Random Stories Of Times People Spent Way Too Much Money On Mobile Games (17 items)

• (#1) An Offer She Couldn't Refuse

  From TheTreeMan:

  "One of my old friends's mom is hooked on Mafia Wars (I think that's what it's called) on Facebook. She's probably sunk at least 40 to 50 thousand dollars into it. Probably even more. Her house is absolutely trashed, and she basically completely withdrew from her son's life.

  "The last time I can remember going over, her entire room was filled with just hundreds of pizza boxes and McDonalds bags. When you enter the house, the smell just smacks you in the face, even though she basically just stays in her room."

  It led to my friend getting into drug dealing, just to be able to pay for his school, payments on the house, and food. It's pretty ridiculous. He ended up dropping out of college, and getting pulled into that type of life, which led to me cutting ties with him. We haven't talked for at least three to four years.

  I'm not sure if she's still hooked on it, but I hope she's found the help she needs."
• (#2) Impatience Explains Everything

  From Xion4762:

  "I play Game of War Fire Age way too often, so I'll speak on behalf of this game. There are a few different groups. Non spenders, occasional spenders, daily spenders, and overspenders.

  "In the game, you can pay anywhere from $5 to $100 at a time for packs of items such as speedups, resources, and gold. You're an idiot if you don't get a 'special pack' because if you don't all you get is the gold and a worthless item or two. The specials have hundreds of good items. The trick is, every time you buy a special pack, the prices goes up. $5, then $10, then $20, then $100.

  "Back to the original topic. Im an occasional spender and I have spent over $1000 in the span of 200 or so days. Most players of the game plays daily to make sure their troops don't die. Its not uncommon for a player to spend $10k or more. Some players are rich in real life and have spends hundreds of thousands of dollars.

  "It hugely unbalances the game but it gives others an incentive to spend to even it out. Create a reason for players to play a lot and get addicted, and they will play. Also, make players want to speedup their "builds" or whatever you want to call them. Impatient people will spend lots of money."
• (#3) The High Cost Of Excellency

  From Ebbb:

  "Spent about $2000-$3000 on summoners war before.. To be a consistent top 10 player on that game, you have to spend around $100-$200 refreshing 'Energy' to farm what they call runes. Thankfully, I'm not playing that game anymore. Currently playing Crusaders Quest and have spent about $300 so far.."
• (#4) Tanks Can't Be Your Whole World

  From Xemeriba:

  "I have spent a total of $2,149.46 on World of Tanks. I did it because I was addicted and it was all in small amounts. The logic was "oh it's just $24.99 and that gold will last me days/weeks" except it didn't. I couldn't afford it after awhile. It was very much like a drug addiction. Constantly feeling the need to pay for useless sh*t in game... I haven't played in some time though. I can't go back to that."
• (#5) Pay Enough, And You Don't Even Have To Play The Game

  From Tacomaster3211:

  "I've spent about £1900, or about $3k CAD(I'm Canadian btw, and this doesn't account for exchange rate changes), on a free to play browser based game. This money has been spent over the course of about 2 years. In the game you can buy tokens to increase various boosts, such as exp and gold. To completely max all your boosts it takes £1000. You can also buy more auto fights, for if you need to step away from the computer."
• (#6) "Scratchy Cards" Aren't Technically Scratch Offs

  From DaGolfingWhale:

  "The F2P game I've ever spent the most on was this game called Pangya or Albatross18 when it was under OGPlanet. I was addicted to the game. Lifetime I spent upwards of $2400 in the 16 or so months I played. They had this thing called scratchy cards that if you spend money on you can get a rare prize that you can only get from scratchy cards. The reason I ended up spending so much was because at the time I was 17 with a decent job and didn't really have any hobbies other than playing video games; also for some reason I felt the need to collect tons of rares. I remember one time I spent around $150 on scratchy cards trying to get clubs that you could only get from scratchy cards and didn't get them. It's kinda hilarious looking back on it now because I could've probably spent that 2k+ on real golfing lessons and clubs."
• (#7) A Diversified Budget

  From Propagation931:

  "Everything as in All Mobile games combined - Probably above 1.5k USD above

  "Biggest offenders?

