Is mobile and desktop gaming on the slippery slope to it's own doom

[carmel_andrews]

I bring this up since not a day goes by when you hear stories in the media about someone racking up unfeastly amount of phone/credit card bills by paying for what was 'advertised' as a 'free game'

 

I accept that game developers and publishers should be renumerated and compensated for their 'wares' but what gets me is to advertise the game as 'free' and then crippling the game and getting people to racking up unfeastly phone/credit card bills just to get any sort of game action out of it

 

In other words, mobile developers are basically playing the same game/stunt that desktop games dev's/publishers have been playing for as long as online gaming has existed

 

i.e. for the last few years if you thought the game you bought in the shop was a full game, wrong, that is only a mere fraction of the game (somewhat likened to say one or two levels) they want you to spend more money buying more content (online) for that game in order to have THE FULL GAME....Thats when a 20,30 or 40 pound game starts adding up to 150,200 or even 300 pounds plus

 

Could you imagine the furore or the bad publicity if Atari (back in the day) tried this tactic with 2600 pac man or 200 E T (I tell you something, we certainly would not be talking about Atari today if they pulled something like that)

 

And the mobile game advertised as "FREE" and you get to a particular point in the game before you get something like, thanks for playing the game if you want to continue please enter you paypal details now...or something like 'if you want to upgrade your weapon to beat this baddie enter your paypal details now... the worst one i've heard is, if you want to play the next level (since you already finished the previous level) please enter your paypal details now...remember that we are talking about a game asdvertised as being FREE)

 

Like I said, i've no problem with game developers and publishers being paid or getting compensated for their 'wares', I would APPRECIATE IT THOUGH IF THEY WERE A BIT MORE STRAIGHT AND UP FRONT WITH THE END USER EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE GETTING...i.e. If a game from a shop is advertised as the 'full game' then that is what they should be getting...THE FULL GAME and not having to pay yet more money downloading cack for something that was originally advertised as a 'full game', and for those mobile developer...If a game is advertised as 'FREE' then distribute it UNCRIPPLED and let the people play the game as free

 

I accept that there's 'no such thing as a free lunch' (to using the well worn americanism) the way the games market is treating the end user is disgusting and if they think that is the way that businesses should be run (i.e. the way they treat customers), then perhaps people that supply those very companies (i.e. the games developers/publishers) products or services should treat the games developers/publishers the same way as they treat the end user (i.e. an eye for an eye and all that) and lets see how they like it

Edited October 3, 2013 by carmel_andrews

[cimerians]

I don't think anything is doomed since many people love fee to pay games. (sadly).

 

Sucks for us but there's people out there that eat that stuff up and don't care at all. Plants Vs Zombies 2 is such a casualty for me....more ways to play more ways to pay.

 

How about the dirtiest of them all? Final Fantasy All the Bravest? Check out the review about what this game is all about: http://www.destructoid.com/review-final-fantasy-all-the-bravest-242882.phtml

 

People still buy this stuff and spend money on it and so.......publishers will continue doing this crap.

 

I don't mind a small ad on the bottom of a free game, like a game I play called "Flow" on my phone. No big deal. Most if not all the game is there and sometimes its just a donation to pay for it.

 

I don't think anything is doomed though but rubbish can simply be ignored.

 

To me console\PC game DLC is a different beast but along the same veins, its great and cool if done well and benefits you the gamer. Not so good when it's simply meant to drain extra cash from you when it could have been done differently. I won't even get into that.

[iswitt]

I don't think PC or mobile gaming is coming to an end because of freemium or FTP games any time soon, if ever. There are just too many people out there willing to part with their money for ephemeral lines of code for the market to come crashing down. Sure, I wish they'd be clearer about their games and content, but it's never going to happen the way I would like it to. I stopped buying games that require lots of DLC and add-ons a long time ago. I've never downloaded a free-to-play game either. I've done the research and made my buying choices wisely. But sadly that puts me in the minority.

Edited October 3, 2013 by iswitt

[+HammR25]

Yes, mobile, PC and console games are all doomed. I need to head to the store and pick up a deck of cards. I hear spades is making a comeback. I also need to find a copy of my favorite board game, Parcheesi.

[R.Bear]

I try to keep away from "Free to play" games unless the items in their microtransaction stores are things which are either only cosmetic or are available through playing the game normally anyway, things like Star Trek Online or Team Fortress 2 come to mind.

 

I really hate the ones which are like those persistent world games where you build a town / base and have to wait hours for a building or group of soldiers to build, or where you can buy more "resources" from the store, which simply makes the game "pay 2 win", WarRock is another example where I avoid it like the plague, certain guns are only available for those who buy them via the store, and they are more powerful than the "free" weapons so it's basically another "pay 2 win" game.

 

To be honest I'd rather just buy the game, and/or pay monthly for it because at least then the game experience is fair between players.

 

Nearly all mobile games are free to play, so I dislike most of them on principle.

Edited October 4, 2013 by SkullBlade

[godslabrat]

Freemium mobile games remind me A LOT of the shareware craze of the 90s. Everywhere you went, there were CDs full of 20, 50, or 100+ Windows games for $5. The fact that you had to pay for each individual game separately, on top of that, wasn't hidden, but neither was it really made clear at the time of purchase. I ended up with a few of these as well-intended gifts. I think the "Oh, it's a free game, why not download it?" is the same concept... get the code installed no matter what, get the user hooked on the game, the money will follow.