You’re not the target demographic.
Someone working minimum wage wants to get the most of their refurbished PS4. They might try spending $60 on an unforgettable 12-hour singleplayer adventure, but then they’d run it a second time for achievements and have nothing else to play the rest of the year, having an old hospital and car bill to pay off. Instead, they either play F2P to stretch their dollar, or buy a 100-hour Ubisoft game padded with content. When they do get a bonus from work, they feel invested in that F2P and buy the skin they always envied.
I’m of course not suggesting these games are masterpieces, but it’s not so hard to imagine the appeals they cater to.
Thank the gods for games like Warframe. F2P, fun, lots of content, reasonable grind, the devs are actually trying to make a fun game and not just milk you for money. It’s the only F2P game I’ve put money into and I would do it again
This seems like a good place to collect some notable F2P alternatives. I’ve struggled to find good mobile content… help me out! What are some good paid games or rare F2P gems you would recommend?
Battlecruisers is excellent. It’s primarily single player with a pvp arena and the story is a bit short but it’s a very enjoyable few hours.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Bluebottle.Battlecruisers
In the same vein but a bit longer gameplay is Interstellar Pilot.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixelfactor.interstellarpilot
And Interstellar Pilot 2
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixelfactor.interstellarpilot2
They have their taste in games, and lay it accurately with tons of ‘I know that X does Y, but not for me tho’. I expected some flame there, but no, just their personal opinion on what they like to see and lack.
Stepping into their shoes, I’d try old rpgs, quests, adventures accumulating in the backlog and already having their share of GOTY awards so you can hop from a masterpiece to a masterpiece.
They don’t go deep into why f2p and MTX are popular. It’s really just a sudden frustration that they aren’t as represented. Cheers to you journoperson, please take a sit between groups as rarely cared for as you do, or even worse
Stepping into their shoes, I’d try old rpgs, quests, adventures accumulating in the backlog and already having their share of GOTY awards so you can hop from a masterpiece to a masterpiece.
The trouble is there aren’t enough new games that follow this ethos anymore. In particular, it’s nigh on impossible to find a popular FPS or other multiplayer game that doesn’t have a bunch of microtransactions plastered all over it. That’s the core of their complaint, they used to be able to enjoy multiplayer games for the quality of the game, but the microtransactions dispel the illusion and turn it into a chore.
They seemed to describe something other than regular, even old FPSs. If anything, these are the last tags in tneir library.
Video games are a medium of artistic expression. My favorites have something insightful to say with their story, force you to reconsider basic mechanics in new ways, make me laugh, and have proper conclusions. I don’t want to be distracted with goals outside the canon of the world I’m trying to lose myself in.
That’s why I went about old RPGs.
I don’t feel their message is well-coordinated. My first thought was that they played Elisium and Baldurs Gate 3, and then wrote that they want more games like that.
I suspect this is exactly why Battlebit Remastered blew up the way that it did this year even though it looks like a Roblox game. lol
I think people are starved for a good, clean FPS that isn’t mostly battling menus, cluttered UI, MTX, endless DLC, P2W, battle passes, lootboxes, daily login bonuses, timed events, grindfests, invasive anti-cheat (or an overwhelm of cheaters), constant updates that break the game, etc. I think there’s a lot of us that just want to shoot stuff and have fun with our friends, like the glory days of online FPS. I’d happily fork over $60 today for that kind of experience, but I don’t trust hardly any AAA publishers to keep their promises if they even did offer something like that.
I felt this in my soul. lol This has basically been my state of mind for the least couple of years. I used to game on mobile a fair amount, but these days, I just can’t handle mobile gaming anymore. I can’t deal with F2P games on PC, either, despite having loved some of them in the past (Apex Legends, Warframe, etc.).
Between F2P games, paid games with egregious F2P-style monetization, and soooo many AAA games coming out broken or just bad, I have been playing a lot of retro games, older JRPGs, and indies the last couple of years. I’m just so burnt out on the modern game industry.
There are some great paid mobile games too though.
I’ve played nothing on my phone but bloons td6 for a year or so now, cost £6 and I’m nowhere close to maximising the content available.
Then you have shorter (but brilliant) games like the room series, monument valley, machinarium.
Not all are F2P microtransaction excuses with an ad every 30seconds. But I totally sympathise with the frustration and don’t play F2P mobile any more either.
You are right, I’m a pretty big fan of Bloons TD 6 myself. I’ve also played a lot of Osu!Lazer and some of the Netflix indies. It just kind of feels like the overwhelming majority of mobile games are predatory and obnoxious, but there are definitely some really well-done games between the premium options, console ports, and a handful of open source games.
There is room for both.
