Gaming used to be about playing not work, but with the advent of virtual currency to enhance game options, more and more gamers say they are willing to earn cyber cash by pimping themselves out to marketeers as survey monkeys, ad video guinea pigs and subscription sign up sasquatches.
Like desperate junkies craving their next hit of virtual fertilizer on Farmville, 53.3 per cent of the 799 respondents to an Offerpal / ComScore survey said they’d be “very likely” to noodle away precious time by doing mind numbing surveys, watching ads, tagging photos, proofreading documents, shopping for stuff online and subscribing to magazines or movie rental programs.
Bizarrely, not as many were willing to actually dig into their real-world wallets to stump up the cash for virtual points, with 29.7 per cent of the respondents saying they had neither the “ability or the means to pay for virtual currency with cash options.”
Unable to cough up a buck or two for a new milk cow? Probably because only the unemployed have hours to frazzle away filling in silly surveys.
But even among those who do have the ability and the means, 34.9 per cent said they were “very unlikely” to part with their money to purchase points. Stingy gits, that’s no way to get ahead in the virtual Mafia, you know.
Apparently, only one in five gamers was willing and able to buy purchase pretend currency with real cash payment methods from credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers or mobile billing, although of those who were willing, men between the ages of 25-34 seemed the most susceptible. 42.8 per cent of men in that age group said they were “very likely” to buy points.
Having said that, a majority of gamers in that age group said they would also be ready and willing to earn their cash crops the hard way, by becoming slaves to the marketing propaganda machine.
