Gadget Blog

People wasting hundreds on “free” games may be funny but should it  really be allowed to happen? It’s  consumerism gone literally mad…

Once in a while, a news story comes  along that perfectly captures the  zeitgeist. This month’s involved a  rather miserable-looking, tattooed man in a  Rab C Nesbitt vest, holding a wildly cheery- looking, Rastafarian banana.

As you probably read, Henry Gribbohm  of New Hampshire, USA – though let’s not  kid ourselves that this couldn’t happen in  Hampshire, UK – won this slightly sinister,  dreadlocked fruit after burning his entire  life savings of about two grand, attempting  to win on a fairground game. The game?

Something to do with chucking a small ball  in an evidently not-much-bigger box. The  top prize? A Kinect… Worth about £100.  Inevitably, the response to this was  the kind of exaggeratedly straight-faced  reporting that newspapers ONLY employ  when conveying a story they know to be  piss-your-pants funny. Nobody penned any  thunderous editorials calling for the banning  of fairgrounds. No blogger demanded the  fairground folk be forced to pay the hapless  mister Gribbohm back his life savings. 

That’s odd, because apart from the  Jah-worshipping, curved, yellow chap,  this story was, in essence, exactly the  same as the flurry of reports over previous  months on in-app purchases. Someone got  momentarily, insanely hooked on a game, became determined to “complete” it, and  spent a ludicrous amount of cash doing so.

That’s why, to my mind, this is THE most  thought-provoking story involving a ganja- liking plantain and a fat man in a vest that I  have ever read. Now sure, as smart people,  we can all have a good laugh at dumbos  wasting vast sums of dosh. Many will take  the view that adults should be allowed to  spend their money on whatever they like; in  fact that this story is different to the in-app purchase stories because it involves an adult and not a child using their mum’s credit card

However, despite being generally opposed to nanny-state meddling, I’ve got to admit I  take a different view on “freemium” games,  and it’s this: they are a disgrace. Like payday loans at 3,000% APR they’re designed  specifically to exploit vulnerable people  whilst pretending to empower them; the  fact they’re allowed to be sold at supposedly reputable app stores beggars belief.

Games can put people in an altered state  where their judgement is flawed. Having a  mechanism to extract repeated payments  from players that can eventually total large  amounts is pure, spivvy exploitation. Yes, th people who suffer most are generally stupid but what are governments and bodies such  as the OFT for, if not to protect stupid peopl from themselves? In-app purchases that  make it possible to spend more than, say,  £20 during the entire time you own a game  shouldn’t be allowed. It’s bananas. Duncan hosts the T3 Podcasts every Friday