作者：Mickey Blumental

有人说，天下没有免费的午餐。一定程度上，我是相当赞同的。毕竟还有大量免费游戏，对吧？它们就是免费的。

但真相却非如此。如果说我们从免费游戏中学习到什么的话，那就是原来这世界上不止一种货币形式：纸钞、硬币、钻石、面包圈、珍珠、snoopy美元、宝石等等。不能因为你没付钱就认为你没有付出；也不能无视这类游戏就是要尽可能让你花钱的事实，实际上你为之投入的钱可能比一般的“付费游戏”还多。

我不是针对免费游戏。就意图和目的而言，许多廉价至1-3美元的游戏的设计和赢利机制就是免费游戏。

所以作为玩家，你在玩免费游戏时其实已经以其他方式支付了：

1、你的时间

我不了解你，但我的自由时间是珍贵的，有限的。我没有足够的时间用在我喜欢的电视节目、电影、书籍、漫画和游戏上。

所以挑剔是必须的。我宁可花几块钱玩一款让我欲罢不能的游戏，也不愿意玩免费但有趣程度与挤痘痘相当的游戏。

（《Farmville》这款免费游戏最能磨时间。）

2、游戏节奏

给游戏制定节奏是个技术活。你遇到新一类型敌人的频率是多少？你解锁新武器和技能的速度怎么样？只有把这些节奏拿捏好了，玩家才会沉浸在游戏世界里。一旦搞砸了，玩家要么觉得无聊乏味，要么不知所措。

免费游戏绝对是放慢一切速度的，目的是刺激玩家花钱加快进度：更快挣钱、解锁关卡和技能等。因为根深蒂固的IAP系统，任何精心计划的游戏进度都不复存在了。

大多数情况下，免费游戏故意安排大量无聊沉闷的活动，刺激你跳过。这就相当于，去麦当劳付双倍的钱，以免在那里用餐。

（免费版的《Ninja Fishing》其实就是让玩家“刷任务”，3美元的《Ridiculous Fishing》堪称节奏大师。）

3、破坏难度

被免费游戏破坏掉的另一个平衡就是游戏难度。

因为玩家可以购买消耗性和永久性增益道具，原来顺畅的难度曲线瞬间打结了。特别是某些只能用真钱购买的超级增益道具（买了基本上就赢了），设计出来纯粹是为了破坏游戏的。

回到过去的美好岁月，我们可以使用免费的作弊代码来增强角色，但即使是在那时，只要几秒钟的新鲜感过去了，我们就会意识到我们只是自毁乐趣。

这就好像买一本二手的数独游戏书，所有答案都写好了，买的人却沉浸在“完成了”的自我感觉良好中。

（如果不是过分强大的道具，《Kingdom Rush》本是一款优秀的塔防游戏。）

4、虚拟乞讨

每一次你路过街角时，总是同一个乞丐向你要钱，即使你以前已经给过他一些钱了，你会作何感想？

所以你会对自己游戏体验感到厌烦。

（《Sonic Dash》和《Sonic Jump》说不上毁掉原作，只是掘空它的坟墓罢了。）

5、广告

是的，我讨厌广告。

我不喜欢横幅广告，也不喜欢弹出广告：特别是那种你打算点击其他东西，它就偷偷地弹出来，把你带到其他应用商店或网站。

（一张游戏截图，无论广告后面是什么，谁关心呢？）

6、设计妥协

我真心喜欢《Jetpack Joyride》、《One Epic Knight》、《Punch Quest》和《Zombie Tsunami》，都是很棒的免费游戏。

无尽的奔跑。

有些游戏适合免费模式，但大部分不适合。所以如果你采用免费或低价模式，依靠游戏内消费（IAP）赢利，你要么限制游戏类型，要么将你喜欢的游戏类型的精华取出来放进免费模式的套子里。

（《实况赛车3》中的等待时间是目前最接近现实的。）

7、无底陷阱

你永远无法完全拥有一款游戏。你可能花了100块钱，但还不够，你还要花更多钱。特别是因为许多消耗性道具必须时时购买。

许多免费模式的拥护者喜欢将它类比街机。但问题是：玩街机时，你继续投币的理由是铁板钉钉的，而当你自己的设备上就有那款游戏时，你还需要不断投币吗？没道理啊。

（3750个钻石居然要99.99美元，不如去偷啊！说真的，这就是。）

以上是免费游戏的案例。作为玩家，免费游戏会让你付出代价，而作为开发者（游戏邦注：假设你做游戏的兴趣大过赚钱），开发免费游戏只需要牺牲一点你的灵魂。

《植物大战僵尸》

在我写这篇文章时，我想到一个绝好的例子来说明，一款我一直非常喜欢的游戏如何毁于免费模式之手，并且佐证以上我所说的要点。

《植物大战僵尸》是一款很棒的游戏。它是我丈夫通关的唯一一款非益智类游戏。我在自己的电脑、X-Box 360、iPhone和iPad都通关若干次了。我儿子非常喜欢那段《Zombies On Your Lawn》音乐视频。为了拿到几个毛绒玩具、帽子和装箱贴，我在西雅图游戏展排了好几次队。我挂在厨房里的日历都是《植物大战僵尸》。我对《植物大战僵尸2》的期待甚至超过《生化奇兵之无限》。

