Adolescent Interview: Mobile Online Gaming Number 1

Interviewing two cousins of mine who are freshman in high school yielded very interesting results from what I expected to get. Both are middle class white males from the same town they both grew up in from birth. I talked to both of them together which I feel might have made them curb some of their answers as a way to try and look cool in front of the other.

Both have their own personal mobile devices and their own personal laptops at home. When asked what they use more they both agreed the cell phone. Laptops were really just from school work and occasional to go on Instagram and/or other social media sites. Most of the action takes place on the almighty cell phone.

Texting, Instagram, and Snapchat is what seems to own their social lives. Both agreed that they probably send at least 50 texts a day. All of that in between liking, commenting on, replying to, and posting pics and videos on Instagram and Snapchat.

This was really no surprise to me. When I got to asking them about gaming is when I found some interesting information.

Although both boys have PS4 game consoles that is not where they spent most of the time gaming. That also is dominated by their cell phone. Each of them had many mobile games downloaded to their phones. All of the games are similar in how they are played too.

I'll explain by how using their current favorite as an example: Madden Mobile. This game is modeled after Madden Football which is the most popular football game for any console but is now available on mobile devices. The mobile version is much different as it is set up as what is known today as a "Freemium"

You play quick 5 minute long football games where you are rewarded with money that you can use to buy better players which then allows you to play better teams leading to more money. This money is fictional but if you want to upgrade your team quicker you can pay (real money) to gain the rewards much quicker.

Both boys proudly told me about the several super bowls they have won. One of the boys says to have completed 4 full seasons so far and is on his way to finishing his 5th. They both say that in the first season it is insanely easy. "You can throw a hail mary and score on every play."

This is how these "Freemiums" get users hooked. They get rewarded for doing something that takes little to no effort. The reward keeps the user playing. While at first both boys swear they never paid any real money to better their Madden Mobile team at first, one eventually added, "Well actually I did one time, but it was only 99 cents and it was to get a really good player for my team."

This intrigued me so much afterwards that I did a random survey of 51 eighth graders at the school where a teach to find out if more kids play "Freemiums" on a mobile device. Of the 51 students 50 had their own mobile devices. Of those 50 who have a cell phone 29 said they play a mobile game at least once a day.

The sad thing about these types of games is that from everything I know about them they seem to be quite the scam. They are intentionally easy with rewards that are usually fake coins or fake money with bright colors that keeps the user wanting to play more and more.

I was very surprised to find out that these games were so popular among young teens.