Ethics of Free Games With Advertisements
Parents or people supervising children should not let children play online games with advertisements. Some of the games might have been ok for individuals under 18 years old to play if it were not for the online advertisements. Online advertisements are problematic because of the possibility of children clicking on websites that parents do not want children to go to leading to nagging for unwanted purchases, computer viruses, or content not legally suitable for parents to allow their children to view. Online games with advertisements maybe beneficial for adults to play under certain circumstances and are not necessarily a bad thing for reasons I will explain. These free online games with advertisements many times have features that are not as good such as problems with saving and loading and unclear device, software compatibility and game controls for reasons I will explain. The lack of a save and load makes some game genres more reasonable and others just plain bad for such games. Free online games with advertisements are different than otherwise free games with in game purchases. If a parent wishes to let their children play games then I suggest they either find free games without advertisements nor in game purchases or buy their children games without advertisements. At the end I will provide a description of some game and game websites. I will list one website where they claim you can submit games you create for money, which I have not not tested to confirm or deny such a claim. I will list another website where you can find descriptions of games and find out who the developer is and give an example of how in at least one case that could be used to find the same game without any advertisements.
Games with advertisements should be legal but online use of minors should be monitored by parents
I do not think games with advertisements should be illegal, but that parents should simply supervise their childrens internet use and should not let them use the internet unsupervised for legal reasons.
The four costs of games with advertisements are, undesired purchases, court costs, viruses and wasted time
Undesired Purchases
If the purchases someone would have made after being exposed to a "free" game with advertisements are greater than the cost of a commercially sold game with no in game advertisements then they would have been financially better off buying the game without advertisements unless those purchases came with no buyers remorse. Do you ever remember experiencing buyers remorse by making a purchase you regret after seeing an advertisement even though you had the free will not to buy it? Although people do have the willpower and free will not to purchase products, a parent who let's their children play free games with advertisements might experience more nagging from their child to buy advertised products than one who buys their child a commercially sold game without any in game advertisements. There are slight exceptions to this for example a game someone purchases might list other games the company makes one time whenever you start the game, vs constantly while you are playing in the case of free games with advertisements.
The most common advertisements of free games with advertisements might be more free games with advertisements
The advertisements on one game website may lead to other game websites and the same game maybe on multiple websites
It is common for the games to have advertisements to other websites that provide free games and then you can find the same game on another one of those websites possibly with a different title
The same game can sometimes be found somewhere else for free without embedded advertisements
Sometimes the game can be found online for free without advertisements somewhere else, but someone copied it into a website and modified it to put in advertisements
Although leading to more games maybe beneficial if you want more games to play it may lead to problems of too many tabs or children playing games their parents consuder undesirable
It may lead to problems if you have too many tabs open in your internet browser because all the games look so interesting. If the internet browser material goes away when you shut down the device or log out then there are all those things to check into before you turn off your device or log out which may take a lot of time. But if the material in the browser does not go away you may have too many tabs with different websites adfresses open which may lead to problems.
A parent might say this online game is ok for my child to play. But after less than three minutes of play an advertisement pops up for more games, the child clicks on the advertisement leading the child to play games the parent does not want them to play. This problem does not happen when a parent must approve for purchase one commercially sold game without in game advertisements at a time and when these games are played offline and do not use the internet. In such a case where a parent let's children play computer or video games that are not internet based and does not give the child internet access then they know exactly what games they are and more importantly are not playing
Sometimes these free games with advertisements are inferior products in terms of certain features
Save and Load might not be available in many free games with advertisements
A lot of them lose all progress once you clear your browser history and probably save progress in cookies.
Creating an account on one of these websites will not necessarily enable you to save progress of games you play on that website once you clear your browser history
This maybe particularly annoying for games if you have to start over. If you want to resume where you left off before after you quit playing, then do not play these games.
Upgrades - These games often have upgrades in which you can improve something if you watch an advertisement. This is problematic without a save and load feature
If you can use an upgrade when you play the game just remember you will lose all the upgrades you made when you start the game again after clearing your browser history, cookies and offline website data if there is no save or load. Computer Role Playing Games are notorious for upgrades in which you improve a charecters stats, abilities or skills as you play as such these games are not good to play without a save or load available. Another type of upgrade is changing a skin, which means changing what the charecter in the game looks. For action games it may involve changing the speed at which the charecter can move on the screen or changing what tools or weapons the charecter can use.
