• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

11 year old runs up £3k F2P bill, refused refund and told to "think happy thoughts"

Mr_Moogle

Member
The bleeding hearts in this thread irritate the hell out of me. In this case, the parents deserve what they get. If you hand an 11 year old a credit card, you've got nobody to blame but yourself.
 
Victim shaming is all the rage now.

Takes many forms and I find extremely sad, as it takes a devastating lack of empathy to come to this kind of response.

I find it hilarious that people are playing the empathy card when this kid ran up £3000 worth of purchases of like £3.99 and £7.99 each. I mean if you do it HUNDREDS OF TIMES over the span of 2 MONTHS it's no longer an accident people. It was clearly deliberate on the part of the kid, which means it was both a failure of parenting and a failure of the kid knowing right from wrong. I can't be empathetic in a situation like this.

Also in a situation like this, Google and the game company have detailed records of how much the game was played, when it was played, when purchases were made, how many were made, etc. It's hilariously dumb to think that Google and the game company didn't review their records and determine the purchases were intentional and not accidental. These sorts of records aren't rocket science to deduce a pattern from, and if Google denied a refund it's because this was their determination. I mean if you do make an accidental purchase you can contact Google right away and they'll refund you NBD, I've done it before. They aren't going to refund HUNDREDS OF "ACCIDENTAL" PURCHASES over the span of 2 MONTHS, how stupid do you think they are?
 
This.

I came on the thread expecting a woe-is-me tale full of bullshit, but it all seems perfectly plausible and the company (and the parent) could prove that a series of transactions were made within seconds of each other.

Yes, but if we took the effort to actually read the facts and consider the situation, how would we be able to condescendingly judge people on the internet!?
 

Applecot

Member
It was clearly deliberate on the part of the kid, which means it was both a failure of parenting and a failure of the kid knowing right from wrong.

First off, nobody apart from those involved actually know what transpired; the news article is sufficiently vague.

Second, I suggest you read about good enough parenting. Bad things happen to people all the time either intentionally or by accident. Like I mentioned victim shaming is all the rage; and your comment on how the parent has failed lacks empathy. You could believe this parent is evil scum of the earth but it doesn't preclude your ability to empathise.

Also in a situation like this, Google and the game company have detailed records of how much the game was played, when it was played, when purchases were made, how many were made, etc.

Again bugs can happen. A personal example just recently; Microsoft lost records of my purchase of Windows in 2013. Completely gone without a trace; and I actually had to backtrack through Paypal to find it again.

To be clear I'm not implying that (any) version of the events are untrue. Just to say that they are only a version and we don't know what happened.
 

Silraru

Member
It does sound like the boy didn't get what he wanted to purchase and thus clicked the button multiple times. If he never got what he purchased, no reason why he and his mom should be denied refunds. If he did get what he purchased, well, then whether google choose to refund or not, it's up to Google. (Don't know their refund policy so cant say much)

That said, parents definitely should be more careful. It's unfortunate this happened. Just not a wise move to give a child (even adult child) any financial info to let them spend as they like. Just not smart.
 

mechphree

Member
The average parent isn't expecting their child to be able to run up thousands of dollars in purchases on a game. People need to realize, a lot of these parents aren't tech savvy, let alone game savvy. They hand their kid their smart phones to play games while they shop to keep the children quiet. This isn't to excuse the parent in this story's behavior or ignorance, it's just one of the reasons why this happens.

It doesn't help that these games are specifically designed for children to do just that. They are created to extract as much money as possible through IAP's. It's getting to the point where I wouldn't be surprised these type of games lead to gambling or other addictive behaviour later on in these children's lives.

Getting back in topic though. If the kid didn't actually get what he wanted through his purchases, they should refund the parent the money.
 

Applecot

Member
Not to mention your bank sends you an email and/or an SMS whenever there's a transaction. And they send you a bill at the end of the month. How can someone just forget everything about their credit card and then expect to be taken seriously when they complain that they didn't know it was happening?

I had to comment on this. While I check my personal accounts frequently; I get no alerts outside of transactions exceeding the thousands. Although a thousand $10 purchases would probably slip by and be doable if someone stole my card with this bloody paypass system.

My statements are every 3 months. The traditional "Credit card" isn't the only way of paying by credit card; and based on the new article I would assume it is actually a debit card since they seem to have been hit by an overdrawn type fee.

Finally, I frequently use my credit card without ever physically touch it. I've committed all the details to memory so it would be quite easy for someone to swipe my card; get the details and put it back into my wallet and go on an online shopping spree.

