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Boy splurges 37,000 euros playing free game
- Thread starter ComputerMKII
- Start date
Sol_Goodguy
Member
'Free to play', huh? Wouldn't have guessed...
All parties involved seemed to have dropped the ball. The boy should not have taken advantage of a credit card that was not his, the mother should have watched her bank statements more closely, the game should not have been so addicting nor should it have encouraged or allowed such easy and numerous IAPs, and the credit card company should have stepped in and stopped the spending early on.
I do agree that stricter rules and limits need to be implemented.
All parties involved seemed to have dropped the ball. The boy should not have taken advantage of a credit card that was not his, the mother should have watched her bank statements more closely, the game should not have been so addicting nor should it have encouraged or allowed such easy and numerous IAPs, and the credit card company should have stepped in and stopped the spending early on.
I do agree that stricter rules and limits need to be implemented.
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
agreed. FTP is a slot machine for minors, it should be regulated.
Yeah, the games are quite literally designed to make money by getting a small number of people to spend damaging amounts of money on the game. It's true that in many cases the game itself may be entertaining for the majority who don't spend unhealthy amounts of money on the game, but it's still being funded by harming a small number of people.
It's also important to remember that there's no need to make a decision between "It's unethical to make games designed to exploit people's addiction" and "It's ultimately one's own fault for getting addicted and spending the money." Both of those things can be 100% true at the same time. It's not just that these games ALLOW for addictive behavior. They RELY on it.
Wow.
I always have trouble believing such people are out there... but I guess they are.
I despise F2P and IAP in general. Worst things that happened to videogames.
I'm not sure that is a legitimate criticism.
Making a game that is not addictive seems akin to making a game that is boring,
Brewster's Wallet
Member
That's what I was thinking. They say this happens over a few months.
Plus, what the hell is their credit card limit if it'll allow them to go over 37,000!!
I'm not sure that is a legitimate criticism.
Making a game that is not addictive seems akin to making a game that is boring,
Making a game that's addictive is significantly different than making a game that is addictive, and once you become addicted, relies on extracting unhealthy amounts of money from you in order to fund itself.
But yes, I agree. It's cool to make a game that's hard to stop playing! It's shameful to make a game that starts milking you for money in order to keep playing once you're hooked.
Edit: Reading what you're responding to, you are likely implying the same thing as I'm saying here, so potentially disregard.
Making a game that's addictive is significantly different than making a game that is addictive, and once you become addicted, relies on extracting unhealthy amounts of money from you in order to fund itself.
But yes, I agree. It's cool to make a game that's hard to stop playing! It's shameful to make a game that starts milking you for money in order to keep playing once you're hooked.
Edit: Reading what you're responding to, you are likely implying the same thing as I'm saying here, so potentially disregard.
Yeah. I'm talking about making a game that is addictive in and of itself. It's attaching money to it that makes it bad.
These games depends on the 0.15% that does, though.
Yep but the one speaking to the media is the mother. But if it is that much money it will probably effect the whole family on the blaming part.
Well the thing is lots of old people don't like to work or have adopted checking their balance online/digital. They work with bank statements so my guess when they discovered this is when the grandfather received that bank statement for the last month.
aaronwt
Member
15 years old? When I was six I had a better sense of how to handle money than that 15 year old. A 15 year old should know better.
How can you spend 37k on a game? like waaa
The virtual gold was set to the price of real gold to make the game more realistic. Attention to detail.
Simply Sami
Member
Kid?
He's 15 and doesn't know he is spending real money. Yeah right.
He's 15 and doesn't know he is spending real money. Yeah right.
Cave Johnson
Member
Damn, they must have a hell of a credit limit for $37,000+ to be spent within a period of the family being unaware of the bill. 15-year olds are fully aware of how just how much money that is. Moral of the story: Learn to use computers so you can buy or own shit and don't trust your shitty son ever again with anything.
someguyinahat
Member
While that may sound like a reasonable solution, that would in fact break the free-to-play business model. Why do whales buy so much? To have an advantage over everyone else. If you set a maximum amount, these whales will spend their maximum amount, and what then? They have to share the top tier with everyone else who paid the maximum, and the company is cut off from any further sources of income from the whales. It would have to be set up to constantly attract whales who pay the maximum amount in order to get their maximum funds, then push them OUT of the game so incoming whales don't feel like there's too much competition and not as much advantage value for their dollar.
Extend that to games like Candy Crush. The time will come when a player can no longer buy his way to the next level. He'll become irrevocably stuck, he'll stop playing (which at that point will be good for the company because why let him drain server resources after he's maxed out?) and then negative word of mouth spreads because the game eventually becomes impossible even after paying.
I don't see a problem here.
1) Mom is using her Dad's card
2) Mom and her Dad didn't know nor checked the account for unauthorized charges
3) Kid has authorization when entering the card into the device during the TOS agreement
I hope more F2P titles do this. It will teach people valuable lessons in life: Manage your finance, teach your kid, and that F2P games suck.
