How do "whales" rationalize their behavior and spending?

DarthCyren

Hey all,

I'm seriously curious to talk to those of you on hEre who unabashedly spend hundreds and especially thousands of dollars on this or any other type of mobile game in such a short timespan? There are people on this board who are dropping a thousand dollars a month or more on this game. That's equal or more to most house mortgages on a monthly basis? I am not super wealthy but I provide for my wife and myself and have dropped maybe a hundred dolalrs total and to me, that's even a bit much. Do you have houses? Are you actually millionaires?

Are you college students blowing through free money?

I just want to know who these 'whales' really are...

Abyss

Bad post pal, sticking your nose in others finances is never cool.

Kesiss

people with more money than you.

DarthCyren

While it may be uncomfortable, I'm honestly curious as to the mindset and situations? Are these people who are addicted, losing their homes to microtransactions?

RonTom

Why is it a bad post? He's not being
offensive, he's merely curious. If one or several of the actual Whales want to answer, let them. If they don't want to, they'll just not.

President_Scroob

I'm also curious. Disposable income or not, its unfathomable to me that someone would spend thousands of dollars on an app game

RonTom

And why is asking about finances taboo? I wonder if it's a cultural thing, I don't have any problem talking about money. (I'm Swedish).

Darth_Katsumoto

I will speak from the shallow end of the guppy pond lol. I went a little wild to get yoda and some refreshes but I quit spending after that. For me I consider the case as....a why not type of thing. I spent $8 at taco bell today. I didn't consider that a waste as I really wanted some tacos. It's definitely disposable income for me that I will spend. It's "worth it" to me because playing as GS and FOTP was not what drew me to the game. I wanted to be yoda and Vader etc. But I realized quickly that chromiums were not "worth it" to me so i stopped buying them.

Personally I don't care what people blow their money on. It's theirs. I think quilting is silly but if someone wants to drop 100 on materials then go ahead. Same concept on mobile games

Qeltar

Some people earn a lot of money and they don't miss a couple of thousand dollars spent on entertainment. Think about how much $ people spend on cable, new smartphones, big TVs, lattes, lunches out, dinners out, vacations, gambling at casinos, buying boats, going to movies, playing golf... it's all the same thing, money spent for entertainment. And for many it comes to thousands a year.
I don't drink coffee or alcohol, cook at home rather than go out to dinner except for special occasions, we have only one car, take vacations only occasionally, and are generally frugal in other ways. I could drop $1000 a month on this game if I wanted to.
But I don't for a simple reason: I couldn't live with myself. To me it just seems completely out of proportion to the value received. I remember telling my wife about a guy who spent $3500 here his first week. Her instinctive response was: "that's like a whole vacation!" But hey, if you want pixels in this game more than a vacation, your choice.
All that said, the answer you won't get from anyone even though it is true for many of them: they are addicted. Games like this are designed to prey on those with compulsive personalities. People start spending and then they are hooked, oh, just one more megapack to finish off Old Ben, oops didn't get it, I'm sure the next one will.. etc. I've read countless stories like this.

VIII

Lmaooooo this has to be the funniest thing I ever read, you want to know why ppl spend so much money on a game. It's like anything else if you have the money to spend on something that you will enjoy , you will spend it. It's not rocket science, someone that makes 10$ an hour won't spend 1000$ on this game, and their are some ppl who make 35-40$ an hour who don't even want to spend money it's up to the user to do so. Either way these forums are supposed to be about the game not ppls personal lives!!

StarSon

Darth_Katsumoto wrote: »

I will speak from the shallow end of the guppy pond lol. I went a little wild to get yoda and some refreshes but I quit spending after that. For me I consider the case as....a why not type of thing. I spent $8 at taco bell today. I didn't consider that a waste as I really wanted some tacos. It's definitely disposable income for me that I will spend. It's "worth it" to me because playing as GS and FOTP was not what drew me to the game. I wanted to be yoda and Vader etc. But I realized quickly that chromiums were not "worth it" to me so i stopped buying them.

Personally I don't care what people blow their money on. It's theirs. I think quilting is silly but if someone wants to drop 100 on materials then go ahead. Same concept on mobile games

Basically. This game is like tacos. Just as expensive, and the item you purchase is used up just as quickly. But **** if I don't love tacos (actually, Chalupas from Taco Bell are my favorite, but I digress).

Similar to OP, I have so far spent about $100. I will spend more, though I will keep it under $50/month.

And let me tell you, if I win the lottery, I will instantly drop several thousand on this game. Because why not?

