Social pressure (gifting, guilds, asking friends)

What you're actually buying

Not a purchase, but a reason to keep going. Progress may depend on friends visiting, gifts you're expected to send, or a guild that expects you to turn up. The cost is your time and your friends' goodwill.

How it works

Facebook opened its Platform to outside developers on 24 May 2007, letting apps post into your news feed, so every friend became a free ad channel and every gift request became a chore from a friend. FarmVille turned friends into marketing, and waiting into something with a price. In persistent worlds, guild politics and the gear and people you would leave behind made quitting costly. In play-to-earn games, guild managers lent characters and took up to 75% of earnings.

When it's fine

When playing with friends is optional and nothing is lost if you don't help or don't turn up.

Where it came from

In 1980s online games, guilds and persistence became part of the grind. On Facebook (2007), apps could post to the News Feed; FarmVille launched on 19 June 2009 and peaked at 83.76 million monthly players in March 2010, and Facebook banned the spam in 2010. In subscription online worlds (MMOs), guild politics and gear you'd hate to abandon made quitting costly: quit, and you left your gear, your guild and your people behind. Dance Dance Revolution turned bystanders in arcades into the next paying player. In Axie Infinity, guild managers took commissions of up to 75% of earnings.

Historical prices and revenues are in US dollars at the time unless marked A$.