This is pretty much how I feel about free to play.

An interesting point here is that it's EA's DUNGEON KEEPER for iOS that has everyone so up in arms. EA is the company that got free-to-play so right with PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES 2 on iOS. The difference here is that this game is not playable in the "Free" mode. In the DK example, it's not that paying makes the game bigger or more diverse, it's that paying is what makes the game capable of being played.

It should be a game first, and a monetization opportunity second. They have lost the thread.

Gary Sax wrote: ^There is similarly sinister psychology going on in free to play games... here are two articles, the first one being how deep down the rabbit hole these people get in terms of structuring their games for obsessive types. I'm not sure I could work on something like this from an ethical perspective, but I don't think anything illegal is going on.

www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/...etization_Tricks.php
www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/195806/ch...ing_the_.php?print=1

The crack-cocaine multiplayer formula of Call of Duty that immersed in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was developped by psychologists. There's a really cool book on the gamification of our world (it was a great read and of course I forget the name of the book because it's a book and not a video game). I don't think there's an ethical boundary being crossed tho. They aren't structuring games for obsessive types, they are structuring games to make players obsessive types. They've figured out the reward-center parts of our brains and what sets off the most endorphins (within reason) and develop games around that type of feedback system.

Hopefully it eventually means that we'll get to meet a young Ashley Judd wearing pyjamas for uniform.


Reality is Broken was the name of the book (my wifey remembered)

I disagree about PvZ2 being done right, and I know many that would side with me about that. Sure, you could play through the whole thing without paying at all, but compared to the original PvZ, one of my favorite games EVER, this one started feeling like a grind after a while. I stopped playing in the second level and haven't returned to it in months. And I was soooo excited for this game, but it just felt tedious. I'd have been happy to pay a lot up front to just have a great game to play through without grinding around pay barriers. I agree it does free-to-play better than others, but I still think it's a crap way to do a game like that.

I don't understand the logic of PvZ2 being FtP anyway. Everyone loved the first one and would have gladly paid 10$ for the second one, no?

Plants vs Zombies 2 is incredibly padded, most levels are very similar to each other and you need to play a lot of them to get enough stars or keys to progress. Unless you pay, of course.

Imagine Dragon Quest with the same content but each dungeon's corridors are 50% larger. It feels like that.

Black Barney wrote: I don't understand the logic of PvZ2 being FtP anyway. Everyone loved the first one and would have gladly paid 10$ for the second one, no?

If it was like the first one, the most they could get out of you would be $10. With f2p, they could get WAY more than $10 out of you. Even if you're not willing to shovel money at them, you know someone is.

I don't have enough data to properly forecast but I think that they make more money charging 10$ to everyone (and probably shipping half a million units?) than going with an unlimited upside model and praying. I mean, I have enough discretionary income to buy a $150 controller and $200 headphones but I would spend exactly 0.00$ on PvZ2's FtP even though I loved the first one. I would have spent 10$ to have a full normal version with achievements and everything (if it had been offered).

free to play is all about whales. So you have most people paying nothing but others pay 100 dollars. For competitive, pay to win, games, you have people paying THOUSANDS of dollars every X months on the game.

Sevej wrote: In PvP oriented game, free to play means the free players are meat for the paying players' grinder. You don't have to program AI as opposition.

This is why I haven't touched any of EA's more recent games. They made me sad with the retarded unlock system in Battlefield 3.