Just one of the many reasons I prefer Paypal.

People need to realize, a lot of these parents aren't tech savvy, let alone game savv.

Also a good point. Even if you think the kid did this intentionally; the article suggests the kid has also had been fairly responsible and sought permission for purchases up until this point.
I wonder what the reaction would have been (or if there would even have been a news story) if this happened to a 30 year old; or a 70 year old.
 

Wynnebeck

Banned
The bleeding hearts in this thread irritate the hell out of me. In this case, the parents deserve what they get. If you hand an 11 year old a credit card, you've got nobody to blame but yourself.

So you bought something online and the transaction looks like it didn't go through. You think it must've have not gone through and click it again. a few weeks later when the post comes, instead of one item you ordered, you realized you bought two! Upset, you call the business to explain the situation and the business goes, "Sorry that you ordered two of the same item, but you are stuck with it now and we won't refund you. You are free to think happy thoughts however." You would be absolutely livid and yell that you will return it and want a refund. Is it really difficult to believe that something like that can be proven and that *gasp* the kid might have actually been making multiple purchases because he didn't think they went through?
 
They should just refund the money and ban the kid's Clash of Clans account. If he's telling the truth, his parents get the money back. If he's lying, think of all the shit he's going to lose in his game. £3k of shit! That'll be a pretty severe punishment for an 11-year-old who's well into Clash, to be back at square one.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
If ya wana read the article, it says he never saw confirmation so he just kept clicking. He meant to make one purchase each time. That's the error.

Across multiple games, across multiple months, with multiple amounts? I don't buy it, personally. Not saying it isn't possible, but an 11 year old in "big trouble" I wouldn't imagine can be relied upon to relate a reliable account.

That being said, even in that sort of case, our own company has also provided refunds. In practise, we give people the benefit of the doubt, even if it is a dubious claim sometimes.


The OP also cuts out the part of the article where it says Google is refunding the amounts, sans bank fees though.
 

mechphree

Member
I had to comment on this. While I check my personal accounts frequently; I get no alerts outside of transactions exceeding the thousands. Although a thousand $10 purchases would probably slip by and be doable if someone stole my card with this bloody paypass system.

My statements are every 3 months. The traditional "Credit card" isn't the only way of paying by credit card; and based on the new article I would assume it is actually a debit card since they seem to have been hit by an overdrawn type fee.

Finally, I frequently use my credit card without ever physically touch it. I've committed all the details to memory so it would be quite easy for someone to swipe my card; get the details and put it back into my wallet and go on an online shopping spree.

Just one of the many reasons I prefer Paypal.



Also a good point. Even if you think the kid did this intentionally; the article suggests the kid has also had been fairly responsible and sought permission for purchases up until this point.
I wonder what the reaction would have been (or if there would even have been a news story) if this happened to a 30 year old; or a 70 year old.

Right, and I also think we are missing the bigger point. Why are we just "ok" with these games, that are basically predatory to children to extract as much money out of them as they possibly can. These games are literally slot machines with no pay outs. We should be looking at if children or anybody for the matter should be playing these games without an explicit warning about what they are.

As it stands, these devs are going to continue looking for whales at the expense of the industry as a whole.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
11 year old with access to crédit card seems like a good idea.

Parents aren't very computer smart. It's like when I had my dad buying XBL for me. I bought Guantlet II for XBL because I pressed the button to confirm it. He trusted me and I asked him if it was okay. Before F2P games were out and XBL you put in your password once. OG Xbox didn't have all the neat features, but I did buy my friend one of Halo 2's map packs for him while he was out. He used it, but like with some things they don't know. An adult who say stopped gaming years go or who didn't game thinks one time is all you need or they wouldn't do that. F2P and various other games market buying more like it's a casino game and then a kid like this is influenced to keep buying more. He keeps buying more because developers are saying he'll be amazing or that he'll progress further if he buys more in game items. People my age and even younger (you too) probably didn't have this influence when we gamed. It came after. Why hold some silly responsibility with money all the time? You're suppose to let go and enjoy yourself. Let your imagination take you somewhere with the game. Not charge you multiple payments for game items before the screen goes to its second level.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Right, and I also think we are missing the bigger point. Why are we just "ok" with these games, that are basically predatory to children to extract as much money out of them as they possibly can. These games are literally slot machines with no pay outs. We should be looking at if children or anybody for the matter should be playing these games without an explicit warning about what they are.

As it stands, these devs are going to continue looking for whales at the expense of the industry as a whole.

