Most here are aware and hopefully not affected by this shit but Jim Sterling just uploaded a video that describes why 99.9% of all “free” games suck.
While i do, to an extend, agree, that there is a LOT of crap out there, there are also some studios, and individuals, making games the use the same tools responsibly to make a game they stand behind.
The reality is that you can’t sell an unknown game for 60 bucks anymore. Most people won’t spend that (sadly) on a franchise they don’t know. They’d rather blow it on the next Call of Duty. As an alternative Developers turn to lowering the barrier of entry and making their money from people how genuinly enjoy the game.
To be clear. I 100% am against Pay to Win and predatory practices to rip those who have the least from all that they’ve left (or more). If you feel any of the games mentioned here do either of those things, i’ll happily remove them from the list.
This is specifically meant to point out great games that use those tools responsibly, or are in fact crafted by people who love what they do in their free time.
The article that I read about that is just horrible. A conference full of mobile developers all trading tips on how to prey on peoples addictions and pleasure centres.
I know people gotta make money and eat but it was just disgusting to read as they try justify it and not be the bad guy.
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A twitch vod or youtube let’s play is one google search away. If your game is any good, it won’t stay unnoticed. And just because you can’t sell a game for 60,- bucks doesn’t mean you’re losing money. Look at Supergiant Games, Double Fine or pretty much anything Devolver Digital puts out there. They don’t rely on ingame purchases and the games are sometimes around half what a AAA title costs, many of them way less.
And if that’s still not cheap enough, wait for winter holiday sale on steam or black friday. I mean, a couple years ago I bought The Witcher 2 for … I think 3,- bucks. … THREE! oO
My rule of thumb is simply that free2play is not worth my time.
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That’s totally fine. I just think throwing some of the really bad stuff like many Mobile games or a lot of what EA has done into the same pot as things like fortnite, warframe or even MTGA is a huge disservice to the industry at a whole. Governments all over are looking into that and, in general, won’t be as educated as we’d like. Generalizing in this case won’t help anyone.
There is a distinct difference between Making a game addictive and then limiting the amount you can play for free and having a great game you can play indefinitly with added Visual Items in game that aren’t tradeable.
Especially things like fortnite have shown that you can make huge money without making it gambling, predatory or downright bad.
There are examples for both, i’m just advocating for a balanced opinion on that so that we don’t end up with governments banning any kind of microtransaction outright. This could severely backfire.
For everyone else, i’m now catching up and will update OP soon.
I would be completely fine with that.
Why? What’s you’re problem with them in General? Would you also like to state that all Free Software is per-se Crap, because it didn’t cost anything? Is Linux bad because it’s free?
You are generalizing in a field that’s too broad to get to with a simple Black or White statement. Microtransactions in the simplest sense just mean that you pay small amounts for the features you want rather than big money for things you don’t.
The fact that some people/companys are using them in a bad way doesn’t mean they are bad in general.
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They don’t add anything valuable. What do you need them for?
No. Because open source programs that do something serve a purpose. Their existence is based on a problem one / some / many people are trying to solve. But I do think that most closed source freeware / sharware is crap, yes.
Games are entertainment, their whole purpose is to be fun. Microtransactions can get in the way of the developer to do that, make it fun. Because that isn’t the only purpose anymore. Any form of microtransaction in a game makes a game worse.
Ok. I won’t argue with you since you seem to have a pretty clear opinion on that subject and we won’t be finding a consense here.
Since the whole point of this thread is to talk about good free games, and you don’t seem to think there are any, i question why you are here?
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Of course there are some. I’ve just stopped searching for those because the ratio of good free games vs microtransaction riddled garbage is insane.I have nothing against free games, I have nothing against this thread.
I just wanted …
To make the point that dirt cheap old games, that won’t try to sell you more stuff, might be a better choice than most free games. Like with my example of The Witcher 2 for a couple bucks.
Even the ones like TF2 and Dota or LOL?
I don’t play any of those, no.
Regardless of that, it is a rule of thumb. Keep that in mind.
Me neither I was just curious.
Only f2p I ever played was dirty bomb, it got pretty stale after couple hours. Guess that’s what they’re made for. Oh, and CSGO but by the time I got it I had to pay for it.
I don’t have a strong position about the matter, but here in Brazil these kind of games attract a lot of people since 60 dollars (which is kinda translated to about R$ 200 when it comes to games) is a lot of money, they kinda act as an entrance to this world.
I only pay for free games. All these paid games suck with their day one dlc and buggy releases that cost lots of money.
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Yeah, that is another thing that bugs me. This is normal now, kids don’t even know that in the past you would get cosmetic rewards and silly stuff in games by playing it and achieving something. That was fun, it felt rewarding. Instead now you’re supposed to make it rain. That is not only annoying, it is in fact destructive for game design.
AAA titles at full price are expensive and even those games are now full of that in-game store and lootbox BS. The best thing you can do is get older games for cheap.
That’s a huge pain point for me. Nowadays paying full 60 bucks for a game gives you similar amounts of follow up cost and microtransactions as F2P Games do.
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There is truth to that in many cases, yeah. And they even wait for the reviews to be out and first weeks of sales to pass by and then they shove the crap in afterwards. It’s disgusting.
I haven’t paid full price for a game in many years. Only exceptions were Day of The Tentacle remastered and Thimbleweed Park. Latest AAA title I really wanted to play is Ace Combat 7, just got it for 30,- bucks.
How is it? Last one I played was Ace Combat 4.
I loved, loved, loved those games.
Have you seen the Call of Duty franchise collection on Steam? It’s close to $1000 USD for 13ish games and their DLC. That’s about $77 USD per game, even the though first six games in the list are $20 USD themselves.
Modern AAA is expensive.
That’s why you get console. Then you can buy used discs.
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