Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
Please explain WHY it needs to change.
Can you play the game for free? Yes
Do you have the OPTION of spending money for special things if you want them? Yes, but that doesnt effect the 1st question, hence the optional part. If you stop spending $, you can still play exactly the same as before you started spending $.
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
Please explain WHY it needs to change.
Can you play the game for free? Yes
Do you have the OPTION of spending money for special things if you want them? Yes, but that doesnt effect the 1st question, hence the optional part. If you stop spending $, you can still play exactly the same as before you started spending $.
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Thats where you and about 90% of people who complain about F2P are wrong. Have you ever played any F2P game besides LOTRO or DDO?
Those are the only 2 main ones which actually lock CONTENT. The majority of F2P games, the entire game, every single area, quest, character, etc is 100% free. The stuff you spend money on is stuff like faster XP pots, better chances at upgrading weapons, special cosmetic costumes, etc but absolutely nothing that you need to experience any part of the game.
Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
Please explain WHY it needs to change.
Can you play the game for free? Yes
Do you have the OPTION of spending money for special things if you want them? Yes, but that doesnt effect the 1st question, hence the optional part. If you stop spending $, you can still play exactly the same as before you started spending $.
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Thats where you and about 90% of people who complain about F2P are wrong. Have you ever played any F2P game besides LOTRO or DDO?
Those are the only 2 main ones which actually lock CONTENT. The majority of F2P games, the entire game, every single area, quest, character, etc is 100% free. The stuff you spend money on is stuff like faster XP pots, better chances at upgrading weapons, special cosmetic costumes, etc but absolutely nothing that you need to experience any part of the game.
Wizzard 101 locks you out (lest you deposit x dollars for next hour) of the second "area" after about 1 hr play,
I very much doubt you have even heard of the majority of F2P games. There are zillions* of them.
Zillions: A very large unknown number that undergoes major changes on a regular basis.
My daughter has an ipod touch that she and her little brother play on. There are parental controls that allow for disabling of, among other things, any purchases. This is not rocket science, the parents who either do not disable this or associate their CC with their KID'S iTunes account are morons.
This is true. If your going to put this in your child's hands then if you are noob to the whole concept of what the child may or may not have access to ...ASK and like you did use the parental controls.
On another note.. there are plenty of 8 years old that can figure out this and poof it is gone so as an added safeguard when purchases are being made maybe the phone companies should take some responsiblity and have it so the main holder gets sent a text like someone else suggested for approval or not. Shouldn't be such a difficult task or feature to offer. I mean truely they are looking to make money and those companies that are targeting the child audience truely don't care about anything but making money. So investigating and looking into things like this should be done and they should be in turn held accountable for their actions or inactions. Make them care. Yes the parents are responsible, but there are far too many parents out there that have no clue sometimes what they are putting in their kids hands. Just like computers, my son is 15 and he can go to adult sites no problem. There are many areas that need to be looked at and better security needs to be in place. If a child can get on the internet with their phone they can do the same thing. So wake up partents that think your children won't do such things cause they can do this sometimes without meaning to. Parental controls you say..they can still do that with them in place...do you have any idea how many words are connected to sites like that in a search. Our son was looking up information for a math project and a site like that came up. My husband went to a site for his class in child education and wow guess what an adult site came up instead. So yea some safeguards and such need to be in place all the way around.
Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
Please explain WHY it needs to change.
Can you play the game for free? Yes
Do you have the OPTION of spending money for special things if you want them? Yes, but that doesnt effect the 1st question, hence the optional part. If you stop spending $, you can still play exactly the same as before you started spending $.
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Thats where you and about 90% of people who complain about F2P are wrong. Have you ever played any F2P game besides LOTRO or DDO?
Those are the only 2 main ones which actually lock CONTENT. The majority of F2P games, the entire game, every single area, quest, character, etc is 100% free. The stuff you spend money on is stuff like faster XP pots, better chances at upgrading weapons, special cosmetic costumes, etc but absolutely nothing that you need to experience any part of the game.
