As first I thought this was another botnet operation mining Bitcoins.
There's actually an altcoin experiment at the moment, http://huntercoin.org. Basically an MMOG that runs on Blockchain technology. Users play and "mine" coins.
I think this is pretty unethical, mostly because there is no mention in the app description or the app itself that you are doing this. Something about it feels very greasy and shady. I'd almost, almost, call it a trojan.
Now if you put a disclaimer up front, or if it was an opt-in thing, then sure. But right now you don't have any of that in the app, so I'm not sure how it differentiates itself from something like this: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/8/bitcoin-trojan
I'm sure apple approved it because they didn't catch it.
I understand, but people should stop and consider the virality and potential impact of their april fool's day joke. What if Apple didn't find this funny and yanked their app? Boom goes the dynamite and for no purpose but posting a dumb joke that isn't even funny.
Whether real or not, it does raise a question I've been wondering about for a while now - what about a f2p game that did state upfront that while playing, you are mining; so the more you play, the more it costs you. No IAP, no upfront costs, etc.
Obviously it would not be suitable for some game types (anything 3d heavy, basically), and has obvious battery/temperature implications on mobile, but it does seem to provide a plausible additional option for monetization.
Yes, it was just April Fools. It would take 30k days to mine one block with an iPad 2, not to mention how sleazy it would be to do it behind our players' backs.
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Now if you put a disclaimer up front, or if it was an opt-in thing, then sure. But right now you don't have any of that in the app, so I'm not sure how it differentiates itself from something like this: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/8/bitcoin-trojan
I'm sure apple approved it because they didn't catch it.
Gross.
It's astounding when smart people do dumb shit.
Obviously it would not be suitable for some game types (anything 3d heavy, basically), and has obvious battery/temperature implications on mobile, but it does seem to provide a plausible additional option for monetization.
Yes, it was just April Fools. It would take 30k days to mine one block with an iPad 2, not to mention how sleazy it would be to do it behind our players' backs.