Clean up: Allegedly Free Game

Yeah, I think there's a legitimate split here.

Some games are in the middle of the two, however. Puzzle Pirates, for instance is perfectly playable without paying, while subscribers get perks... one of which is the removal of an essential economic system in nonplayable games, which generally keeps you in poverty for longer, and the removal of restrictions on how often you need to log in before the system cans your save, both of which are extremely assuaging things available only if you pay.

Can we finish this one off without splitting hairs so finely that anyone who isn't a dedicated gamer won't be able to see the distinction, and get the tag off the page?

Well, from what I can see, looks like we have three or four pages we can split off here and move examples to.

1. Micropayment model: Perks are sold separately through small, individual, separate transactions. They can be a form of Bribing Your Way to Victory if they provide in-game advantages, but they don't have to be (Team Fortress 2 uses microtransactions to sell silly hats for characters to wear, for example).
2. Freemium model: Involves a binary distinction between those who pay and those who do not. You're either free or premium. Does not necessarily involve an Allegedly Free Game or any kind of game at all; many web services unrelated to gaming have adopted this model. Less likely to involve Bribing Your Way to Victory because there's generally only two tiers involved—you can pay, but you can't pay more than the other people who are paying, so money can only get you so far. Generally identifiable through the use of monthly payments, rather than one-time flat fees characteristic of games like VVVVVV with more traditional demos.
3. 30-Day Free Trial model: You have time-limited access to the product for free. Once your time expires, you have to pay to keep using it. A common telltale sign of this model is if they ask for your credit card details before you can use the free version. Again, this is not limited to games—a good non-game example would be Netflix. It can be combined with Freemium if they offer a time-limited trial of the premium version. This model falls under Allegedly Free Game if the trial is advertised with phrases like "Play now for free!" that play up the trial version and play down the cost.
4. Demo model: A demo version of the game with limited content is available for free. For example, you might only be able to play the first level of a game. Demos are meant to serve a purpose similar to free samples of food you might find at a supermarket—they give you a feel for the gameplay in hopes that you'll want more and decide to buy the full game. While the other models tend to involve continuous or repeated payment, this one is almost always going to be a one-time deal (there are probably exceptions, although I can't think of any right now). Try before you buy to make an informed decision about the game. While they can be used in an Allegedly Free Game, they're not as closely associated with the concept as the other models (games like Batman Arkham Asylum have demos, and nobody thinks of them as Allegedly Free). They differ from the 30-Day Free Trial model in that content is restricted rather than time, although, of course, they can easily overlap.

This would leave Allegedly Free Game as more of an Advertising Trope dealing with how the game is marketed, which seems to me like a good place to be.

edited 27th May '11 12:52:13 PM by troacctid

Those all seem to be nice and clearly distinguished sib- or sub-tropes.

And making Allegedly Free Game (or simply Allegedly Free) into an advertising trope makes a lot of sense. Doing that would mean that it would also cover things like the "We'll also send you a second Wonder Widget absolutely free just pay separate shipping and handling" aspect of infomercials or Advertising in general.

edited 27th May '11 1:33:06 PM by Madrugada

Shareware should be mentioned in with #4 somewhere.

(And, as much as I loved certain Shareware titles of the day, I have a special hatred for the oft-repeated notion that if you don't go out to purchase the full thing you are automatically cheating the system.)

Errrgh. That's getting into sticky territory again, because to old fogeys, Shareware means "It's free, but if you like it, and feel like paying for it, I sure won't say no." They weren't limited in scope or time like the proposed "Demo Model" specifies. The Wikipedia definition of Shareware is more like 30-Day Free Trial.

edited 27th May '11 6:52:29 PM by Madrugada

The Wikipedia article covers it from several angles, but when talking about shareware games, it often boiled down to this:

Okay, stage 1: YKTTW for Freemium. Seems pretty tight from the get-go, but more examples couldn't hurt, and the image is up in the air.

I say that is so far so good for it. I am sure more examples will be added once the page makes it here as well.

YKTTW for Micropayments is up now too.

I still seriously have a problem with Allegedly Free Game, it still really comes off as Complaining About Business Models You Don't Like, where 'You don't like' means 'advertised as free but there are things you can buy'.

This really can be shown as bad on a page like Champions Online, which really doesn't fit the trope, and the only real difference (aside from premium content) between playing for free and buying a subscription is free players are required to choose along a Character Class System while subscribed players are able to build a custom hero using a Point Build System. This -does- give subscribed players a -slight- advantage, especially in Player Versus Player (although Pv P isn't the focus of the game), but a Silver account is still able to hold their own with the class archetypes, and has access to 90-95% of the game content genuinely free of charge.

My major problem with the article -title- is the word 'Allegedly', which is rather... unfavorably loaded, as in The Alleged Car.

Ok, here's a game I'm not sure about where to put it: Pretty Good Solitaire.

They're quite clear about the 30-day free trial being a time-limited trial. What they don't mention until you've downloaded the trial is that there are only thirty layouts available to play in each game during that 30 days.

I'm thinking that it's an Allegedly Free Game, in that they're upfront about the time limit and very not-upfront about the limit on the number of layouts available during that limited time...

Progress report: The YKTTW for Freemium is at five hats, but I feel a little awkward launching it without the sister tropes. Also, it could use a redirect or two. Micropayments is nearly ready to launch, although it doesn't have any hats right now. I just finished writing up 30-Day Free Trial, and it needs some more examples.

I think it's normal enough for a time-limited trial to be limited in content as well that I probably wouldn't classify it as Allegedly Free.

edited 6th Jul '11 7:10:15 PM by troacctid

Right, all launched up. Freemium, Microtransactions, 30-Day Free Trial. Now to start fixing some wicks.