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Comment by floatingatoll | Hacker News Reader

This has eerie parallels to in-app purchase options in freemium games, wherein you pay X dollars to earn extra Y in-game. It’s extremely upsetting to see the same psychological hooks used by IAP applied to an already low-margin pool of drivers.

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Also like in Duolingo, where you pay 2 "lingots" to place a double-or-nothing bet that you will practice every day for the next week. Most of the time I bet even though I know I'm likely to lose the bet, since it is slightly more likely I'll practice with a 'financial' incentive. Which is exactly what Uber wants to induce: early week optimism, then late week indentured servitude.

Ugh, that's a really disturbing strategy. Is this a common tactic for freemium games? I've seen "daily login rewards" type things which give you an incentive to play daily, but I've never before seen something that is an actual punishment for not playing.

I suppose "lingots" don't really have a monetary value, but imagine this tactic done in a game where the currency is worth some amount of actual money.

please drink a verification can

Duolingo is not a game, but a language learning app. One of the most important parts of learning a language is to stick at it. The payoff for taking Duolingo's bet is that you get better at the language that you're using Duolingo for in the first place. Whereas for games, the only real payoff for winning at them is bragging rights.

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