the slot machines don't give cash, they give tickets that are redeemed at the ATMs, so the are integral to the way the casinos work.
Haven't talked about Middle East and Western
I work for a credit card company and one time I helped a guy dispute over $2k worth of microtransactions in some Marvel gacha. And this was a guy in his 20s who spent all that money hoping he’d pull a character he wanted. I’m a supervisor now, but I’ve had agents get calls where a kid put hundreds of dollars on a parent’s card for an f2p game.
Gachas are so predatory and need to be regulated. I miss the days of pay once and play mobile games, especially RPGs, but the market is dominated by gachas and it sucks. I do play two, but I’ve allowed myself to spend money on one of them because it’s actually really good and the gacha system takes a backseat to the content. But it’s essentially gambling and someone needs to step in, especially when it comes to kids and teenagers.
I completely agree, gachas are gambling and should probably be regulated as such. When I was a kid, my parents set a very strict rule on never spending any money on anything that didn't impact your life positively. Still following that even though I've moved out already.
That's why games suck now ... they go after whales instead of making a game
as someone who has spent thousands on gachas, I agree they really need to be regulated.
This would probably be an unpopular opinion but there should be a way to verify age; I know ppl don't like the idea of using their I.D online to do so, so maybe there could be a 3rd party system connected to the gov't branch that Already has our I.D info that can be used to verify us online (without collecting info on the sites we visit of course, I know that is a slippery slope if not properly executed).
As a side benefit, I just love the idea of less kids being able to play whatever game they want without their parents first having to go through the effort of signing something online saying they gave permission to the kid's account to play CoD or something 🤷
@@3randomtrippycolors215 I'll have you know that China does this and it doesn't work.... All it lead to is the proliferation of online database and generators.
The only way to make ID check work is to expose enough info to cross reference which will become a serious privacy concern.
1:33 types of free to play games
3:29 statistics
5:34 in game currency
8:14 dopamine
10:52 logarithmic thinking
12:46 reciprocity
14:08 ego depletion
15:14 data science
Thanks, Bubbalah
My, guy... Thanks
The sad reality of it all is that Sideprojects shouda included this from the start, instead of just yeeting another video into the aether. Wouldha saved Mr. Stallard from interupting his experience and everyone else watching would have had the stamps from get go.
@@nubletten yeah it's not hard. Jobs appreciated though
I guess there goes the War Thunder sponsorships...
At least Simon is sticking to his guns about not being sponsored by Raid: Shadow Legends
@@ilajoie3 respectable but huge L for the bag cuz they pay like 6 figures lol
@De Prest Based upon what Simon has said, they won't pay him five figures for a sponsorship
They'll (war thunder) still pay for sponsorship, because people will still buy it
Lol was thinking along the same lines
This is one of the most important videos Mr Whistler has ever posted. Thank you, sir.
(although I would have considered posting it in Into The Shadows instead)
Some of these tactics are kind of sick IMO. And I appreciate you helping to educate ppl about it. Keep up the good work.
Definitely need more videos in this genre they are very interesting and gets the word out, even if it's not Simon's favorite thing to talk about 😂
Look at the jacket and the beautiful ice cream, 3/4's of the way in - he loves it!
Nice video. Would like to have seen the "sunk-cost fallacy" included. Once you start spending, it becomes easier and easier for your brain to "justify" further purchases.
And more difficult to walk away because of your material and psychological investment.
Thanks, Sideprojects, for this topic. Although having some idea, I've long been curious about the extended scope of how the "free-to-play" model works.
One thing you didn't mention was alliances. The thing that got me to keep playing a couple gatcha games for a few years was that they get you to join a team of players early on to get team-only rewards and then I liked my team and didn't want to let them down by quitting. That was also the thing that got me to spend a bit. I was fine with the slow grind for myself, but I didn't want to hurt my team's competitiveness.
