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Free-to-Play: Mobile Video Games, Bias, and Norms
An examination of free-to-play and mobile games that traces what is valued and what is marginalized in discussions of games.
Free-to-play and mobile video games are an important and growing part of the video game industry, and yet they are often disparaged by journalists, designers, and players and pronounced inferior to to games with more traditional payment models. In this book, Christopher Paul shows that underlying the criticism is a bias against these games that stems more from who is making and playing them than how they are monetized. Free-to-play and mobile games appeal to a different kind of player, many of whom are women and many of whom prefer different genres of games than multi-level action-oriented killing fests. It's not a coincidence that some of the few free-to-play games that have been praised by games journalists are League of Legends and World of Tanks.
Free-to-play and mobile video games are an important and growing part of the video game industry, and yet they are often disparaged by journalists, designers, and players and pronounced inferior to to games with more traditional payment models. In this book, Christopher Paul shows that underlying the criticism is a bias against these games that stems more from who is making and playing them than how they are monetized. Free-to-play and mobile games appeal to a different kind of player, many of whom are women and many of whom prefer different genres of games than multi-level action-oriented killing fests. It's not a coincidence that some of the few free-to-play games that have been praised by games journalists are League of Legends and World of Tanks.
312 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 13, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 18, 2023
Free-To-Play offers a fascinating breakdown of the gaming market of the 2010s, and made me realise the extent to which I engaged with the industry during this period. Very interesting points about differential repsonses due to gendered biases and theming- they contextualize the time travel debate surrounding Animal Crossing New Horizons.
A few notes to add:
1) Most forms of microtransactions are predatory and prey on human weaknesses... To some extent the free-to-play and microtransaction boom preceded the more recent sports gambling boom.
2) Trust is more important in microtransaction-laden environments due to information assymetry faced by the purchaser- someone looking to purchase a set $60 game can find many reviews asssesing its worth from a variety of perspectives, whereas no such information can exist in the free-to-play space where a purchase changes in value (likely decreasing due to power creep) over time depending on developer choices.
3) Matchmaking systems are crucial components of the percieved "fairness" of a game- being constantly matched with high-spending players as a free-to-play player is frustrating, yet developers are incentivized to match as such to prompt spending
4) Free to play games can garner much wider playerbases due to networking effects.
Good book that really made me think about a hobby I've casually engaged with for a long time.
A few notes to add:
1) Most forms of microtransactions are predatory and prey on human weaknesses... To some extent the free-to-play and microtransaction boom preceded the more recent sports gambling boom.
2) Trust is more important in microtransaction-laden environments due to information assymetry faced by the purchaser- someone looking to purchase a set $60 game can find many reviews asssesing its worth from a variety of perspectives, whereas no such information can exist in the free-to-play space where a purchase changes in value (likely decreasing due to power creep) over time depending on developer choices.
3) Matchmaking systems are crucial components of the percieved "fairness" of a game- being constantly matched with high-spending players as a free-to-play player is frustrating, yet developers are incentivized to match as such to prompt spending
4) Free to play games can garner much wider playerbases due to networking effects.
Good book that really made me think about a hobby I've casually engaged with for a long time.
January 29, 2026
A cogent exploration of a “traditional” gamer’s gut reactions to what count as “real games” vs not, which is typically couched in derision of free to play but is revealed to not necessarily be related to the monetization mechanic. I want more folks in the industry to read this, but I ultimately found it to be too navel-gaze-y still: insufficient exploration of how gamers who deeply enjoy and make successful these “not real” games, and why, and hearing from them in their own words. The author asks us to take these games seriously but doesn’t actually take the step necessary to show how to take the audience of these games seriously.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews