Not to be a smartass… how long did you play in that 48 hour weekend?
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
If you’ve seen any Internet ads, you’ve probably heard about one of the many apps that “pay you to play games”.
I was curious what the gimmick is, so I downloaded one, and tried it out. In a weekend I earned enough points for a $10 gift card and then uninstalled.
It was actually kind of funny once I realized how it works.
The app devs get paid by the game devs to promote their games. The app gives you points for downloading and playing the game. The game sees more traffic and gets a higher listing on the App store, and you get a gift card.
It’s just a massive circle jerk of people passing money to each other.
Patnou@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I’m not sure exactly. Most of the “playing” I did was just mindlessly tapping away at the screen while sitting outside on the porch hanging out with my wife. But it was definitely multiple hours a day over a 3 day weekend.
It I had nothing better to do all day every day, I might keep it up and try more games, or, if they featured one of the games that I already play religiously, I might try to get more points for something I’m doing anyway, but otherwise, it’s definitely not going to replace anyone’s income.
AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev 3 days ago
Google Play Rewards sends you surveys and gives you like 10-20¢ per survey. Each one takes like 5 seconds to complete. I haven’t used it in a long time, but years ago most of the surveys were about shopping habits based on my location history, like “did you go to < store> in the past week? Did you pay with your credit card?” Or random things like “have you shopped for auto parts in the past week? Yes/no/prefer not to answer.”
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Yeah. That one still works the same! I’ve been milking that one for over ten years now. I almost always have enough saved up to cover my occasional game purchases.