Peer pressure
Exactly why I played a few games long after I lost enjoyment from the actual game. I wanted to spend time with my friends and didn't want to let them down. Despite not knowing their real names or anything about them!
@@chawndel8279 Stockholm syndrome
@@babagandu Not quite
Chawndel, a different form of peer pressure
If I love a free game, I will pay up to - and no more than - the price I would likely have paid if I'd bought it outright. So far it's worked.
Sure, I like that thinking but what do you base the worth off of?
I've downloaded a few I haven't got to play yet, but it seems a lot of them are cheaper to develop than I would know, but who's to say?
In the mid-90's, there was Donkey Kong for SNES and that still seems more advanced than some free games...
Free to pay is a proper name.
Anectodally, I’ve noticed the time a “free” game requires us to “pay” by watching an advertisement has almost tripled since I started playing.
Yes you pay with the one currency you can never replace your time.
There is one thing that really surprises me in all of this: In my country, Gambling is HEAVILY taxed and regulated... yet the government hasnt catched on that there are probably millions of untaxed revenue siphoned away trough gambling games (yes all that f2p shenanigans with micro transactions is 90% just flat out gambling) ... i hope they crack down on that soon. Some countries already did.
Hey Simon, howsabout you do more videos about video game related things, given how culturally significant video games are?
E.g. a Biographics about Jerry Lawson (who invented video game cartridges), Ralph H. Baer (credited with the first home video game console) or a Side/Megaproject about the 1983 video game market crash?
Great video...As an ex War Thunder Player I spent about £20 in total as I was trying to help myself team, whilst chatting one day online I was mooaning that I had spent said £20 and was a bit taken aback when others said £500 plus (500 was the minimum quoted). Funnily enough I don't play it any more, I wasn't going to bee spending the money so the grind became tedious.
Well me spend over 200 in the last week cause of 10th anniversary xD but i truly love the game :) and have almost 2000h on it
@@DocFriday94 I feel really bad for you what you could have done with those 2000 hours you'll never get back.😥
@@maxpayne2574 well tell that the 3600h on EFT xD its my hobby, like every other human i spend time and money on that
I binned it off as I was fed up of the PTW players with their buffed purchases trouncing everyone else.That and the toxicity of some of the players.
“As from where that money is coming from…” I thought I was having a stroke
Yup at 4:15 , I had to rewind it to make sure I wasn't losing it lol
@@GlimmerByNessie Me too! Even legends make mistakes sometimes
My will is directly linked to my pocketbook. It takes a lot of effort to pry open my pocketbook now days lol. Denying myself things is ingrained into my soul. Also I grew up in the era where you bought a game and owned it. Hard to come back from that. It is bad enough to not have a physical copy of a game - You have to drag me with wild horses to jump into a system that does not allow me to own a physical copy of a game and/or require an internet connection to play.
Yet when I was younger I would willingly pay so much per minute just to access the internet or to talk on the phone. We used a lot less internet back in those days and talked a lot less on the phone lol..
I have coined a new word for people like us cheapassness I were it with pride.
My favorite free online game is making YT comments and watching the trolls freak out...
YO BRO WTF
Yeah man your mother was telling me about that last night 😂
Now go and grab your new daddy another cold beer 🍺
Mine is similar. I'm a semi-reformed Master Troll and I love running rings round the amateur trolls at times. I don't go after normies I'm not a complete loser. Just mostly.
Triggered
With my super bad ADHD, I also got super bad impulse control and for some time I had real real bad issues with spending literally hundreds of Euros on a game per month. the solution is:
delete all apps that will make you spend no matter how much you love the game. and I have a VPN that actually blocks the purchase button so that's neat
Whenever I think of mobile games, I think of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Game", where a new game that gives you a dopamine hit every time you win makes addicts of nearly everyone on board.
Wow great video! Very informative. Keep it up
I don't mind free to play with microtransactions model of today. Back in my day Jekle and Hyde for the NES sold for about $40. Kool-aid Man for the 2600 was also $40. Keep I'm mind this wasn't my money being spent, it was my my mom using my my dad's credit card.
