(AfroGamers.com) If you didn’t have to pay for high quality mobile video games, would you? Me either, yet there is an upside and downside to both free to play and paid mobile games. There is a reason why if I could get a game that do not have some of the things that free to play games have, I would gladly fork over the cash just to get what I want.
The Good and Bad of Free to Play
Well, what’s better than free? Without getting too deep answering that question, let’s go with the response of nothing. In recent years more than ever, the quality of mobile games has gone through the roof. Whether you know it or not, the free to play model if a big reason why mobile game developers feel confrontable putting out games of this quality for “free”. This is also the reason why some of the largest video game companies like Activision, SquareEnix, and 2K Games want a piece of this pie.
Free to play or F2P games are even more profitable than their paid counterparts. How do these games that cost you no money out of your pocket make money? Well, in exchange for you not having to shell out the cash for the game, they are going to give you enough of the game to get you hooked and then make it very hard to advance at a reasonable pace unless you shell out a small amount of money.
You can’t beat that one boss at the end of this stage? If you give us $1.99, you can get some upgrade gems to level you up! You ran out of free lives for the day but you still want to keep on playing without waiting the fifteen minutes for one of your lives to recharge? Well, why don’t you buy our lives pack for $4.99? As a deal, just for you, we will throw in some gems with your lives to sweeten the pot.
This isn’t as bad as it sounds, yet it is very annoying. Every time you get onto a game that you love, you are bombarded with multiple ads nudging you to put money into the game. When you think about it like that, answer this question for me. There are 100 million iPhone users in the US, would you rather take your chances getting them to spend a few bucks here and there after they already know that they like your game or take a chance and try to get people to spend a one-time $3.99 on a game that they don’t know if they like or not?
The Good and Bad of Paid Mobile Games
Starting with the good, you get a full game and don’t have to spend any money after you buy it, right? Wrong. Nowadays, even mobile games that you have to pay for have microtransactions in them. Gone are the days when buying a game outright gives you everything thing the game has to offer without the steep grind and hassle.
If I have the extra cash to spend, I don’t mind putting out a few bucks if it means that I can get a full game with no ads, no bs, and everything earnable in game. Many paid mobile games offer this and the microtransactions are there for those that don’t want to earn things in game as they go along. Also, they add things like cosmetic items to customize your characters in game, which I don’t mind as long as they don’t have an impact on the game and as long as I can earn it in game without having to pay extra.
F2P and paid mobile games are becoming more and more alike every day. Once it gets to the point where they are basically the same, I would say go completely free to play with your mobile gaming and save your money. Over the years, I have been guilty of spending money on things in F2P games, especially the ones that I enjoy. I have also spent a lot of money on paid mobile games. It all depends on your preference.
Staff Writer; Tardell Swift
This brother is new to writing yet has many different interests such as gaming, hip hop, wrestling, and manga.
You can follow him on Twitter; PhirewoodGaming and keep up with his thoughts there as well.