WHY ARE FREE GAMES CRITICISED

[YoMz]

4 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

In many, many cases, all it takes is entering your email-address, with no further verification whatsoever.

Significant amount of time? No, that's a projection on  your part. There are plenty of games that start pushing for microtransactions within 10 minutes.

They obviously shouldn't be able to do that, but there are hundreds of stories that can be found with a simple Google-search where the kid stole their parents' credit-card and entered it in the game. There are actually games out there that show with clear, conscise, kid-friendly pictures how to enter the credentials there.

I agree with everything you say except for the fact that everything you just mentioned can be blocked by "parental controls" even Windows has this feature, because this deters a lot of "unknowing" users from accessing things they should not have access to or are too incompetent to comprehend what they entail... like I said, parental negligence should not be blamed for a paywall... even TV shows have "parental guidance" on them when explicit content are in them... parents neglecting their children should never be given a pass for their kids' misdemeanor... we can argue all day and all night about this, but it will always boil down to proper guidance from adults when it comes to issues where children are involved... why do you think social services exist?

as for the part about the predatory practices of certain games targeting adults that are vulnerable to spending their money, well that's a totally different issue and I think everyone agrees that they should not be taken advantage of... the term you are looking for that specific issue is Predatory Marketing Practice, and this happens a lot not just in games, but in a lot of industries in general...

I will never yield about the issue with children because parents and guardians exist for a reason, and that is to guide them properly... I will never accept the fact that the negligence of the parents/guardians should be blamed to external factors...

the fact that you are blaming developers for "kids stealing their parents' credit card" is so dumb imho... you can flip all the pages of "terms of service" all you want and you will never find anything in it that tells kids to steal... don't ever give parental negligence a pass...

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, YoMz said:

the term you are looking for that specific issue is Predatory Marketing Practice

I think you were thinking you were replying to someone else. I was not looking for any terms.

[Vishera]

Loot boxes = Unregulated gambling,even kids can gamble now!

And adult former gambling addicts are vulnerable as well.

[AndreiArgeanu]

Just because a product is free, doesn't make it devoid of criticism. It applies to anything, like if I spent a couple of hours on Unity and make shitty game and release it for free doesn't change the fact that it's a shitty game and doesn't instantly make it free from criticism. Don't get me wrong, price should play a part when reviewing/criticizing a game but price should never make anything immune from criticism.

[mariushm]

The people making the game need to put food on the table, need to pay rent, need to do lots of things.

Therefore, they have incentive to adjust the game mechanics, to tweak the game so that they can introduce ways of making money from the game.

So they either cut down levels and features and stuff from the game and make it free and then release game 2.0 for a fee, treating the first game as shareware games were in the windows 95 days,  as advertising for the 2nd game and next games,  OR they make the game slower, more annoying, in order to push players into micro-transactions, to make them pay money to gain an "edge" over other players.

It's a loss-loss, players doing the free version don't play the best game version there could be, people paying money also don't get best experience because the game already was dumbed down to still work for those that will never pay money.

 

 

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Caroline said:

et alone the extremely toxic playerbases

All the games I play also have extremely toxic playerbases.

 

 

_{....I only play single-player games and the playerbase thus consists of just me.}

[thrasher_565]

13 hours ago, Bitter said:

Games that are really actually free are great!

Two of my favorites
http://endless-sky.github.io/

https://wz2100.net/

There's a lot more out there, some are actually pretty polished and good, some are a work in progress, and some are just like someone's school project run amok.

 

Free to play games...eh no just call it what it is which in my opinion is not free. I prefer to just buy a game and play it, not play a game and buy everything in it.

warzone 2100 was a 98 pc game i think. its just so old thats its free now.

[thrasher_565]

13 hours ago, YoMz said:

if you know what "parental controls" are, then there should be no problem with kids trying to access things in your internet that they shouldn't access... like I said, don't blame bad parenting to the publishers...

kids buy stuff to feel cool. they get bulled if they dont.

