Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-28270302-20160725155031/@comment-27824793-20160729181144

I understand why people get upset about this, but all this talk of lawsuits and such is silly. I've been involved in the tech world as an entrepreneur and investor for 25 years. I've been involved in multiple successful exits, including companies in the gaming and mobile/app spaces, and have even been lucky enough to be involved in one "unicorn" level exit (non gaming/mobile related.) How do you think I have the free time to pick up my iPad so often and get to level 570 on RR3? ;-)

The best thing we can do about this situation is to try and raise awareness so new players can at least make the decision in their mind if they want to make an IAP and to avoid the problem.

The reason FM do what they do is precisely because they think it is what maximizes their revenue.

(As an aside, giving someone one GC for watching an advertisement is not technically "free", it is a reward for the player taking the time to watch the advertisement. There is an exchange there, you have the choice/opportunity, not the obligation, to spend 15-30 seconds watching an ad.)

The "Freemium" gaming app model makes most of its income from a very small percentage of players. Probably not much more than 1% of the 100 million downloaders of the app have made and/or continue to make IAP.

FM have changed the relative value/scarcity of GC in the game, and that is what is unfair to those who made an IAP because they were told at the time that they could remove all in game ads by doing so. But the vast majority of FM's recurring revenue- remember, by definition "recurring" means these are players who make *repeated* IAPs, comes from players who either don't care that the cost of enough GC to buy one single car can be 100 real dollars (they are wealthy enough, have wealthy enough parents, or are crooks using stolen credit cards) or people with poor impulse control and addictive personalities who cannot resist making IAP because, damnit, they *need* to upgrade their car NOW so they can finish the event/advance to the next stage etc.

FM wants to do two things: attract new players to the game, and monetize as many of those players as they can via IAP. They feel like giving new players (and by association those like me who refuse to make IAP on principle) the opportunity to watch 20 ads per day in return for one GC each, is the right number to keep new players interested and to generate some advertising revenue. Any player who has made an IAP has shown FM that they are different from the 99% who never make an IAP, regardless of special offers for GC. They treat those players differently: now that you have shown them you are willing to make an IAP, FM's incentive is to get you to repeat that action.

The only way it makes business sense for FM to offer *more* opportunities to watch ads to earn GC (remember they are not giving away free GC, they are providing opportunities to watch ads) to those who have made an IAP is IF the number of hardcore players (including those who have made just one IAP in the past) who will spend more money on IAP in return for more ad opps, is higher than the number of impulsive types who make IAPs and probably don't even care about watching ads.

I would bet the reality looks something like this: the % of people who play RR3 and make repeated IAPs due to the reasons listed above might be one percent. And the % of hardcore players who seek out places like this Wiki, have made IAP and might buy more IAP because they feel like they are getting rewarded for receiving the opportunity to watch more ads is 0.00001 of one percent.

Is the current system unfair to players who made one small IAP long ago to remove in-game ads that appeared at the time? Yes, it is unfair, and it sucks if you are one of that minority. But at the time, that was the model FM was using, the mobile gaming ad revenue market was not as developed as it is now etc. Is it also unfair to those who take a special offer and buy 1,019 GC for $19.99? Maybe. I think it's unfair, but some would argue that you are getting 1,019 GC instantly for your purchase, and that is more valuable than spending 8-10 minutes per day watching ads to *earn* 20GC, even if you end up with 1,019 GC from watching ads after 51 days. What is the Present Value of 1,020 GC earned by watching twenty 15-30 second ads per day for 51 days? Is it more or less than the $19.99 or more you'd spend to get 1,019 GC instantly? Who knows? Watching 1,020 ads would take 340 minutes at an average of 20 seconds per ad. If someone's time is worth $10 per hour, it is *costing* them a little more than $1 per day to watch 20 ads. By that metric, buying GC might make sense. Caveat emptor and all that.

There is no way any competent attorney would take on suing FM over this ad issue. It's a waste of time and money. If enough people complained and made a public fuss (which I doubt will happen because most people won't care even if they know about it) FM would *never* give more GC to those who have made an IAP as a reward. If the complaints got numerous enough, and FM makes more money from people watching ads than from IAP (which I doubt) then maybe they'd give everyone the chance to watch 20 ads per day again. More likely if they felt compelled to eliminate any differentials in number of ad watching opps, they'd reduce everyone to 5.

Keep in mind the number of ads watching opportunities already varies depending on the country, so FM already feels like they are on firm legal ground to vary the number of ads presented based on varying factors.

The false equivalence many make on the wiki is that giving people the chance to click and earn one GC in return for spending 15-30 seconds watching an ad is "free." What's evolved is unfair to some, especially those who made only one small IAP back when it removed in game ads and there was no system to earn GC by watching other ads, but the world is often unfair. Venting about stuff that is unfair is perfectly valid, and doing so here in a forum full of other avid players of RR3 makes sense. And if you choose to spend your time and energy pursuing lawsuits and such over this issue, that is your prerogative. I'm just giving my opinion, as someone who has a lot of experience in this stuff, that you would be wasting your time.

tl;dr version: FM suck because they are greedy bastards, the current system is unfair to some, vent all you want but don't waste your time/energy pursuing fruitless avenues.