just brew it! wrote:Maybe the criteria should be "pay to enjoy"? If you find a game enjoyable without paying for the premium items/content, then to you it is a good "free" game?
If I google "toxic freemium" or "freemium addiction" and read enough posts, it seems dangerous to play these games for people who get hooked on the dopamine cycle. Just like people sitting in front of slot machines.
I'm still playing a few of them. Hard to find a balance between modestly supporting the servers and lurching towards being a whale or paying so many micro-transactions over time that you could have bought a new AAA game.
To help myself analyze my own behavior, I built a spreadsheet that has hours played vs. money spent. The best ratios for me were not freemium, instead games such as Hearts of Iron, Disgaea, Stellaris, or Diablo 3.
One could say D3 builds the dopamine rush a different way but at least you pay once only.
The lead singer of rock band "Sex Pistols" spent $15000 on freemium games.
http://www.businessinsider.com/sex-pist ... ps-2014-11
I guess he probably had the money!
edit: grammar