They're the worst things that have ever happened to the consumer gaming industry honestly. They're "free to play" but you have to pay to immediately advance or else you have to wait an hour, then 2 hours, 5 hours... They're fun in the first few hours or so but when they start making you pay to advance they're not even games anymore, they're just profit for the developers. On that note, they're the best thing that's happened to the producer gaming industry. They state their game as free to play and draw the gamer in with addicting and fun gameplay and then when they have you addicted they start making a play at your wallet. They have small transactions but those pile up very quickly if their game is truly addictive and soon they're making thousands on "free to play" games. So in recap, they're the scum of the earth to consumers but a very profitable market to game developers.

I agree that free to play games are a mixed bag. It is nice they are free...but to a point. Most want micro transactions to bilk your credit card and to get you to buy stuff that you either do not need,of to buy "exclusive" items. Some have figured out a good balance between free and paying players and that they can be competitive on a relatively level plane. I do hate that most of the games on your phone like the Candy Crush games are basically the COD of mobile gaming. They release the same game year after year with no real differences.

I used to play free-to-play iPhone games a lot. Since I was a noob back then I always got myself killed playing the "normal" way so I did a lot of microtransactions- about $50 bucks worth.

I stopped before it got too bad but yeah, it's a shame people keep getting suckered into these "deals". It's not that bad, really, so long as it stays on mobile games and doesn't seep onto core consoles. That might be happening a bit lately but it's not too bad.

Agreed,X,it is on consoles and it can be bad,if not worse than on mobiles. Like with DCUO,the best powers are locked behind a paywall,and the rare items that are dropped in battle can only be opened with real money. It is BS,and it is why I do not play it anymore. Now,Defiance on PS3,is not too bad,sure they advertise the paid options,but you can easily play without them. They have a good balance of free and paid options.

I have love hate relationship with free to play games. They can be good like Path of Exile, but there are cynical entries that fill browsers and the mobile game market. I mean i've seen strategy games and rpgs on browser that look like carbon copies of each other. Too many of them rely on grinding to get things done normally, and that wouldn't be a problem if the lot of them had fun and varied gameplay. However, free to play games do that sort of thing to make you submit to using their bullcrap microtransation. I mean i understand those companies need to keep themselves and their products alive, but don't use microtransations to bar our progress or give players that payed more a clearer advantages. Of course if a game is truly fun and deserving of your time then you probably won't mind throwing that game a couple bucks.

I don't like most of them. I'll play free puzzle style games that require actual mental effort to beat but beyond that I won't. They are almost always accompanied by some sort of coin system that allows you to buy your way through the game if you're willing to spend real dollars. I hate that. I'll play the game for fun but I won't pay real money just to get ahead because I suck at the game

Usually you have to pay to win and that to me is a waste of both my time and money. Half of the time they aren't even addicting anyways so I avoid them entirely.

Most free to play games are meant to get you to pay microtranactions to make it less annoyingly slow. So I really don't like free to play games that much, nothing against developers, but I don't like their games.

The micro transactions are fiendishly clever. They make you think, "Oh a few bucks? That's not so bad." Then you find you need more and more of them. Every game is bad for it on some level. I will rate the three I have experience with.

1. DCUO=Stay away from it. The best powers are locked and the keys to open the rare lockboxes are annoying unless you buy a premium membership for a monthly fee.

2. Defiance=You can be pretty competitive without paying for rare weapons and shields. I did buy an additional carry capacity and a higher keycode allotment,but that is all I will buy.

3. Forge Of Empires=The bonuses would be nice,but it is entirely possible to have a great city without the use of real money.

As long as the F2P system is integrated in a way that is fair for players who both want to pay money and those who don't, which can be a hard thing to do at times, I think that F2P is awesome.
But when it's implemented in a way where the game is grossly unfair or unplayable to those who don't pay, that's when things get a little terrible.

Well, in my opinion, I think that a F2P is a game as easy to make as to f*ck it up. For every LOL and TF2 there is a game that tries to suck your wallet as if EA made it (although they have made some of them) or makes it so difficult to advance by either making you to have far from none interaction (just making things finishing) or becoming a Pay 2 Win. Some games i've played could make my point:

1- League Of Legends (LOL): Ok, hold your horses, i'm not one of those people; in fact, I hardly ever flame. As a game is pretty good because you can get most champions in 2 matches or less but the most recent (and sometimes the hardest) champions take a lot of matches to buy, encouraging you to play more, but with the hextech crafting, you can make it even easier. Oh, I almost forgot, although the game has skins which are 100% cosmetic that cost real money, you can get them with a random-based feature (hextech-crafting). For example, I got a legendary skin (20€ more or less) for FREE (no hacking). I got some proof:
https://i.gyazo.com/e42c7aa8f6cbfef86e225399e48b6226.jpg

