Freemium is the new black in the gaming industry. One of the innovative (and successful!) revenue models, freemium has taken the market by storm, offering new opportunities for both players and publishers.
However, freemium games are full of catch and, one would even say, deceit. While you can download, install, and start playing the game completely for free and even without account registration (most of the time), you should suspect that it sounds too good to be true.
The catch is that as long as you play for free, you face different limitations that are caused not by the gameplay or story of the game or its complexity but by a paywall.
While this pay-to-win paywall in freemium games is frustrating, in this post, we will look at some of the most widespread in-game purchases that you might be tempted by. And we will also offer options for what to do with them.
Supplementing the Experience
Freemium games are expected to be good in their base variation, and all the extras listed below are only expected to supplement the experience that players already enjoy. However, this is not the case with most games.
High-quality games are to provide excellent experience for both paying and non-paying customers. The idea behind the model is to make the game good enough to play it, get used to it, and want more of its additional characters, features, levels, and whatever else the publisher has in their sleeve.
Successful freemium games provide a great experience for both paying and non-paying players and are actively maintained in order to sustain engagement.
This model can be seen a lot in online casino gambling where high-quality platforms like Microgaming online casinos at CasinosHunter offer original gaming products for free play called Demo mode. If you want to play the same game for real money and have a chance to win real money in it, you have to register and make a deposit. The difference is, however, that online casino games in Demo mode and in Real mode are the same games with game mechanics and features. You don’t get a Demo mode stripped bare of all its perks.
The truth is that the biggest advantage of the freemium model is its ability to reach a large audience. Its core functionality is given away for free, and then players are offered extra perks or cosmetic add-ons. Or, the app may contain ads, but you can disable them for a small payment.
What players really face nowadays is the game’s core functionality being stalled and crippled to make them pay. They have to spend more hours playing the game to reach a new level or unlock a new in-game object. At the same time, the game allows them to purchase this object right now and gain the advantages it provides immediately.
While most players do understand that they are enjoying the products of someone else’s hard work, skill, and resources, and many are, in fact, very patient about the ads and the repetitive reminders about buying an item, they cannot tolerate the poor quality of the core game.
The logic of the freemium model is to make the core game so good that players will want to make it even better by buying. They may also want to buy an ad-free version of it or pay a subscription fee instead of buying in-game items. However, for players to want to do all that, they must enjoy the free version of the game enough.
Yet, some publishers are too afraid that they will waste their resources in vain and that players will play their amazing and high-quality games for free without paying. So, these publishers basically make the game hard to play without a microtransaction. They want the players to fall for their game, yet they prevent the players from liking it from the very beginning.
And despite all these nuances and issues, the irony is that many people still love the games to pay for them or buy in-game items. Industry studies show that the number of in-game purchases, in fact, exceeds what could be earned by making people pay to download.
So below, you can find out about the most tempting objects freemium games will offer to you and learn how to take advantage of them without becoming too impulsive to buy.
Skins & Items
Skins or weapons are something you see in the game all the time, and you get used to them or want them to look in a specific way. Humans pay special attention to looks and accessories, be they real life or video games. So some games really offer their players to pay extra for “skins,” which are basically digital outfits, cosmetic supplements to the character that makes the character look better/different, and nothing else.
Are you sure you want to pay for it? And if yes – are you sure you want to pay for it more than once?
It is slightly different in the case of weapons (or other items a player can use in the game) because they can at least bear some additional functionality. However, if you are new to a game and want to buy an item, take time later to analyze whether it was useful to you.
That way, you will know if you want to buy another one next time (most probably not).
Loot Boxes
Loot boxes are almost irresistible because they add a spice of expectation and excitement. When you buy a skin or weapon, you know what you get, but it is completely different from a loot box. It can suddenly contain a very “valuable” item, a very “rare” one, or the one that will be useful in the game, plus some extras you might like.
However, the truth about loot boxes is that they tend to be useless and disappointing most of the time. Players mostly do not enjoy them as they expected or rarely enjoy them. The key here is that players get excited with the anticipation of what might be in the loot box but not with what they eventually get.
So loot boxes can be tested (some games tend to offer decent lot boxes from time to time), but they are far from real treasure chests.
Power-ups
This one is simple. Instead of wasting much more time and effort to achieve a new skill or level in the game, you can simply pay for it and get it immediately. You will increase your benefits in the game greatly and will probably enjoy it more for some time before you will have to pay for another level. The only thing that might probably prevent you from buying power-ups is the truth that such a game doesn’t treat you well. It tricks you into paying for something you could have enjoyed achieving if you could just play along normally.
However, if this thought doesn’t stop you from buying power-ups, you will probably be happy with them.
