- Four situations
- You choose, then we debrief
- Nobody’s telling you to stop playing
Straight with you
Games are fun, and spending on games is not automatically wrong. But the design of in-game currencies is specifically intended to make you lose track of how much real money you are spending. Noticing the trick does not ruin the fun — it puts you in charge of it.
The $97 “free” purchase
A 14-year-old’s parent got a notification from their bank: a $96.99 CAD charge from an online gaming store. The teen thought they were just adding “free V-Bucks” from a promotional bundle the game had offered. The game asked them to enter a password to confirm. They did. The charge showed up on the credit card the next day.
When a game asks you to enter a parent’s password (or your own account password) to get in-game currency, what does that mean?
The password rule
Whenever a game or app store asks for a password to proceed — a parent’s password, your account password, a fingerprint — that is the moment real money changes hands. In-game currencies (V-Bucks, Robux, Coins, Gems) are bought with real dollars. The word “free” in a bundle description means “included with this purchase,” not “no money.” The rule is simple: if a password is required, pause and ask before entering it.
The loot box regret
A 15-year-old spent the equivalent of $120 CAD in Primogems on Genshin Impact trying to get a rare character. He pulled 90 times — the maximum before a guaranteed rare pull — and still did not get the one he wanted. A game store shows the item; Genshin Impact shows only a mystery box. In January 2025, the US Federal Trade Commission ordered Genshin’s maker to pay $20 million USD and stop selling loot boxes to players under 16 without a parent’s consent.
What makes a loot box different from buying something directly in a store?
Loot boxes are randomised spending
A loot box is a randomised reward purchased with real money (or currency bought with real money). You know what you paid; you do not know what you get. Belgium’s gambling regulator has classified this as a form of gambling under Belgian law, and other countries have debated similar rules — but enforcement varies widely, and most places, including Canada, do not yet regulate loot boxes as gambling. In 2023, the FTC ordered Epic Games to refund $245 million USD to players over Fortnite’s confusing purchase design — tricks that charged people, including kids, for things they never meant to buy. If a game offers a direct purchase option alongside a mystery box, the direct purchase is always the more transparent choice — you know exactly what you are getting before you spend.
The grind wall
A mobile game a 13-year-old loves suddenly becomes very slow to progress. The new character she wants would take 200 hours of play to unlock through normal gameplay — or $29.99 right now. Her friends already have it. The game shows a countdown: “Battle pass ends in 6 days.” She starts to feel like paying is the only reasonable option.
What is the name for game design that deliberately makes free progress slow and frustrating in order to push players toward spending?
Grinding is a dark pattern
In 2022, the US Federal Trade Commission formally named “grinding” — making the free version of a game so slow and tedious that you feel pushed toward paying to skip it — as a dark pattern in its “Bringing Dark Patterns to Light” report. It is intentional design, not a side effect. The designers know that 200 hours feels unreasonable and that $29.99 feels like relief. Recognising the technique does not mean you have to stop playing; it means you are deciding whether to spend on your terms rather than theirs. Asking “would I want this if it were not tied to a countdown or comparison with friends?” is a useful reset.
The 2-hour timer
A Fortnite player sees a skin they love in the Item Shop with a countdown: “2 hours, 14 minutes remaining.” They do not have enough V-Bucks. To buy more, they need to spend $19.99. They have never seen this skin before. The timer feels urgent. They almost ask their parent for the card.
What should you do when a “limited time” countdown appears for an item you want?
The artificial scarcity rule
Most “limited time” items in free-to-play games return regularly. Fan-maintained Fortnite Item Shop history trackers show that most shop items have rotated back many times. The countdown timer is artificial scarcity — a design technique that creates urgency where none actually exists. Before spending, a 60-second search for “[item name] Fortnite return date” or “[item name] Item Shop history” will almost always tell you when it last appeared. Real scarcity is rare. Urgency is manufactured. The goal is to get you to spend before you can check.
First-try answers. The point was never the score — it’s that you can now name the tricks before they cost you anything.
The four things worth keeping
- The password rule: if a password or fingerprint is needed, real money is about to move. Pause and ask first.
- A loot box is a random draw for real money — you know what you paid, not what you get. The direct purchase is always the more transparent choice.
- Grind walls are on purpose. The 200-hour slog exists so $29.99 feels like relief.
- “Limited time” usually isn’t. A 60-second search of the item’s return history beats the countdown every time.