Predatory features of PIMD.

Discussion in 'Questions/Feedback' started by Kefo, May 4, 2021.

  1. Hi all, my name is Kefo, a long-time user of PIMD (6 years).

    During the years that I've played this game, I have never taken a proper break of more than 2 months. My bond to the game is partially due to my own personal weaknesses, to the merits and fun experiences this game can provide, but also to some predatory, addictive aspects of the game that the developers intentionally implemented to keep me addicted.

    For some, their bond to the game is so great that it leads to them wasting money on it. For some, it is only a few dollars but I know that many fellow players have spent hundreds, thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands of dollars on it.

    Not all of them are good financial managers, and are able to see how they could have better spent that money on themselves, but even so, I wonder how someone puts so much into a game that hardly seems to improve at all from the amount of money that's spent on it. What tricks have they fallen prey to?

    For years, I've tried to urge the developers to work on things that would make the game better rather than simply what would make it more profitable but they know their priorities.

    I want to ask those of you who currently play PIMD to say what keeps you here, what motivates you to spend money, and finally if there are any features or parts of the game that you think can lead to people becoming more addicted or to spending more money on the game without making it more enjoyable.

    This exercise is to increase your awareness of the traps that lie around you, so you can think twice about how you respond to them. Empower and take care of your mental health as well as others by pointing out what rotten things are happening...

     
  2. Ive spent money 2 times on this game ever. The 1st one was a inpulse buy on a avi for a acc i ended up not long after abandoning.
    2nd one was for the cheapest ec pack to get the extra few i i need for a name change on this acc but it felt like a need.

    Im staying coz people are talking to me again. But id say ima be out when it stops again
     
    Kefo likes this.
  3. I just took my first break but it was pretty half assed tbf. I still logged in occasionally but I think the first couple weeks I was barely active at all.

    Things that did keep me more active were the friends I've made. More and more people are leaving so it's more outta habit and kinda sadly an attachment to the stuff I've accrued?

    I used to have more fun being social on here
     
    Peter_Parker100 and Kefo like this.
  4. Taking breaks is one of my strong points.
     
    _Pristine_ and Kefo like this.
  5. I wouldn’t call what I do breaks, because I’ve never been a very active player to begin with. It’s pretty off and on. Fueled by boredom. I check in on the game like I check my emails. If I don’t like the content in a Hunt I don’t really get on. I spend money on the game here and there if there’s something I might want, or I want to open boxes, I participated in a bbb once just cause. I really can’t even say I get on to talk to people. I’m in a place where I can afford to spend money on dumb things if I want to, so occasionally I do. What I cannot bring myself to understand though is how anyone can blame someone else for how they spend their own money. When I didn’t have the money to spend, I didn’t spend it. I think it’s toxic to blame outsiders for our own weaknesses, that doesn’t open the door to personal growth. Rather than accept that we have a problem that we need to address we blame the game for making us spend our money? Games and advertising aren’t the problem. The people pretending that anyone other than themselves has control over their money are the problem.
     
    Peter_Parker100 and V_Witchy_101 like this.
  6. For me, it's usually just the collecting of cute items. With some saving of in-game resources, I could very well finish every hunt if I like the items enough. That's actually what I had planned this hunt; I'm a huge sucker for stuff of that scene. I didn't think about going for t100 until after I had opened about 60 boxes (again, that had been saved up from ec offers) and finding myself jumping to nearly the 80th spot. As I began to go back down, I started to panic. Luckily, compared to hundreds or thousands, I've only spent $50 to keep myself in the running, but damn, this game is hella competitive if you get into it.
     
    Peter_Parker100 likes this.
  7. I haven't spent money on here in ages, but when I did it was primarily cuz I didn't wanna be smol. Smol players get a lot of disrespect from ppl. Same with if you don't have a pretty avi so ppl will feel the need to buy one when they first start, cuz the starters are so ugly and everyone ignores ppl with starter avatars.
     
    LeeJarrett likes this.
  8. Every time you open a box you get a hit of dopamine which makes you more addicted. Any box you open. They added timer boxes because this is a known thing in games that opening “loot boxes” creates dopamine and makes you more addicted. Before the timer boxes they just gave you speed ups with the hunt as you went on. Now they give you boxes to open because it’s another way to give you a dopamine hit to get you more addicted. Same with parties— every successful hit is a small hit of dopamine for your brain.

    This is done purposefully. I can’t blame the devs. They want to make money. They need money to live. The more addictive your game is the more money you make. This game is ramped in the same way clash of clans or other games are where it’s really easy at first and gets progressively harder and harder and harder.

    I’ve spent about $60 on the game. The rest that I’ve spent has been from doing the earn EC thing when it let you get ecs from reaching a certain level on a different game but now on Apple it just makes you spend money to earn ecs.

    People should just know that it’s purposefully addictive in almost every way.
     
    Peter_Parker100 likes this.