Rant: Free to Play games

Ive recently read an article which said that Peter Moore, the same pr*ck who killed Sega as a hardware company, had said that Free to Play games are an "Inevitability".

If that's going to happen, then gaming is going to suck, I can tell the industry will fall apart, alot of people, including myself, hate Free-To-Play game, or at least the idea, I'm here to rant on it, because just like my last rant, I just want to get it off my chest, it worked last time, I hope it does this time.

For those who have no idea what Free To Play games are ("Oh, NOW you're explaining what they are!?", you might think.), they're games which are free to play, hence the name, but, to do anything cool, or at time to even progress in the game, you need to give the company who made the game money.

I'll get the (minor) positives out of the way, it's cheaper, but you have to constantly pay.

Also, I suppose Peter Moore makes a point, just not a good one, he said you can enter stores, browse around and looks at stuff for free, but if you want to but something, you have to pay for it, that's true, but he's talking about 2 different things, that's the whole point of stores, to go in a buy what you like, and one of the things you buy in stores, are games. The whole point of games, are to be played, and enjoyed.

Let me give an example of a "Free-to-play" game, there's a Facebook Sims game, called "Sims Social", don't get too exited, because they have this energy system in the game, you get 15 energy, and each activity costs about 3-5.
How do you get more? You've guessed it! Give EA your money! Otherwise, you have to wait a whole day until you "rebuild energy".

With the Sims 3, however, you pay £20 once, and you have access to the whole game without paying a single penny more, unless you'd want the buy expansion packs, but that's besides the point, and you'd be addicted to the game too, I was addicted to the demo on Origin, and am getting the full game, you know, paying only one.

Speaking of, Demos are a far better way to get people to play a game for free, you get, say a level or so for free, but just pay about £20-£40 more, and you get the rest, simple as that.

Heck, I'd even go with Episodic games, like Telltale games do, you pay a small amount per episode, or wait until the end, like I do, you can buy a DVD which has the entire season for about £10-£20.

Where's the fun in that!? I don't want to be constantly giving money in order to do anything in the game, I don't know about youse, but I don't find constantly getting forced to give money, fun!

I'd much, much rather pay £20-£40 quid for a game I can play from start to finish without having to pay anyone anything, or get interrupted for any reason, wouldn't youse?

In fact, I personally would rather play any game that I paid for rather than a Free game, but that's just me.

It's like watching a movie, you get the film itself for free, but every chapter, it gets interrupted asking forcing you to give money to watch the next chapter, That would just suck the fun right out of the experience, wouldn't it?

The same thing happens to games, the Sims Social would've been a fun little game had it not have constantly prompted you to pay them to continue playing, or to get anywhere in the game. Sure, you don't pay much, but that's not the point, it's the fact you have to do it in order to progress, it's annoying.

Also, in the long run, if you're addicted to a free-to-play game, you'll end up paying even more than you would a mainstream game, so at the end of the day, a mainstream game would not only be better, but cheaper too.

What's more annoying, is that more and more games are becoming free to play, World of Warcraft, Team Fortress 2 and DC Universe Online being examples.

Unfortunately, I don't have much else to say about the subject, I've slammed into the writers block at full speed, I have absolutely no idea what to say next without repeating myself.

The bottom line is, if the industry will be full of free-to-play games, I'll stop playing them, I'll still have some awesome retro games to keep me occupied...

I doubt that will happen, though, to be honest, because alot of people hate free-to-play games.

I reckon, if anything, episodic gaming will be future, at least I can stand that, once they are companies like Telltale games, who do it properly, throughout the year, 5-6 episodes are released, you get the choice of either getting each episode for a small fee, or wait until they're all released, a year or so later, and get the DVD of the entire season.
Sure, I prefer full games, but I think episodic games are a good way to get about as well, unless you have to wait years per episode. *cough*Sega*cough*Valve*cough*