I've made this meme regarding the purchase problem
The Sims FreePlay has started showing a dialog asking you to purchase currency when the game is started, usually this happens when the deal expires or something. FreePlay also does this if you don't have enough Simoleons, Lifestyle Points, or Social Points to purchase the object.
This is bad because people might not know that this actually costs real money and compounded by the fact that in-app purchases are enabled by default makes this matter worse. This can be a problem for kids or people unfamiliar with micro transactions. The only saving grace is the purple Purchase button and the prompt to enter your password.
None of the other games such as The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 attempt to ask you to spend real money although TS3 by default has Store items in Gold in Buy/Build Mode that costs SimPoints in addition to in-game items while The Sims 4 has added the DLC button although the game doesn't attempt to ask you to spend real money. Fortunately you can turn this off so TS3 only displays the in-game objects .
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The problem is the same with streaming because some streaming companies offer movies which you can buy or rent even if you pay for a monthly subscription where you can watch other movies and series for free. I have seen parents complain about this too when their children had bought or rented things without knowing that it cost real money. Fortunately a streaming company which did this now also have made it possible for parents to disable this for their children.
But the main problem still is that Apple and all the other companies don't disable inapp purchases as default when they sell their phones, tablets, apps and smartTVs. So parents unfortunately still often have to learn to do this the hard way before they give their children access to such things.
This is getting bad because a person can accidentally accept the purchase offer without knowing it costs real money. Since you have resumed FreePlay, you might be saved by the password entry but God help someone who isn't aware that it costs real money. I don't know if FreePlay was subject to controversies considering that the game can easily trick you into spending real money such as if you try to use a VIP perk without the appropriate VIP level, don't have enough of the appropriate currency (such as Simoleons or LP), or when you resume the game (see image above).
The VIP and currency dialogs can be really jarring for new players since he or she will have no VIP levels and they'll have low Simoleons leading to purchase dialogs which you can unknowingly accept. For starters, FreePlay will ask the player to purchase a currency pack if the player doesn't have enough Simoleons, Lifestyle Points, or Social Points to purchase the object/building, or to do an action. In The Sims 4 and other games, you can't purchase the object, build or use actions if you don't have enough Simoleons to cover the cost. This also applies to The Sims 2's and The Sims Stores' Aspiration Rewards, The Sims 3's Lifetime Rewards, The Sims 4's Reward traits, and The Sims 4 Get Together's Club Perks, where you can't purchase the reward if you don't have enough of the respective points.
Now cue problems with children/teens when they start playing the game as they might unknowingly make a purchase should they not know about the VIP and currency offers cost real money. What makes it worse is kids/other people could know the PIN and/or password making this really aggravating. Even more aggravating is that in-app purcahses are enabled by default and not everyone knows how to turn off in-app purchases.
Windows has a similar issue with the Hide extensions for known file types being enabled by default. This setting hides extensions for known file types such as .exe, .png., .mp3, .txt, etc. Worms and viruses such as ILOVEYOU/Loveletter, Brontok, Heap41a, and CryptoLocker tend to use double file extensions or familiar Windows icons such as folders and text documents which would mean a file named picture.png.exe would appear as picture.png. Many users often got infected by these type of viruses considering that most users often do not change the setting. While it's possible to right click the file and click Properties or look in the Details pane of Windows Explorer/File Explorer to see if it's an application or an actual file/folder, average users will likely not bother checking the file type.
The Sims Freeplay never annoys me about this. But I am also playing a free action/war game where a screen pops up and gives me offers to buy grenades, health packs and ammo cartridges for real money every time I lose a battle. This I find very annoying because I won't ever do that and just have to x that annoying window out every time. But the game companies can't make free games unless some of the gamers make ingame purchases. So I guess that we just have to accept this (or switch to paid games instead).
Even paid games do it such as The Sims 3 (although this be turned off, unlike FreePlay), FIFA on Xbox One, and Borderlands 2. In Borderlands 2, the extra 2 characters as well as the additional locations are listed regardless if the player owns the DLC, attempting to select the two characters or Fast Travel to the DLC locations will ask the player to go to the Store to purchase the DLC (PS3/Xbox 360) or open a Steam browser window displaying Borderlands 2's page (PC). This can be problematic if the console is shared and payment info is shared.
Fortunately, the locations will not appear if the console is not connected to the Internet, if the account isn't signed to PlayStation Network/Xbox Live, or if signed in to a profile that isn't using a Sony Entertainment Network account (PS3) or Microsoft account (Xbox 360). On PC, the extra locations will only disappear if running Steam on Offline Mode.