Me? I was collecting cans to get the $52.50 for the latest Mega Man release.
Would love a sideprojects episode about collectible card games, and their economy, and how these games are transitioning to online games. There is a MASSIVE difference in the economies of the two versions of the games. As when you own a rare card you can sell it. But online, you literally sign an agreement that you DO NOT own this card and it has no value. Online collectible card games are one of the worst pay to win games ever made, simply because people that play offline with real cards are used to buying packs or cards to make their decks.
That's one reason I stay with physical card games. Also, there just seems to be a disconnect with having the card be on a screen and not in your hand. It makes the games feel like you're just going through the motions. And sitting down at a table, desk, outside area, and so one, face-to-face with another human being playing game of MTG just feels good. I just can't do the online stuff, and seeing how predatory it is, I'm glad I can't.
There's no way to stare into someone's eyes and feel the hope leave there soul once your victory is imminent in online tcg. Not for me
can't play paper magic because of the online version killed it at my local game store
You're playing awful online CCGs then
Also makes it sad where you can't have face to face interaction, I like playing modern but it has died recently in magic makes it so you can't do anything or other people switch to other stuff
Did you guys get a new editor? The quality is dropping. Simon says the same thing twice (editor forget to delete the bad take) and the audio varies wildly. It goes from low while Simon is taking to incredibly loud during the chapter titles.
That last quote is just sinister.
I wonder how much I've spent at arcades when I was growing up in the 80-90s; easily hundreds. I'm pretty sure a lot of the same psychology went in to the design of those games, thought I guess I couldn't carry those home in my pocket.
Same, would have been quite a lot in the money of that time.
You could get deluded into thinking that Tekken or Samurai Showdown were skill-based, but the opportunity was always there for the designers to be dicks.
We probably all know this now but Konami, who were huge in that arcade space, have always been a gambking company first in their native Japan, and employed every trick of the casino in their game design.
When talking about the pity timer in hearthstone one of the developers said the only one they actually have is the guarantee legend in one of your first 10 packs of a new expansion. That was a year or two ago so they may have added it, but the one people talked about 1-40 wasn’t real even though people had thought it was for years.
Then we have the worst of all, the games you pay for that still have all these predatory features built in. Thanks EA, Activision and Ubisoft.
The irony of having a raid ad come up in the middle of this video is hysterical
He said that there was no definitive answer as to why women play more free-to-play games then men and then followed that by saying that the most logical answer is that the PC and console gaming space is more hostile towards women. That is a very large leap to make and one that should require more thought. Although some female streamers and players have experienced hostility I don't think that is a reason for the gap. It could be that some women just prefer those kinds of games. I don't think those kinds of conclusions put forth by an educator should be taken lightly.
This is a awesome video. It helps to teach younger people that money is NOT free. Don't think that for one minute spending money for any one free game will pay off. It's a scam when people tell you your getting something for free. Car salesman, House salespeople , appliance people, fast-food restaurants, even Costco and Walmart are trying to make you think your getting something for free. IF you hear that statement FREE you better run. If you can't run then get what you can for free and move on as fast as you can. Be smarter than the overeducated deadbeats that are trying to steal your money. This is what makes America great. P.S. all politicians lie, same with lawyers. It's you against the world. You and your family. Don't waist.....Support your family. It's your JOB.
Free to play (Freemium) games have always been popular in Asia. A possible reason might be smartphone usage.
I think the highest earning game is currently 王者荣耀 (Honor of Kings) and I was happy to spend at least $40 a month on it until WePay decided it hated foreign credit cards...
On the topic of free to play games, a video on the Battle Pass monetisation concept would also be interesting to see
Simon should have included the Gacha game Genshin Impact being a prime example of this subject.
I'm playing this now and so far I've been able to keep it at $15 or less a month. That's about what I spend on an MMO, so that's what I spend on GI. And honestly, I think it's a huge and great looking game.