Wizzard 101 locks you out (lest you deposit x dollars for next hour) of the second "area" after about 1 hr play
Ah, i wasnt aware they did that with Wiz. IIRC it wasnt always like that, I havent played since like a month after it launched.. Well in the cas eof Wizard 101, then yeah the F2P title is pretty misleading. Im speaking from the dozens of them iv eplayed ove rthe years though. The whole locked content thing USED to be sort of the norm, but the developers learned that they could actually bring in more profit by leaving all of the content unlock and just adding in optional things instead.
I definitely dont agree with locked content, and in the case of DDO and LOTRO there are other ways to unlock it without paying $. But in the case of Wizard 101, if theres not an alternative to paying $ for that content, then yeah it definitely shouldnt be called F2P, it sounds more like some sort of rental.
When I speak of F2P im speaking more along the line sof games like RFO, Rappez, FLYFF, DOMO, Atlantica, SOTNW, etc where people play for months/years without having to spend a dime while others are constantly spending money by their own choosing to level faster, have better equipment, etc but none of it required to play. And believe it or not I actually have played perhaps not the majority of F2Ps (yes i know theres tons of them), but i have played way more than the average F2P player. Ive spent most of my gaming time the past couple years, other than 1 or 2 P2Ps that i play consistently, testing out a new F2P every few weeks just to see whats out there and ive seen a wide variety of systems for the F2P setup.
Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
Please explain WHY it needs to change.
Can you play the game for free? Yes
Do you have the OPTION of spending money for special things if you want them? Yes, but that doesnt effect the 1st question, hence the optional part. If you stop spending $, you can still play exactly the same as before you started spending $.
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Thats where you and about 90% of people who complain about F2P are wrong. Have you ever played any F2P game besides LOTRO or DDO?
Those are the only 2 main ones which actually lock CONTENT. The majority of F2P games, the entire game, every single area, quest, character, etc is 100% free. The stuff you spend money on is stuff like faster XP pots, better chances at upgrading weapons, special cosmetic costumes, etc but absolutely nothing that you need to experience any part of the game.
But all that stuff you mention is part of the game. You may not care about or value it, or think it is meaningless but it IS part of the game. And its not free.
Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
Please explain WHY it needs to change.
Can you play the game for free? Yes
Do you have the OPTION of spending money for special things if you want them? Yes, but that doesnt effect the 1st question, hence the optional part. If you stop spending $, you can still play exactly the same as before you started spending $.
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Thats where you and about 90% of people who complain about F2P are wrong. Have you ever played any F2P game besides LOTRO or DDO?
Those are the only 2 main ones which actually lock CONTENT. The majority of F2P games, the entire game, every single area, quest, character, etc is 100% free. The stuff you spend money on is stuff like faster XP pots, better chances at upgrading weapons, special cosmetic costumes, etc but absolutely nothing that you need to experience any part of the game.
But all that stuff you mention is part of the game. You may not care about or value it, or think it is meaningless but it IS part of the game. And its not free.
Do you understand what the word optional means? You are NOT required to buy ANY of those things to PLAY the game. It is Free 2 Play, not Free 2 be the best and have every item in the game.
Complaining that you have to pay for things that ar enot required to access any of the content in the game is akin to complaining you got a free car, but decided you wanted some nice shiny rims and a deafening sound system (both optional) and they wouldnt give those to you free too.
Be careful what you wish for. Typically if you let the government stick their toe in the door they will kick it open and be eating Cheetos on your couch before you know it ;-)
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
Please explain WHY it needs to change.
Can you play the game for free? Yes
Do you have the OPTION of spending money for special things if you want them? Yes, but that doesnt effect the 1st question, hence the optional part. If you stop spending $, you can still play exactly the same as before you started spending $.
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Thats where you and about 90% of people who complain about F2P are wrong. Have you ever played any F2P game besides LOTRO or DDO?
