http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/bonusround/402 Jason Rubin was one of the founders at Naughty Dog and he worked on some notable games like Ski-Free Crash Bandicoot, and the Jak and Dexter series. But in this video he's trying to argue the fact that buying upgrades to advance in a freemium game is the way all games should be heading towards and buying your way to advance faster isn't technically cheating. He really sounds like a guy working at an electronic store trying to convince them that buying a protection plan is always worth it Thoughts?
I agree that the idea of freemium advancing is bad, but I wouldn't lose respect for a great game maker just over this.
I guess. I do support the idea of freemium in farmville/mafia wars (ugh) style games but I don't think it has a place in online competitive games that offer rankings on the consoles and pc.
Freemium only works in particular cases -- and even then it's arguable. Most people don't like to have to continue to pay money just to advance in a game. It creates a financial class structure in a world of video games and typically in a genre that's supposed to be about skill, not the size of your wallet. It's one thing to release a free game that is essentially a limited demo and have the full version available through DLC, or provide non-essential in-game things available for DLC purchases, but when you start having to pay just to get ahead, things start getting ugly.