@@AndrewPrinster it's not even finished since they have to release 3 more nations and expansion zones similar to dragonspine, chasm, and enkanomiya, then they have khaenri'ah and Celestia. This is probably bigger than Final Fantasy.
I play a few games that classed as free to play, a couple of them stand out. World of Warships:Legends is free unless you want a legendary tier ship but I'd say that Warframe is truly free to play, you can even get the Prime items for free. When starting you get a limited number of weapon and warframe slots but you are under no obligation to buy any more or to even buy the ingame currency, platinum. You can get extra slots for free, usually at a login milestone and platinum can be gained from FREE DLC (at least on console) or sell a mod in game or, if you're really lucky as a prize from a twitch dev live stream
Oi stop telling porkies you don't need to pay to get legendary tier ships they're totally free and any potato can unlock them without having a clue how to play the game and then ruin my game by being on my team and not doing their job. Premium ships however do cost money but you can still be competitive without the them.
03:06 except, that visual changes to give advantages and disadvantages. there are skins that are even banned from pro play because of the advantage they give
why was this episode so quiet compared to the intro music and the ad volume? nice one whistle boy
FYI ATMs are all over casinos in NV. Therefore your reference must mean specifically to the very 'casino floor' otherwise that could not be the case.
People don't realize how much money grandma is dropping into candy crush.
not sure which is more annoying. the pop up ads of the past or trying to do anything on a mobile phone and not being able to browser any side because of the pages having so many banner ads if you can even browse the site in the first place because of the "accept cookies" prompt that pops up and doesnt allow you to refuse it just accept the cookie or close the tab altogether and blacklist the site entirely which leads to 90% of sites being blacklisted
There is a guy called Tadano Mac that has spent over a Million dollars in Marvel Strike Force.
As a gamer with 5 rigs, and two of those having 3090's, I very rarely play anything unless it's free to play. To stop yourself buying in game stuff, retrain yourself to think as those "currency" popups as an Ad.
I've never spent a penny for myself but have admittedly bought my daughters in game stuff and the wife buys Robux alot 🤦🏻♂️
Warthunder made 120k in a couple hours selling a German Sherman pack
As a long term fan; is anyone else waiting to hear Simon FINALLY sell his soul...... I mean, accept a promotion for Raid.....
Still says business blaze in the description lol
As it should!
Casinos in Nevada have atm machines. And they also go with the prepurchase for coins in the slot machines so people spend more money. At least in the larger casinos not really sure about all of them but being a local I dont gamble.
Another great episode, I'm watching the whistler on a daily basis.
But please remove the background music, it's to dominant and super distracting.
The first hit is free, after that you gotta sell your soul...
Can I just note that the bass sound in the intro is absolutely kicking (whoever did that: great job!). I don''t game, but my phone is littered with in-game purchases (thanks 14yo).
As a 1k day+ player of RoK. I'm a very very low spender, but some of there's whales, and there's also Krakens. Krakens typically have spent over $1mil and spend at least a couple of $k a day.
Knowing a few of them, they are mainly men in their 30's to 40's, business owners or high net worth and it's a hobby and their disposable income.
This is exactly right. The other major audience is, believe it or not, retirees. Well-off senior citizens who are bored and are looking for a way to kill time. So they play around on their phones and spend their retirement money on the shiny stuff.
I started playing Cats and Soup, in which it is possible to get quite some way without paying real money if you suss the mechanics.
Now, I’ve reached the stage where I estimate it is impossible to progress at any reasonable pace without a cash outlay.
No, thank you.
It’s scary how creators can monetise so many people, so easily.
