The game I am playing now is constantly manipulating you into forking out real money in dribs and drabs that can quickly add up. Its not just players doing the conning.
Aye, this is the sad truth of the AAA side of the industry right now (and part of why I don't play AAA games anymore). You don't need to meet up with actual "scammers" to get the money conned out of you. The publishers themselves do it, very blatantly, and it's all legal, sadly.
There was that one nasty example of a guy that had spent some $10000 just on Fifa alone. These publishers prey on those with addiction issues.
And to be honest, the teen in this article sounds like he could have been a potential major target for them. I mean, even if he was scammed, at the very same time, he was willing to spend a giant amount all at once without truly thinking about it. If he can be sucked into a scam that easily, that involves that big amount, he'd probably get sucked into the monetization schemes as well. Some of the big publishers are much worse than others in this, but damn near all of them are doing it. It's pathetic. The jerks.
If he's going to be gaming online AT ALL, he and his parents need to learn a bit more about how things really are now, with games like that.
Which also brings up another problem: The parent. This is one of the most frustrating-to-see issues these days, parents letting their kids go online in some form, use tech that way... but they themselves don't take even a fraction of a second to educate themselves about any of it. Hell, that's why the cliché of kids explaining tech to their clueless parents exists.
Parents need to SUPERVISE THEIR FREAKING KIDS. And actually learn things along with them, to make sure they can supervise better. I can sympathize with the teen in this article... but I have zero sympathy for the mother. That may sound harsh, but again, this could have been avoided if she had bothered to learn about the whole thing a bit. I mean, "beware of scammers" is one of the first rules you hear about, when it comes to things like WoW and such. It's not like it's an obscure rule. If she had learned for herself, and kept up with things, she could have gotten this lesson into him well before any of this happened.
It also sounds like he shouldn't really be in charge of his money, even if he earned it himself. Which again, sounds bad, but hey, I'm in the same boat. Nobody in their right mind would trust me with an account. Due to my situation, I can spend as I like, but my father still controls my money, so he can stop me if he sees me going overboard, and I must consult with him on particularly large purchases or things like hotel setups (granted he almost always approves, which Ive always found odd). Not to mention that I use a debit card (which he also controls), not a credit card, so I *cant* go totally overboard, as the card will simply stop functioning when I hit that point, preventing problems. And when it comes to actual cash (usually used at grocery stores, because where the heck else do I ever go? Bah) I must directly ask for it from him (like "hey, I need money to go get such and such, or fill up my car"), and it's assumed that I'll be putting it to use that day. Me walking around with $100 or so constantly is a great way for me to lose $100 or so by somehow dropping or misplacing it (and indeed, that has happened a number of times). I could see some people saying mean things like "what are you, 10? Having your parents do the hard adult stuff for you?" But in reality, all this stuff is merely a practical solution to a problem.
Autistic issues can be like that. A given problem may sound silly to others that don't have it, but hey, that's just how it works, and you find a solution that does the trick, even if the solution also sounds silly. I kinda think the mother needs to learn that. It's admirable that the kid has a full time job and everything (something I could never do), but it's also clear that he probably shouldn't be completely managing things on his own. Or at least not until he's PROVEN, over a long period of time, that he's completely ready to do that. And even then, it's iffy.
It is at least nice though to see that he hasn't had to deal with bullies at any point. For a lot of us, that IS the "hard way" of learning things like this. Sure was in my case.
