What happens when free-to-play games aren't free?

November 24th, 2013, 21:01 Posted By: wraggster

Rewind some eight years and you'll remember a time when DLC was a dirty word - when it symbolised a certain arrogance and greed typified in the shining armour that could sit on The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion's horses, for a price. It took the best part of a generation for the concept of DLC to settle in, and for it to become a respected, at times respectable way to extend the lifespan of a game.More recently there's been another dirty phrase often recounted with curled lips: free-to-play. For a long while it's been a byword for fleecing players and questionable business ethics masquerading as game design - but as the success of the likes of League of Legends, Planetside 2, World of Tanks and the retooling of Team Fortress 2 suggest, it's a system that can work for player and developer alike.So you can excuse Microsoft for wanting to get in on the action, even if it was a little late to the party. The Xbox 360 historically shut out free-to-play games, only for an about turn at E3 earlier this year when it was announced that World of Tanks would be coming to the console, and with the announcement of a new free-to-play Killer Instinct, it was a model that the Xbox One would embrace with open arms.Ryse is at the forefront of Microsoft's bold redefinition of free-to-play.

A little too open, it turns out. There are aspects of free-to-play design in the bulk of the Xbox One's launch titles: Ryse has microtransactions that aid progress in its multiplayer mode, while Crimson Dragon's single-player path can also be given a little helping hand by buying in-game currency with real-world money. Elsewhere, Forza Motorsport 5 allows you to boost the rate at which you gain XP for a little extra cost, or to spend money to fast-track your way to a higher end motor. They're all systems proven in the world of free-to-play, but there's a problem: none of these games are free.It's an obvious distinction, but an important one - and something that seems to have completely escaped Microsoft. There's another distinction worth making: this isn't extra content that's being offered at a price, but rather a consumable that tinkers with a game's pre-existing systems. No-one actively enjoys the base free-to-play mechanic of parting with money to progress, or at least no-one's going to mistake it for good game design. It's an appendage you put up with for a simple reason: the games you're playing that employ these tactics are free, and they're systems that certainly have no place in games that, at £45, already represent a sizeable investment.Inspiration has been taken from FIFA Ultimate Team, which is fair enough: it's one of the big business successes of the last few years, as well as a feature with a passionate, dedicated fanbase (you don't want to know how much time and money Tom Bramwell's dedicated to it in recent years). EA, though, has been smart to compartmentalise the feature, separating it out from the main game - and when you put money in, you get something tangible out. And if, like me, you just want to pick up the new FIFA to play with friends and take your team through a couple of seasons, that's still perfectly possible.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...t-free-to-play

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