2- The Simpson's: Springfield (EA): I liked a lot this game, but most of my approval was because of the concept, I mean, What's a better idea for a Sampson's game than making you to build the most iconic buildings of the series? The game works pretty simple, similar to other "citysim" games, like "Cityville" (I hate it), but it is still pretty straight forward but it has a downside; you don't do nothing but creating things, telling the characters to do chores and gathering resources like a tax collector. In fact, there is one that last FOR A WHOLE YEAR. And you have to get it right there or it will "wither" (yes, it's just a harvest).

So, in conclusion, I think that Free-To-Play games are pretty great, because you can play it without paying (for playing) and it prevents hacking

People hack F2P games all the time. I have seen this numerous times and the developers are forced to play defense and possibly messing things up for people. I do seriously hate the free to play/pay to win model. You have to make the balance so it is possible to win without paying,but make it attractive enough to warrant busting out your credit card.

I personally attempt to avoid most free-to-play games, due to the term Free being an over-statement. What I mean is: The game says it's free, but then a few minutes after downloading, you come across either a pay wall, a sudden difficulty spike that forces you to fork over cash, or even both. Don't even get me started with game of war: fire age, what I can easily call the worst self proclaimed Free-to-play game of the decade. Seriously, if you don't fork over a 1000 bucks a week, you'll have to wait for weeks, months, or even entire years just for fictional buildings to upgrade, all while overpowered paying players farm you every day. A lot of Chinese MMOs are like this, too, on top of plagiarism. I'm pretty sure a certain war tune will come to mind.

Fortunately, there are some Free-to-play games that don't actively try to make you pay. Some examples include Love Live, Kingdom Hearts Unchained X, Puzzle & Dragons, and iDOLM@STER: Cinderella girls: Starlight Stage. All of these free-to-play games can be played normally without that much waiting, and they give out premium currency on a pretty common basis, so you don't have to worry about having to spend over a hundred dollars just for a single item. You can just play for a few days, or maybe even a week, and you can eventually get it without spending even just one buck.

After a while, I found it very easy to distinguish between playable free-to-play games to sweatshop-made cash grabs that penalize free players for whatever they do. I've been playing the previously mentioned 5 games for at least a year now, and if I stop playing, I tend to come back later. I also did the same for a Chinese MMO, but once I came back and played that for a week, I remembered why I stopped. If I don't have to pay to get an advantage, chances are strong that I'll play it for at least 2 months.

As long as the "Free-to-play" game doesn't force you to pay, meaning you can't advance in the game without paying, I'm fine with them. I can be patient, but I agree that too much waiting can get on your nerves. I play a lot of dating sims on phones so that's where my opinion comes from. Some of them are absolute torture and the amounts you should pay to advance are ridiculous, considering how badly scripted many of the stories are. But I do have really good experiences as well. For instance I'm currently hooked on Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. If you haven't tried it yet, you should!

I'm a fan of the free, easy-to-play, no download required games like idle games off any old website. They're entertaining, they keep me doing something while I'm doing a bunch of other things and I enjoy how I don't have to invest heavily in money, time or effort. It's the strategy stuff I enjoy without sitting there at a screen for 30 minutes straight, or longer. Other games take a block of time to play out.

I don't have the time. So free games that are throwaway are ideal for me. They work the best for my lifestyle.

I like them on my phone because I can easily hop on whenever I have a couple minutes of free time and just collect my things or do one quick action and then close it.

Don't really play any free to play games on my laptop though.

I don't hate them, but there are some that really abuse the microtransactions stuff. Anyone remember that Dungeon Keeper iOS game? What an awful move by EA, and I think that single handedly ruin the chances of anyone having interest in a legit Dungeon Keeper game. But there are definitely some great Free to Play games, either ranging from freeware games that are out there on sites like IndieDB, Gamejolt, itchi.io, and so on. To actual free to play games on mobile devices, Steam, consoles etc. For instance Team Fortress 2 is free to play, and I have spent hours on that game. On mobile devices there are plenty of games on there that are fun, and even Facebook games. I know they get a lot of hate, but at the same time, I think people hate them just because they are popular, and then hate free to play games in general because of the bad ones who abuse microtransactions etc.

Am I the only one who know about non pay2win games where you can actually get everything even if they are free2play like Dungeons and dragons online or now that Dragon Nest is under it's original developper,that game is no longer pay2win.There sure are more than ios games for free2play and those I do play are rather tame because I absolutely despise this concept of gaming.