It is no surprise that the free to play model in games is growing rapidly as of late. Developers will often announce from the start that their game will be going free to play, or it will be hinted at during a beta playthrough of the game. We’ve also seen an increase of pay to play games that go free to play, with the simple name of freemium as most have the option to pay monthly after a certain amount of playtime or when the limitations on them get too annoying. The popularity for this comes due to the high demand and the so claimed lesser quality of these games. However, a lot of free to play games are getting some quality over the past year too, both gameplay, unique twists and of course graphically. The point of this editorial is to check out where we come from, how much change it had over the past years and most of all, if free to play games are getting a decent balance in gameplay itself. Because like we all know, free to play games usually get the tag of being pay to win, giving them a bad name. This aspect often ruins that balance due to overpowered items in the cash shop.
One of the first games out there to come with a free to play model is the popular RuneScape. While browser-games weren’t anything on the sideline back then, it was still a huge step to come with a full fletched MMORPG being playable on a browser. The model for runescape worked like this; either pay 5 euros a month for more skills, unlocks and areas, or stick with a limited area (which was still quite large), limited skills and unlocks as well as quests. There was no aspect to this that made people grumpy at the gameplay balance. Mostly because the servers were separated in free to play or membership only. All in all, the model worked and it is still present today, without people complaining too much about it, maybe except for wanting more free content.
Around the same time, actually 2 years later, a game came out in South Korea under the name of Maple Story. A western release followed shortly after. Maple Story was fully free to play with a twitch too it. That twitch being the cash shop. It might not be one of the first games to have it, but it definitely is the one that catches a lot of people their attention. As of this day, it has over a hundred million registered accounts, and those are a lot of zero’s. I never got to the point where the game is enjoyable for me, but that’s beside the fact that the cash shop actually works. There are stories scattering around the internet about kids who steal their parents credit card and at the end of the month, those parents would see a bill from over a thousand dollars. This eventually lead into its own meme as free to play games being for children that only steal their mommies credit card.
This raised a lot of questions to why this cash shop model is so popular. The only reason I can think of is the fact that the cash shop holds a lot of power items, and a lot of costume based items. Those costume based items were (and most likely still are) the most profitable items for the game. I mean, what’s the point of roleplaying if you’re not going to make your character look unique? As it stands now, Nexon, the publisher for Maple Story, is the most profitable game company in both western and Asian grounds. If that isn’t saying a lot, then I don’t know what will. The fact that people go all out on cash shops like that while still being able to play for free set a milestone for games to come.
Now when it comes to pay to win, we are seeing a lot of free to play games that only base their cash shop on these power items. Yes, they might add in costumes and experience boosters too, but the power items makes people turn around to most free to play games out there. Not going to give names for these kind of games, but whether you’re in the gaming scene for a long time or it’s just an in the meantime hobby, you probably heard about tons of them or were curious for them at some point. In order to not get caught by this pay to win aspect, you only need to take a look at the cash shop before you start spending your time in these games. This is probably the best (maybe even most obvious) tip that I can give you. Look at the character their stats as well as stats represented within the cash shop.
In early 2009, another upcoming free to play game came to the radar. The most obvious thing to note about this game is that they promised to not bring in anything gamebreaking or at least leave out something that would take a dump on the balance. This game goes by the name of League of Legends. When it comes to actual balance in both cash shop and gameplay, there is nothing to note here on that matter. League of Legends let you try champions that change on a weekly rotation, while in the meantime, you can grind out a champion if you have one on your wishlist. They give you the option to either waste time grinding out the free currency, or pay ahead with real money. This raises a lot of questions, though. Because right now, a new champion comes out each week, while it’s possible that you might go for that champion. This can draw in some fatigue on the grinding and not making you bother with that aspect anymore as there will always be another champion you have your eyes on. Counting that most of the champions that are somewhat enjoyable to play are rather expensive, and they do take a while to grind out. It just comes down to your own preference and the way you adjust your goals to whether you would pay or grind the champ. The model isn’t perfect, but it’s a start.
Another thing to note about the cash shop is the skins. These skins are immensely popular. It follows the same story like Maple Story, of course without the power items. The problem is that there isn’t really a point to it, and it’s not like the skins are going to give you more skill, as some people tend to think. At least that’s what it looks like half the time. But if it’s so popular, why don’t all free to play games do this implementation? Instead of adding weapons that grant you 10 times more power then the guy next to you?
We are seeing tons of free to play games trying something new and we are finally getting to the point where the pay to win aspect is reducing. A lot of developers out there promise this change to a more cosmetic or choice based cash shop rather than a forced one. A couple of examples are Path of Exile, which will have different character models in their cash shop or vanity items such as name change, bank storage and what not, or even Red 5 who is going with the cosmetic based cash shop too. Let’s hope this removal of stat-based cash shop will grow, but it definitely looks like we have a bright future ahead of us when it comes to that.
