Shareware freebie and network games

Online "roles" require not only a lot of free time, but most of them - monthly expenses of $ 10-15. If the long hours of the game and immersion in the virtual world are an indisputable advantage, then our gamers would like to cut the amount for the monthly fee. Ideally - to zero) Yes, and modern online games can be easily divided into two types: paid and shareware.



On the other hand, all this conditional freeness is not caused at all by the greed of the publishers, since the support of an online project, which the whole planet is enthusiastically playing, requires considerable investment. If we consider that the network game has been “living” for several years and should at least once a year acquire fresh updates, funds are necessary all the time. And now the publishers of even very large projects are looking for and finding new ways in order, if not to reduce the monthly fee, then at least deftly disguise it.



The sweet word "freebie" well, who doesn’t like him, but in order to play F2P format comfortably, you often have to upload a round sum, much more than for an honest subscription or a one-time purchase. By the way, it also happens that a paid game becomes a free-to-play model over time due to a drop in popularity, an outflow of gamers. This happened in due time with the advertised Star Wars: The Old Republic. Being one of the most expensive games in the entire history of the industry, it was never “destined” to attract the attention of a wide mass of users, therefore, the output was F2P format. Now you can go through the Star Wars: The Old Republic story campaign for free, you just need to register and download the client. If you still want to continue your virtual journey, you can purchase Cartel Coins, or pay a subscription for a month. This is the principle for most modern shareware games. Freebie is conditional.



Recently I had a chance to play Rainbow Six Siege. She is good, but! I don’t see any prospects for the fact that in the future it will attract the attention and time of the players. After all, the fee for it is a lot - $ 60. Siege, like other network games, in order to "prosper" is required to gather around a community of players. Predictions on this topic are not encouraging, something suggests that this game will face the same fate as Titanfall and Evolve. In the month of release, 15,000 will play, in 3 months there will be 500-1000.



All these projects were launched as high-budget video games.

And are you ready to pay $ 60 (for a long time) even for good quality, good company and developer support?

Such a price barrier reduces the trend of development and expansion of the gaming community.

In addition, $ 60 as an “entrance fee” will not end there. This, so to speak, is only the beginning. A striking example of a shooter game is Star Wars Battlefront.



Do you want to expand the boundaries of the galaxy, get four intended electronic add-on sets with new content that takes you to hitherto unexplored corners of a distant galaxy ...? 4 exciting new game modes, 16 additional network cards with new locations, more than 20 new pieces of space technology, including weapons, ships and star cards for the Rebels, and for the Empire - but no question! You need a service pack! You need to purchase a Season Pass for STAR WARS Battlefront, so what, it's still $ 50) Well, do not forget to go to the official page so as not to miss the appearance of new service packs.





$ 110 for a single player, isn’t it too much?

The same parsley with Rainbow Six: $ 60 per game and another $ 30 for Season Pass. If you want to keep up with the game, be prepared to spend, spend, spend again.

This is not all the difficulties. Well, you developed, spent, once again spent ... so what? - the game server crashed, or from "all players disconnect, reconnect everything at different times ... because of this, games are played on the rating! it’s hard to explain without mats, anger is not enough !! ” It’s good if there remain “things” acquired by the gamer during the construction of their virtual world, if not ... well, then development will begin again, and all the same waste.



I'm not saying that the DLC is initially bad, not at all. Although it gives rise to a lot of controversy on the forums, this topic of payment - shareware. The question is whether the game will be afloat, after some time, will it gather the community, the world around the game?

Indeed, in communities, gamers "balance" at the junction of two worlds, two realities - virtual and physical. It is thanks to the community that the gamer can directly participate in the life of the game. Thanks to the community, friendships are established not only in real-time strategy games, but also in first-person shooters, online multiplayer games and e-sports competitions. The world of the game is booming! And the introduction of such payment, the Creators risk reducing the existence of this world. Is it so? Your opinion is interesting. Thanks.