Jun 01

Taking advantage of kids for profit

We recently installed FarmStory on our iPad and after watching our 4-year old play it, I believe they’re taking advantage of children to spread their other game titles.

After you play the game for a bit, a huge poster board appears on your farm (WTF?) that asks you to install another one of their games (Pet Shop Story, in this instance).

The only way to get rid of the stupid thing is to click on it which brings up a modal window that says “Would you like to install Pet Shop Story?” with a “Yes” button. The “No” button only appears after about three seconds.

This is clearly designed to take advantage of kids who will click any button in order to get back to playing the game. My 4-year old can’t read what the modal window says so he just starts clicking on any button. If I hadn’t turned on restrictions to keep him from installing apps he probably would have mistakenly installed the app.

An adult wouldn’t fall for this trick but a kid probably would. I think it’s a pathetic tactic that Team Lava, the makers of the game, use to spread their games virally.

There is a growing trend to spread your game using whatever sleazy tactics possible and I think we need to stand up against it.

Not only is Team Lava profiting from these tactics, but so is Apple. I think Apple has a responsibility to police this situation and pull games that employ these tactics.

Has anyone else experienced things like this?

Do you believe these tactics are acceptable?