This right here
I've been making this point for a while now with some colleagues of mine, but it has fallen on deaf ears. One guy, in particular, considers himself a hardcore gamer.. in many ways he is.. but he's also a F#$%#n chump! any kickstarter campaign for some otherwise "dying franchise" gets his support, and not only his support, but usually a $200 "exclusive free shit" preorder.. I shake my head in disbelief, as he praises the game designers/studio for giving fans the chance to save the franchise, and actually feels grateful for having the chance to spend TWO HUNDRED FREAKING DOLLARS on a game that is almost always worth $20, if that, in my opinion. he can't see that these guys are exploiting the phenomenon of crowd-funding? And, they're using really really basic psychological tactics, which really concerns me, as it says something about the intellectual state of our society. anyway, good point, and i agree 100%.
This cracked me up.. hahaha.. good example of the current shit-state of F2P/Freemium mobile games: Angry Birds 2. I downloaded it because... well... you know, angry birds.
Anyway, when i ran out of whatever it is that allows you to play (tokens? coins? stars? could be bottled air for all the value they contain) and came to realize what a shitty gaming world casuals live in.. you see, i normally don't EVER download/install free games with in app purchases, for reasons already discussed in this thread... I would much rather pay $10 for a decent, well-executed mobile game, than download a free game that is either completely shit unless you pay up, or, even worse, is actually decent, but requires money to progress, after you've gotten into the experience of the game (i'm talking to you, developers of "Commute"). Anyway, back to Angry Birds 2: when i ran out of bottled air (tokens, coins, what have you) I came to realize what a shitty gaming world casuals live in, as I was reduced to watching pathetic advertising videos in order to keep playing.. after a while i stopped, because it actually felt goddamn insulting and demeaning. I sincerely hope that this model is not the predominant one in the years to come, for the sake of my children. I had some other point to make about Angry Birds 2, but I am now all pissed off, after thinking about that whole experience..