At one point, games on mobile devices were fun. Addictive even. Today, they are still addictive - depending on the game. But my patience with the overuse of in-app purchases (IAP) has worn away. If a game wishes to inundate me with ads and pleas for cash then I delete them. Even if it's a game that I once loved to play. I've no time for the nonsense anymore.
I absolutely support a developer's right to ask for payment for their work. Free apps that have an IAP for purchasing the "full version" or to remove banner ads are alright by me. But if your game is downright impossible to play without "boosts" and those "boosts" are also available as "permanent boosts" and you flood me under with downright pushy ads then go away.
And if selling my virtual farm goods to virtual vendors in the game subjects me to an ad that I'm required to watch for me to claim the coins I worked (virtually) to earn then I'm deleting your game.
Look, I'm an indie game developer. I love to write games and I've got a long list of game ideas and works-in-progress. I develop my games in Unity, Roblox, or just roll my own games using SDL and C++. I understand that making games is work and that we enjoy getting some sort of payment for that work. For me, I really like hearing from people who play my games and say, "That was a fun game!" I appreciate the folks who send me a dollar here and a few more dollars there. But I absolutely refuse to subject my players to pay walls or pay-2-win or cash grabbing tricks designed to suck money out of them.
Enough is enough! Make games. Make fun games. Ask people to pay for them and even offer some incentive boosts for purchase. But don't take your audience for granted.
You'll lose the confidence of the gamers you're trying to keep playing your games.
