• Friendship is Expensive: 6-Year Old Drops 900 Bucks on MLP Game
    104 replies, posted
[quote="The Sun"] A GIRL of six racked up a £900 bill in 30 minutes on a FREE iPad game, her horrified mum revealed last night. Grace Walker downloaded the My Little Pony app on her mum’s iPad — and paid £69.99 a pop to buy VIRTUAL gems. She innocently clicked on the “buy now” option which appeared more than 12 times in half an hour — landing her parents with the monster bill. Mum Catherine, 34, said she felt sick and cried “uncontrollably” after getting emails from Apple’s iTunes informing her of the amount owed. She complained to iTunes, which Grace used to download the game — and was eventually given a refund. But the accountant, of Northwich, Cheshire, urged parents to supervise kids and has put a lock on her iPad. She said: “What a con. It’s sneaky the way these free games take your cash. I would expect a real nine-carat gold donkey for that amount.” iTunes refused to comment. Apple faces paying £66million damages to US customers whose kids also ran up huge bills using free apps. [/quote] [url="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4834923/iPad-pony-trap-as-Grace-6-runs-up-massive-900-bill-on-free-game-app.html"]Source[/url].
So.. how many people are gonna ignore the parents' fault this time?
horses are serious business
Why would they even add such a feature to a game meant for kids? Maybe I'm a bit slow to this, but if you're going to implement something like this into that type of game, at least make the whole spending IRL money part a bit more complex for kids to work out.
[QUOTE=Ymir;39877088]Why would they even add such a feature to a game meant for kids? Maybe I'm a bit slow to this, but if you're going to implement something like this into that type of game, at least make the whole spending IRL money part a bit more complex for kids to work out.[/QUOTE] Are you implying they don't want boatloads of money?
Fucking ridiculous Apple has to pay up for this. It's not their fault the parents leave their kids unsupervised on this.
[QUOTE=Legolas;39877065]So.. how many people are gonna ignore the parents' fault this time?[/QUOTE] I really don't think you can blame the parents for this. It saved their credit card on the Ipad. And they probably have busy lives, you can't watch your kids 24/7
On one hand, calling games with microtransactions (especially kids games) "free to play" is just evil because it's misleading parents into a false sense of security, and then mislead users by perhaps using some arbitrary coinage which is then converted into actual money. On the other hand, just having credit card data entered like that without any need for confirmation is a bit stupid on its own. Not that I know exactly how that system works since I've never used an ipad, but I imagine it's just got a "Confirm payment" screen and everyone would naturally click it. I prefer cumbersome reentering of password/data every time for the sake of safety. Obvioulsy not everyone wants that, but that's the price to pay.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;39877098]Are you implying they don't want boatloads of money?[/QUOTE] Are you implying they're willing to risk lawsuits (Apple faces paying £66million damages to US customers whose kids also ran up huge bills using free apps) and bad publicity for a measly £900?
[QUOTE=Murkrow;39877114]On one hand, calling games with microtransactions (especially kids games) "free to play" is just evil because it's misleading parents into a false sense of security, and then mislead users by perhaps using some arbitrary coinage which is then converted into actual money. On the other hand, just having credit card data entered like that without any need for confirmation is a bit stupid on its own. Not that I know exactly how that system works since I've never used an ipad, but I imagine it's just got a "Confirm payment" screen and everyone would naturally click it. I prefer cumbersome reentering of password/data every time for the sake of safety. Obvioulsy not everyone wants that, but that's the price to pay.[/QUOTE] They do require that you enter your password, but only after a certain amount of time (15 minutes I believe). So if I install an app for my child, I have to enter that password. They then have 15 minutes to run up as much shite as they like until it asks for the password again.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;39877098]Are you implying they don't want boatloads of money?[/QUOTE] Not at all, but they can still get boatloads of money in a way that won't tempt kids to press a "buy now" button because they don't know what it really does.
[QUOTE=Ymir;39877088]Why would they even add such a feature to a game meant for kids? Maybe I'm a bit slow to this, but if you're going to implement something like this into that type of game, at least make the whole spending IRL money part a bit more complex for kids to work out.[/QUOTE] Every game I seen on IOS doesn't mention that some stuff costs real money.
In android, you can set it so that you can't use any feature that spends money without entering your google wallet password - can you not do the same thing in ios?
I remember when my little brother accidently spent over £60 of a relative's money on that tablet smurfs game. Needless to say, he got into trouble. Thankfully, we got the money back. Of course, it seems he's not allowed to play tablet games anymore.
