The best freemium mobile games are simply better than best paid mobile games

If there was a good strategy with a lot of content and no timers I would take a dump on CoC,but hence there is no such game I will play CoC.Weak minded fool in this case is a victim,he does not understand that he can play something more fun or something similar to this special game that has no timers,no IAPs,etc.Come on,tell me why your mom is playing candy crush?There are many fun puzzle games that are NOT freemium and the gameplay is similar to candy crush.Why did she choose the game from such developer anyway?

Dead trigger 2,i play it either,you know why?Cause there is no other zombie shooter with so many environments and weapons and etc.I would play left 4 dead if it was available on ios INSTEAD of dead trigger 2.But really,candy crush does not even make any sense to me,it is not an unique game,there are so many fun puzzle games out there with more in depth,less IAPs and similar gameplay.

 

And mums too

 

proper amen to that.

 

Because as I mentioned earlier, she is a bit of a technophobe and never bought anything online, she won't change that to buy games, she just won't, so unless someone gifts them to her or we go the pirate route, which I won't then her choices are limited to free.

Mum had seen the adverts and heard people talking about It (she isn't on Facebook) and had a go on my brothers phone (who enjoys it too, along with his massive library of console games) so he put it on her tablet, she likes it so she plays it. It's that simple.

The limited lives etc don't bother her as she's out of the house most of the time, working long hours and she's usually tired when she gets home so won't play long anyway, five lives is enough for her. She's never been interested in games, the only knowledge she will have is from my brother and I begging for street fighter or whatever, so she didn't choose that developer in particular, in fact I asked her and I told her what a lot of people think of king and she said "don't worry greedy bast**** won't be getting my money cos I have none"

She has a few more games on her tablet now, pet rescue (she hates and keeps forgetting to ask me to delete it when I'm there) monument valley (she likes) threes (loves) word chums(her fave) and the chase (loves) (the premium titles are from my amazon account which I let her use) of all these candy crush and word chums are the only ones played every day, and she'd not bother with word chums if it wasn't for me, my husband, my brother, his wife, my sister, her husband, my daughter all playing too. Who knows, she might branch out to premium puzzles down the line, I doubt she will end up playing wayward souls for example but who knows, for now though she's perfectly happy with candy crush and that's ok.

She's not a victim, she's not weak minded and she's not a fool, she definatly knows what fun is, believe me, I've heard her stories

 

I did not mean to be rude,I was referring to people who spend tons of money on these games,blinded by these games and just cannot be asked to look for better and more fun games on ios.

 

I know you didn't mean to be rude. #

I was just trying to say that if someone, be they people who pile money into these games, or don't ever spend a penny, won't look for "better" or more "fun" games, as to them, what they are playing is fun, and while they might not be my game of choice, or fun to me, to them they are, and the market is big enough for them to be able to play what they like, and for me to play what I like.

I used my mum as example because she is coming to candy crush with an unbiased view and no knowledge of the whole premium vs freemium thing. She is a clever lady with her own mind and if she didn't enjoy it she wouldn't play it. Then there is my brother, who Is happy to spend £50 and hours and hours playing games for his consoles but also likes candy crush and won't ever spend a penny on it. It's just something for him to play on his way to work. He has lots of "better" and premium games on his phone, but candy crush is his go to for a quick play on the toilet or waiting for his kids. My husband lives pet rescue, and he knows all about the disadvantages of freemium, I try to introduce him to other games but as gaming isn't his hobby he's not bothered, he gets what he wants from pet rescue.

All the people I know (this is just me though) didn't buy their device with gaming in mind, it came secondary, it was either bought to be a phone, or in the case of tablets, something to browse the web on, watch movies etc, and because they use Facebook and started candy crush on there, they installed it on their phone, or tablet too. For many of the people I know, candy crush is the only or one of a couple of games they have and are not bothered about other games because it doesn't interest them, the people who do have other games are people who had gaming as a hobby anyway and then discovered there's some awesome stuff on ios.

I'm rambling again #, I just think freemium has it's place, we don't all have to like it, but I think it's unfair to bash those who do find the games fun. I don't think the majority of people who play these games are mugs or any of the other names I've seen them called, not just on here but all over the place. Just people having fun playing something they like.

 

No problem at all, it has always been my first port of call for anything IB but is now a consistent check in on anything that I need a hand with or get stuck on that you've covered since.
You do a truly excellent job on it. I shall continue to check in there.
Anyway, I've nothing really left to contribute to this particular discussion here so I'll take my leave and wish you the best.

Edit. I will note for others that the Guardian article I linked in my post, well worth the read for anybody who hasn't, it sorta sums it all up pretty well. It misses a few key points here and there but overall, it's a pretty good perspective and a very interesting article.

 

So my rule of thumb: If it's free-to-play, it's probably not a real game. At least for those of use that have considered ourselves "gamers" since the 90's.

"Games" like Candy Crush have existed since the beginning of time. Go to Wal-mart, walk into the electronics section where they have all the PC titles. Now normally to the far right on the upper shelf you'll find a shelf of cheap puzzle games that will cost you a few bucks. These have been around forever.

I've never considered these to be games for someone like me. And still don't, even now that these types of games have moved into the mobile market.

Back in the day when Doom and Quake was "the thing", video games were always a odd and weird thing to the rest of the world - generally only played by "nerds and geeks".

