Forums → Games → Freemium Games Debate [Admin Post]

I think it depends on how they do it. I don't mind freemium when it's reasonable.

I'm happy to shell out $5 or so for premium content. I've done it for games like Gemcraft Labyrinth, Epic Battle Fantasy, etc. I'm sure I'll do it for Kingdom Rush Frontiers (If they ever decide to finish the flash version!) It's fun, it helps the developers, and it doesn't break the bank.

But when games charge $40-80 for special crystals or coins, or whatever - just to make the game tolerable (speed up the 3 days long building process, buy the minimum weapon needed to progress, etc.) that's when it's annoying, and I usually lose interest in the game super fast.

Unfortunately, the greedy ones are missing the boat. They should be looking at the iOS games. They charge anywhere from $0.99-4.00 MAX for their special upgrades. Some of those games bring in MILLIONS of dollars a day because nobody minds dropping a buck or two. But when it costs the same as an XBox or PS game, or a weeks worth of groceries or something - very few are going to find it worth it. Especially when you consider that so many of the people playing these games are teenagers without a credit card. It's much easier for them to ask their parents for a few bucks to put into their paypal than it is for them to scrounge up $80 for special gems.

So, long story short - 5 bucks or less is cool. Anything more is annoying and a stupid business decision.

I don't like it, but I often don't dislike it.

If I can earn it (reasonably) through XP, it's fine. (Bloons Tower Defense, at least on the iPhone, lets you get every powerup via XP or stars or whatever.)
If it's in a big, downloadable single-player game, it's generally fine.
If it's strictly cosmetic, it's fine.

I dislike pay-to-win (Gemcraft Labyrinth).
I dislike paying to get an edge over your competition (League of Legends).
I dislike when not paying makes things take AGES to unlock (Pixel People).
I dislike when a game encourages you via quest to do something that requires purchased currency or items, even if you can also earn them (slowly) for free (Whatever the Despicable Me 2 ios Temple Run game is).

I will also concur with crazyworkins. I've paid for premium content here before (Monsters Den Chronicles), and it was totally worth it. I've also payid for a few fun little F2P items in TF2 before. I have no problem with Free to Play, but I think many of the games that are out there (especially on the App Store and such) are becoming P2W (pay to win), or at least pay to be slightly tolerable. And that I oppose. Payment should NEVER interfere with game balance. If you can get away with it, it means that your game has fundamental balance issues (e.g. generic champions in LOL in order to justify the free champion rotation).

I did put nearly $100 across two games in small increments, and it was worth it for me. The games are Backyard Monsters and War Commander by Kixeye (Casual Collective before mid-2010). I wouldn't recommend it unless you're highly dedicated to the game and the items you're buying are permanent, money-only things.

For example, I bought the thing in Jetpack Joyride that doubles all your coins when it was still $1.99 (now $4.99). I've bought all that I needed with the coins that I picked up while playing, but I'm now bored with the game, so in a way, that was a waste of my money in the long run.

However, if a game takes a very long time to complete (Gemcraft Labyrinth is a perfect example), it may well be worth it. I bought the premium pack and was well rewarded in early rounds. I was able to play them with some skills at my disposal and earned much higher scores the first time around, which helped me level up that much faster.

Now, let's not even get into that one company that seems to like art that's electronic. Ok, I lied. Let's do. Let's talk Need For Speed World. It's probably the largest target for having insane freemium prices. It's not a free to play game, it's a pay to win game. If you're not buying Speedboost (their in-game currency), you've got no chance whatsoever at winning or even placing remotely close to whoever's paid to play. Short and sweet: Winning without paying is about as likely as breaking a law of physics.

I agree with a couple points that have been made here:
1) Paying a couple bucks to unlock extra content is fine (focusing on levels or extending the life of the game)
2) Paying to win is not fine and make me distrust game devs. Any games with micro transactions & balance issues are very easily manipulated by a developer having an account that "spends" significant money on in-game currency. This can cascade into other players dropping money to beat this dev player who isn't actually spending money.

I really appreciate Freemium games that allow you to earn in game currency (that is otherwise bought with real money), even if its slowly or difficult. I am may be in the minority with this.

Its a little iffy for me depending if its flash or full game via desktop. Im one of those picky people who likes to play games without slow downs so i pay attention to flash games slowdowns from memory hogging. As long as the flash game runs normal without slow downs its great. Don't mind paying money for extra maps and power ups to increase experience % for the casuals who don't have time to sit on the computer more than 3 hours a day like earn to die or kingdom rush its great. But for full desktop games like LoL works great buy skins or extra Ip boost and players get banned for toxic behavior to let you enjoy the game more. For me when it comes to gaming i like to earn my rewards without paying that would keep me playing longer to earn the items and achievements i am going after which means longer game play. But for MMO like Neverwinter i would like to pay a monthly subscription so the game will be filled with less trolls and more friendly helpful players it enhances the experience to enjoy the content. But overall it depends on the game as long as the content is extended via real cash but that's just me. I grew up buying games from the 80s and up. You get what you pay for once you beat it you unlock maps extra costumes and characters no nerfing content from patches its all in there, Not the scam method you having to pay a total 180$ for something should of been in the game in the first place. Might as well release it as a expansion pack. For 60 dollars its too much for games today that last 3 hours with seizure approved graphics close to 40GB per game. Compared to old games like deus ex 1 500 mb it lasts me over 60 hours very long game on hard mode with alternate stories with high replay value. If the flash game is so great i don't mind paying a total of 49 to 60 dollars equivalent to a triple A game that's different from the market only selling army fps games. Thanks for taking the time to read thats just my opinion on the market.