1. The game couldn't be free if it didn't contain adds and offers about paid content too.
2. Apple or Google will ask you about your AppleID or password to confirm that you really want to purchase before you pay the money.
3. If you let your kid play the game then they can't make such purchases unless they know your AppleID or Google password which you never should tell them unless you are completely sure that their phone or tablet doesn't remember your credit card at all.
4. All similar games make similar offers and the Sims Freeplay isn't at all the most aggressive among them.
5. More and more paid games switch the the F2P model with ingame advertising and offers about paid content too because the game companies have realized that it is more important for their income to have a huge number of gamers playing their games than just to get a little money in advance from a tiny fraction of all the gamers who could like their games.
So I don't think that you have any chance of winning this battle
Sure players may notice the password entry and immediately back off but people who don't know about this may accidentally spend real money
@JasonAnthonySterling In-app purchases should be seen in the same way as the monthly subscriptions to Netflix or World of Warcraft or payment for a ticket to a movie, a concert or a sports match. They are payments for a temporary pleasure which doesn't give you even more pleasure after the events or the games have ended.
Personally I usually never use in-app purchases in free games because I am not interested in just dead stuff which isn't necessary anyway. But for the Sims Freeplay I would still say that at least VIP2 is worth it just for the daily rainbow slices. In another game I also bought a little armor and a better weapon to avoid losing too often. But generally I almost always just refuse all the offers without even looking at them.
@JasonAnthonySterling It was a Teddy Bear when I took the screenshot but now it's Premiere Night Fashion that the game is asking me to buy.
You should go play other games that offer in-app purchases, seriously. They all do it. Then you won't have to come back here every month to let us know, because they definitely won't be turning of the pop-ups.
@joleaco The problem with free to play games asking people to purchase is because people could say yes and this is made worse that Apple, Google, and Amazon have (you guessed it) in-app purchases enabled by default on their respective operating systems but I don't know if the Aamzon Fire Kids Edition has IAP enabled by default. While adults may say no, kids and teens will say yes especially if they don't know about the in-app purchases. Also FreePlay asks the player to purchase currency if they do not have enough currency to buy something or perform an action. Sure The Sims FreePlay is not targeted towards kids but there are some children playing it which makes this jarring, it doesn't help for some parents that some kids may know the password and pin.
Windows has the same problem with hide known file extensions being enabled by default which leads to problems with viruses that tend to use Windows icons or double file extensions. For example, a file with the name document.docx.exe will be displayed as document.docx so anyone who doesn't turn off the setting (which I'm sure they probably won't) will not know this is a virus and probably run it because a .docx file usually opens in Microsoft Word but this file will actually run the virus. This still remains a problem in Windows 10 as file extensions are still hidden by default.
In my opinion people who give their kids iPhones or other smartphones with installed credit cards and information about the passwords that confirm their purchases are the problem - and not the app stores or the companies who enable in-app purchases.
I also wonder what is the point of the game asking you to purchase something when there's already a store button that is right next to the frequently used buttons (Party Boat, Home Store, and Town Map).
Advertising for cereal or for cars of a certain brand isn't different. You already know where to buy such products. So you just need to be given the idea to buy them just now. This is the fundamental thing about advertising
From Wikipedia's Free-to-play article
You don't have to update anything, everyone here knows this is how mobile games work. Every other free game does this and does it more aggresive so you're lucky it shows up this little.
Earlier most MMO games required us to pay a monthly subscription. But some of the game companies discovered that this scared a huge number of potential customers away. So some companies instead began to offer the games for free with the idea that if their games could attract enough gamers then maybe they could earn just as much money anyway even if only a fraction of the customers chose to buy extra things for the game. This experiment was so successful that almost all MMO games now are free to play.
Some free apps offers instead the opportunity to upgrade to an add-free version of the app for a little money and I would expect that EA could offer that too for a game like the Sims Freeplay. But I don't really think that it would be a good idea for a MMO game because obviously the game company will stop its support for the game and take the server down if/when the game some day doesn't generate enough income to pay the expenses anymore. So if we want EA Firemonkeys to still make new content for the game and keep the game server online then we should instead keep supporting the game by buying things which we think are worth our money.
I can understand though why weak parents (who find it difficult to deny anything for their children) don't like the way their children could nag them all the time by asking them to buy all the things in the popups. But I don't think that there is any good way to change that anyway
And you could also say that the Sims 4 basegame only is made to fool you into buying about 30 expansions whithout realizing that after that the "cheap" basegame has cost you at least about a thousand dollars