You can critisize of course. But here lies the problem why further discussion makes no sense: I told you my experience and you immediately called it PR.
You didn't even consider that maybe yes I really have experienced the things I talked about. That I have seen how companies contacted players when there was a feeling someone is overspending or not in control of their spend. Or that credit card payments have been paid back when a child got hold of their parents card.
Maybe I have seen enough companies in my career that actually cared and have experienced games where players in general spend less than I do for buying games each month.
As long as you don't consider there is some truth in what I am saying there is basically no ground for discussion.
Especially since I fully admit there is bad apples who target what they call whales and so on.
But there is enough companies who realised it is better to have players long term who are not abused by a game but feel respected and Free2Play done right is not a bad thing.
And that's why we leave it at that because we are both biased in one direction so to speak. You called me overly subjective but are doing the same by not even trying to see my view.
I take your point that I've not been very conciliatory, and have been incredulous about some of your claims. And that's not a good ground for discussion.
The problem is a claim as general as this:
Having worked in the free2play mobile industry for a couple of years: that compulsive spenders are exploited is one of the false myths in this industry.
Compulsive spenders
are exploited in this industry, and it's demonstrable. Your claim to have worked for X or Y company that (in your view) didn't so exploit such customers doesn't support this very general claim. It's a myth! Meanwhile: we can login to these games and see the mechanics at work, and there are plenty of first-person stories out there to support the idea that it's fairly widespread.
I grant you that some companies may have looked at that trend and thought: it's better for our public image if we curb that a bit; or we might create more long-term revenue by not turning people off our game. So let's fine tune the extent to which we exploit our customers (in corporate speak: let's adjust the value we offer consumers).
Re cancelling credit card bills of parents' cards where children have run up a debt: that hardly deals with the issue. Which is that these games are (a) addictive enough for kids to be doing this in the first place (and not only kids); (b) that these games are sold and marketed
to children; and (c) that kids are inducted into a form of spending and gambling that could cause problems far beyond the present moment, so that refunding the parents' money has not addressed the harm.
Re your own experience: I'm sure you are sincere in saying that you've not consciously employed these mechanics or sought to exploit customers. Though it may depend on what we each count as exploitation. To be clear, if the games you've worked on:
- have paid lootboxes/chance/gacha elements = gambling = exploitation
- sell cosmetics which create a sense of FOMO in users = exploitation
- sell XP boosters or other devices to overcome grinding in the game = exploitative game design
- offer users a nice chunk of something at the beginning for free and then slowly start increasing the cost of that asset/tool/element = exploitation
These elements are, I think, very common in F2P games, as well (to the industry's shame) as fully paid £60 games (hello, Ubisoft). Are you saying that the games you've worked on don't employ these monetisation strategies, as well as that it's not common in the industry?
Meanwhile, you see, we are gamers and play games and so can notice this stuff. Look at eFootball: the users are already complaining about struggling vs hyper strong teams and no team strength filters. That clearly creates an incentive to spend, even if you didn't want to –
just to have a decent playing experience. They have lootboxes. They sell special bonus players that give you extra in-game rewards. They are giving us lots of in-game currency right now, and it will surely drop off (like before in myClub) or else upgrades will be locked behind a different, paid currency. I'm already seeing in YouTube comments sections, on Twitter, on Discord channels gamers talk about having pumped £££ into the Dream Team mode. I know people spent sometimes more than £1k on the mode before.
Is this all a myth?