Those are the only 2 main ones which actually lock CONTENT. The majority of F2P games, the entire game, every single area, quest, character, etc is 100% free. The stuff you spend money on is stuff like faster XP pots, better chances at upgrading weapons, special cosmetic costumes, etc but absolutely nothing that you need to experience any part of the game.
But all that stuff you mention is part of the game. You may not care about or value it, or think it is meaningless but it IS part of the game. And its not free.
Do you understand what the word optional means? You are NOT required to buy ANY of those things to PLAY the game. It is Free 2 Play, not Free 2 be the best and have every item in the game.
Complaining that you have to pay for things that ar enot required to access any of the content in the game is akin to complaining you got a free car, but decided you wanted some nice shiny rims and a deafening sound system (both optional) and they wouldnt give those to you free too.
What you refuse to understand is that the name 'pay to play' is not a complete description of the subscription model being used. Whether its optional or not, the entire game being offered is not free.
"free to play" should be called Microtransaction unless there is no ability to buy ANYTHING. If it is not FREE then don't call it FREE.
However Federal Government is NOT the way to solve this issue. PARENTS can simply disable purchases on Iphones. If you don't know how to do this have a rep from your phone store do it for you. I am sure they will be happy to set it up for you.
PARENTS are responsible for kids having Iphones NOT Government. Take some frikken responsibility people.
I am sick of people blaming others for their own stupidity.
FTP IS a shadey business model. I do agree with that. I don't agree with Feds getting involved unless there is flat out fraud (which no new laws are needed). People simply need to speak with their wallets.
If you don't like FTP DON'T SUPPORT IT! If enough refuse, it will change.
Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
Please explain WHY it needs to change.
Can you play the game for free? Yes
Do you have the OPTION of spending money for special things if you want them? Yes, but that doesnt effect the 1st question, hence the optional part. If you stop spending $, you can still play exactly the same as before you started spending $.
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Thats where you and about 90% of people who complain about F2P are wrong. Have you ever played any F2P game besides LOTRO or DDO?
Those are the only 2 main ones which actually lock CONTENT. The majority of F2P games, the entire game, every single area, quest, character, etc is 100% free. The stuff you spend money on is stuff like faster XP pots, better chances at upgrading weapons, special cosmetic costumes, etc but absolutely nothing that you need to experience any part of the game.
But all that stuff you mention is part of the game. You may not care about or value it, or think it is meaningless but it IS part of the game. And its not free.
Do you understand what the word optional means? You are NOT required to buy ANY of those things to PLAY the game. It is Free 2 Play, not Free 2 be the best and have every item in the game.
Complaining that you have to pay for things that ar enot required to access any of the content in the game is akin to complaining you got a free car, but decided you wanted some nice shiny rims and a deafening sound system (both optional) and they wouldnt give those to you free too.
What you refuse to understand is that the name 'pay to play' is not a complete description of the subscription model being used. Whether its optional or not, the entire game being offered is not free.
I dont know why this is so difficult to get you to understand...
Are you able to login and play the game 100% completely free, from character creation to endgame content? YES
Does that make it FREE to PLAY.... again key word here is PLAY? YES
Do you have the option of lets say spending half the time you would leveling for free by paying some $? Yes.
Does that mean you cant still do it free? No.
Nowhere, anywhere in what you ar etrying to argue is there any REQUIRED payment. Thus it is free. If you, of your own free will decide you want to spend some money on some extra stuff, that is your choice. But again it is not required to PLAY the game.
Like i said, F2P = Free 2 PLAY. You may not be the best, or level the fastest, or have every costume & pet in the game, but you are still PLAYING for free.
The bottom line is that using the term "free" to discribe a game in which you CAN spend real money is misleading. Using the term "free" is a marketing ploy to draw in people. If they change the term to something else a bit more HONEST, I would have no problem with them. Until then, any game that claims to be f2p is a scam to me.