[thrasher_565]

12 hours ago, mariushm said:

The people making the game need to put food on the table, need to pay rent, need to do lots of things.

Therefore, they have incentive to adjust the game mechanics, to tweak the game so that they can introduce ways of making money from the game.

So they either cut down levels and features and stuff from the game and make it free and then release game 2.0 for a fee, treating the first game as shareware games were in the windows 95 days,  as advertising for the 2nd game and next games,  OR they make the game slower, more annoying, in order to push players into micro-transactions, to make them pay money to gain an "edge" over other players.

It's a loss-loss, players doing the free version don't play the best game version there could be, people paying money also don't get best experience because the game already was dumbed down to still work for those that will never pay money.

 

 

the money dose not go to the devs thow... they go to ceos pockets...

[Joseph K]

16 hours ago, Agena_ said:

Hi i have a question, many practices in free-to-play games for earning revenue are heavily criticised

why is that?

what are some points

 

thanks in advance

If I can pay to unlock gameplay in your "free game" then it is not a free game. Pay to enter games can't gain new players, pay to win games aren't fun, and if your game is just free it was never big enough to matter. Skins with no lootboxes is objectively the only good multiplayer monetization platform, but everybody hates on Fortnite for some reason. Then they turn around and praise Call of Duty where you pay $120 every year just to keep playing, CSGO with predatory gambling and day trading targeted directly at children with actual real cash payout (how is this shit not illegal), or League of Legends which you literally have to pay $600 to unlock every champion in the game on a new account, otherwise you have to grind for thousands of hours. But Fortnite is a game for kids, so everything it does is automatically bad and wrong. Gotta love how stupid consumers are.

[Joseph K]

1 hour ago, thrasher_565 said:

the money dose not go to the devs thow... they go to ceos pockets...

Lol case in point this is your average consumer. So out of touch with reality.

[Kilrah]

1 hour ago, thrasher_565 said:

the money dose not go to the devs thow... they go to ceos pockets...

"Developers" here is meant as "the companies who develop these games", not the actual coders.

[NineEyeRon]

i just want to buy a game and then have free patches to fix it for a while. 
 

Terraria was incredible for its support, I think Minecraft may have been good too but I have never played it. KSP also had a good model.

 

As for online multiplayer games, CS:S was the sweetspot but in these modern times everything needs a “Season” and even CS:GO has been affected but thankfully as a long time player I don’t have any issues. They respected people who bought the game at full price, as KSP did with its early adopter program.

[The1Dickens]

*laughs in Warframe*

 

It's pretty much been covered, but yeh. Consumers had too many experiences where something is presented as free up front, then it turns out the cost is just tacked on to the back end of the deal. And because it's usually done with smaller packages, its less noticeable as you spend the money. After all, what is $5, for a game you are enjoying that you didn't have to spend $60 on? Oh, wait, this is your 17th time spending $5? Well, now that game that didn't cost you anything, really cost you a lot more than an initial investment...

[it_dont_work]

16 hours ago, Agena_ said:

Hi i have a question, many practices in free-to-play games for earning revenue are heavily criticised

why is that?

what are some points

 

thanks in advance

Imagine I ask you to play a game, and then when you say yes I throw (we'll be nice and pick the lease gross kind) horse shit at you, Now just remember if you pay a little for the game I don't have to throw the shit at you. It's your choice either let me throw horse shit on you, or pay up. 

 

You see now, it's the people who don't want to have shit thrown at them, who also don't want to pay . These are the people who criticise and complain. The rest of us just don't play the game to begin with 

[Dionyz]

17 hours ago, Agena_ said:

Hi i have a question, many practices in free-to-play games for earning revenue are heavily criticised

why is that?

what are some points

 

thanks in advance

P2W (Pay To Win) is highly seen as a bad thing. Nexon has a bad name for these F2P games that you would basically need money to become the best. 

 

Games like overwatch does the paying mechanic right. Loot boxes for Skins and you can purchase with in game currency if you save up. 

