6 ms·

The standard Windows Solitaire game is littered with ads - which you can disable for $2.49/month.

tmpz22 2y ago
I'd love to see the market demographics behind these games - gut says its elderly who forget about the subscription entirely. GameDevs who build games for such demographics should feel bad for preying on them.
- silverquiet 2y ago
  My grandfather was happily playing card games (as well as using productivity software) on a DOS machine up until he passed in 2011. For the most part, I don't understand modern software (despite working in it). That said, I personally eliminated all Microsoft products from my life a few years back and I wish more people could do the same.
  - soupfordummies 2y ago
    Had to check the date to make sure we weren’t related ;) My grandpa passed away 5 years ago and still had a working Win95 box from the mid 90s that he used for card games.
    - silverquiet 2y ago
      Yeah, my grandpa was still using it with a dot matrix printer and some crazy old database program in order to send out mailers for some local community/political organization stuff. But I get it - I’d still be running Windows 7 if they’d have just let it be.
palsecam 2y ago
Self-plug: play on https://FreeSolitaire.win https://FreeSolitaire.win — no ads until game over. You can install it, it’s a PWA (Progressive Web App). It’s also available in the Microsoft Store: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/freesolitairewin/9p9s4fnp5bwr https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/freesolitairewin/9p9s4fnp5... It was converted using https://pwa2uwp.fragara.com/ https://pwa2uwp.fragara.com/
- PyWoody 2y ago
  Wow, that's really clean and snappy. I played on mobile, too. Great job! From this thread, I played and beat Solitaire and Minesweeper on the first tries. I should buy a lotto ticket or something because today is my day.
  - palsecam 2y ago
    Thank you!
- qingcharles 2y ago
  Plugs are welcome when they are backed with a great product. Really nice version of Solitaire. The only "bug" was that the double-clicking to move the cards to the stacks was really finicky (Chrome, Win11). I wonder if you could get more donations by split-testing the end screen? I was thinking you should try putting a fixed dollar amount, like "Donate $2" instead of something open-ended that forces the user to think.
  - palsecam 2y ago
    Oh, thanks a lot for such great feedback <3 About double-click on Win11: hmmm thanks, didn’t know about that. Will investigate as soon as I can put my hands on a Windows device. About donations: great idea, indeed prompting with a fixed amount could be more performant.
qingcharles 2y ago
I thought this couldn't be true, so I tried opening Solitaire and it popped up a Microsoft banner which said "Your free week of Premium starts today!" *crying face emoji*

I'd love to see the market demographics behind these games - gut says its elderly who forget about the subscription entirely. GameDevs who build games for such demographics should feel bad for preying on them.

silverquiet 2y ago
My grandfather was happily playing card games (as well as using productivity software) on a DOS machine up until he passed in 2011. For the most part, I don't understand modern software (despite working in it). That said, I personally eliminated all Microsoft products from my life a few years back and I wish more people could do the same.
- soupfordummies 2y ago
  Had to check the date to make sure we weren’t related ;) My grandpa passed away 5 years ago and still had a working Win95 box from the mid 90s that he used for card games.
  - silverquiet 2y ago
    Yeah, my grandpa was still using it with a dot matrix printer and some crazy old database program in order to send out mailers for some local community/political organization stuff. But I get it - I’d still be running Windows 7 if they’d have just let it be.

palsecam 2y ago

Self-plug: play on https://FreeSolitaire.win https://FreeSolitaire.win — no ads until game over. You can install it, it’s a PWA (Progressive Web App). It’s also available in the Microsoft Store: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/freesolitairewin/9p9s4fnp5bwr https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/freesolitairewin/9p9s4fnp5... It was converted using https://pwa2uwp.fragara.com/ https://pwa2uwp.fragara.com/

PyWoody 2y ago
Wow, that's really clean and snappy. I played on mobile, too. Great job! From this thread, I played and beat Solitaire and Minesweeper on the first tries. I should buy a lotto ticket or something because today is my day.
- palsecam 2y ago
  Thank you!
qingcharles 2y ago
Plugs are welcome when they are backed with a great product. Really nice version of Solitaire. The only "bug" was that the double-clicking to move the cards to the stacks was really finicky (Chrome, Win11). I wonder if you could get more donations by split-testing the end screen? I was thinking you should try putting a fixed dollar amount, like "Donate $2" instead of something open-ended that forces the user to think.
- palsecam 2y ago
  Oh, thanks a lot for such great feedback <3 About double-click on Win11: hmmm thanks, didn’t know about that. Will investigate as soon as I can put my hands on a Windows device. About donations: great idea, indeed prompting with a fixed amount could be more performant.

qingcharles 2y ago

I thought this couldn't be true, so I tried opening Solitaire and it popped up a Microsoft banner which said "Your free week of Premium starts today!" *crying face emoji*