Saturday Soapbox: Buy-to-let gaming
This week has seen two big stories about premium games trying to squeeze ever-more money out of their players. They’re not immediately obvious bedfellows; Square Enix’s Final Fantasy: All the Bravest is a mobile title divided into cash-hungry chunks, and Dead Space 3 is as typical an AAA console title as you’ll get. But both excite the same feeling of unease, and not just because they share a common theme of exploitation; it’s that point where something bearable becomes too much.This is nothing to do with the free-to-play business model, but rather the application of its mechanics. Surely everyone loves free-to-play games by now, and the many shining examples across mobile and PC show it can be the basis for top-notch titles. But there are things we acknowledge as players about free-to-play, a familiarity with its structure that means certain mechanics are accepted as inevitable: plenty of cosmetic in-app purchases, a grind-heavy levelling or crafting system, even large sections of the gameworld hived-off without payment. These things, when they are the toll booths for a great free experience, do not bother me.The thought of paying a tax does hang loosely over my idea of free-to-play mechanics, and perhaps that’s why it’s so startling to see them in full price games. In terms of Final Fantasy: All the Bravest the up-front cost is
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