Long Read: My 1 Experience spending real money and how it worked out

[picklegoat]

As a F2P player for 2.5 seasons and as a person who has never spent any kind of money on any phone games I have always had the stigma that it is stupid to spend money on games like NBA Live Mobile. After all, why would you pay for anything you can get for free. They give you enough stamina to make a very respectable team without spending a single penny.

Then something weird happened.

We got a few members in our league this season who were constantly buying packs. And our team would get a gift. Sometimes the gift would be really solid and help a lot!

I joined in December of S1 and came in during the winter promo. I tried a few leagues and it was easily the best part of the game but my teams sucked. And they missed quarters too which was really annoying. Finally I found the United Ballerz Club league run by this guy Flipzter who doesn't play anymore. It was fun and had people from the US, Europe, India all over really and we talked a little Mobile, a little NBA, etc. It...

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[dub365]

Very thoughtful of you.

I think there are many sides to the idea of being F2p or P2W but I think what often goes overlooked is that despite how EA runs the game, there have to be ppl spending $ or it dies. We can't all be F2P. And if it boosts your enjoyment of the game its all good. You got a positive experience bc you were doing it for the league but if LBJ was your fav player and you wanted to spend some $ to get his card. ...what's wrong with that? Too often I see this large rift between non spenders and ppl who do spend. It's doesn't have to be one side versus the other. If it gives you added enjoyment, drop a few bucks. Though I'll add that with this game....you need to be smart in how you spend. Otherwise you might as well be burning your cash with a match

I like your idea and I might just give my leagemates a gift too. Cheers

 

[Altavilla]

Nice. Thanks for sharing.

I used to have the same mind-set you had: no way I?d spend real money on some virtual thing. For me it was more or less like throwing money away gambling.
But then, around 2005 I started to play a strategy MMO game that gave me a few years of entertainment: Travian. This game was, like NBALM, divided into seasons (lasting around 1 year each) meaning that the game would end and you had to start over again from 0. At the start I was strictly F2P but by my 2nd season I was paying a monthly fee (probably around 3?/month) to get some ?VIP membership? that made the game easier, more enjoyable and allowing to reach ?new heights?. I?d also make some ocasional spending but I pretty much knew in the beggining how much I?d spend during the whole season.
I probably played some 5 seasons total and started to get bored with it which, along with very poor customer service (exclusively provided by volunteer players that, in some cases, used their Admin powers to get an unfair edge in the game), made me quit the game.

When I started playing NBALM my mind-set was already ?if I?m still playing this in one year I?ll probably be spending some real money?.
However, this game is much more expensive than what I was used to. Right now, in standard campaign, I feel any serious player (like most of us at this forum) can get 1 ?free? master player, has to pay 50? for a 2nd master and 100 for a 3rd. There?s at least 1 of these campaigns every month so we?re talking about spending 50 or 100? PER MONTH if you wish to have a more exclusive player at any given month. This is a no-no for me. Right now I?m considering doing it to get a ?special? player but never on a regular basis.
To make matters more difficult, the math on the campaigns keeps changing, even in the middle of a campaign. So, it?s very hard for me to calculate how much i would need to spend for a 2nd and a 3rd master.
For example, in the POG campaign there was a player (99 Russell I think) that gave a % points boost. But in the beggining, according to my math, that boost would not get me a 2nd master. Later on I was like ?well, maybe if I had the Russell boost from the start I could have goten the 2nd master, but at this stage there?s no way?, so I end up rarely spending real money and when I do I fall short of any worth while prize and end up regretting it. Like dub365 mentioned you need to be very carefull spending in this game and it is very easy to spend cash or money and not getting anything worth mentioning in return. And even if you do get something worth mentioning you never know if you?re getting a card like 100 KD that sticks in your lineup for 1-2 months or some dud which will be worthless in your lineup in 1 week or so.

 

[JukeNukem1432]

If it wasn't for you guys I'd having nothing to play. Thanks for keeping the game running for my cheap bum. Paying for a mobile game is something I've never been tempted to do because I know once that door is open it will never be closed, so I told my bank to never send me my credit/debit card lol.

 

[Commondjapan]

I spent money for the first time during the LNY promo, largely because I was on vacation for the first week but also because the special offers were finally available in my country. At the time I thought it would open the floodgates and I would end up spending during every promo but that hasn't been the case. I got burned a bit with the release of Harden Ch 3 on my main but mostly the reason I haven't spent is that I've been able to complete f2p objectives with coin packs. We'll see what happens in the next big promo. I don't have any regrets about spending the money and don't see being f2p as some kind of badge of honor but at the same time, there's not much point spending money on a game where the cards are replaceable a week later.

 

[picklegoat]

Yea I think everything that has been said in here is completely valid. This game seems to be expensive and you have to be careful what you buy. There is a guilt or stigma with spending for things you can get for free. But there is also a joy in putting something into what makes you happy. Fortunately, I don't have an addictive personality so I can never buy again, make it once a season or do it sporadically but for many people spending once could be really detrimental.

In this case I do feel good about the team collective element and we have I'd say 5 members that consistently buy NBA cash and a few have chipped in here or there like I did.

 

[rene87]

This game is very expensive if you want to spend money.
Lets take for example the ghost of Christmas 94OVR that cost 110 euros each (125 USD). After 20 days these players were outdated by 96+OVR. I estimate that someone that wants to spend 125USD for a digital card in a game must have a minimum of 10,000 USD monthly income.
Now from the "Showdown" I estimate that the game has 200,000 active users. Most of these players want to spend 5 - 10 USD for a digital card. These cards become outdated fast not to mention they dissapear at the end of the season.