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Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Pay to Play

When I'm at the gym, I like to play games on my phone while I'm on some of the equipment. It makes the time go much faster. I have a peeve, though. In-App purchases. Grrr.

There is a Match 3 game that I particularly like to play, but now that I'm up around level 100, it's super difficult, and with only 5 lives, I don't get enough time to finish my workout before I'm done. If they offered me a flat-rate to buy the game and be able to play it indefinitely, I'd be all over that, but they don't. Instead, they want me to continually buy things to keep playing. This I will not do.

A one-time purchase. Yes. A $5 a year subscription to eliminate In-App purchases. Yes. But no, I will not buy lives and I will not buy money in order to keep playing.

Some of these games are very generous and fair, giving you the ability to play free for real. One that comes immediately to mind is Big Fish Games Fairway Solitaire. To show my appreciation for this fairness, I spent about $10 in their game shop. I think that's a more than fair price and now I don't buy things.

My current Match 3 addiction isn't as fair with its players. Only five lives; daily rewards are minuscule; levels are layered deep and require many matches, but the number of moves the player is allowed does not correspond to the difficulty (in other words you either need a lot of luck or you have to buy stuff); and they constantly are asking for game coins which the player receives very few of. Because I'm so irritated by their stinginess, I am determined not to spend any money on the game, and if I didn't smile every time I saw the dancing gingerbread man, I would delete the game.

I do believe that game designers should be compensated for their work. If I could find a great Match 3 game that I could buy outright, I would be all over that. I've yet to find this game. I've done some searches online, I've searched in the app store and have had zero luck. I know it's because they're all chasing that Candy Crush money--In-App purchases can be really lucrative--but it's a PITA.