Online games – free to play: on the Internet, thousands of games are offered free of charge. Without further investments success is hard to achieve though.
When entering "free onlinegames", "F2P" or "free to play" in an online search machine, you will get a long list of results displayed. In most of the games the goal is to win, in one way or the other. In order to succeed you will need tools and euipment to strengthen the position of your avatar.
Pay for rapid success
Usually, traders first offer an account free of charge. After a while a premium-membership or the purchase of virtual items are offered. Such items might be sports equipment, a new hair cut, fertilizer for your fields, a building or a magic sword, etc.
Psychology and ambition
The ambition to win as well as group pressure, especially among teenagers, put a lot of pressure on gamers. Normally, items are easy to get by playing the online game successfully. However, the longer you play, the higher level you reach, the more difficult the game becomes. To play successfully and acquire items becomes harder and harder.
Premium membership and virtual items
With a premium membership or the purchase of virtual items you can improve the position of your avatar significantly. Items can be bought with regular money or with a virtual currency which has to be paid for in Euro in a second step.
For many players of online games these items are important status symbols. If you don’t pay for additional items you will need to play for a long time, be patient and lucky. However, you might not have enough spare time or endurance. Co-players might be more successful and gain items quicker. This is a strong incentive to turn an F2P-game into a rather costly hobby.
TOS: game over
In the terms and conditions (TOS – Terms of Service) of most F2P-games it is mentioned that the trader can shut down the game any time. If you invested a lot of money to strengthen the position of your avatar this is bad luck. You are not entitled to any refund.
Summary:
- Due to the ambition to win as well as group pressure a free game can easily turn into an expensive project. Don’t let the system control you!
- Co-players can be overruled by buying new items. In the end, F2P-games are sometimes even more expensive than games with costs.
- If the trader shuts down the game all purchased items and the money spent are lost.