1:40 - Chapter 1 - Types of free to play games
3:35 - Chapter 2 - Statistics
5:40 - Chapter 3 - In game currency
8:20 - Chapter 4 - Dopamine
11:00 - Chapter 5 - Logarithmic thinking
12:50 - Chapter 6 - Reciprocity
14:15 - Chapter 7 - Ego depletion
15:20 - Chapter 8 - Data science
Actually (🤓, I know), in simplistic terms, dopamine is the hormone released to make you crave something. Seratonin is the "feel good" hormone released upon satisfying the desire caused by the release of dopamine. The cycle, then, repeats.
Thanks Simon and Side Projects. I really needed this six months ago before I was suckered in. Helping me break the habit. Now to sell my gaming account.
Jokes on them, I have never paid to play a free to play game. If they have invasive advertising I also immediately delete them.
After watching casual criminalist and decoding the unknown for sometime I really miss Simons tangents.
I do hope, Simon, that you will cut back on some of your sponsors, such as War Thunder, World of Tanks. After all, being required to deal with their ads is a payment we are stuck with.
Simon's got to get paid somehow you know. Ad revenue alone isn't enough to pay for all the writers, editors, equipment, rent/property taxes, etc.
I used to platoon with a guy in world of tanks console. I reckon I've spent 300 quid over 6-7 years, easily. He told me had spent over £2,000 (yes, TWO thousand) and that was 2-3 years ago when he was on the brink of stopping playing. The irony is that you don't really get that much of a P2W push from ploughing cash in, it just helps with grinding.
i despise how games have gotten more and more monetized over time. Constantly pushing you to buy stuff while you're playing. I do enjoy a good deep dive into this topic as it is one close to me personally, i game alot so i'm interested to see these discussions pop up. I hope, at some point, there can and will be more laws protecting gamer consumers.
Most recently i played lost ark, over 2000 hours and mostly free, i did spend about $500 buying all of the founders packs at launch plus some skin packs over the past 6-7 months but other than that i havn't spent. I know some people who have spent thousands on the game. For me to keep up to those people, i was grinding 7-8 hours a day every day and then they were still ahead of me. i didnt like that, so i've since stopped playing that game, which sucks as the game is incredibly fun.
I think of the instance in this video Simon says "a bit douchey".
People like you, talking about laws, is the reason in myopia, why anarchism is a rational choice.
What if you looked at your own psychology and understood that your standards for deciding what games are worth your time, have been distorted by some novelty the game presents when you could otherwise spend the money elsewhere on a platform once, and not have it conveniently with you at all times?
I'm not defending the practice of charging fees I'm saying that in this days' age, we need to reduce and in some instances redefine, what laws mean.
I'm saying that in this days' age we need to look at the things that captivate us, more discerningly.
Nice raid shadow legends catch 👌
That was really interesting! I'm saving that!
As a game designer, this sickens me.
Addiction and fun are not the same thing.
Very interesting topic. I play a couple of F2P games on my phone and I've played others in the past on the newest game i spent $11.99 on last spring as a thanks for producing the game ( just as noted in video) and have no plan to spend further. The older game has been around for a long time ( 2012?) and I've been playing since then. I spent about $50 near the start of playing and nothing since. For both i could afford to spend more but just have no desire too. I do watch a LOT of ads though LOL. I also play a F2P game on my computer that is definitely a little P2W and i have spent about $120 over 3 years on that and expect to pay more when things I'm interested in are for sale. I could have spent Hundreds on all of them luckily I'm cheap and have learned not to spurge on things like this.
1:50 well played 👏👏👏🧐😎
There's ATM's on the casino floors here in the United States
Thank you for making this video.
There could be a whole video just on Farmville/Zynga since they're pretty much pioneers in this space. They even hired behaviorists for this reason
You did forget that the seed of this model also came from the shareware pay model..but this is a bit of an esoteric point, so missing it is not big.
I would like to say, just for the record, that Warframe does a pretty damn good job of monetising a free-to-play game without being predatory. World of Tanks is also not too toxic.
"Not predatory" is relative. As a game designer and psychologist, you can trust me when I say they are ALL predatory. It's just a matter of how much. Even this video just barely scratches the surface on how this stuff works.