And subscription based titles also require me to buy the box before I can play! They need to call themselves "Box Cost Plus Ongoing Subscription Fee That Gets Cheaper If You Buy The Bulk Time Option" (BCPOSFTGCIYBTBTO) games if they want to be honest with their customers! It's a scam! You can't just pay the subscription and get to play!
(F2P arguably refers more to the start-up costs than "you can play forever, without pitching in a cent, and get access to all content". It's a short, simple acronym that covers a wide range of approaches to generating revenue from players, just like 'subscription-based play' covers a wide range of approaches to generative revenue from players as well.)
I almost hate to play devil's advocate, but 'back in my day' if I did something like that I'd have gotten the snot beaten out of me, just for starters. These days, kids get a time out and sent to their rooms; the rooms decked out with playstations, computers, tv and apps galore.
But it's not just the kids, it falls on the parents, too. Parents don't pay attention to what their kids do on the internet then cry fowl. Yeah they do dumb shit, and they should get punished for it, but they're also kids and doing dumb shit is like...obligatory. It's part of the learning process.
So both parents and kids share some major fault in these situations. The companies themselves however, I actually think are the least at fault. Yes, the in-game items we see these days are more often than not bloated and overpriced (*cough* PW games *cough*) but no one is forcing you to buy them. In fact, the only reason they can get away with it is because people are dumb enough to spend the money instead of seeing it for the scam it is, and holding their own money hostage until those prices become more reasonable. But even then, there will still be issues, and it still won't be the fault of the company. The people that drop huge amounts of dough are typically the ones buying way more than they need, because they want to be decked out and badass. Who's fault is it then? The store for having their wares on display or the guy spending more than he can afford to buy more than he needs?
My sympathy. They don't have it.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
What is misleading? Very simple, can you play for free? Yes? then it isn't misleading in the least bit. If a donut shop gives away free coffee and sells donuts, you are not obligated to buy a donut, but the coffee is no less free. So by your weird logic they can't advertize "Free Coffee" cause you might buy a donut.....You can play for free, but they sell stuff to go with the game if you so choose. There is nothing misleading, just whiney people who have no self control. Fraid' they might get all broke and fat on donuts!
Its kind of funny seeing some of the responses some people have about things like parents actually doing their jobs and parenting & educating their child. One of you made the point of the parents maybe not using/knowing much about the products and due to that are unaware of some of the problems / risks. To those types of people, I have a question:
Do you just run out and buy powertools for your kids because they think it looks cool, then not even bother learning how to use said tool or researching how to use it safely, and then just hand it over to your kid to figure out for himself? Do you just go out and buy your teenager a new car without even bothering to teach them how to drive?
Yes, not everyone is "tech savvy" and knows everything about some of the technology such as smart phones, ipads, etc that we see today, but as a parent it is YOUR responsibility to learn about a product that you are buying for YOUR child rather than just blindly handing things over with no clue how they even work, what risks they pose (to their safety or monetary risks), or how to use them properly.
When i was growing up my mother (who raised 3 boys on her own, which makes me lol at all the people who QQ about how hard it is to raise a single child and that theyre too busy to care for them, etc) was actually involved with us and learned about the things we were interested in. If something new came out that we wanted, she would learn all about it along with us rather than just shelling out some $ for it and then passing it to us as a sad attempt at a replacement babysitter like so many parents do now. The pathetic thing is, parents used to do that back in the days of snail mail before the internet was used. Nowadays you can learn all about how to do pretty much ANYTHING from the cmfort of your home thanks to the internet, yet parents are still too lazy to bother even spending an hour or 2 reading through a few reviews, manuals, etc about what theyre buying f rtheir children.
amen! My son is now 22, but when he was a kid he had his own computer with internet access.....In the common room with the monitor facing out so that anyone could see what he was doing. NEVER had a problem with porn or viruses with that system either. I just shake my head when I see kids with unfettered internet access in their bedrooms. Just asking from trouble.
So... a kid bought a bunch of stuff with his parents CC info... and then the FTC is looking in to Apple's practices because of it?