Do you hold the same view of Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering, Team Fortress 2 and Path of Exile? Because they are fundamentally the same in terms of their business models, consumer protections, and the ability for the same sort of incident as the OP to occur.
 

Truespeed

Member
Shitty parenting aside it's pretty fucking criminal of Google and all the other companies that let this happen basically say "whoops you gave us 3k by mistake, see ya".

Giving it back is obviously not the solution, preventing it from happening is, but nobody is doing anything to do that and they won't, unless shit like that gets regulated.

There are regulations in place. In Europe the App Store and Play store require a password to be entered before you can purchase apps or IAP's. Additionally, whenever you purchase an IAP you're presented with a dialog box that asks for the password to complete the IAP. Now, this requirement to enter a password is the default behavior, but it can be turned off. So, to suggest "it's pretty fucking criminal of Google" is silly. The parent knowingly bypassed regulated safeguards that allowed their ignorant son to do this.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Do you hold the same view of Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering, Team Fortress 2 and Path of Exile? Because they are fundamentally the same in terms of their business models, consumer protections, and the ability for the same sort of incident as the OP to occur.
I think poorly of those games myself but I realize that they actually offer genuine gameplay as opposed to filling bars. They're the lesser evil here.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
I think poorly of those games myself but I realize that they actually offer genuine gameplay as opposed to filling bars. They're the lesser evil here.

I don't really accept the "at least they are real games" argument personally. Especially, when millions of people, including hardcore gamers, consider games like Clash of Clans to offer "genuine gameplay" (a game I have played personally for over 2 years, without spending a dime either).

My point is I think some people can be quick to label "mobile F2P" quintessentially bad and "PC F2P" anything else. They are the same, both offering the same variety of great and terrible implementations and practises depending on what you look at, and both having millions of hardcore fans and players*.


* fun side fact, hardcore console/PC gamers are the ones who spend the most on mobile games.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
My point is I think some people can be quick to label "mobile F2P" quintessentially bad and "PC F2P" anything else. They are the same, both offering the same variety of great and terrible implementations and practises depending on what you look at, and both having millions of hardcore fans and players*.


* fun side fact, hardcore console/PC gamers are the ones who spend the most on mobile games.
I don't find any of them to be even remotely appealing. PC or mobile.

Selfishly, I dislike them as they are slowly preventing games I want to play from being made.
 

Jachaos

Member
This is stupid. Google needs to refund this.

It was a technical error and there should be a refund.

Also, those saying she should try parenting - what do you think she was doing? She was teaching him things and trusting him, something more parents should do. So she was parenting. And by all accounts it was all fine until the error made him buy the same thing multiple times over a very short period of time, something he hadn't done prior. If this isn't a bug, he would've done it much sooner.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Selfishly, I dislike them as they are slowly preventing games I want to play from being made.

I don't really believe that. The broken nature of the traditional console model (assuming that is what you are referring to) is whats stopping those games being made. Mobile and F2P are more or less filling the vacuum IMO. In other words, they are a symptom, not a cause.


Jachaos said:
It was a technical error and there should be a refund.

Google did refund them the payments, albeit sans bank fees. It says so in the full article on the site.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
I personally think that the kid was not telling the entire truth and the mother was not being careful enough letting her kind handles her CC.

But damn people; some of you are acting as if the F2P mechanics in mobile gaming (not all, but many of them) are not structured specifically to allow/exploit stuff like this--or at least exploit the psychology of children... and adults alike, I guess--for easy bucks.
 

Cipherr

Member
Still no real explanation about this apparent ~300 clicks, across 2 months? And how the ~300 purchase confirmation emails were sent?

Funny how that keeps getting glossed over. You didnt just give an 11 year old a credit card. There is a metric fuckton of comedic errors here. And are they really insinuating that this happened across more than one game?

In fact Nick had simply been trying – and seemingly failing – to buy credits to play football management game Top Eleven 2015 and strategy game Clash of Clans among others.

Other's'? Meaning at least 4 games these clicks came across? And all 4 unrelated games have an error that has you purchasing items that gives you no feedback on whether or not your purchases went through? And this is the only such instance being reported on in these games?

Holy fuck. Good for the mom for getting a refund, but this fucking reeks and you all know it. Its ridiculous once you start to pull at the article and piece it all together.

