14 DAY TRIAL // I am currently playing two free-to-play titles, The Banner Saga: Factions and Game of Thrones Ascent, which are very different when it comes to mechanics and themes, but manage to offer solid experiences on Steam and Facebook.
Despite the fact that I give the two games time and love most of their mechanics, I currently have no plans to ever pay for any in-game content linked to them, and that might be a sign of a coming problem for the genre.
Game of Thrones Ascent is Facebook-based and manages to capture the core themes of A Song of Fire and Ice from R.R. Martin, even if the experience suffers from many of the issues linked to the platform.
The Banner Saga: Factions runs via Steam and offers fun and engaging party tactical battles with a Viking style and some role-playing elements.
Both titles are asking players to pay in order to unlock new options and objects and, while the offers are tempting, I don’t want to type in my credit card details because I don’t want to form a long-term link with either of them.
The truly weird thing is that I might play both of them for longer periods than I did classic AAA releases like Dead Space or even Far Cry 3, and it would make sense to pay for the entertainment they are providing.
The problem is that the very nature of the free-to-play model itself tends to encourage players to hold out on payments unlike the, for example, crowd funding, which tends to encourage gamers to give even if they never actually play the project they are giving resources to.
Of course, the possibility exists that I am an outlier and most gamers who like Game of the Thrones Ascent or The Banner Saga will give money to the development teams in exchange for more content.
But if that does not happen, then the entire free-to-play space might have a big long-term problem.