TBH, I hope F2P games that give players virtual gold or random items from box will be considered as Internet Gambling.
They have the same business model right now: Trade real money for chips, random luck outcome from real money.
F2P also creates gaming/gambling addiction.
Too bad the electronic age is too young for the older generation to notice =/.
Nah, just bad parenting and a pure idiot.
I had a saving account when I was in 4th grade, and a standard checking account when I was in high school.
I changed both when I hit 17 to remove my parents as guardian from both accounts.
1) Mom is using her Dad's card
2) Mom and her Dad didn't know nor checked the account for unauthorized charges
3) Kid has authorization when entering the card into the device during the TOS agreement
I hope more F2P titles do this. It will teach people valuable lessons in life: Manage your finance, teach your kid, and that F2P games suck.
TBH, I hope F2P games that give players virtual gold or random items from box will be considered as Internet Gambling.
They have the same business model right now: Trade real money for chips, random luck outcome from real money.
F2P also creates gaming/gambling addiction.
Too bad the electronic age is too young for the older generation to notice =/.
Nah, just bad parenting and a pure idiot.
I had a saving account when I was in 4th grade, and a standard checking account when I was in high school.
I changed both when I hit 17 to remove my parents as guardian from both accounts.
That's what I'm thinking.
Not to mention this supposedly happened over several months time. How the hell do you not notice thousands of dollars being removed from your regular bank account at the end of the first month to pay the bill?
Smells like someone is bullshitting in one way of another.
They also claim that the card was owned by the grandfather and almost never got used before.
I use my card almost on a daily basis and yet last month, when 2 strange transactions took place, my bank froze it and called me to make sure that they weren't mine, even though I order tons of stuff from all over the world which never let to any questions.
Those 2 transactions turned out to be not by me btw.
So yeah, every single part of this story sounds very fishy.
Sol_Goodguy
Member
I'm not sure that is a legitimate criticism.
Making a game that is not addictive seems akin to making a game that is boring,
I should have gone into more detail, my bad.
I'm fine with games that are exciting enough to get you hooked through just playing the game, but the game in question here does that through the means of IAPs (or at the very least it encourages them, I've never played it). The problem with that is that it leads to people with addictive personalities (or just plain irresponsible people), like the boy, spending ridiculous amounts of money chasing that excitement. Does that make sense?
Xenon
Member
Personally I feel these games are designed to feed off of people's addictive nature. There should be a set cap on how much a minor can spend regardless if they registered in their parents name. Accounts that have excessive purchases such as this one should be flagged by the devolpers software. They could then verify the charges with the card holder. There is no way a child can make the level of a financial decision.
The kid and his family should not be charged for this bullshit.
The kid and his family should not be charged for this bullshit.
FinalStageBoss
Banned
Must be some high rollers to not have any limits on their cards. It's also weird that the card company didn't call. If I put large amount on money on any of my cards in a short period(say 20k in a month) the company calls me.
bobawesome
Member
Money wasn't wasted if he enjoyed himself, right?
/s
Tinfoilhatsron
Banned
No notifications though? That's pure fucking cash grabbing.
Pretty much.
unrenowned
Member
Since the mother did authorize her son to use the credit card, I don't see it as a given that they get the money back. Whatever her story is, she willingly gave her credit card information to her son. Seems like all this is mostly for show so they can get out of their own fuck-up for free.
Yes the developer (or Apple?) should warm people when they are spending a lot of money, but I doubt such an extreme scenario was considered when designing the IAP system.
Yes the developer (or Apple?) should warm people when they are spending a lot of money, but I doubt such an extreme scenario was considered when designing the IAP system.
Xenon
Member
Nope, no child can be responsible for that amount of money. They should get a full refund. As for the developer that's the risk of doing business . It's up to them to put in safeguards to prevent this because they are the ones allowing a transaction to take place on their site by a minor.
Projectjustice
Banned
Free to play my ass. This is why i refuse to play and support any F2P games.
OccamsBlender
Member
It's good ole Tap Fish again
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/5acu1n/tap-fish-dealer
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/5acu1n/tap-fish-dealer
Well if you're certain then OK.
How the hell do you not know money is being charged to your account? Let alone 37,000
What did her bank say? I don't blame anyone but the boy and his mother. He's 15 years old, not a 6 year old kid clicking buy. He knows it takes real money, which is why he used the credit card. I believe the mother is trying to soften the story up about how he wanted ebooks, how there was zero warning at all, instant transactions, a plethora of ads etc.
What did her bank say? I don't blame anyone but the boy and his mother. He's 15 years old, not a 6 year old kid clicking buy. He knows it takes real money, which is why he used the credit card. I believe the mother is trying to soften the story up about how he wanted ebooks, how there was zero warning at all, instant transactions, a plethora of ads etc.