[UpTheDons]

I personally cannot stand any game with excessive micro-transactions or ads, Battlefront 2 being a good example of a game that I wanted to like but couldn't because of the various pay to win formats within it ( I know many of these issues have been ironed out and the game is a lot better now ). I have a very young family member who plays an excessive amount of fortnite. In fortnite I think the cosmetic items are forced upon you in much more clever ways that a designed to lure kids and adults in by creating a multiplayer community where the coolest thing is to have the best, most rare or newest skin, this has led to people I know and many other kids around the world spending stupid money to look like they know what they are doing in the game by having the best skin. This same family member bought £400 worth of fifa points a couple of years back ( which his father managed to reclaim from Microsoft, who actually let him keep the points too) from a card saved on the system. This was a mistake on his parents behalf but the fact its so easy for a little kid to spend that amount of money on a game to get the best fifa team kinda sickens me, and how little protection is offered to parents on the xbox parental controls screen too stop kids buying stuff without a second thought.

[Amias]

People are fine with FREE TO PLAY. They are not fine with them paraded under that banner but in reality they are PAY TO WIN.

 

 

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, Amias said:

People are fine with FREE TO PLAY.

No, I'm not.

[Amias]

4 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

No, I'm not.

Apex Legends.

 

League of Legends.

 

Fortnight.

 

Team Fortress 2.

 

Destiny 2.

 

Valorant.

 

All excellent deep well made games. All completely free to play. There are hundreds more out there. These games do not require purchases for you to be competitive or win. They provide cosmetics and other non-skill enhancing items. Ergo not PAY TO WIN. They are FREE TO PLAY.

 

 

[WereCatf]

Just now, Amias said:

All excellent deep well made games. All completely free to play. There are hundreds more out there. These games do not require purchases for you to be competitive or win. They provide cosmetics and other non-skill enhancing items. Ergo not PAY TO WIN. They are FREE TO PLAY.

Yeah, and I don't care. I'm not ok with them, period. I do not and I will not approve of preying upon those with little or no self-control or with limited mental capacity for understanding money.

[Bitter]

9 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

warzone 2100 was a 98 pc game i think. its just so old thats its free now.

Yes, that happens a lot. Tyrian, Jazz Jackrabbit, Epic Pinball, etc are also all like that. Doesn't mean they're not still good fun games! WZ2100 is still getting updated on a regular schedule and works on all computers running Windows, OSX, or Linux with only modest system requirements and has an active online multiplayer still (or did a few years ago when I last looked at the online parts of it). Old is the new new man, CNC Remastered, Homeworld Remastered, XVIII got a re-release, nostalgia sells but it's better when it's free!

[thrasher_565]

8 hours ago, Kilrah said:

"Developers" here is meant as "the companies who develop these games", not the actual coders.

look the developers dont care about games they care about money and they do w/e it takes to milk it. if they go under who cares. ceos get payed regardless.

[thrasher_565]

15 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Yes, that happens a lot. Tyrian, Jazz Jackrabbit, Epic Pinball, etc are also all like that. Doesn't mean they're not still good fun games! WZ2100 is still getting updated on a regular schedule and works on all computers running Windows, OSX, or Linux with only modest system requirements and has an active online multiplayer still (or did a few years ago when I last looked at the online parts of it). Old is the new new man, CNC Remastered, Homeworld Remastered, XVIII got a re-release, nostalgia sells but it's better when it's free!

ya not saying its a bad thing i like the game too i have a caked version on my storage some were but now its free its all good. wonder if they fixed that one turret that shoot across the map?

[Bitter]

2 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

ya not saying its a bad thing i like the game too i have a caked version on my storage some were but now its free its all good. wonder if they fixed that one turret that shoot across the map?

Pretty sure that one of the turrets is supposed to shoot all the way across the map, but that's one of the last items in the research tree. I basically did a sandbox skirmish one time and got the WHOLE tech tree researched.