I don't see how this applies to F2P MMOs, which you don't have to enter a CC# to play in the first place. If anything, a shop in the likes of WoW is more at risk for this kind of stuff because the information is already on file.
I just love how people are using this as a pedestal to preach about how it's all a scam though, it's right up there with Bulletstorm being the cause of any perceived increases in rape cases.
Rabble, rabble rabble!
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4 Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
The key is informed consent - while you are playing a game, is a "buy now" button an in-game or a real-world action? How far can you blur that distinction? As long as F2P keeps token-buying on a seperate website safely away from game-playing so that it is clear what is inside and outside the game then it is clear there is no attempt to confuse the consumer and I don't imagine there being much of a legal concern.
I agree. From what I've seen most games make it virtually impossibe to purchase tokens by accident or without realizing you are spending cash.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
The bottom line is that using the term "free" to discribe a game in which you CAN spend real money is misleading. Using the term "free" is a marketing ploy to draw in people. If they change the term to something else a bit more HONEST, I would have no problem with them. Until then, any game that claims to be f2p is a scam to me.
And subscription based titles also require me to buy the box before I can play! They need to call themselves "Box Cost Plus Ongoing Subscription Fee That Gets Cheaper If You Buy The Bulk Time Option" (BCPOSFTGCIYBTBTO) games if they want to be honest with their customers! It's a scam! You can't just pay the subscription and get to play!
(F2P arguably refers more to the start-up costs than "you can play forever, without pitching in a cent, and get access to all content". It's a short, simple acronym that covers a wide range of approaches to generating revenue from players, just like 'subscription-based play' covers a wide range of approaches to generative revenue from players as well.)
{mod edit} It is simple. Did you HAVE to pay money to download and/or play the game? No. You have the option of spending some money to play extra content or stuffs. But you don't HAVE to pay so it is still free if you want. Making up stupid names and acronyms isn't helping your case at all even if you had one.
The f2p pc market is "fairly' desent , but the mobile game apps are plain scams.. in some games a cart to move stuff on a little farm cost freaking $40.. .. and there is no controll in the payment system, the games are focust on -kids- and im talking about 8-14 years old.
Its like the old ringtone bussiness, they see a gap and jump in to milk as many money as they possible can before the goverment acts. I hope the fine will be more then the usual little bit it usaly is. if they made millions by these scams then they should be millions + fine.
I think there should be some sort of regulation about giving information to consumers. When I try a new F2P game, I'll always try to find out what in-game items are sold in cash store and what are their prices. In many games doing that requires registration and going to the purchase page before it's possible to find out the cost of their virtual cash, then downloading the full game client before it's possible to see what's for sale and at what price.
Free to Play is misleading. I don't care to use the model, but I wouldn't ban it but the name needs to change.
Please explain WHY it needs to change.
Can you play the game for free? Yes
Do you have the OPTION of spending money for special things if you want them? Yes, but that doesnt effect the 1st question, hence the optional part. If you stop spending $, you can still play exactly the same as before you started spending $.
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Thats where you and about 90% of people who complain about F2P are wrong. Have you ever played any F2P game besides LOTRO or DDO?
Those are the only 2 main ones which actually lock CONTENT. The majority of F2P games, the entire game, every single area, quest, character, etc is 100% free. The stuff you spend money on is stuff like faster XP pots, better chances at upgrading weapons, special cosmetic costumes, etc but absolutely nothing that you need to experience any part of the game.
But all that stuff you mention is part of the game. You may not care about or value it, or think it is meaningless but it IS part of the game. And its not free.
Do you understand what the word optional means? You are NOT required to buy ANY of those things to PLAY the game. It is Free 2 Play, not Free 2 be the best and have every item in the game.
Complaining that you have to pay for things that ar enot required to access any of the content in the game is akin to complaining you got a free car, but decided you wanted some nice shiny rims and a deafening sound system (both optional) and they wouldnt give those to you free too.