Darth_Katsumoto

Qeltar wrote: »

Some people earn a lot of money and they don't miss a couple of thousand dollars spent on entertainment. Think about how much $ people spend on cable, new smartphones, big TVs, lattes, lunches out, dinners out, vacations, gambling at casinos, buying boats, going to movies, playing golf... it's all the same thing, money spent for entertainment. And for many it comes to thousands a year.
I don't drink coffee or alcohol, cook at home rather than go out to dinner except for special occasions, we have only one car, take vacations only occasionally, and are generally frugal in other ways. I could drop $1000 a month on this game if I wanted to.
But I don't for a simple reason: I couldn't live with myself. To me it just seems completely out of proportion to the value received. I remember telling my wife about a guy who spent $3500 here his first week. Her instinctive response was: "that's like a whole vacation!" But hey, if you want pixels in this game more than a vacation, your choice.
All that said, the answer you won't get from anyone even though it is true for many of them: they are addicted. Games like this are designed to prey on those with compulsive personalities. People start spending and then they are hooked, oh, just one more megapack to finish off Old Ben, oops didn't get it, I'm sure the next one will.. etc. I've read countless stories like this.

Truth! I am guilty of this trying to get my 5 jedi lol. I bought a pack that was effectively trash and immediately bought another. It was also trash so I began farming mace instead lol.

Stok3d

If you make $400 a week and have $50 of it as discretionary funds, would you say it was insane to blow half that amount per month ($100) on this game?

Using those same ratios, what is to be said sor the individual who makes $4000 a week? $1000 a month doesn't seem so bad from this perspective...

DefinitivePoeCounter

DarthCyren wrote: »

Hey all,

I'm seriously curious to talk to those of you on hEre who unabashedly spend hundreds and especially thousands of dollars on this or any other type of mobile game in such a short timespan? There are people on this board who are dropping a thousand dollars a month or more on this game. That's equal or more to most house mortgages on a monthly basis? I am not super wealthy but I provide for my wife and myself and have dropped maybe a hundred dolalrs total and to me, that's even a bit much. Do you have houses? Are you actually millionaires?

Are you college students blowing through free money?

I just want to know who these 'whales' really are...

I'll answer. I'm at my last year of college (no tuition fee, scholarship so no student loans either). My family is well off but nothing you'd consider crème de la crème. I've probably dropped around upwards of 6k (?) since I started (week later than the global launch). I do internship at a firm that doesn't really pay me much but is important for my CV.

My income mostly comes from freelancing as a academic writer and giving lessons (courses from my subject area as well as foreign languages). While freelancing I can make about 70$ an hour which means I can easily make 1k a week without straining myself too hard. I've been doing this freelancing for a while and with that I can get a steady supply of jobs without going into 'hunting' for jobs.

Aluxendr

Maybe some of us want to have a really hilarious bank withdrawal history when our families go through our affairs after we commit suicide.

DarthCyren

Stok3d wrote: »

If you make $400 a week and have $50 of it as discretionary funds, would you say it was insane to blow half that amount per month ($100) on this game?

Using those same ratios, what is to be said sor the individual who makes $4000 a week? $1000 a month doesn't seem so bad from this perspective...

I think that's unfair... 4 grand a week is 16 a month is about 200k a year... in that respect, i understand the ability to spend that much but as others have pointed out, unless you get to extreme tiers like 200k+ income, how do you look at a week long exotic vacation as less valuable then a mobile app game?

DarthCyren

DarthCyren wrote: »

Stok3d wrote: »

If you make $400 a week and have $50 of it as discretionary funds, would you say it was insane to blow half that amount per month ($100) on this game?

Using those same ratios, what is to be said sor the individual who makes $4000 a week? $1000 a month doesn't seem so bad from this perspective...

I think that's unfair... 4 grand a week is 16 a month is about 200k a year... in that respect, i understand the ability to spend that much but as others have pointed out, unless you get to extreme tiers like 200k+ income, how do you look at a week long exotic vacation as less valuable then a mobile app game?

I guess I'm speaking from the mindset of someone who is not wealthy - when it gets to wealthy, yes, i admit that i don't know how or why they blow their money but my intent here was to determine if it was truly just a small subset of wealthy players thta are 'whales', or could it be another sort of population?

Darth_Katsumoto

Aluxendr wrote: »

Maybe some of us want to have a really hilarious bank withdrawal history when our families go through our affairs after we commit suicide.

Bwhahahahaha. That made me snort...I don't snort.

JohnnySteelAlpha

@OP - this post has no value really to the game of SWGoH. Asking people to publicly discuss their finances and personal life is inappropriate on a public gaming forum.