As long as you don't HAVE to pay to complete a quest, get certain items, get an achievement, better gear, more dungeons, etc. then I'm ok with it.

I am ok with freemium in multiplayer games if it does not give a competitive edge in the game that cannot be overcome through free gameplay. Exp boosts and resource boosts can be overcome by just playing more. League of Legends allows you to buy heroes with real life money or you can buy them with free currency and I find this to be ok because you can also compensate for not having heroes by just having skill. I am also ok with games like DOTA2 in which the pay items are strictly cosmetic and give no in game advantage(outside of special events). Blacklight: Retribution has items that can only be purchased with cash but they are not overly powerful to what you can unlock naturally through leveling and buying with in game currency. BL:R has one of my favorite Freemium models because it give little competitive edge, and you can compensate with skill, you can buy the items for various amounts of time allowing you to try them for 1-2 games with of currency before you spend 8 hours of gaming to unlock something permanently. Also if you have to pay cash for content I feel that is wrong. I also dislike time/cooldown boosts/bonuses.

I think the many single player freemiums are wrong. I dislike pay to win. I dislike pay for bonus content. I am fine with paying for cosmetics.

With all the things I like and dislike that has not stopped me from paying for items I do not agree with because I enjoyed the game and wanted to support the devs if they are reasonably priced. If I can go to steam and buy an indie game that will give me a couple hours of gameplay for the same price as 5 one time use items that enhance my gameplay of my game I will just buy an indie game. I don't have a problem paying for games I just have a hard to paying more than what something is worth.

I really HATE game and developers who
makes you pay money to get an advantage in-game. Having to play many many hours to get bonuses is really annoying aswell.

I don't like it when it's pay for something you get in-game, or to speed up times. I'm willing to pay for extra characters or maps on ios games if it's 1 - 3 dollars. A little off topic, but what really annoys me about EA on ios is that you pay to download the game, but then it still has ads. If it's free, then it's perfectly understandible to have ads. If you pay, there should'nt be any ads except for a more games bar on main menu. The KR premium is good, I got it when it was avaible for a dollar.

I don't mind the concept of there being features you can purchase...so long as all features can be earned through gameplay. And NOT if there's a ridiculous amount involved that makes it virtually impossible.

For example, Monkey Money on BTD5 on Ninjakiwi. You can purchase coins for the site and spend them to get money in that game. However, if you don't do that, you can still reasonably get your own money by beating the levels.

I hate it when there's certain features that can only be bought and not earned. Either way, I never pay for in-game content on flash/small games.

Me personally like the games but when it comes to buying stuff with real money it just ticks me off because its a game and i fell the creators should make everything free for everything and its just a waste of money.

For instance ive seen games on Facebook that offer "gem" packs from $5 to as much as $80 or even $100 dollars. I mean come on its i can buy a DS game card with less than $80.

I think it all falls solely upon the game play and how well developed the currency system is as a whole. The entire game generally hinges on how balanced the how well laid out the shop and gold gaining methods. If it is has a poor shop with items far to expensive to reasonably earn in game, or if your not able to reasonably earn the gold needed to get the specific feature in the game, then it's generally not worth investing money into it.

For me, being the cheapskate that I am, up until recently never purchased in-game currency. it wasn't for lack of funs, but merely for lack of desire. If the game in itself can captivate the players attention to and draw them in to the point of basically pay enough money to purchase the game, then at that point its worth it.

Great games that exceed at &quotremium content" in my mind aren't games that simply give it as an option to let the players excel at the game, but games that buy purchasing into the premium content your investing into the game. If I ever pay for something, I'm never going to pay to get a head start, or an edge against my competition, I'm going to be investing into a good quality game that I would like to enjoy more of.

In short, games that give boosts, or level skips, or an extra life aren't worth my money. Games that capitalize on the fact that they are great games, and give an option to players to invest themselves into the game even more, are great games.

pc123

I really think a free game should be well, free. I don't really mind when the game has options to spend money on simple things like, extra lives, boosts, or more weapons. Sometimes they can get out of hand, and the game gets a 'spend money or you lose' feel and users are almost forced to spend money on a supposed free game in order to keep playing.

I don't really care either way, but I do buy stuff sometimes if I really like the game.