What you refuse to understand is that the name 'pay to play' is not a complete description of the subscription model being used. Whether its optional or not, the entire game being offered is not free.
I dont know why this is so difficult to get you to understand...
Are you able to login and play the game 100% completely free, from character creation to endgame content? YES
Does that make it FREE to PLAY.... again key word here is PLAY? YES
Do you have the option of lets say spending half the time you would leveling for free by paying some $? Yes.
Does that mean you cant still do it free? No.
Nowhere, anywhere in what you ar etrying to argue is there any REQUIRED payment. Thus it is free. If you, of your own free will decide you want to spend some money on some extra stuff, that is your choice. But again it is not required to PLAY the game.
Like i said, F2P = Free 2 PLAY. You may not be the best, or level the fastest, or have every costume & pet in the game, but you are still PLAYING for free.
Its difficult for you to get me to understand because you're wrong. 100% of the game is not free to play. But the title doesn't refelect that.
i think the most glaring issue is that some of these F2P games are aimed at minors, and yet seem to have little, if any, checks in place to limit spending, or at least to verify that the person making purchases is in fact authorised to do so, quite frankly they don't care where the money comes from. Dubious business practices, if not legally, then certainly morally. To my mind its way past time something was done about it.
Comments
But the name doesn't reflect that money can enter the picture. If that is a part if it, should the name reflect it? And how bout the fact that you don't get the entire game for free, just some of it. In that context, the 'game' isn't free to play, just parts of the game, and other parts of that same game cost money to play. Why shouldn't a name that reflects the pricing nature of the game reflect the true nature of that pricing structure?
Thats where you and about 90% of people who complain about F2P are wrong. Have you ever played any F2P game besides LOTRO or DDO?
Those are the only 2 main ones which actually lock CONTENT. The majority of F2P games, the entire game, every single area, quest, character, etc is 100% free. The stuff you spend money on is stuff like faster XP pots, better chances at upgrading weapons, special cosmetic costumes, etc but absolutely nothing that you need to experience any part of the game.
Wizzard 101 locks you out (lest you deposit x dollars for next hour) of the second "area" after about 1 hr play,
I very much doubt you have even heard of the majority of F2P games. There are zillions* of them.
Zillions: A very large unknown number that undergoes major changes on a regular basis.
If Ya Ain't Dyin, Ya Ain't Tryin
This is true. If your going to put this in your child's hands then if you are noob to the whole concept of what the child may or may not have access to ...ASK and like you did use the parental controls.
On another note.. there are plenty of 8 years old that can figure out this and poof it is gone so as an added safeguard when purchases are being made maybe the phone companies should take some responsiblity and have it so the main holder gets sent a text like someone else suggested for approval or not. Shouldn't be such a difficult task or feature to offer. I mean truely they are looking to make money and those companies that are targeting the child audience truely don't care about anything but making money. So investigating and looking into things like this should be done and they should be in turn held accountable for their actions or inactions. Make them care. Yes the parents are responsible, but there are far too many parents out there that have no clue sometimes what they are putting in their kids hands. Just like computers, my son is 15 and he can go to adult sites no problem. There are many areas that need to be looked at and better security needs to be in place. If a child can get on the internet with their phone they can do the same thing. So wake up partents that think your children won't do such things cause they can do this sometimes without meaning to. Parental controls you say..they can still do that with them in place...do you have any idea how many words are connected to sites like that in a search. Our son was looking up information for a math project and a site like that came up. My husband went to a site for his class in child education and wow guess what an adult site came up instead. So yea some safeguards and such need to be in place all the way around.
Gikku
Ah, i wasnt aware they did that with Wiz. IIRC it wasnt always like that, I havent played since like a month after it launched.. Well in the cas eof Wizard 101, then yeah the F2P title is pretty misleading. Im speaking from the dozens of them iv eplayed ove rthe years though. The whole locked content thing USED to be sort of the norm, but the developers learned that they could actually bring in more profit by leaving all of the content unlock and just adding in optional things instead.
