Huge market for taking advantage of idiots: "freemium" gaming

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1762-5-reasons-i-lost-249000-iphone-game_p2.html

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/121985-ea-the-market-has-spoken-freemium-is-the-future

The stupidity of people never ceases to astound me. I grew up in the 90s as a gamer. That's when gaming was real. You bought a game, took it home, and it was yours. You had all the content. If you enjoyed it, it was worth it to you. There would be games released that were based on movies - obvious cash-ins - and you avoid those obvious crap games. When I grew up there was nothing like this. It was like paying to see a movie. There's nothing wrong with paying for entertainment. You pay for something and you get it. If you don't enjoy it, you adjust your future choices from whoever made that game or movie or whatever. But here's the kicker with this "freemium" gaming: the games are not meant to be entertaining or fun in any way. They are meant to be addicting. And consumers - idiots - are lapping up this crap. They will spend tons of money to play. And they will pay money NOT to play. Read the first article I linked - it shows the mentality behind this kind of "gaming." It's digital heroin. The freemium game "Game of War" is reputed to make ONE MILLION DOLLARS PER DAY.

The worst part? The market will keep making this bullshit because consumers keep putting money into it.

There is plenty of money to be made from mobile apps still, definitely. An addictive 'free' game download with payment options for extra content is an excellent idea and one that has crossed my mind.

I played a popular one called Trivia Crack for a bit earlier this year, because I fancy quizzes and general knowledge tests. I can imagine people sinking money into buying extra turns, etc. All those micro-transactions on such a popular app are basically a licence to print money.

Ghost, do you favour the 'learn development' or 'outsource' approach?

Break the chains wrote:There is plenty of money to be made from mobile apps still, definitely. An addictive 'free' game download with payment options for extra content is an excellent idea and one that has crossed my mind.

I played a popular one called Trivia Crack for a bit earlier this year, because I fancy quizzes and general knowledge tests. I can imagine people sinking money into buying extra turns, etc. All those micro-transactions on such a popular app are basically a licence to print money.

I am trying other things to make money first. I have no programming knowledge and my financial goals are small, so this isn't something I can actively get into at the moment, but I do keep it in mind. And I think this market will grow because of things like female "gamers." Another problem I have with ripping off idiots is I don't think like they do, so when I create a work or a piece of content, I'm not thinking about how to maximize profits, I'm just thinking about making something useful that I can also sell. It's not natural for me to think like a consumerist moron, so I have no natural affinity for making things they would like.

Ghost, do you favour the 'learn development' or 'outsource' approach?

Are you talking about programming for making these mobile games? If that's the case, then I would prefer to outsource because I don't know anything about programming.