As many have said here: what is "best" doesn't not necessarily mean what is the most fun or engaging. Perhaps what is the best in making money - yes. That's also because the rest of the world (not us nerds and geeks) sort of "get" these kind of games and are just starting to find out what a videogame is... welcome to the 80's!

Battleheart did very well. And its next title Battleheart Legacy appears to done well as well on the charts. And it is a good game. It is my opinion that the original Battleheart is far better than any of the freemium games you have listed.

Those that have never experience a game or don't consider themselves "real gamers" might be entertained by these casual titles. And that's the majority of the population. And that's why they make so much money. Folks that don't really play games greatly out-weigh those that consider themselves to be gamers.

For me: a real-gamer, a hard-core gamer, premium titles are almost always the best.

 

With my example of how F2P play model has ruined a pure Trials experience, I'm showing you that it IS a cancer.

Can F2P be done in a fair and agreeable way? Absolutely. But what good is that, when you know AAA developers aren't interested in being fair and agreeable. It's an exploitable system based around exploiting people, so it will be exploited by greedy, low integrity developers/publishers.


We (the Trials community) begged for a paid version of the game where we didn't have to go through all the F2P bullshit, but they didn't care. They were only interested in using this low, exploitative model because "it's how all mobile games are done now". With this cop-out response that a developer gave me, how can you not see that F2P is bad for the game industry?

 

Blizzards last reports of subscribers following warlords of draenor launch would beg to differ with that statement. 12 million people would disagree if I remember my numbers correctly.

 

Your taste didn't evolve, it changed.

 

This discussion is starting to give me a headache. I can believe that Freemium games provide certain things that are fun. Sure, maybe Candy Crush is a polished game with some interesting puzzles. But the Freemium aspect of it takes away from it. It does not add anything other than the ability for more people to download it. I cannot swallow that timers or ability to pay to skip the annoying parts are positive aspects of a game. A game is simply not designed with fun in mind if paying to skip a part or continue playing is part of the design.
A game can be boring or tedious without money in mind, sure. But that's mostly just poor design -- not intentional to empty the player's pockets.

If there's a reason some players might want to skip something in a game, a quality premium game should simply allow that (at no cost) to offer the best experience for all players. Especially if we're talking casual players who only play a little bit here and there.

Most of the games I play are "casual" -- p&c adventure games, puzzle games. Those aren't the only games I play, but most of them are. A game I'm playing right now (The Lost Fountain) is a relaxing, atmospheric adventure game. There was a puzzle that had to be solved on a timer, but the developer was smart (and nice) enough to include a skip button, knowing that his audience might not all want that kind of challenge, but would still want to be able to play the rest of the game. If this was Freemium instead of premium, you'd have to pay for that skip button. That is the difference between a game designed with the player (and fun) in mind and a game designed purely with profit in mind.

 

You have some very strong opinions that you attempt to state as facts. That candy crush and clash of clans are just "the best". And anyone that questions this has no idea what they're talking about, is just wrong, etc. I appreciated the opening of discourse your views opened up. At this point you are merely coming off as arrogant, to me.

I understand you like these games. Its great that you're passionate about them. I have never made an argument against coc. When you speak about it in terms of addiction, it does not encourage me to play, though.

Seems like this is turning into a circular debate. A little bit of mine's bigger than yours. So, as others have done, I'll bow out of this now.

 

Just gunna leave this here:

http://www.cultofmac.com/311171/crazy-iphone-rig-shows-chinese-workers-manipulate-app-store-rankings/?utm_content=buffer016eb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Profit =/= quality

Depending on the rankings of the App Store is dubious. The App Store is pretty poorly curated, and as that article I linked highlighted, easily manipulated.


I also find it strange that your top paid games list didn't include Warhammer: Quest, Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, or any of the squeenix ports of FF and DQ. In terms of depth of experience, no freemium game out there matches these games. And in terms of longevity, I'ved played Warhammer for 60+ hours and ascension everyday since its release. And no one needs to enumerate the amount of play time in all those JRPGs that have been ported to the App Store.

Freemium is a totally valid model and I have really enjoyed some freemium games, but to say "freemium games are the best" is pretty silly.

Beanie babies, pogs, and troll dolls were all highly profitable and they are all forgettable trash today.

 

Yeah, you're pretty done now. You've gone from supporting your opinion with valid reasoning, to angry ranting and closed-minded statements about whether one opinion is more valid than the other.

I find no joy in the games you praise, specifically because they are built around the concept of exploiting peoples' addictive nature. As long as there's people like me, your arrogant statement of premium games being lesser will hold no weight.

 

Say what you want about Beanie Babies. At least this guy did well for himself with his beanie baby collection. Warning this video is for mature audiences only. http://youtu.be/cIhu5XxXKxA

 

I guess you missed when I said Profit =/= quality

And just cuz your favorite freemiums have monumental paywalls to pad playtime doesn't mean you've spent quality time engaging with the content. But you can trash talk games that are still lauded today as genre defining and still widely considered best in class. It's cool if you want to undermine your own credibility. I don't mind. Nostalgia aside, FFVI is top of many "best RPG on the App Store" lists. And comparing ascension to hearthstone shows a neophytes understanding of digital card games. Ascension is not a collectible card game, so of course it will gross less. But the depth of strategy and experience in ascension could easily be argued to out weigh hearthstone.

You are just conflating profit with quality which is a major error in critical analysis of any art form.