7 votes

Free-to-Play games: Three key trade-offs

10 comments

  1. [10]
    balooga
    Link
    This is why I've learned to avoid these games entirely. Life's too short to play games that are strategically designed to withhold fun. If I'm gonna play something, the designers better have put...

    The first key trade-off is to make games less fun in order to cause you to pay them huge amounts of money to make them less not fun

    This is why I've learned to avoid these games entirely. Life's too short to play games that are strategically designed to withhold fun. If I'm gonna play something, the designers better have put all their effort into maximizing fun, or it's not worth my time. Intentional barriers to enjoyment are the exact opposite of what I'm ever looking for in a game.

    I'd rather pay for a genuinely fun game than suffer through a free, unsatisfying Skinner box that teases fun around every corner but never actually provides it.

    8 votes
    1. [8]
      Heichou
      Link Parent
      How do you feel about Warframe? I feel that Digital Extremes has nearly perfected an F2P model that isn't egregiously predatory or inhibiting

      How do you feel about Warframe? I feel that Digital Extremes has nearly perfected an F2P model that isn't egregiously predatory or inhibiting

      2 votes
      1. [4]
        babypuncher
        Link Parent
        I've heard the game is still very time consuming. Can I reasonably expect to experience most of what the game has to offer in 30-40 hours without spending more than $60?

        I've heard the game is still very time consuming. Can I reasonably expect to experience most of what the game has to offer in 30-40 hours without spending more than $60?

        2 votes
        1. Deimos
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          No, definitely not. While the F2P model is pretty reasonable, the game is very grindy overall and can take a long time to progress. I played somewhere in the range of 150 hours and probably spent...

          No, definitely not. While the F2P model is pretty reasonable, the game is very grindy overall and can take a long time to progress. I played somewhere in the range of 150 hours and probably spent about $30 on speeding some stuff up and being able to buy some items instead of needing to farm them. I doubt I had seen more than about 20% of the game's content overall, and they've added quite a bit more since I stopped playing about a year and a half ago.

          In 40 hours you'd definitely know what the game is like and will have a pretty good idea of what sort of things you'll be doing if you keep playing, but there will be a ton that you haven't done. It's definitely a game that's intended to be played for a very long time, more like an MMORPG than a "normal" game that you can fully experience inside reasonable playtime.

          5 votes
        2. SourceContribute
          Link Parent
          This is what I like about Destiny 2. I've never felt like I need 3+ hours to play, I'm content with just 40min at a time (though for some people even that's too long). You're still able to...

          This is what I like about Destiny 2. I've never felt like I need 3+ hours to play, I'm content with just 40min at a time (though for some people even that's too long). You're still able to experience most game modes within a 30 to 40min time block, including the new ones like Gambit and Gambit Prime, and whatever new quests and strikes there are.

          1 vote
        3. BBBence1111
          Link Parent
          In Warframe the grind is the gameplay until you have everything and fashion becomes the endgame. You could probably run through the main questline in 40 hours if you had an experienced player help...

          In Warframe the grind is the gameplay until you have everything and fashion becomes the endgame.

          You could probably run through the main questline in 40 hours if you had an experienced player help you through some of it, but you can have hundreds of hours in the game and still have more content to go.

          1 vote
      2. 5un3
        Link Parent
        Warframe is fun with a no attachment mindset playing the first ~10 hours where the gameplay is keyed in to showing a good experience to new players before you start to feel 'the wall' so to speak,...

        Warframe is fun with a no attachment mindset playing the first ~10 hours where the gameplay is keyed in to showing a good experience to new players before you start to feel 'the wall' so to speak, where the grind begins and content starts getting gated. The same can be said for the one week trial of black desert online.

        2 votes
      3. [2]
        balooga
        Link Parent
        I haven’t tried that one, afraid I don’t know anything about it. Is it worth a look then?

        I haven’t tried that one, afraid I don’t know anything about it. Is it worth a look then?

        1 vote
        1. Heichou
          Link Parent
          Absolutely. They're probably the shining example of a F2P game that doesn't rely on gouging its players at every step, or limiting gameplay severely due to being F2P. It's worth a look.

          Absolutely. They're probably the shining example of a F2P game that doesn't rely on gouging its players at every step, or limiting gameplay severely due to being F2P. It's worth a look.

          2 votes
    2. babypuncher
      Link Parent
      I will always trade money for more fun. My time is too valuable to replace money with. F2P games offer this as an option, but I find the ROI for dollars per unit of fun is abysmal. These games are...

      I will always trade money for more fun. My time is too valuable to replace money with.

      F2P games offer this as an option, but I find the ROI for dollars per unit of fun is abysmal. These games are just designed to suck money out of you endlessly, as opposed to being sold as a product. There is a reason none of them have an option to pay $60 for a complete version of the game with no MTX. They want you to spend $60 on in-game resources today and use them up quickly so you're spending another $60 next week.

      2 votes