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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: October 22nd, 2023

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  • Can you give me an example of one you’ve seen?

    The original poster was saying paid currency shouldn’t exist, so I think in that scenario, you could only have vouchers for a whole in-game item. So for example if an item costed $5, then yes you could give away codes to redeem that item.

    There’s also an operational overhead to doing it that way compared to in-game currency though, because setting up products in google play/iOS can be kind of a pain compared to adding them to your own systems. Generally the dev wants as much to be under their control as possible because they have more flexibility that way compared to making products in the app stores.

    Also worth noting that iOS will block your app if you provide ways to get products (meaning things that cost real money) through ways other than the app store. So that means the dev wouldn’t be able to ever give you something in the game itself if that thing can also be bought. They could only give coupon codes (these are manually generated) for products to use in the app store interface.

    I’d be interested to hear an example of one you’ve seen because it might be a way to approach it that I’m not thinking about.


  • There are many many examples of predatory uses of in game currencies, but here are some big reasons devs use them besides being scummy.

    • Giving currency for free: giving people real money isn’t something any dev wants to deal with, so giving in game currency allows this to happen. This also applies to games where you can convert free currency to premium currency.
    • Local currencies: currency packages can be set to local prices without having to localize the in-game economy itself. This simplifies development a lot.
    • Weak promotion support on distributor platforms: believe it or not, iOS and android have incredibly weak promotion and sale support. By giving in-game currency, it gets around that failing of the platforms because the game can do whatever it wants with the in-game currency.

    Transparency is good, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.