'F' Freemium Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Borderlands 2, Dishonored, XCOM. CityVille.

Which one of these is not like the others…? Does something seem out of place?

Yet, people routinely spend more and more money on freemium games and subscription games. Why? Because the games are designed that way, and they never end. Until the companies shut down the servers and you lose everything you paid for because you technically own none of it.

Back when I played Diablo II, the idea of buying a Windforce Hydra Bow or SOJs on eBay was ridiculous to so many people. Spend real money on a digital asset, something on a computer screen?! Are you crazy? But now, it's commonplace to buy more coins, carrots, energy, whatever.

Are you having fun?

I suppose that's the key question. I'm still playing Skyrim, a game released almost one year ago. I paid once for it, and two hundred hours later, I'm still having fun on my flawed first character. I wasted three skill points. Arguably, five. Don't care. The game is great.

For me, Skyrim is the greatest game ever made. I've played so many. Thousands. Hundreds on each current platform, including over 900 on iOS.

And now, in a span of just a few weeks, I have Borderlands 2, Dishonored, XCOM. Hundreds more hours. No microtransactions.

I admit, I'm not big on the competitive multiplayer experience. I used to be, I loved PVP in World of Warcraft in the beginning. But the drive to compete encourages odd, unglamorous behavior in people. It gets ugly. Ever played COD against angry teens?

Too much posturing. I just want to enjoy the experience and take in the art. Spend some time in Skyrim staring at the sky and dynamic weather changes.

I love art and design, and I'm fascinated by game theory and strategy, so I respect (and admire) the freemium business model in many ways. This is a case of really loving the player and hating the game.

Roger Ebert famously said that video games aren't art. Perhaps it wasn't, at one point. Pong, perhaps. Not today. Not with Bethesda's games (except Brink, because that sucked. Hard.), sandbox RPGs and shooters. Even Minecraft.

Some video games are art in its highest form.

And then there's Zinga.

Brad Chin uses Blogsy

RAGE is art

RAGE is one of those games that transcends itself. Roger Ebert once said that video games can't be art. He's obviously wrong, and probably isn't good at games, but he should play RAGE. After spending a fair amount of time with the game, I've developed some strategies for the mini-games as well as the gunplay. Maybe I'll share my RAGE Frenzy deck list.

I hope id releases RAGE Frenzy for iOS. That'd be splendid. (I'm still hoping that @SEGA releases Derby Owner's Club for iPad, or for any system... maybe a LIVE Arcade game.)

Batman, Battlefield 3, Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3... a lot of art, incoming!