Free to Play Games?

[Axe]

After 30+ years of gaming I find myself still having negative views about these games and I'm wondering if my thoughts are still valid or not from all those years ago.

My thoughts are that they are their to rip us off in some manner by being forced to pay real money for stuff in the game - the pay to win theory thing?

I ask because I think some of these games look and sound brilliant way above the usual games and DLC etc. It happens time and time again I can spot these games way before finding out they are free to play.

Can someone please update my brain by informing me of the facts and motives of these game please. Are any legit even though they are free to play. Many thanks.

[Crazy Tiger]

Początkowo opublikowane przez davidb11:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Crazy Tiger:

I've been playing Gems of War for 4,5 years now, on mobile. It's also on Steam. Never spend a cent on it. Levelling is slow when not spending money, yes, but that's fine. I play it inbetween when I have to wait or so, you know, play 20 minutes here and there.

Would devs prefer if one spends money? Of course. Is it needed? Absolutely not.

LOL. Gems of War is a game I spent a bit too much money on my phone a few years ago.

I've seen people in the guild skyrocket past me in level, so it's obvious people spend money. But I got all kingdoms, underworld factions and about 85% of available troops without ever needing to spend.

Helps that I'm in a relaxed guild, no pressure on participating regularly or donating stuff.

[davidb11]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Crazy Tiger:

Początkowo opublikowane przez davidb11:

LOL. Gems of War is a game I spent a bit too much money on my phone a few years ago.

I've seen people in the guild skyrocket past me in level, so it's obvious people spend money. But I got all kingdoms, underworld factions and about 85% of available troops without ever needing to spend.

Helps that I'm in a relaxed guild, no pressure on participating regularly or donating stuff.

Cool!
I just know after all what I did, and deleting it off my phone, I don't see myself playing it again.
I do love Gunspell though.
That is a lot of fun.

[Kargor]

I don't play a whole lot of F2P anymore, but my handling of them is different from normal games. Since F2P are generally multiplayer games, I check whether they can be played solo at all. And, since they are F2P, I check whether they can be played without cash items for some significant portion of the game.

With that out of the way, and keeping the second item in mind ("significant portion of the game", not "all of the game"), I only play them until it feels the game is exerting too much cash-pressure. Since, technically, I have now aborted the playthrough I'd have to give it a thumb-down -- but, since it's an F2P game, I don't even expect to play through it. So, thumb up/down is about whether I liked the game enough or not before I quit.

If you adjust your expectations, you CAN take the "free" in "free 2 play" seriously.

[SkootsMcToots]

I think it depends on the game.

My experience is this: games like CS2 (now free) you have 0 advantages by spending $ on the game. Yes, you do get the free drops, but that does not give you an advantage. Same with Fortnite. You can spend 0$ on it and not be at a disadvantage at all.

Games where you have to "unlock" weapons or items that do give you an advantage, well that is a who other story. Those games you will find some think that they need to spend the money to get the advantage, faster. When dev's make the grind so long, or hard to get the unlocks then you will see the cost go up for the F2P game.

I love F2P games. I am just finally getting into Counter Strike. Don't get me wrong, I pay for quite a few games still. But when you have a developer do the F2P game correctly, they are very hard to beat.

[Psychlapse]

There are some good f2p games, like warframe and path of exile that give you 100% of the game right out the gate, and you only get your wallet out for convenience or shiny effects.

But since all f2p games are all chucked in the same bucket, you have to get your hand in there and root around a bit to find one that suits.

[76561199559798421]

i enjoy free games, simply because you can play then an walk away at your own leisure with no money lost.

while some can be frustratingly challenging most free to play games offer hours of enjoyment,

If anything the quality of most free games are actually better then the quality of paid for games, simply because free games have to interest users enough to get them to spend.

paid for games are often super low quality with min updating vs free to play games that frequently update to keep players interested in micro purchases.

over all the free games are driving the industry standard and have made far more money then paid for games.

great example is fortnite having generated far more money in the free game market then many paid for high end studio games. simply because it offers people a chance to play it , and gives them the choice to spend. where most people choose to spend.