  • Mom gives 11 year old credit card (BAD IDEA)
  • 11 year old spends 2 months buying credits from 4 games which all have the exact same design flaw (Holy coincidence batman)
  • All ~300 emails confirming purchases that are sent to GPlay account owners go unnoticed for 2 months (What?)
  • Finally gets noticed after 2 months on a statement. (Okay?)
  • Gets refund anyway (Good for you.)

The bloody hell... Even if I could buy that 4 games have the exact same lack of feedback on a purchase of in game currency, you are going to struggle to get me to also believe that all of the 4 games also share the same programming error in which they don't and did not provide the kids account with the credit in the game.

I personally think that the kid was not telling the entire truth and the mother was not being careful enough letting her kind handles her CC.

Ya think? LMAO; maybe some of the people telling everyone else to read the article should do so themselves. Its more than just a little fishy. Google probably refunded them just to be nice and to not flat out call the kid a liar; but there's no way in hell I believe all those coincidences happened to JUST them and didn't become an issue in the reviews of any of those games and ONLY seemed to happen to this family when millions play those games.

Either some information is missing and the reporting is shoddy, or someone is exaggerating.
 
Child aimed gambling? Let's not get carried away here. There are controls in place that allow parents the ability to limit/restrict spending, pretty much "no questions asked" refunds policies which exist on both Google Play and iTunes.

Even if it was the case that a particular F2P developer was being maliciously exploitative, they wouldn't be targeting children as they typically have no money or unrestricted access to credit cards.

Would you say Hearthstone, Team Fortress 2, and Path of Exile were "child aimed gambling" if the kid had spent that much money on those titles? Because he could have just as easily.

I say all F2P is gambling. With exception that actual gambling you have a chance to actually win something back. And like gambling, it should be illegal for kids to even touch this shit.
 

mechphree

Member
Do you hold the same view of Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering, Team Fortress 2 and Path of Exile? Because they are fundamentally the same in terms of their business models, consumer protections, and the ability for the same sort of incident as the OP to occur.

Yes I do. Hearthstone especially has pay2win tactics baked in, and I play that game daily. I'm saying we need to have a industry wide look at what these games do not only to children, but to adults as well. If these games effect our minds in any way detrimentally in the long run. No one can or cam not say because their aren't any active studies or much real current data to go on.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Yes I do. Hearthstone especially has pay2win tactics baked in, and I play that game daily. I'm saying we need to have a industry wide look at what these games do not only to children, but to adults as well. If these games effect our minds in any way detrimentally in the long run. No one can or cam not say because their aren't any active studies or much real current data to go on.

So you knowingly play a game ever day you consider exploitative and detrimental to your well being, that is (presumably) not fulfilling, and that you consider harmful to the industry?

If you consider it an addiction, why haven't you reached out for help? Or have you?
 
I know a lot of people are debating the fault here, whether it's the parent or the company, the software maybe.

But I feel a certain aspect of this situation is getting lost on people: This shitty cellphone game recieved 3 thousand dollars from a single customer.
Why the hell is that allowed?
What did they even get for their 3000 deniros? Some tokens that makes some game easier? In other words 'nothing'? Is this fair trade?
 

Gxgear

Member
I don't like F2P's exploitative nature as much as the next guy, but the mother clearly made a string of poor parenting decisions there.
 
This poor kid was only trying to kill Zeus, it's not his fault it was bugged and he kept mashing CIRCLE the pay button for two months without realising.
 

Burai

shitonmychest57
I say all F2P is gambling. With exception that actual gambling you have a chance to actually win something back. And like gambling, it should be illegal for kids to even touch this shit.

Would you also be in favour of banning trading cards, sticker albums and blind bag collectable toys? It's the same basic principle.

The fact is that kids can play these games perfectly fine. They can either grind or they can buy Play credit with their allowance. And I don't judge them for wasting their money because I've got Monsters In My Pocket, Pogs, Panini and Merlin sticker albums all boxed up in my mum's attic that prove how much money I wasted on crap like this.

But what you don't do is give them your credit card and then get upset when it goes wrong.
 

mechphree

Member
So you knowingly play a game ever day you consider exploitative and detrimental to your well being, that is (presumably) not fulfilling, and that you consider harmful to the industry?

If you consider it an addiction, why haven't you reached out for help? Or have you?

I didn't say it was addiction. I said I don't know. Like my previous post, their isn't any data to prove if it effects us or not.

It also seems you don't exactly understand the terminology of what "addiction" means. Hearthstone it self isn't addictive. It's the fact it has certain things in it that exploit certain types of people. To make an analogy, we may drink alcohol occasionally and we know that can be addictive for some people. We also know it's not necessarily good for you. Yet in moderation alcohol (or wine) is ok.

