Hating On Free-To-Play Games

I don't mind free-to-play games. I'm going to make some generalizations here, but my take on good free-to-play games:

• You get a decent game for free...
• You can pay to level up / progress faster
• You can pay for extra content
• You don't have to pay at all

Where this goes awry is when a game asks for your money too often, when a game is competitive and paid content makes it unbalanced, makes it seem unfair to non-paying customers, when you're obligated to pay money for all the worthwhile content...

My main point with this blog post though, is that some free-to-play games can be fun and well-done. These games don't nickel and dime you to death, and you actually get a lot of value for free.

From a business standpoint (how this relates to my apps), you benefit from wider reach, getting your app in the hands of more customers with a low barrier of entry, the game is free. Only a few people pay, but that might be lucrative, similar to how not everyone clicks ads in my apps.

A problem (for developers) though is:
Free apps get railed in reviews. You get some kid who hates apps with ads, hates free-to-play games, yet downloaded yours, and he slams your game, despite the amount of enjoyable content you gave away for free!

A benefit to releasing a paid app then is:
Boneheads can't review it until they've paid at least $1 (or the cost of your app). Generally speaking you'll attract an audience of players who care more about your game, and are more interested in it to begin with, more likely to give it at least three stars, than the folks who flippantly try and slam a free app with a bad review.

On that note!
My friend Perry's company Venan Entertainment just released a new free-to-play game called Book of Heroes.

It's really fun and you should try it out. Like a classic RPG, you punch goblins, I can't tell whether the graphics and story are intentionally campy or not...

You'll see what I mean that this game is actually very well done, it has a lot of content for free, and the options to spend money are nicely tucked away.

Also, side note, Space Miner, Ninjatown Trees of Doom, and the HD versions of those games are free for a limited time to celebrate the launch of Book of Heroes! Search for them if you don't have them already!