Buying extra lives in Iphone's "Parachute Panic": ... Wow.

I think I'll just put this under the "wow! for real?" file.

Popular touch title Parachute Panic recently updated their iPhone and iPod Touch game with an interesting in-store item.

Once updated to the latest version, gamers can choose to spent 99 cents to unlock another five lives for the 99 cent game.

The more patient can choose to max out their in-game lives by playing the game. You can upgrade for free by reaching scores of 50, 150, 300, 500 and 1,000, earning an extra life for every milestone.

Source: Kotaku
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That's the joke. I have no joke.

So if I can understand this, people who spend their free time playing a game on their Iphone get frustrated because they cannot earn extra lives. Therefore, instead of simply honing their skills to simply get better at the game (which would logically be cheaper and more entertaining), they choose to purchase extra lives and therefore reduce any sense of challenge from the game, therefore making what was initially an innocent time-waster into something completely pointless?

That, you see, is the logic that apple (may they rot in hell) believe that it's player base follows. This leads me to worry about how the neo-liberal minded individuals at apple see their customer base (myself included, sadly). If and when democracy fails and America is transformed into a confederacy of nation sized corporations, will their behavior get any better? Or will be just be a nation of regulated mind slaves, meaningless digital purchases shoved down our throats while our only mode of choice or expression regulated to whether we choose the iPhone or Palm-pre?

Either way, I should probably update my Ipod touch to 3.0 when it comes back from the "Geek Squad".

Picture Source: Crunchyroll.com