We aren't talking about people who drink in moderation or game in moderation though. We are talking about a select type of people who are open to being taken advantage of through exploratory practices OR they are biologically susceptible to addictive behaviour.
 
I personally think that the kid was not telling the entire truth and the mother was not being careful enough letting her kind handles her CC.

But damn people; some of you are acting as if the F2P mechanics in mobile gaming (not all, but many of them) are not structured specifically to allow/exploit stuff like this--or at least exploit the psychology of children... and adults alike, I guess--for easy bucks.

They avoid doing this for kids because it's a pain in the ass for the refund process and chargebacks. It's just not worth it.

Kids spend a few bucks accidentally.

Adults are the ones that know how much to budget and have the spare income.
 

Yagharek

Member
The bleeding hearts in this thread irritate the hell out of me. In this case, the parents deserve what they get. If you hand an 11 year old a credit card, you've got nobody to blame but yourself.

Heaven forbid someone might question the ethical design choices or lack thereof of a profit driven mobile developer.
 

mechphree

Member
They avoid doing this for kids because it's a pain in the ass for the refund process and chargebacks. It's just not worth it.

Kids spend a few bucks accidentally.

Adults are the ones that know how much to budget and have the spare income.

But what are the long term of effects (psychological, biological) that these types of games may have on us? Many of the mobile games are just slot machines masquerading as games. Many of the design choices are made to extract money out of the player and entertainment isn't the biggest concern, taking your money is.
 

shmoglish

Member
Happy_Suicide.jpg


Yeah, just think happy
 

bj00rn_

Banned
Is it confirmed that you can indeed just click multiple times on a buy button and each time it registers a buy..? If so that's not exactly good, probably almost intentionally done to prey on people's mistakes.. there has to be a confirmation process on each transaction, everything else should be illegal.

Everyone looks bad in this story..
 

joecanada

Member
The issue here is that the kid hasn't got what he paid for, or at least claims thus. He "didn't realise" he was spending the money because he wasn't getting what he was supposedly paying for and so assumed he wasn't being charged.

If that's the legit truth, I don't see any issue with the parenting. Anyone would click again if they thought a transaction hadn't gone through, child or not.

Yes anyone would click again. Then instantly call and demand a refund. They would not click 25 times repeatedly without checking how the system works. Hence why you don't let an 11 year old do it.
 
But what are the long term of effects (psychological, biological) that these types of games may have on us? Many of the mobile games are just slot machines masquerading as games. Many of the design choices are made to extract money out of the player and entertainment isn't the biggest concern, taking your money is.

That's why I hope the EU is cracking down on this crapshoot masquerading as video games sooner rather than later. It's basically a loophole for gambling and little else.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
I didn't say it was addiction. I said I don't know. Like my previous post, their isn't any data to prove if it effects us or not.

I'm just trying to understand why you play a game every day that you think is harming individuals and the industry.


It also seems you don't exactly understand the terminology of what "addiction" means. Hearthstone it self isn't addictive. It's the fact it has certain things in it that exploit certain types of people. To make an analogy, we may drink alcohol occasionally and we know that can be addictive for some people. We also know it's not necessarily good for you. Yet in moderation alcohol (or wine) is ok.

We aren't talking about people who drink in moderation or game in moderation though. We are talking about a select type of people who are open to being taken advantage of through exploratory practices OR they are biologically susceptible to addictive behaviour.

I'm all for controls that avoid exploitation. But the challenge is finding the balance between allowing ready access and consumption to the wider population for something while restricting it for others.

If you want to call it a potentially dangerous vice, then there are many industries that face similar challenges such as movies and TV, car ownership/licensing, gun ownership, and AAA games themselves as well as more demonstrably "bad for you" things such as alcohol and cigarettes.


I'd argue there are already a lot of processes in place that dissuade the OP situation from happening in the first place. And again, they still got their refund anyway. Not opposed to their being more.

On iTunes it is even easier and heavily in favour of the consumer with various levels of IAP lock, IAP "warnings", and a very lenient refund policy. Somebody got a 99c refund last month on a game we took down from store over 2 years ago.
 

Copenap

Member
Would you also be in favour of banning trading cards, sticker albums and blind bag collectable toys? It's the same basic principle.

The fact is that kids can play these games perfectly fine. They can either grind or they can buy Play credit with their allowance. And I don't judge them for wasting their money because I've got Monsters In My Pocket, Pogs, Panini and Merlin sticker albums all boxed up in my mum's attic that prove how much money I wasted on crap like this.

