Free Games Downloads

[Justin Smith 10]

Could anyone help me with this please ? ! ?

My friend has just bought a tablet and was told she could download free some simple games for her 6 year old to play on the plane etc.

She's asked me to help ! How would I go about doing that ?

[RollingJ 2,002]

Android/iPad/w.h.y?

[SkyeEdge 10]

If it is an android tablet you should have the Google App store installed, Apple devices have their own App store .  You can then filter down to games, free, etc.

[altus 538]

Make sure your friend disables in app purchases. Get your friend to search for "kid runs up in app purchases bill" for suitable warning examples.

[Justin Smith 10]

Thanks for your replies. It's a brand new Alba with (just) a loads of Google icons. Does that make it an Android ? ! ?

16 minutes ago, altus said:

Make sure your friend disables in app purchases. Get your friend to search for "kid runs up in app purchases bill" for suitable warning examples.

She just wants to download simple games, will she still have to do that ?

[RollingJ 2,002]

4 minutes ago, Justin Smith said:

Thanks for your replies. It's a brand new Alba with (just) a loads of Google icons. Does that make it an Android ? ! ?

She just wants to download simple games, will she still have to do that ?

Then the Google Playstore will be installed. Yes - she doesn't want to be hit by unexpected bills, and some games make it easy to inadvertantly hit an 'upgrade/install' button.

[Justin Smith 10]

I'm pretty sure she won't have given her card or bank details to anyone so how could they force her to pay anyway ?

[zach 234]

I think the point people are getting at is, the word "free" in these stores can often mean free to download but a cost to finish a game etc. There are full and free games on there, it's a case of finding the right type of game then looking at reviews and for the words "In app purchases" in the game description. I'm not sure if you can use the filters to find full and free games, worth a try.

[Annie Bynnol 612]

There is no such thing as free, "free" games are used to "harvest" information about all the users of the device.  The manufacturers, distributors,  Apple , Google, TalkTalk  amongst hundreds of others will track, monitor, extract every single bit of information they can and sell it to advertisers, credit and mortgage providers, future employers  now and  in the future.  

The profiles produced will obviously reflect interests and buying patterns, but they can also be used to establish location, education, economic activity, medical issues, social status, employment and even mood and pay days. 

 

And you can never control who has this information and how they will use it.

For most of us it is too late as our information has got out there. 

We need to be careful.

[Waldo 96]

On 12/03/2020 at 16:57, Annie Bynnol said:

There is no such thing as free, "free" games are used to "harvest" information about all the users of the device.  The manufacturers, distributors,  Apple , Google, TalkTalk  amongst hundreds of others will track, monitor, extract every single bit of information they can and sell it to advertisers, credit and mortgage providers, future employers  now and  in the future.  

I’m not sure that’s true. For sure, social media platforms monetise your information, but I’ve never heard of game developers involved with that kind of thing. Apps generally run in a sandbox on mobile devices, and platform holders generally do not allow apps access to general user data.

 

Do you have any examples in mind?

 

Free games are usually monetised with ads, or in app purchases. They can also be used to promote particular brands (the brand pays for development, and use the app to promote etc). I’m not sure if there are any instances of apps being used to mine crypto, like some websites do, suspect mobile devices are too underpowered to make this worthwhile, but maybe...

 

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by Waldo

[max 13]

There's a website called BigFishGames and another called iWin both of which have downloadable free games. They only allow an hours play but they could give some fun.

[redbig 10]

If it's Android, open Google play store, loads of free games on there. If it's not free it says so. Some try to get you to pay in-game to go further but if you don't have any bank details registered to the play store there's no risk of a child running up a bill