Puzzle games where you only play each puzzle once maybe better to play without a save or load available. Action games that do not require upgrades to play may also be better to play without a save or load. Action games that have separate levels maybe tolerable without advertisements if the advertisements do not occur while you are playing a level but only once you win or lose at that level. However advertisements that pop up in the middle of playing a level may ruin a otherwise good action game. Action games that do not have levels in which the advertisement kicks in, in the middle of playing are problematic.
Unclear game controls and device and operating system requirements is a common problem
A lot of these games do not control well or do not let you control things at all unless you specifically have the right type of touch screen device operating system or specifically a computer with a keyboard but do not explain the system requirements will enough. But what is it costing you to try a game that will not run properly on your device other than waiting through the advertisements and the load screen when this could have been avoided in the game description.
Types of advertisement other than more games
Most of the advertisement is to either buy more games, buy toy cars, dolls or action figures or seemingly random advertisements. But, some of the games specifically target advertisements related to the type of game
A racing or obstacle course game with a woman in a color changing dress or skirt who collects fabric materials used for skirts and dresses sells dresses or skirts in advertisements.
Some of the shooting puzzle games have advertisements for organizations involved with firearms or firearm laws pop up more frequently.
The games might be suitable for an auduence under 18 years old, but the advetisements are not
For legal reasons adults should not let children they are supervising or parenting play free online games with advertisements, because even if the game is for an audience under 18 years old the advertisements can lead to material for audiences that are only older than 18 years old.
Sexually explicit advertisements
There are games which explicitly say they are only for people 18 years old and older, so not all free online games with advertisements are designed to be suitable for individuals under 18 years old. But even free online games with advertisements in which the game is designed to be suitable for individuals under 18 years old sometimes have advertisement leading to content that some people would consider not suitable for individuals under 18 years old.
Some of the games advertise websites such as a online comic book with sex related themes or sex education related themes. I do not know if the comic book has any nudity.
Letting someone under 18 years old play a free online game suitable for someone under 18 years old that has such advertisements for websites that might potentially be legally suitable only for someone older than 18 years old, may result in prosecution of the parent or supervisor with possible fines, imprisonment and worse if the minor clicks on the advertisement.
Risk of computer viruses
Potentially such a game might also have advertisements for websites that lead to computer viruses. Although, I am not claiming any specific game does such a thing, if games show thousands of advertisements and only one in one thousand advertisements lead to a virus when you click on it, playing enough such games for long enough might lead to a computer virus. Computer viruses are another reason not to let a child play online games with advertisements.
Games can either be a time wasting vice that prevents gaining real life skills or a skill building distraction which prevents harmful vices depending on circumstances
Games can be played while exercising and studying
Although someone might be better off spending their time exercising or studying than playing games, it is actually possible to do both. Games are not necessarily a waste of time as they can teach skills, improve abilities and build knowledge. One can listen to study material while playing a game and one can hold stretching poses while playing games, and sometimes the distraction of playing games may enable someone to stretch longer, or listen to study material longer. Stretching at the same intensity for a longer duration may provide better benefits to physical fitness. Although playing a game may reduce listening comprehension for some people under some circumstances, it may increase it for other people under other circumstances. It is based on a combination of the individual, the game, the audio material being studied and other factors. Better concentration and longer listening duration may occur due to reduced boredom and or fatigue when playing games under certain circumstances.
Games may be a healthier form of coping than worse vices
Games might be a vice compared with doing something else more productive, but are a virtue compared with participating in other vices that maybe more harmful. Spending tine socializing with people instead of playing games maybe a vice if the people peer pressure you to make bad decisions. Games may keep people away from drug abuse, if they have trauma and playing the game may help them cope with the trauma instead of abusing drugs to cope. Playing games to cope with traums may also be less harmful than engaging in a sexually promiscuous lifestyle to cope with trauma.
The games in and of themself may result in improvement in knowledge and reading ability, but advertisements are wasted time that reduces such improvement
Games may teach knowledge by solving puzzles. Playing a game as a speedrun may increase reading speed at the same level of comprehension or improve comprehension at the same reading speed compared to the reading speed and comprehension prior to playing that game. But games with pop up advertisements will ruin speedruns reducing the reading benefit. For example if you are playing a speedrun and the keyboard malfunctions when a pop up advertisement appears in the middle of a level you have not yet completed that will ruin your speedrun. A lower percentage of your time will be spent solving puzzles if a certain percent of the time is spent in pop up advertisements also reducing benefits. In this way the cost of advertisements is wasted time. Unlike the benefits that come from playing the game in and of itself, the benefit of being distracted to hold stretching longer might not be harmed by advertisements so long as the advertisements do not frustrate you into quitting the stretch.