@@housellama then let's just say, not abusively so. They removed some game mechanisms that people were just pumping money into like a slot machine.
The Raid Shadow Legends jebait was perfect. Good job.
For Heathstone, I've always considered it a pay to have fun game.
As long as you are a reasonable active player(clear all daily quest, no more) for at least 2 years (to wait out a full set of standard cycle), the amount of free resource earned can ensure that you can have one competitive deck at all times. In fact, you can in theory make 2-4 of them every "season" but... due to balance patch that might destroy a deck but only refund some specific card and not the whole deck, one at any given time is what you should go for to not exhaust your resource.
But obviously, playing the exact same deck day in and day out would be really boring. So very basically, you won't be allowed to have any fun unless you either grind, gets really good at arena/duel or pay.
It is often mistaken for a pay to win game due to the either mismanagement of resources (i.e. to have fun) or for the fact that for the first 1-2 year, it is true that if you don't pay to hasten the progress, you won't be winning.
You have put a lot of though into justifying the expense maybe that should tell you something?
@@maxpayne2574 Maybe you should stop assuming things. I'm just highly technical about things. I will point out things that are wrong when they are... wrong.
I barely play the game, and mostly battleground w/o the pass even when I do.
I'm actually quite old school and like physical things. I spent way more on blu rays than on games(bought or microtransaction). Hell, I've spent about as much on SSD to store the rip of said blu ray than I do games.
Games constitute... about 3-5% of my "entertainment", with 90% being physicals good of some sort, mostly collectibles and physical media.
@@justanoman6497 did you really just say you need to play for 2 years to have fun? sounds like dogsh*t to me
@@circleviii1801 Yeah? I never said it was a good model, just that it isn't pay to win.
It's like turd, you ain't gonna eat it, but it also isn't radioactive.
@@justanoman6497 idk man if you can only obtain so much resources a day and it takes 2 years to even have fun a rational person calls that p2w
Damn. That would've been the best sponsor ever right there. Such delicious irony!
I have the image in my head they were prepping the ad read and realized it would have be a bit awkward to put in one of the game sponsors and a non-game sponsor would barely be less awkward.
For as far as I understand, the disparity between women and men being spenders on such thing is a much broader phenomenon. According to the numbers I've heard, women make up roughly 80% of all consumer spending on the market, which is most likely attributed to them being more prone to negative emotion once they reach puberty, which increases their likeliness to be impulsive (this is on average, across the whole female demographic). Men on the other hand, being more inclined to try and become, what they percieve, the "leader of the pack" is also a thing, so for those few whose perception of status becomes linked to the game they are playing, it is more likely that they will invest into it. Once invested, there is also the sense of attachment to said investment and not wanting it to go to waste. The over-attachment to the game and its dopamine inducing effects have the implication that players would rather keep on looking for said dopamine hits within the games, rather than from the satisfaction of working out or improving themselves, which leads to a very unhealthy lifestyle as even properly preparing food becomes too much of a deal and working out is for most completelly of the table. The reduction of testosterone production and, due to its reduced presence in the body, reduced suppression of stresshormones (among many other things), makes the male player more prone to negative emotion in turn, turning them more impulsive as well. It's a downward spiral effect that is hard to get out of. The combination of modern day popular naratives, cognitive dissonance and the companies best interest being in promoting this state of mind, makes these kinds of games rather dangerous towards susceptible people. The common thread of depression within those circles can be linked to these things, especially to the very high peak of dopamine, which doesn't reset to 0, but actually dips you below 0 once it wears off, in a rebound effect.
Wish I could have finished this. The audio mixing of the music separating each segment was toooooo loud...
Every casino I've been to in the US had an atm on thr casino floor. Dunno where you got that it's illegal cuz it's not. Hell you can apply for a line of credit without ever leaving
Since when are ATMs in casinos illegal? I've seen them in the middle of a casino in Vegas before.
