Feed my apps!!

[Nayan]

This story was in the WSJ yesterday. Those 'free' games aren't really free, are they?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303753904577452341745766920.html?mod=WSJ_hps_editorsPicks_1

 

[EveDallas]

This story was in the WSJ yesterday. Those 'free' games aren't really free, are they?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303753904577452341745766920.html?mod=WSJ_hps_editorsPicks_1

The games themselves are still free. If parents can't (or won't) say 'no' to their kids, that's on them.

 

[AntePrincess]

Most of the time, you can play for free, but it's not have as fun with all the hurry-up-and-wait, ads, and nagging. I think that basic Neopets is still free, but the advertising is really insidious.

Basically, I think the best value is to look out for indie games on sites like Steam or GOG.com, pick up full versions of games at places like Five Below, or better yet indie bundles, and just buy a bunch of games for cheap. By shopping the bundles (which takes a little bit of game savvy and keeping up with the "news") I bought a bundle of five games with soundtracks for $6 and another batch of eight games with soundtracks for $8. In both cases I got the full version of each of those games, DRM free downloads (meaning I actually own the games, they won't be pulled off my computer later for any reason), and a good chunk of that money went to charity. I went on to buy bundles for the birthdays and housewarmings I had coming this month (the receivers are also game fanatics).

Personally, I won't let my kids play Facebook or similar games. They train you to nag your friends for things you want, make you think that important items are free, they just materialize out of thin air when asked for, and a whole lot of very unrealistic and insidious messages that they're just not ready to understand. That and they're just too young for a lot of computer games. That's my vice.

 

[mrodgers]

My kids have a shared iTunes account. They upload iTunes gift cards to is. That is the only form of payment connected to the account. I've explained the gem and coin thing to them with the games that they have. If they want to waste the typical $10 gift card they get for birthdays and such, then they are free to do that. I've warned them of the purchase of gems/coins just to get stupid stuff in their games.

I think it is foolish to attach an actual bank account to iTunes when it is much easier and safer for your account just to buy a gift card, even for us adults. I don't even like buying things online and I think I've only bought from Amazon and Walmart, I surely am not going to put CC info into iTunes, especially my kids' iTunes.

 

[AntePrincess]

My kids have a shared iTunes account. They upload iTunes gift cards to is. That is the only form of payment connected to the account. I've explained the gem and coin thing to them with the games that they have. If they want to waste the typical $10 gift card they get for birthdays and such, then they are free to do that. I've warned them of the purchase of gems/coins just to get stupid stuff in their games.

I think it is foolish to attach an actual bank account to iTunes when it is much easier and safer for your account just to buy a gift card, even for us adults. I don't even like buying things online and I think I've only bought from Amazon and Walmart, I surely am not going to put CC info into iTunes, especially my kids' iTunes.

My husband and I were just discussing this, that is the wider issue. I think there's a growing generation gap brewing here. First it was the younger set/early adopters were more willing to make purchases online than the rest, and I fell on the side of the early adopters. Now it's that the younger set/early adopters are happy with purely digital goods and the rest of us are not, on this one I'm on the fence. I about 70% prefer a hard copy of any albums, movies, or games that I purchase, "kids these days" are fine without that hard copy. I see their point, it's less wasteful and with cloud computing there's probably less risk of "losing" a DRM-free digital copy of something than there is for me to lose a hard copy... but I still feel nervous about it.

We connect an account to iTunes, Facebook (yes, I occasionally buy things for an app game like described in the article, I'm a sucker like that, but it's something I do when I'm down with a flu or cold), Steam, Amazon.com, and God only knows what my DH has it hooked up to. I'm over that hurdle. I can say that I have never had a problem with identity theft or anything like that. The only unauthorized purchases I've ever dealt with were more sneaky, sleazy sales from places like VistaPrint than anything to do with the other sites (and I immediately reversed charges and reported VistaPrint). To tell the truth, we spend very little on entertainment and that's mostly because we buy games and things like that this way, I was nervous at first that money would run through our fingertips, but it's the same discipline as other spending.

About the kids though... EVERYONE thinks they're an exception. EVERYONE thinks that they're going to hold the line against nagging. They dealt with that in the article. These businesses make millions on parents thinking they're strong enough to say no and getting caught at a weak moment, or with the peer pressure of the kids having friends over. I embrace the fact that I'm statistic, I have plenty of willpower, I choose to exercise it on keeping my cool in the face of strife and resisting caloric temptation, we just don't let the kids play these games and we won't until it's 100% their own money they are spending.