I hold my head down in shame because I knew before going in the mobile app greed but got hooked anyway.
During the pandemic I was laid off of work for a few months. I had a switch lite but there weren't many games at the time I really wanted to play on it. I didn't have my ps5 yet so was in game limbo. I am an absolute sucker for fun good racers the issues being they rarely make them anymore. I was cruising on my Android TV and discovered Asphalt 9.
Asphalt 9 has everything an arcade lover like me wants: Great racing, Slick cars, Active Player base, Online record chases, online racing multiplayer, etc etc. Alas, Asphalt 9 is like that bitch that looks like a 10 but will rob you for every penny you got. A real Devil in disguise. My short story:
Off for a few months and nothing but time on my hands back in March of 2020. I discovered Asphalt 9 in the android app store and happen to have an sn30 pro+ controller to pair along with it. I was playing it on my shield tv and it was a great experience. At first one can make real progress and advance in the game. Then you come to a point where it's really hard to advance because you simply don't have the cars or parts. The game has a pay wall that kinda forces players to buy "packs" to advanced or have good enough cars to compete in tournaments. The game will throw a few good $5 dollar deals at you and I was thinking what the hell I don't mind paying a few bucks to play this. That last for a little while and as one advance the packages one needs will raise in price. Before you know it I was dropping $20 on a "great deal" sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. Having too much time on my hands, loving the actual racing game, and my own stupidity was a recipe for disaster. I played the game for a month and a half and finally got sick of the pay walls. At the point $49.99 "Packs" could be purchased and still not help one advance. They had multiple "$99.99 bundles" as well. The most I would got was $20 on a "pack" but the issue was I purchased a lot of them.
So after a month and a half I am going over my bank statement and was hit with the slap in the face. I spent $300 on this game in a month and a half. The ironic thing was even at this point I was stuck and couldn't advanced. One could argue you could play this game for free without spending money, but you would die of old age trying to really advanced without spending real money. I dropped this game like a bad habit. It's a shame because the game itself is really fun. The paywall makes it damn near impossible to play at a competitive level unless you have money to burn.
Great Game+Greedy Bastard Publishers+My own stupidity = I HANG MY HEAD IN SHAME!
Lesson learned? Do not play any android game unless you can buy the full game out right.