I definitely dont agree with locked content, and in the case of DDO and LOTRO there are other ways to unlock it without paying $. But in the case of Wizard 101, if theres not an alternative to paying $ for that content, then yeah it definitely shouldnt be called F2P, it sounds more like some sort of rental.
When I speak of F2P im speaking more along the line sof games like RFO, Rappez, FLYFF, DOMO, Atlantica, SOTNW, etc where people play for months/years without having to spend a dime while others are constantly spending money by their own choosing to level faster, have better equipment, etc but none of it required to play. And believe it or not I actually have played perhaps not the majority of F2Ps (yes i know theres tons of them), but i have played way more than the average F2P player. Ive spent most of my gaming time the past couple years, other than 1 or 2 P2Ps that i play consistently, testing out a new F2P every few weeks just to see whats out there and ive seen a wide variety of systems for the F2P setup.
But all that stuff you mention is part of the game. You may not care about or value it, or think it is meaningless but it IS part of the game. And its not free.
Do you understand what the word optional means? You are NOT required to buy ANY of those things to PLAY the game. It is Free 2 Play, not Free 2 be the best and have every item in the game.
Complaining that you have to pay for things that ar enot required to access any of the content in the game is akin to complaining you got a free car, but decided you wanted some nice shiny rims and a deafening sound system (both optional) and they wouldnt give those to you free too.
Be careful what you wish for. Typically if you let the government stick their toe in the door they will kick it open and be eating Cheetos on your couch before you know it ;-)
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What you refuse to understand is that the name 'pay to play' is not a complete description of the subscription model being used. Whether its optional or not, the entire game being offered is not free.
"free to play" should be called Microtransaction unless there is no ability to buy ANYTHING. If it is not FREE then don't call it FREE.
However Federal Government is NOT the way to solve this issue. PARENTS can simply disable purchases on Iphones. If you don't know how to do this have a rep from your phone store do it for you. I am sure they will be happy to set it up for you.
PARENTS are responsible for kids having Iphones NOT Government. Take some frikken responsibility people.
I am sick of people blaming others for their own stupidity.
FTP IS a shadey business model. I do agree with that. I don't agree with Feds getting involved unless there is flat out fraud (which no new laws are needed). People simply need to speak with their wallets.
If you don't like FTP DON'T SUPPORT IT! If enough refuse, it will change.
I dont know why this is so difficult to get you to understand...
Are you able to login and play the game 100% completely free, from character creation to endgame content? YES
Does that make it FREE to PLAY.... again key word here is PLAY? YES
Do you have the option of lets say spending half the time you would leveling for free by paying some $? Yes.
Does that mean you cant still do it free? No.
Nowhere, anywhere in what you ar etrying to argue is there any REQUIRED payment. Thus it is free. If you, of your own free will decide you want to spend some money on some extra stuff, that is your choice. But again it is not required to PLAY the game.
Like i said, F2P = Free 2 PLAY. You may not be the best, or level the fastest, or have every costume & pet in the game, but you are still PLAYING for free.
And subscription based titles also require me to buy the box before I can play! They need to call themselves "Box Cost Plus Ongoing Subscription Fee That Gets Cheaper If You Buy The Bulk Time Option" (BCPOSFTGCIYBTBTO) games if they want to be honest with their customers! It's a scam! You can't just pay the subscription and get to play!
(F2P arguably refers more to the start-up costs than "you can play forever, without pitching in a cent, and get access to all content". It's a short, simple acronym that covers a wide range of approaches to generating revenue from players, just like 'subscription-based play' covers a wide range of approaches to generative revenue from players as well.)
I almost hate to play devil's advocate, but 'back in my day' if I did something like that I'd have gotten the snot beaten out of me, just for starters. These days, kids get a time out and sent to their rooms; the rooms decked out with playstations, computers, tv and apps galore.