But what you don't do is give them your credit card and then get upset when it goes wrong.
Imo that's a very good point and it emphasizes that the problem is not that a 11y old wasted some funds on a f2p game, all kids (and adults) spend some funds on unnecessary stuff, the problem here us that the mother gave him access to basically unlimited funds.

And to people saying she isn't tech savvy, she doesn't have to, this has nothing to do with tech and everything to do with what a credit card / debit card is.
 

mechphree

Member
I'm just trying to understand why you play a game every day that you think is harming individuals and the industry.




I'm all for controls that avoid exploitation. But the challenge is finding the balance between allowing ready access and consumption to the wider population for something while restricting it for others.

If you want to call it a potentially dangerous vice, then there are many industries that face similar challenges such as movies and TV, car ownership/licensing, gun ownership, and AAA games themselves as well as more demonstrably "bad for you" things such as alcohol and cigarettes.


I'd argue there are already a lot of processes in place that dissuade the OP situation from happening in the first place. And again, they still got their refund anyway. Not opposed to their being more.

On iTunes it is even easier and heavily in favour of the consumer with various levels of IAP lock, IAP "warnings", and a very lenient refund policy. Somebody got a 99c refund last month on a game we took down from store over 2 years ago.

I agree. Granted, education is key. I also think we need to go beyond just setting up passwords though. We need to actually deal with some of these practices that these developers are employing in the marketplace in a consumer advocate level. Some of these games border on basically gambling.

I'm not exactly sure how we deal with the problem. Maybe a type of warning before you purchase the app or something? I'm not sure.
 

oni-link

Member
Do you hold the same view of Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering, Team Fortress 2 and Path of Exile? Because they are fundamentally the same in terms of their business models, consumer protections, and the ability for the same sort of incident as the OP to occur.

F2P is something that can be done well, or poorly, a lot of mobile games use it poorly

By poorly I mean they make the game addictive and then put paywalls in the way of progress/continuing to play, to the point where the game is designed around that

Games like Hearthstone and TF2 are designed to be great games first, then you can add cosmetic stuff if you want to (correct me if I'm wrong) As far as I'm aware there are no points in those games where you need to pay to keep playing or where you need to play to make progress

F2P as a model isn't good or bad, it can be used in a way that is fair or a way that is scummy, and a lot of mobile games use it in a way that is pretty scummy

The whole F2P and IAP model is still quite new, 5 years ago it was less of a thing, parents with 5-15 year olds are probably on the whole unaware of the nitty gritty of how these games work or how they're designed

These stories are good if only so they raise awareness of how these games work, so other parents can avoid this kind of thing

I agree. Granted, education is key. I also think we need to go beyond just setting up passwords though. We need to actually deal with some of these practices that these developers are employing in the marketplace in a consumer advocate level. Some of these games border on basically gambling.

I agree, in the UK you can't have TV adverts targeted at children between children's TV shows, and so I'm pretty sure the kind of games that target children and amount to little more than gambling will be clamped down upon
 
Literally the only difference between this story and identical stories from 3 or 4 years ago is that this happened on a Tablet and not on a 360.

Because tablets are the mass market gaming device now. Not because OMG F2P predatory evil unethical skinner box.
 

Shengar

Member
The purchases where going through, but he wasn't getting the in game credits, so he kept clicking them thinking the purchase didn't go through. Anybody of any age would have thought "huh, where is the thing I bought? It isn't here, so I guess it didn't work." What would have "parenting" have changed?
People should learn to read

Nevertheless, it have been implied that the parent isn't tech savvy. That's they give their children the access to their credit card purchase. Yes this is dumb but do you really must to blame an tech illiterate person for this? If anything, this shit wouldn't happened if mobild games don't employ such bullshit and exploitative monetization.
 
Is it confirmed that you can indeed just click multiple times on a buy button and each time it registers a buy..? If so that's not exactly good, probably almost intentionally done to prey on people's mistakes.. there has to be a confirmation process on each transaction, everything else should be illegal.

Everyone looks bad in this story..

I can't speak to this specific game, but as far as Google is concerned, I get email confirmations after each purchase. Google even states as much:

https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/2850369?hl=en
 

Acinixys

Member
Adding payment details to your device and then giving it to your kid without supervision is top tier idiotic

Although Google are being dicks, 60% of the blame should go to the mother for being terrible at controlling what her child does
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
Digital era is way too much of a dick about refunds anyway.
 
Top Bottom