Talk:The Return of Whitbee's Candy Bash/@comment-26082371-20151025214926/@comment-5562408-20151028055559

I don't think the hostility is necessary, but yes, I agree, we do have choices.

I play two other free to play games on my iPad that are truly free to play. Neither of them contain any content that is pay-only. Neither has any in-game advertising. One of the games - Puzzle and Dragons - is one of the top grossing games in Japan, and is in the top 100 in the US. The developers are definitely paying their bills and the players, at least on the sites I frequent, seem happy. I'm sure there are other examples, but this is the one I actually play.

When I put money into DragonVale, I saw things two ways. One is value for money. I enjoyed many hours of play up to that point, and it felt quite appropriate that I contribute the cost of the item I wanted. I didn't feel obligated, tricked, or taken advantage of. Two, I saw it as a way to tip the developers, because I was happy with their product. Deciding to make a purchase felt like a choice (and one I was happy to make) rather than a veiled obligation.

Since the new style of events, though, the idea of making a purchase doesn't have the same value for money feel it did before, and it feels slightly more like an obligation than it feels like. It's a subtle difference, but it's there, and it's why I'm not currently paying.

Anyway, this post went on a bit longer than I intended. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss this further. I enjoy digging into the philosophy/psychology that comes to the table in discussions like this.