Is it? Maybe. All of these games can be played without spending any real money, and without signing up for shady offers to receive more in-game currency. But the extra loot can make the game much more fun.
The offers are similar to ones we've featured here before—from innocent things you might sign up for anyway like a Netflix subscription, to scammy quizzes and misleading subscriptions.
Zynga, one of the leaders in social networking games, not-so-coincidentally announced a few days after the controversial original post that they will no longer serve ad or reward offers that ask for users' mobile phone numbers.
Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell [TechCrunch]
Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games? [Time]
I play Farmville... Will NEVER spend real money.
]]>If you're willing to pay real cash for a Facebook game, well, more power to you, but I'm not.
]]>Farmville is a game I play when I want a quick break from studying or if I've got a few minutes to kill. If I want more coins, I'll go help my neighbours :P
]]>LoL I have 125K on Farmville and I have yet to put any money down on that game. As for Yoville, well I own the apartment and a mansion, I'm thinking of buying the tree house or the police station next.
]]>Why would anyone pay money for these bad games? I play some of them, and I have to admit they're not worth sending your money to. You make the exact same amount of money for free if you just wait longer than if you paid for it.
]]>It is the money of the person spending it, not yours, it doesn't affect you one bit, so jump off.
Why not complain about someone that buys a Porsche rather than a Kia? they are both cars... If someone wants to spend EXTRA money of their own, who are you to complain what they do with their money??? If anything, once a bunch of people spend enough money, the developers make more missions / quests / jobs or what have you that free users benefit from.
Players that do spend money often get the added bonuses that can not be obtained any other way.
Obviously they consider it worth their money to do so.
My wife plays these games all the time, and I believe you can use paypal or even Amazon to purchase the in-game extras.
]]>I did do the Netflix, but was planning on joining anyways. Going through FV just added a bonus. I tried one of the "FREE" surveys, they were a nightmare to complete but never signed up for zip with them. FREE my butt. just endless loop because i wouldn't agree to any offers and kept hitting skip.
]]>True, but I check my credit card statement every week via online banking and if I see something fishy I report it and do a charge back. So far so good. I've only had to do 2 chargebacks and it hasn't been with these games yet.
]]>Thank you for calling me crazy. I'm also cunning too.
]]>Sometimes, things take time. I started playing it on the day they released the beta, and I'm amazed at how much has changed in such a relatively short time.
]]>Powergamers especially will drop tremendous amounts of money for an advantage, just so they can claim to be better than everyone else.
]]>The issue being exposed in the OP is that offers that use trickery, hidden agreements, and shady billing practices to get money from users who thought they were getting in-game currency for free, a practice which yentaleh avoided becoming a victim of.
I'm all for fighting trickery and fraud, but do we need to disparage someone who made a personal decision that the entertainment value of in-game currency is worth a specific amount of money to them, and purchased it via the direct route?
]]>I am surprised people put money towards the mafia wars and farmville. What the heck can you get in Farmville besides fuel? Anyway, free games = free. Unless you pay. This is the first I have heard of someone actually paying.
]]>@katstermonster: Make friends with the Hide button. It makes life so much cleaner.
]]>Not as fun as Habbo Hotel...
]]>There's so much more of that post that I want to dissect...
]]>Paying money for an OFFER in exchange for free points = Fail though
]]>With a little perseverance, you can rake in the dough in some of those games anyway.
Though after a while they're basically the same game with different characters/jobs.
]]>There are so many great games on Facebook where the developers actually care about what their fans think, that I'm not going to waste my time or money on someone that doesn't.
]]>Even the "free" parts of the games aren't free. You give access to your FaceBook profile, including all of your likes, fan-doms, groups, friends list, and comments; and for your less savvy friends, you may give away theirs as well. All are quite valuable marketing information.
And, for the love of God, turn off the notifications! I'm so tired of all that crap coming up in my news feed. I don't care if you bought a virtual pig.
]]>I don't participate in any of these games... I tried YoVille a couple of times, but it didn't really amuse me. (Besides going to the dance club, getting trashed, and harassing all the skanks)
No one wants to play with me. Can't understand why.
]]>As a former game developer, I'm actually intrigued by the business model; if Zynga has figured out a way to make social gaming pay, more power to 'em. And as a hardcore MMO gamer, I'm amused - these "free" games are plagued by the same complaints that games like WOW are - it slow, it's buggy, my quest is broken, your customer service sucks, etc. ad nauseum. I read their forums the other day, and it made me giggle.
Disclaimer: I'm a Mafia Wars fan and have a level 49 Maniac. No, I don't pay to play, either.
]]>@nycaviation: Shhh! Wouldn't want people to know they have freedom of speech!!
]]>Michael Arrington's track record is pretty abysmal, so it seems social networks via virtual games are his victim of the week.
]]>I did a couple on Farm Town just to get a little boost at the start, but they were all the free sort where you click a dozen-plus pages Yes/No radio buttons, and they properly credited me just fine.
]]>These were the 'mobile phone number required' 'affiliate programs... yes, it is shady to broadly word your 'user agreement' without fully disclosing the items the person can get charged for, or would get charged for by simply taking a 'quiz'.
Also you mention people get upset when they think a one time charge becomes a recurring charge... the programs that Zynga is no longer offering required the mobile phone number but does not openly state there is a charge unless you try to interpret the fine print.
]]>@albokay: Exactly. I will never put real money into this. I just started playing farmville when I caved in and started a facebook account yesterday. I did all this after wanting to check it out because of the Tech crunch articles.
]]>I'm not going to lie, I did complete a few "offers" to get a few more points for one of those games so I could get something useful with that + the limited free points you get, but I stuck to the 'sucker offers' where you can fill out fake info and you get the equivalent of five cents as a game reward.
]]>ill never give a dime to the mafia game I play. Ive been tempted but when you have games like this I always remember, if you dump money in order to be better someone will always dump more money to beat you. I wont get caught up in that expensive cycle.
]]>There are a lot of shady affiliate marking programs out there, but this wasn't one of them.
]]>