I used to play Runescape for years, started back in mid 2006 and spent a week playing the freeplayers, then got a monthly sub for £5, with my 30,000k I had scraped together i made it to 2m in a day by trading and never looked back. When Bonds (after years of on-off play in 2013) came out which in effect killed 'illegal' gold sellers as anyone could sell a set amount of gold (up and down depending on the economy) you could effectively play for free all the content if you had a way to come up with the cash, as I could easily make 10-20M a day through mining, not an insignificant amount I never had to pay out of my own real world money again. I was posted my bank after a year of playing, and everyone on my old forum Sals oohed and aahed at the value of it. Most players are lazy, but if you set goal and work towards it slowly and surely you generally get better.
There were far far richer players knocking around, some with trillions in value to my modest 3b, but it was still a hefty amount and much envied. I quit the game finally last year and gave EVERYTHING away to random players, streamers and clan friends.
If I ever returned to the game in the first couple of days I would have enough to buy 14 days of membership from (0gp to around 50m currently) through the knowledge and knowhow I have built up.
I don't think of it as predatory, some players have VAST cash reserves they can never spend and if those players (such as myself) got it in their head to donate 6 months of members to a couple of streamers who were talking amongst themselves while playing that they cannot afford members why is it a bad thing that someone donates in that way?
This is not the golden age of gaming , it's the opposite
its the golden age of psychologically manipulating consumers and getting kids hooked on gamba
Well to be honest it depends on which side of this age you are on. Want to make millions? Make a Free-to-play game. Want to spend millions? Play a free-to-play game.
You use to have to be a bully to get a kids lunch money... Now just make a free-to-play game!
@@tisjester You’re still a bully, just a much smarter, much richer, and more accepted one.
I feel like 2003-2009 was the golden age of gaming. We got incredibly games like GTA 4, Crysis, Mass Effect, Oblivion, etc. where the devs kept adding tons of content and depth to their games. By the 2010s devs started switching focus to simplifying games to make it easier for casual gamers to get involved and they started getting more and more shallow like Skyrim and Mass Effect 2.
There is more money spent on games now than any other time in history because there are more people gaming than any time in history. The mobile game market is bigger than the console and PC game market COMBINED. You can be elitist and nostalgic all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that right now, games are more accessible to more people than ever before.
And frankly, as a gamer since the 80s and a game designer, all this gatekeeping and trash talking is bullshit and all yall need to stop. You should be welcoming people into the hobby. If you don't like the games... don't play them. Or put your money where your mouth is and make your own. But as someone who has a literal Master's degree in Games, I can tell you that games are better now than they have ever been.
On and off i've fiddled with free to play games for probably 5 years. In that time i never spent a dime on one. I can never justify spending real $ on a game that requires an internet connection to play and there are several non-ftp games i have passed on entirely because of their always online requirements alone. But when i was doing free to play games (mainly summoner's war and black desert mobile) people were usually surprised to learn i never spent a dime in them because i had progressed just as fast and well as them or even faster. And with a few very minor and purely cosmetic exceptions, had just as much of stuff as them. So basically, there's no real reason to dump $ into them. It might speed you up a bit in the first few weeks to month or 2. But in the long run it always levels out.
The music at the logarithmic part is incredibly weird
There is also something called skin to win. Some cosmetic skins do have small advantages in some games. For example in the game Smite (moba like LoL but 3rd person) there is a loki skin that makes a much quieter sound when you stealth. Making it a lot easier to stealth while out of someone's sight then sneak up on them. Normally you can hear them, but not with the skin. Skin to win
How do you get skins?
I’ve never heard of this one, but it sounds pretty similar to buying a weapon to get an advantage.
@@mikenee skins come from currency called gems. You get 50 gems every 7 logins. 300 gems from leveling, and rarely 50-100 gems from special events. Or buy them. Lots of skins cost 500-5000 gems
The trick to not spending money on F2P games is being too poor to spend money on F2P games. I'll share that lil tidbit for free.
