世論 What Japan Thinks

According to a recent survey from Just Systems and reported on by japan.internet.com into social gaming, almost half the players had spent money on it, and 60% of them regretted their purchases!

Demographics

Between the 10th and 13th of August 2012 1,000 members of the Just Systems-affiliated FastAsk monitor group who played social games completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographics were given.

My wife spends what is, I suppose, technically real money on social games. She is a member of a number of online survey sites, and rather than cashing out, she transfers saved points to social games, in particular Oshare Dorobo, (perhaps “The Elegant Thief”) a Dress-Up Barbie-type game where in order to complete some quests you need (or so she claims) to buy particular hairdos which are only available from a random vending machine that costs 300 yen per spin. It’s probably about 1,500 yen’s worth of points per month she gets through, and I wish she’d never told me about the month she won 5,000 yen’s worth of tokens…

Research results

Q1: Have you ever spent money on in-game items, etc for social games? (Sample size=1,000)

Yes (to SQs)	48.5%
No	51.5%

Q1SQ1: Do you regret, have you reflected on using money in social games? (Sample size=485)

Regret, reflected on	26.4%
Perhaps regret, reflected on	34.2%
Perhaps don’t regret, reflect on	20.8%
Don’t regret, reflect on	18.6%

Q1SQ2: On average, about how much money do you use per month in social games? (Sample size=485)

Up to 1,000 yen	55.3%
Up to 2,500 yen	22.1%
Up to 5,000 yen	12.4%
Up to 7,500 yen	1.9%
Up to 10,000 yen	4.1%
Up to 20,000 yen	1.2%
Up to 30,000 yen	0.8%
More than 30,000 yen	2.3%

Q1SQ3: What is the most money you’ve used in a month in social games? (Sample size=485)

Up to 1,000 yen	33.8%
Up to 2,500 yen	19.0%
Up to 5,000 yen	20.6%
Up to 7,500 yen	4.5%
Up to 10,000 yen	9.7%
Up to 20,000 yen	5.8%
Up to 30,000 yen	1.6%
More than 30,000 yen	4.9%

Q2: Do you regret, have you reflected on the time you’ve spent playing social games? (Sample size=1,000)

Regret, reflected on	12.8%
Perhaps regret, reflected on	28.4%
Perhaps don’t regret, reflect on	26.8%
Don’t regret, reflect on	32.0%

Of the 412 people who have reflected on their wasted time, 55.6% want to reduce their play time, and 16.3% want to stop completely.