  "Soccer Sprits - Maybe 700 USD around. There are skin events that give you premium Legend skins if you spend around 110USD. I have around 4 of these. Plus other assorted purchases

  "Brave Frontier - Around maybe 200 to 300 USD - Pretty Sure its famous but its a Gacha Game

  "Hearthstone - Probably 200 USD - I bought all adventures plus a lot of packs. Best Cardgame ever

  "Valiant Force - Probably 150 USD - A fun Gacha game

  "Tap titans 2 - Probably 100 USD - Yay Titan Chests

  "Tower of Savior - Probably around 100 USD Like puzzle and Dragons but better."
• (#8) Could Have Saved It Though

  From Danny200234:

  "I spent close to a total of $2000 in TF2 and World of Tanks without a doubt in my mind. I had nothing else to do all day(16y/o, no license, only child, rual area) Basically I worked for my grandpa like 6-7 times a year pulling $160+ every time I did. So I really had nothing else to spend it on."
• (#9) Nope, $700 Is Still A Lot

  From MrPlumkitten:

  "About $700~ on Warspear online. I normally don't spend on mobile games but was addicted to this one cos it was the only open PvP game worth playing even though highly p2w till today.

  "Edit: been playing the game for 4years. So 700 isn't much."
• (#10) Gotta Keep Those Gems Rolling In

  From FlavaFlavivirus:

  "I am about $250 deep in Clash of Clans. I started playing when I began a new job earlier this year. It seemed to be a good way to make friends at the new job, and it was. By gemming some key upgrades, I have been able to catch up with people whom have been playing much longer than me. That being said, I am sooo done buying gems."
• (#11) Sacrificing Food For Hearthstone Cards

  From DirtySyko:

  "I've spent around $700, possibly $800 on Hearthstone. I look at it no differently than Magic the Gathering or any other CCG. I've spent a good amount of money on other board games or card games, why should Hearthstone be different? It isn't hard to afford if you're working and budget your spending. If I drop $300 on new Hearthstone cards one month I just eat out less or buy less games or whatever."
• (#12) Cash For Upgraded Clans

  From Ranndym:

  "Last year I probably spent between $200-300 on Clash of Clans. I did it because I was playing every day with friends online and I didn't feel like waiting 10 days for some upgrades. I was making over six figures at the time so I didn't care about fifty dollars or a hundred dollars every few months. The game itself is a well-designed time sink that makes millions from people that don't feel like waiting. I finally stopped playing because of the time sink element of it."
• (#13) That's Still A Lot Of Money

  From JHunz:

  "I'm pretty sure I qualify as a whale by general standards, even if I'm not in the range of spending thousands of dollars on a single game.

  "I dropped somewhere between $200-$300 on Maple Story (like many of the people I see here). I spent $50 on Perfect World. I dropped probably a hundred on Kingdom of Loathing. I've spent a couple hundred on Dawn of the Dragons.

  "However, I've never been remotely financially affected by it. Even when I'm spending money on stupid things, I'm spending money that I've specifically budgeted for spending on entertainment, and my career over the period of time where I've been spending on F2P has ranged from mid 5 figures to (now) upper 5 figures."
• (#14) You Can't Put A Price On Virtual Friendship

  From DrDeadp00l:

  "Maplestory, holy sh*t. Not quite a "whale" but I spent $500 on NX over the course of 3 years. That and at least $100 on money from farmers or whatever for in game mesos ( I really didn't understand how sh*tty that was at the time). It was fun though and I eventually paid my dad back.

  "I played in bera and got two characters to 80+ and actually had some memorable experiences playing. I met my actual best friend playing, but lost contact with so many in game people I somewhat regarded as friends.

  "However, a group of friends and I decided one day enough was enough ( I was a freshmen in high school at the time) and that Maplestory was massively exploiting people and we needed to quit. So contrary to your story, we found an excellent private server in the patch that JUST released 4th jobs. The server had a huge community and not completely ridiculous experience rates so it was actually the most fun I had playing Maplestory. Free NX and gear still mattered so in game currency was actually pretty much just gear trades. I believe the server was Summerstory or something.

  "We got a good month out of it, and when it shut down I learned two valuable lessons : value your Internet friends, they might be Internet friends but eventually when friends aren't around as much you will really miss them and all good things come to an end so enjoy them while they're around."
• (#15) Value Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

  From genesin:

  "I've spent close to $200 on Final Fantasy Record Keeper. I've been playing it for over a year now though so I think I got my money's worth."
• (#16) Beer Or Kingdoms Of Camelot?

  From Kinnakeet:

  "I spent a few grand over 4 years of playing Kingdoms of Camelot. i justified it by how much i spent on other hobbies of mine that gave nothing in return, like drinking beer. If i had no problem dropping 50-60 dollars at the bar on a friday night, i had no problem spending that trying to get better shit on KoC."
• (#17) No Regrets To Be Found Here

  From Stomish:

  "In the 312 hours i've spent on War Thunder i've spent about $130 on the game. It got me special premium planes with increased RP, premium currency, and premium account time. I'd say it was worth it, it's a fun game and I haven't even experimented with simulator mode yet! Love my German Tempest Mk.V :)"

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