$1 to access all the content of a game I like is about where I'm at. I play free to play games, and have not spent a single, actual cent on any of them, though I do take part in Google Surveys, which earns me cash to spend in the Google Play Store, so when I see some is about to expire, I'll buy something cheap in the game I'm currently enjoying, so maybe that skews my algorithm. All this is to say, I would love a game to offer me everything at $1, but have never seen anything close to that.
You young whipper snappers don't know how good you got it. I remember the days when it cost 25 cents a minute to play PONG. To play PONG. Yep, 25 cents a minute. Some games would kill you in seconds until you figured out how to evade the ghosts. But it would easily cost more than the console version cost to get through the first levels. The first game that used cd rom was made by Disney, didn't use the technology the way it later was used. It was really crummy but looked good because that's all it was used for, and it killed you in the first 10 seconds of play. It came out to huge news coverage so it made millions.
Watching this picture-in-picture while I play Summoners War
I play a game called Battel of Warships. Its a dead game meaning that the game still existists but theres no updating by the game developer. This means you can play for free and just have fun. You can spend $ but it doesnt mean you have to to advance in the game. Just sign up and play. Its pretty cool.
There's a reason something like MTG is called "cardboard crack". Making it all digital makes it 10 times worse
Okay, last time I went to Vegas I'm like 99% sure there was an ATM on the casino floor. It was right next to the cashier counter (the place where you exchange chips for money (or theoretically vice versa, though you can generally go from money to chips at any table)). It wasn't any specific bank's ATM, and had like a $5 processing fee or something absurd like that, but still, was right there. I'm guessing the rule about "on the casino floor" has to do more with proximity to tables/slots (as the ATM was kinda out of the way a bit, but not extraordinarily so) rather than just on the same floor. Unless the law has changed, that is
Edit: so, with a little bit of digging, it seems like the workaround is that the ATMs are not technically owned by the casinos, they're just given permission to be put there by an outside company. So it seems like the CASINO can't have an ATM on the floor, but they can absolutely let a third party put one there instead lol
Why did some mobile games start without ads? Even OG games like 'Cut the rope' and angry birds have ads now.
you scared me there for a moment sir...
Simon, I can not hear you. I hear you talking but volume is super low. Some of your channels are loud enough others inconsistent level and there is this one I can barely hear you.
Did the edit show Simon say the same line twice a different way? Love it, but some editor in the basement isn't getting gruel tonight.
People forget that these games all deal in the most expensive currency we all have access to: *_time._* These games can cost incredible amount of our precious time-the thing we can never get back or earn more of-and even though this can often be worth it for some games, it pays to ask yourself if the cost is worth it.
last time I was this early, there were no free games
Nothing is free, we pay with our data. Great video and very interesting!
There is also another reason to have in game currency. If you bought in game items directly with cash, and the item is bugged, you then have a case for refunds etc. But, if you but the currency, then the item with the currency, and the item is bugged... Well the currency worked fine. Sorry about the item, but that's a different issue and you've no refund options....
4:14 Oh my God, it’s a glitch in the matrix!!
Wasted three years of my life on Star Trek Fleet command. And I just recently almost got sucked into POTC tides of war. Never again.
What someone (perhaps myself) should write up a review of the current state of FTP games. Not only are most of the ads for said games deceptive, leading to a waste of data when you find out whatever game you downloaded, but many are scams.
Take the "win real money" casino ads, for example. Every one of them have ads saying "Download our crap, you'll never have to see ads or pay cash!", and every one of them, yep, have ads, and expect you to pay cash for more coins. Oh, and they run full motion video ads, consuming yet more data.
Also, so much shovelware, using the same exact engines, the same exact ads, and never ever original. I'd have to video my phone screen to show "the promise" VS "the reality". This is all clearly fraudulent, also known as bait and switch. Considering Google is an IPO, the SEC would be very interested in just what goes on in the Play Store, and how it profits Google.