[QUOTE=Legolas;39877065]So.. how many people are gonna ignore the parents' fault this time?[/QUOTE] Assume you're not someone who surfs gaming/technical forums all the time and is informed of what bullshit "free to play" actually is. Assume that you're an average user with average or below average technical knowledge and your kid wants to play a game which says is "free to play", which you'd assume makes it pretty much impossible for your kid to waste money. You can probably see the point I'm getting at. "Free to play" games should be rebranded "Free with premium upgrades" or something less bullshit like that.
[QUOTE=Legolas;39877065]So.. how many people are gonna ignore the parents' fault this time?[/QUOTE] it's not entirely the parents fault, yes its their fault for not locking IAPs, but its also the fault of the people who created the app, as it is specifically targeted towards children, and then they have something that pops up saying "Hey, have some of<INSERT ITEM HERE>, just click buy now", and as he kids probably don't have a very good understanding of money, they just think oooohh, stuff, honestly these should be regulated the same way advertisements directed towards children are.
[QUOTE=Ymir;39877148]Not at all, but they can still get boatloads of money in a way that won't tempt kids to press a "buy now" button because they don't know what it really does.[/QUOTE] Psychology of most adults is sadly not [I]that[/I] different from the children - if you make it clear how much are they ACTUALLY paying, they are more likely to realize "wait, fuck, what am I doing with my life", and throw the tablet out of the window. I am not saying they are deliberately trying to bait clueless kids on spending preposterous amounts of money unwittingly, but adding obstruction would always mean smaller yield.
Ill state what i said last time this happened: Why don't they just get giftcards and buy them when needed so stuff like this doesnt happen?
my little pony money is magic
[t] http://puu.sh/2fXND/b4ccdf3a5a[/t] how fucking hard is it
I wonder if that "Buy now" button included a specific mention of how much an item cost. 69.99 a pop for gems thing the article mentions makes me wonder, because it seems to be implying that an item could cost up to 69.99, but at the same time it seems more likely that the kid was just spending that much every time she was prompted to at the ingame store or whatever. Still, with all these social games now it may mean that parents may want to begin teaching kids a bit more about the value of money a little earlier in their lives (even if it may make the parents a little uncomfortable), or at least that if they want to make some kind of ingame transaction that they should consult their parents first. Shame it seems to be that a lot of parents are blissfully unaware of how much money can easily be dumped into these kinds of games themselves.
[QUOTE=Ymir;39877088]Why would they even add such a feature to a game meant for kids? Maybe I'm a bit slow to this, but if you're going to implement something like this into that type of game, at least make the whole spending IRL money part a bit more complex for kids to work out.[/QUOTE] Who the hell gives their 6 year old an Ipad? At that rate they'd expect a ferrari when they're 16.
well to be fair, the games average user is probably 20 and autistic so its not really the creator's fault if a kid plays it unsupervised
[QUOTE=ultra_bright;39877402]Who the hell gives their 6 year old an Ipad? At that rate they'd expect a ferrari when they're 16.[/QUOTE] oh man I want to go math nerd on that and prove you wrong... but I won't :P
900 pounds on a LSD game? those kids will spend millions on microtransactions
[QUOTE=Protocol7;39877271][t] http://puu.sh/2fXND/b4ccdf3a5a[/t] how fucking hard is it[/QUOTE] Well these are apple users we are talking about...
[QUOTE=JayFeather1337;39877111]I really don't think you can blame the parents for this. It saved their credit card on the Ipad. And they probably have busy lives, you can't watch your kids 24/7[/QUOTE] No this is the parents fault, why didn't they download the app, see how it worked and what buttons would cos them if their kid pressed them then explain that they should never press any of them.
any licenced game like this or movie related things (smurfs being mentioned earlier) is going to be an obvious cash-grab, hasbro especially [QUOTE=LieutenantLeo;39877445]well to be fair, the games average user is probably 20 and autistic so its not really the creator's fault if a kid plays it unsupervised[/QUOTE] grats on the first autistic brony joke of the thread :)
[QUOTE=LieutenantLeo;39877445]well to be fair, the games average user is probably 20 and autistic so its not really the creator's fault if a kid plays it unsupervised[/QUOTE] A 6 year old girl got taken advantage of, and your biggest concern is to make fun of bronies. Good to see you have your priorities in order.
[QUOTE=Tucan Sam;39877516]Well these are apple users we are talking about...[/QUOTE] "I use a system that is not from Apple. Therefore,everyone who uses an Apple product is an inferior,degenerate,babbling moron. Meanwhile,i'm a hyper-intelligent omnipotent user!"
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