After having taken a look at Net Neutrality and briefly considering to choose Question 2 (cyberspace and democracy) as my essay question, I decided to go with Question 3 instead, focusing on how the freemium model dominates the mobile gaming industry, and whether that's a good or bad thing.

For the essay, I plan to explore aspects of psychology used to entice users in freemium games. Tactics like giving new users free boost help get users hooked onto the feeling of instant gratification when they manage to finish a level they weren't able to before.

From a marketing perspective, it's also important to take a look at other potential strategies to engage users. Games which use advertisements funded by a third party are very common in the market at the moment, with users being able to pay for an escape from the ads by buying a premium version.

Finally, I'd also want to go back to the game designer's perspective and see how new information can help them create better games. Freemium boosts or advertisements often end up cluttering the screen and inhibiting the user's experience, so ideally by the end of the essay, perhaps some form of compromise can be found to balance good content with profitability.

Looking through the strategies that mobile game developers employ to entice players to pay for upgrades, I couldn't help but wonder about what safety measures are put in place to prevent children from making purchases on phones which already have credit card data stored in the App/Play Stores. Here's what I've found out:

In early 2014, Google decided to change the way "freemium" apps were listed on their Play Store, in an effort to curb users into being misled about the app. They also set guidelines for developers, in order to change the way that approval prompts are shown while using the apps. At the time the article was being written, Apple came under fire at that time for not putting in efforts to prevent children from being targeted for in-app purchases.

Later that year, Apple was forced by the Federal Trade Commission to refund at least $32.5m to parents of children who had made purchases in the App store without their knowledge or permission, after the agency said that it had received “at least tens of thousands of complaints” from parents regarding unauthorised purchases. As a part of the agreement, Apple had agreed to change its app purchasing process. Previously, after the password was keyed into the app to approve a purchase, there was a 15-minute window where other purchases could be made without typing the password again.

The security flaw has since been remedied, and Apple now gives user very detailed instructions on how users can set up parental restrictions for when children are using their devices

All in all, I think it's safe to say that platform providers play a crucial role in ensuring that game developers produce better games and children don't end up the target of freemium-purchase bombardment. However, parental controls should also be put into place, and children under a certain age shouldn't be left to use mobile devices for extended periods of time unsupervised.


References:
Holpuch, A. (2014). Apple to pay $32.5m over practice that let children make in-app purchases. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/15/apple-practice-children-make-in-app-purchases [Accessed 19 Dec. 2016].

McCarthy, J. (2014). European Commission chastises Apple over misleading 'free' apps. [online] The Drum. Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/07/18/european-commission-chastises-apple-over-misleading-free-apps [Accessed 19 Dec. 2016].

West, G. (2014). Google to change the way 'freemium' apps are listed from September. [online] The Drum. Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/07/20/google-change-way-freemium-apps-are-listed-september [Accessed 19 Dec. 2016].

The word "Freemium"  comes from combining the words "Free" and "Premium". Its is primarily used to describe products or services which reach a large audience by giving users a free but limited service, and advertises premium or better features for an additional fee. The costs of providing the free service to most users is often paid for by the profit from premium users. An example of a service that uses this model is Dropbox, which offers users 2GB of cloud storage by just signing up. Once the user uses up this 2GB, they will be offered to upgrade to a premium account with 1TB of storage for 9.99 USD a month or 99USD a year.

If you take a quick look through the App Store (or Play Store) on your phone, you'll notice that they tend to prioritise showing you apps which are free. And who doesn't like free stuff?

Screenshot of my own phone Play Store as an example

However, once you start downloading and playing these "free" games, they often have their own in-game currencies which help you unlock new chapters or boost your chances of winning. The more you play, the harder it will get to progress the game without these boosts, and the game will try to target ads at you to improve your score or give you another chance at a level for just a small bit of their in game currency. Welcome to the world of Freemium games.

Examples from the mobile games I play lol

Use real money to buy fake plants!

Pokemon Go is an example of how it gets harder and harder to progress as you level up.

Part of their strategy is to start off gifting these boosts to you. For example, when begin playing Pokemon Go, they gift you free Incubators, Lure Modules and Lucky Eggs every couple of levels, but as you continue playing the game, it takes longer and longer to level up and you end up using up the free gifts. Once players get a taste of how much easier the game can be with the boosts, they get tempted to spend money. Another trick is to make you use real life money to buy in-game currency, and then use the in-game currency to buy the boosts. The extra step creates a bigger detachment between the purchase and real-life money, thus encouraging them to spend more than they realise. Many popular mobile games use this tactic, including Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and Dragon Quest.

However, many users still cling on to playing games without paying for in-game boosts. In fact, many games rely on a small percentage of users who pay a lot. These users are called "Whales"(Psychguides.com, 2016), and games target these big spenders more than the usual player.

While  Freemium model has is supporters and detractors, it definitely seems like it's here to stay. Users prefer being able to download and use an application before putting any money into it, and many users are able to live with the incessant advertisements that come with a freemium game.


References:
Jacobs, H. (2016). Gaming guru argues why 'freemium' is the best business model for gamers and developers - Business Insider. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.my/sean-plott-explains-why-he-thinks-freemium-games-are-the-best-business-model-for-both-players-and-developers-2015-3/?r=US&IR=T#fFBeJGvtwvmIxiKH.97 [Accessed 16 Dec. 2016].

Psychguides.com. (2016). The Psychology of “Freemium”. [online] Available at: http://www.psychguides.com/interact/the-psychology-of-freemium/ [Accessed 16 Dec. 2016].

Blog.helpshift.com. (2016). Why Most Freemium Games Fail. [online] Available at: http://blog.helpshift.com/blog/freemium-games-fail/ [Accessed 16 Dec. 2016].

Crush the Castle

Angry Birds