But it's not just the kids, it falls on the parents, too. Parents don't pay attention to what their kids do on the internet then cry fowl. Yeah they do dumb shit, and they should get punished for it, but they're also kids and doing dumb shit is like...obligatory. It's part of the learning process.
So both parents and kids share some major fault in these situations. The companies themselves however, I actually think are the least at fault. Yes, the in-game items we see these days are more often than not bloated and overpriced (*cough* PW games *cough*) but no one is forcing you to buy them. In fact, the only reason they can get away with it is because people are dumb enough to spend the money instead of seeing it for the scam it is, and holding their own money hostage until those prices become more reasonable. But even then, there will still be issues, and it still won't be the fault of the company. The people that drop huge amounts of dough are typically the ones buying way more than they need, because they want to be decked out and badass. Who's fault is it then? The store for having their wares on display or the guy spending more than he can afford to buy more than he needs?
My sympathy. They don't have it.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
What is misleading? Very simple, can you play for free? Yes? then it isn't misleading in the least bit. If a donut shop gives away free coffee and sells donuts, you are not obligated to buy a donut, but the coffee is no less free. So by your weird logic they can't advertize "Free Coffee" cause you might buy a donut.....You can play for free, but they sell stuff to go with the game if you so choose. There is nothing misleading, just whiney people who have no self control. Fraid' they might get all broke and fat on donuts!
amen! My son is now 22, but when he was a kid he had his own computer with internet access.....In the common room with the monitor facing out so that anyone could see what he was doing. NEVER had a problem with porn or viruses with that system either. I just shake my head when I see kids with unfettered internet access in their bedrooms. Just asking from trouble.
So... a kid bought a bunch of stuff with his parents CC info... and then the FTC is looking in to Apple's practices because of it?
I don't see how this applies to F2P MMOs, which you don't have to enter a CC# to play in the first place. If anything, a shop in the likes of WoW is more at risk for this kind of stuff because the information is already on file.
I just love how people are using this as a pedestal to preach about how it's all a scam though, it's right up there with Bulletstorm being the cause of any perceived increases in rape cases.
Rabble, rabble rabble!
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I agree. From what I've seen most games make it virtually impossibe to purchase tokens by accident or without realizing you are spending cash.
{mod edit} It is simple. Did you HAVE to pay money to download and/or play the game? No. You have the option of spending some money to play extra content or stuffs. But you don't HAVE to pay so it is still free if you want. Making up stupid names and acronyms isn't helping your case at all even if you had one.
The f2p pc market is "fairly' desent , but the mobile game apps are plain scams.. in some games a cart to move stuff on a little farm cost freaking $40.. .. and there is no controll in the payment system, the games are focust on -kids- and im talking about 8-14 years old.
Its like the old ringtone bussiness, they see a gap and jump in to milk as many money as they possible can before the goverment acts. I hope the fine will be more then the usual little bit it usaly is. if they made millions by these scams then they should be millions + fine.
I think there should be some sort of regulation about giving information to consumers. When I try a new F2P game, I'll always try to find out what in-game items are sold in cash store and what are their prices. In many games doing that requires registration and going to the purchase page before it's possible to find out the cost of their virtual cash, then downloading the full game client before it's possible to see what's for sale and at what price.
Finding price information shouldn't be so hard.
I agree with TS for F2P is anothert term for "play if you want to be strong then pay".
Ii hope they change the name like MTG( micro transaction game) to make people more aware what are they playing.
Its difficult for you to get me to understand because you're wrong. 100% of the game is not free to play. But the title doesn't refelect that.
i think the most glaring issue is that some of these F2P games are aimed at minors, and yet seem to have little, if any, checks in place to limit spending, or at least to verify that the person making purchases is in fact authorised to do so, quite frankly they don't care where the money comes from. Dubious business practices, if not legally, then certainly morally. To my mind its way past time something was done about it.
The problem here isn't the F2P model, it's item shops.
Do away with the item shops and use vanity microtransactions and problem solved.
F2P is nothing but a scam business model anyway. I hope they do regulate it.