The potential costs of viruses, court cases and undesirable purchases from letting their children play "free" online games with advertisements are greater than the cost of buying games for their children at a physical store building for most parents above poverty level in the United States, provided the purchased games can be played without internet access
Online games with free advertisements maybe good for adults but not children
Online games with advetisements are not necessarily bad for all people to play all the time. Some of them are actually very well designed and might never have been designed without the insentive to make money. Playing some of these games might be worthwhile for adults who are over 18 years old.
As for the cost of wasted time with advertisements vs the cost of purchasing a game for adults it may depend on the pay per hour the adult makes working and the amount of time playing the game
The cost of a game without advertisements is exactly the price it is sold for
The cost of wasted time for a otherwise free game with advertisements is the following
Hourly Wage * Time Watching advertisements = Cost of Free game with advertisements
Time watching advertisements = Total Game Play Time * Percent of game play time watching advertisements * 1 / ( 100% )
Total game play time = Time playing game without advertisements + Time watching commercials
Better purchasing game without advertisements
Hourly Wage * Time Watching advertisements > Cost of purchasing game without advertisements
Better playing "free" game with advertisements
Hourly Wage * Time Watching advertisements < Cost of purchasing game without advertisements
For small amounts of game play time the game with advertisements might be cheaper but once a large enough amount of game play time is done the purchased game without advertisements is cheaper
Old but not too old games maybe very cheap
Even if some new commercially sold games are very expensive, you can usually get older commercial games at physical stores that are very cheap. Buying an old game may sometimes mean dividing the original price by as much as 10 or 30. Once a game or game system is so old that it is rare the price maybe more expensive than the original price. If you habitually use old games, then old games for other people that they played before, are new games for you which you never played before
Difference between free online games with advertisements and games with in game purchases
There is another type of game that free games with advertisements should not be confused with. A game that is free online but comes with in game purchases. Some of these games can be played without ever making in game purchases even though the in game purchases are offered. These games might actually be enjoyable to play without making the in game purchases. Buying a game, sold at a physical store, which has no in game purchases maybe cheaper than repeatedly making these in game purchases. Many games with in game purchases might also include advertisements.
Theoretically "Worthwhile" in game purchase
Game play time reduced by in game purchase to achieve goal * Hourly Wage > Cost of in game purchase
Theoretically bad in game purchase
Game play time reduced by in game purchase to achieve goal * Hourly Wage < Cost of in game purchase
Two problems with this theory
1 If the purpose of the in game purchase is to reduce time playing the game then maybe you acknowledge you are happier not playing the game. If you are happer not playing the game then you should quit instead of making the in game purchase. If your goal is to reduce playing time then not making the purchase and quitting the game will reduce it more than making the purchase and continuing to play the game. If you like playing the game then maybe you should not make the purchase in order to play the game more.
2 An in game purchase maybe done for reasons that are not time related. An in game purchase maybe done to access otherwise unavailable game features that can not be accessed no matter how many hours you play the game. An in game purchase maybe done to support the game creator instead of to save time
Why I have never bought a in game purchase
I personally have not ever bought a in game purchase. The reason is for the cost of a in game purchase I could buy an entire game with no in game purchases nor advertisements. I am not counting buying a commercial version of a freeware game as an in game purchase when I say this. Although spending money on in game purchases can support game developers who provided games you like that money could instead be spent sponsoring a game to be developed.
South Park made an entire episode criticizing games with in game purchases called,
"Freemium Isn't Free"
http://web.archive.org/web/20211103174642/https://screenrant.com/south-park-episodes-video-games/
Copyright Carl Janssen 2022
the material above is copyrighted by Carl Janssen.
Carl Janssen does not make money through any of these games or websites success or failure and does not own rights to those games or websites.
List of websites that let developers submit free games with advertisements at the link below
http://classicgametesting.blogspot.com/2022/11/list-free-games-with-advertisements.html
List of free games with advertisements and websites that provide free games with advertisements at the link below
http://classicgametesting.blogspot.com/2022/11/game-developer-monetization-websites.html
