I do play games to relax my brain sometimes, (and maybe it has something to do with having ADHD as well, what do I know?). Some of my favourite games rely on advertising for financing. That is not a problem for me, actually, since I think it is OK for the developer to get some money this way.

However, what IS bothering me is the new trend with adverts for games that will get you money just for playing (and of course looking at more ads on the way). In the ads for these games you see fantasy numbers, and of course that is too good to be true, but the question is how far these video clips are from the truth. 

I think it is fun to try out new things on the net, I publish here, I mine BANANO (while supporting research - go to folding at home), and I have some crypto assets, just to see how it works. So, why not test a few of these games as well...?

So, now during the quarantine I have spent some leisure time playing little more games than usual. Actually, some games were good in themselves, so much so, that I forgot time playing... needless to say that I might have played them even had they not promised to pay me fortunes... 🤔

The question is, does it really work? Do you really get any money, not fortunes, but anything at all? Well, my general answer is of course "No". But, who ever believed in free lunches? That said, there are some places where you can make money by playing, e.g. the black monkey game, which gives you bananos for playing a pretty fun game. No fortunes, but solid bananos! I also found the Bling set of games, which, financed by ads, do give you some bitcoin (!) in the end. I receive small, very small installments on my coinbase account now and then... and since I like playing solitaire, why not get the small tidbits rather than playing any other implementation of this game.

But, and that is the main point of this post, these games never promise fortunes, you get essentially what you expect. The majority of the new games, on the other hand promise lots, and in fact, as it turns out, delivers nothing. Most of you reading this, would probably not even think about gambling real money on, e.g., slots or card games online (I hope)? I mean, when we left the physical cog wheel driven slot machines for digital displays, that's also when we lost any insight into the workings of a machine. How can you guarantee that the process is driven by real random numbers? It is so easy to fake.

And if we look into the "earn lots of money paid out on PayPal" applications there is an interesting pattern emerging with time, a pattern that is intrinsic for this category of games:

• There is always a limit for withdrawal.
• Most of the time you don't win the "money" you earn it for playing!
• You get your rewards in two ways, as PayPal "cash" and in game coins (which are most of the time worthless, but the amounts look impressive)
• The amounts gained are large to begin with
• Somewhere around 90% of the way to the withdraw limit, the cash amounts and frequency decrease logarithmically (!), or stop completely.
• In the end, you only get game coins, and no cash.
• You still look at very frequent ads.
• Lately, there is a version where you get the required amount fairly quickly, but when n you want to cash out, there are a number of other (impossible) requirements you have to fulfill... reaching a high level, collect promotions, etc. that will take forever to achieve.

This should of course be no surprise to anyone. There are no free lunches! However, there are two things that do come to my mind: 

1. The idea is clever, using a strong psychological factor: you get constant rewards while playing (you can see the growing amount of money in the window). 

2. The general idea could even work in a fair way, albeit with less dramatic gains.

I have to admit that although I was very sceptical from the beginning, even I was fooled myself in one of the games, thinking that maybe, just maybe, this game was OK, but with $5 to go to the withdrawal limit ($200), for some reason the cash flow just stopped completely... Surprise!

The behaviouristic mechanisms are strong in the human, which of course is the reason that gambling works in the long run (for the people running the games, the bank is always in favour). And it is also why people run a risk of ending up in game addiction.

So, when it comes to getting cash from playing mobile games, well, if someone can point me to one game that really works, I'll be ready to change my mind, but until then... don't try it, it is not giving you anything in  terms of cash. If it is a good game as such, well, by any means play it, just don't expect to get rich from it.

And of course, Publish0x is a much more stable and reliable source of coins in the longer perspective... but if you get rich from it? Maybe not, but it is much more fun!!!