Safeguard Your Gaming Experience Without Breaking the Bank!
Free-to-play games are a great way to have fun without spending money, but they often use psychological tactics to encourage players to make in-app purchases. Knowing these tactics can help you make more informed decisions and protect your money. Here, we explain the main tactics and how to identify them.
1. Hook, Habit, Hobby
Description: These are the three phases developers use to get you hooked on their game.
Hook: Attract you with high-quality graphics and compelling content.
Habit: Encourage daily play with rewards and daily activities.
Hobby: Make you invest long-term with long-term goals and special events.
How to identify: If the game offers great initial rewards and sends daily notifications to get you to play, you’re in the Habit phase. When you start planning and dedicating more time to strategies within the game, you’re in the Hobby phase.
2. Ice Breakers
Description: Initial low-cost offers that seem like great value to convert you into a paying customer.
How to identify: Offers like “Welcome Pack” or “First Purchase Discount” that give you great value for little money.
3. Speedups and Convenience
Description: Items that allow you to progress faster in the game for a price.
How to identify: If the game offers you the option to buy coins or resources to avoid wait times, it’s using this tactic.
4. Gachas
Description: Random reward mechanisms that maintain excitement and interest.
How to identify: If the game has loot boxes, card packs, or any kind of random rewards that you can buy with real money, it’s a gacha system.
5. Loss Aversion and Endowment Effect
Description: Tactics that leverage your desire not to lose something you already have.
How to identify: Games that give you resources during a session and then take them away unless you pay to keep them are using this tactic.
6. Offers and Scarcity
Description: Creating rare items and limited-time offers to increase perceived value.
How to identify: Offers that expire soon or items advertised as “limited edition.”
7. Subscription Models
Description: Offering subscriptions with ongoing benefits that encourage frequent gameplay. How to identify: If the game offers a monthly or yearly subscription with benefits like extra coins or exclusive access, it’s using a subscription model.
8. IKEA Effect
Description: Making you invest time and effort into the game, increasing your attachment and willingness to spend.
How to identify: Games that let you build and customize things, making you feel more connected and willing to spend to improve your creations.
9. Anchoring
Description: Setting high initial prices so subsequent offers seem cheaper.
How to identify: If you see very expensive items initially followed by discounts or cheaper items, anchoring is in play.
10. Social Proof
Description: Showing you other players’ actions to make spending money seem normal.
How to identify: Notifications of other players’ purchases or leaderboards showing top spenders.
11. Availability Heuristic
Description: Making certain events or rare items seem more common than they are.
How to identify: Frequent messages about players finding rare items or winning special events.
12. Optimal Choice Amount
Description: Providing the right amount of options to avoid overwhelming or limiting you.
How to identify: If the game offers a moderate variety of in-app purchases, without being too many or too few, it’s optimizing the choice amount.
How to Protect Yourself
Set a Budget: Decide how much you are willing to spend on the game and stick to that limit.
Disable In-App Purchases: In your device settings, you can disable in-app purchases to avoid impulse spending.
Research: Before making any purchase, research if it’s really worth it or if it’s something you can earn by playing more.
Be Conscious: Knowing these tactics helps you be more aware of your decisions and avoid spending on things you don’t really need.
With this information, you can enjoy your favorite games without falling into monetization traps. Play consciously and protect your money!
Why It's Important to Know About This Topic
Knowing about these monetization tactics is crucial for several reasons:
Financial Awareness: It helps you avoid unnecessary expenditures, ensuring you spend your money wisely.
Informed Decisions: Being aware of these tactics allows you to make better choices and avoid impulsive purchases driven by psychological manipulation.
Mental Health: Avoiding constant pressure to spend can lead to a more enjoyable and stress-free gaming experience.
Importance from a Cybersecurity Point of View
From a cybersecurity perspective, understanding these tactics is also critical:
Data Privacy: Many games collect extensive data to tailor these tactics to individual players. Being aware of these tactics can make you more cautious about sharing personal information.
Phishing and Scams: Some free-to-play games may be fronts for phishing or scamming attempts. Recognizing the monetization tactics can help you spot red flags and avoid potentially malicious games.
Securing Payment Methods: Knowing the risks helps you take steps to secure your payment methods, such as using virtual credit cards or setting up alerts for unauthorized transactions.
These tactics are taken from the video “Let’s Go Whaling” presented by Torulf Jernström.