几天前，我看到Facebook版的《植物大战僵尸冒险》的消息，我心底一沉。之后我玩了测试版，果然证实了我的担忧。我的心更沉了。糟糕的地方太多了。

首先，他们抛弃了五条线路的布局，改用更通用的等距3D视角，类似于《Clash of Clans》和《Farmville》，代表性的玩法也被改得面目全非了。现在，它就是一款将单位放在多条线路上的塔防游戏罢了。

图形的美化剥夺了游戏本身的魅力，并且加载时间太长了。

另外，多种混乱不清的货币和消耗性道具大大破坏了游戏的难度平衡。

游戏中的许多活动，从种植自己的植物到进攻好友的房子，虽然需要相当长的冷却时间，但可以付钱跳过。

我还应该继续玩吗？

真是令人心碎。George Fan（游戏邦注：他是《植物大战僵尸》的设计师）肯定在他的床上打滚了。

我读到报道称，该团队尝试了11种原型才确定现在这个让他们觉得满意的版本。我真不敢相信，居然有11种版本会比现在这货更无聊。

但愿年底发布的《植物大战僵尸2》会让我的看法改观（如果那游戏还是老样子，那就完蛋了）。

EA和《植物大战僵尸》并不是唯一喜欢颠覆原作的例子。《模拟人生》（无论是iOS还是Facebook版本）、《Sonic Dash》和《实况赛车》也是硬将原作塞进免费模式这种套子里的反面教材。

真是令人沮丧，因为早期确实有比较成功的例子，比如《Bejeweled Blitz》和《Zuma Blitz》。

这并不意味着我不喜欢免费模式，其实有许多游戏用得还是不错的。好吧，可能也没有太多，但至少是有一些的，或者几款吧。另一方面，我从来不在免费游戏上花半毛钱，所以我大概不是免费游戏的目标受众。

（有一次我确实在《Smurfs Village》中花了7块钱，只是我不想说）

我也不排斥采用这种模式开发游戏。App Store的大半收益来自IAP，并且并非所有开发者都反对免费模式。只要玩家肯购买IAP，最终会支撑这种赢利模式走向成功。

只是，当你考虑免费模式时，你必须首先充分考虑真正的代价。

免费并非什么也不费。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Real Price of Free

by Mickey Blumental

Nothing is free.

Said someone.

At some point.

I’m pretty sure.

Except for hugs and freemium games, right? They’re free.

Well, no. If there’s anything we can learn from freemium games is that there is more than one form of currency: there’s cash, coins, diamonds, donuts, pearls, snoopy dollars, gems and what have you. Just because you’re not paying money doesn’t mean you’re not paying. This is even with ignoring the fact that the game is going to try its best to make you pay a lot of hard earned cash, more than you would pay on average on traditional “paid games”.

And I’m not singling out free games. There are plenty of cheapium $1-$3 games that for all intents and purposes in terms of their design and monetization structures are freemium.

So here’s the ways in which you, as a gamer, pay for playing freemium games:

1. Your Time

I don’t know about you, but my free time is valuable and limited. I don’t have enough hours in the day to consume all the tv shows, movies, books, comicbooks and videogames I would like to.

So I have to be very picky. I would rather pay a few dollars and play a game that grabs me by the throat and doesn’t let go than play something that’s only mildly more interactive than popping zits (and not nearly as satisfying).

Farmville is a free game. Also known as Watchingpaintdryville. Best use of your time?

2. Game Pacing

Pacing a game is an artform. How often do you encounter new enemy types? How fast do you unlock new weapons and abilities? Get it right and the players can’t tear themselves away from your game. Get it wrong and the players either get bored or overwhelmed.

With Freemium games the pacing of absolutely everything is slowed down to irritating levels, trying to bully the player into spending money to accelerate the pace: earn currencies faster, unlock levels and abilities sooner. With a deep rooted IAP system in place, any careful planning of game progression is thrown out the window.

In most cases a freemium game is an intentionally tedious chore you pay to skip. That makes about as much sense as going to McDonalds and paying them twice as much so you won’t have to eat there.

The free clone Ninja Fishing is a tedious grind, while the $3 Ridiculous Fishing is a masterclass in pacing.

3. Broken Difficulty

Another balancing act that falls apart in freemium games is to do with the difficulty.

With players being able to buy consumable power ups and permanent boosts the whole difficulty curve turns into a difficulty knot. It’s especially true for unique super boosts that can be bought only for cash (pay to win) and seem to be designed purely to break the game by giving you the upper hand, upper torso and upper leg.

