I'm curious... why do you prefer a lite + full instead of one app that has the full part locked behind an IAP? Assuming the full version costs the same as the unlock, the unlock has the advantage of not needing you to download the game twice, plus you keep the progress you made leading up to the unlock. Otherwise I see no difference between the two configurations...
Same here! Like for Warhammer Quest I bought all the characters and the expansion, and that is because I used to own the physical game and knew what I was buying. I also paid to unlock Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright to unlock the full game just as i did with Ghost Trick and many others. I'll buy expansions, sometimes characters and occasionally a coin doubler if I feel the game is worth buying it for but I usually never buy consumable IAP, and if so, only it removed the ads for a game or gave something else (like Punch Quest originally unlocked a unique hat or something). My rule is that it has to permanently give me something to be worth even the consideration of a purchase. It's also the reason why I shy away from most freemium games, because they are never truly free if you want to actually enjoy them.
Coin doubler for Jetpack Joyride, a couple of awesome weapons for SAS 3, a bunch of gold coins for iGun Pro, and the pro pack for Doodle Army 2...about 15-20 bucks iirc. I'm thinking about buying some consumables in all my Foursaken media games coz I love em so much. I also want to buy the full game and DLC of Shadow Warrior and the premium pack or whatever it's called from Trigger Fist.
That's actually a really interesting question. I would have estimated that my IAP total would have been around $40, max...but I've also had experience balancing my family's finances, so I know just how far off estimates can be from reality. So I went through my purchase history in iTunes and tallied up the numbers. Since I got my first device (Jan 2011), I've spent $148 on IAP. That's roughly 1/3rd of what I've spent in the iOS store. Removing the money spent on music, it's just shy of 2/5s of the money spent on apps...and that ratio would be even higher if I was looking just at games (I've bought some expensive educational software, most of which has no IAP). Dividing the purchases up by type, I spent $62 for unlocking features (costumes/unlimited hints/etc.); $48 for unlocking playable content (the full game/extra levels/new game modes), $34 for currency (some of these were dev "tips"), and $3 for no ad purchases. There's also $1 I spent on an educational app. The games/companies I've given the most IAP money are Square Enix (FF Dimensions), Nimble Bit (Nimble Quest, Pocket Planes, Pocket Frogs, Tiny Tower), and PixBits (Junk Jack). The largest IAP I've bought was $20 for FFD, and the next most expensive IAPs were, in order: $15, $7, $5, $5, $5, and $5. The remaining $86 has all disappeared into $1-3 IAPs. Despite some disappointments, the only IAP I regret enough to want to "take back" is the one I spent on Bubble Witch Saga. :/ Looking over the companies I've given money to, and why I've given them money, I'm...actually pretty surprised that the percentage of my IAP to base app spending is so high, and I'm pretty satisfied, overall, with my IAP spending. As a rickety old gamer, it's kind of hard to shake my antipathy toward IAP. But I've managed to find $132 worth of gaming IAP in models that do not seriously impede my enjoyment of the games they belong to. Kind of changes my opinion on IAP.
Depends on the game. With Warhammer Quest, playing the game without purchasing coins is "the correct way", meaning that's exactly how you'd play the physical board game. If you choose to spend money you're quite literally cheating your way to more powerful equipment faster than the 20-year-strong set of instructions thinks you should be. I prefer it this way, because it ensures that the consumable isn't mandatory.
Barely anything. I've never bought currency in any game... maybe one coin-doubler for something like Jetpack Joyride or Punch Quest, but I can't really remember. A really small amount though, can't be more than $20, mostly on expansion content.
It's both a question of philosophy & terminology. Philosophically, you prefer to play the game as a purist, with no assistance. If you have a board game as reference, this is especially easy. I have no board game reference for the games I play so I figure the non-consumables are there to add permanent value to the game. So I see them as an extra feature I can choose or not choose. From the point of view of terminology, I see a cheat as someone fiddling with the date/time on their iDevice to get things to happen faster or trying any number of cheats so easily found online or shown on YouTube. I see IAPs as a monetizer for devs, something they *purposely* put in their games but "cheating" as something they didn't intend & which cuts into their profits. My question to you would then be, "Is trading a form of cheating to the purist?" After all, if someone sends you a gift it's something YOU didn't do.
This. With IAPs, these are my general rules - unlocks, expansions and maybe something like a doubler to help max out things in runners. I have to admit that I've gotten a few consumables IAPs in some KRPGs, but my hatred of them in general leads me to try to keep it to the three listed above. I'd have to say maybe $10-$20 on real IAPs. Full game unlocks don't count IMO because you're really just buying the game.
£4 to unlock Magic 2013 69p for some extra levels in Highborn That's it. I'll never pay for consumable IAPs because they are an evil con. I'll probably be paying 69p to unlock the English campaign in Ace Patrol as well.
Forgot to mention that i MAY have spent over $100 on doublers on a ton of runners, but i never really tried to keep track of them.
10 usd since 2010, thats 1 ios game, Dungeon defenders 2nd wave arena, and $3 gems. The other $3 on gold on Diablo 3 since it's already 25c per 10M gold lol