Back in the good old days, we could use free cheat codes to empower ourselves as gamers, but even back then, once the novelty wore off after five seconds we’d realize that we just ruined the game for ourselves.

It’s like buying a second hand Sudoku book with all the answers written in by someone else and then feeling good about the“accomplishment”.

Kingdom Rush’s over-powered consumable powerups stain an otherwise fantastic tower defence game.

4. Virtual Panhandling

Don’t you just love it when the same guy asks you for money every time you pass him on that same street corner, even if (or especially because) you already gave him some money in the past?

So here you get to be harassed in the privacy of your own gaming experience. FUN.

Sonic Dash and Sonic Jump didn’t kill the franchise, they just made out with its corpse.

5. Ads

Yeah, I don’t like ads.

I don’t like ad banners and I don’t like pop up ads: especially the type of pop up ads that ninja sneak on you and appear just as you’re about to tap something else and you end up being sent to the app store or another website. It’s like a free secret mini-game!

No.

Just no.

A screenshot from the game… Huh… Whichever one is behind the ad. Who cares?

6. Design Compromise

I really liked Jetpack Joyride. And One Epic Knight. Also Punch Quest and Zombie Tsunami. Great free games.

All endless runners.

Some game genres fit with the model, but most don’t. So if you go with the freemium/ cheapium model, relying on income from in app purchases, you either limit yourself to specific game genres that work, or you’re going to eviscerate a beloved game genre and shove the bloodied parts into the freemium mold.

Real Racing 3 offers some of the most realistic waiting in any racing game to date.

7. Bottomless Pit

You can never fully own the game. You might spend a $100 and still have a lot more to spend money on. Especially since many consumables need to be purchased every single time you want to use them.

A lot of defenders of freemium like to compare the model to arcade machines. There is one big problem with that: there is a physical reason you need to keep feeding coins to an arcade machine. When you have a personal copy of a game on your own device it stops making sense.

MOAR DIAMONDS! 3750 diamonds for $99.99 is a steal! No, seriously, it is.

These are examples of what freemium games cost you as a gamer. As a developer (assuming you are interested in making great games rather than just profit) it only costs you a small fraction of your soul.

Plants vs Zombies vs Freemium

As I was writing this post I came up with an amazing example that shows just how the freemium model can take one of my all-time favourite games and prove every single one of the points I was making.

Plants vs Zombies is an amazing game. It’s the only non-puzzle game that my husband has ever played (and finished). I completed it several times on my PC, X-Box 360, iPhone and iPad. My son was obsessed with the Zombies On Your Lawn music video. I stood in many lines at PAX Prime to pick up several plushy toys, hats and fridge magnets. Guess what calendar is hanging in my kitchen? Huge fan here. I look forward to Plants vs Zombies 2 more than I did Bioshock Infinite. A lot more.

I found out about Plants vs Zombies Adventures for Facebook a couple of days ago and my heart sank reading about it. I then tried out the Beta and my fears were confirmed. My heart sank further down until I pooped it. So much bad in one game.

First they abandoned the five lanes layout in favour of a more generic isometric 3d view that brings to mind games like Clash of Clans and Farmville, which also incidentally completely change the iconic gameplay. It’s now yet another tower defence game where you place your units along multiple paths.

The graphics make-over robs the game of its charm and also takes too long to load.

There are multiple confusing currencies and consumable power ups that dramatically break the game’s difficulty balancing.

Many actions in the game, from growing your plants Farmville style to attacking your friends’ homes, require lengthy cooldowns that can be skipped for pay.

Shall I go on?

It’s a heartbreaking clusterduck. George Fan must be rolling in his bed.

I read in an interview that the team worked through eleven prototypes before they ended up with the current version that they are happy with and I find it hard to believe that there are eleven versions that are less fun to play than this piece of drek.

Hopefully the release of Plants vs Zombies 2 later this year will cleanse my brain (if that game is also crap there will be serious flipping out).

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Oh hell no.

EA and PvZ aren’t the only culprits in license abuse. The Sims (both the iOS and Facebook versions), Sonic Dash and Real Racing are other examples for unpleasant attempts to shoehorn existing game franchises into the free to play structure.

It’s kinda depressing, because early attempts were much more successful with efforts like Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma Blitz.

This doesn’t mean I don’t like freemium games, many of them are actually pretty good. Well, maybe not many, but some. OK, just a few. On the other hand I never spent a penny on a freemium game, so maybe I’m not their ideal target audience.

(Actually there was this one time I spent $7 on Smurfs Village, but I don’t like to talk about it)

I also don’t rule out using this structure for developing a game. Most revenue on the App Store comes from in app purchases and not all developers can afford to dismiss it. As long as players pay for IAP they are ultimately responsible for the success of that revenue model.

It’s just that when you consider the freemium structure you must first fully consider the costs.

It sure ain’t free.(source:gamasutra)