Shaking the stigma of "Free-to-Play"

David Chang from Gamescampus has written a piece for Gamasutra which tackles the stigma that is "free to play" or F2P. Chang's "Opinion: Why We Need To Rebrand Free To Play" addresses the cynicism and perceptions of questionable quality that tends to surface in discussions about free-to-play games.

Chang's piece points out similarities between the F2P business model and Google, although he admits it's not a perfect comparison. Google's service itself is free, but ultimately fuels its revenue streams through monetized services offered. The large userbase who simply wants to use the service for free is vital to the company's business model, and thus there are some parallels to an MMO operating without subscriptions. "In both situations, people receive a valuable service -- free search or a free game experience," says Chang.

However, he believes that calling these games "free to play" does more harm than good, with the connotation that "free" equates to substandard in many minds. Chang proposes calling them "MTS Games" (Micro-Transaction Service) or "MTG Games" (Micro-Transaction Games), with the view that changing how we label these games affects how well they're received by gamers.

Chang also looks at which business models work and which don't when offering a game not supported by subscription fees. Speaking of alternate business models finding favor in North America, Chang finishes by saying,"Now is the time, when our model is just building a name for itself in this industry and its perception is so important, that we should be looking at re-branding from free to play, to instead being known as micro-transaction service providers."

You can check out David Chang's opinion piece on rebranding 'free-to-play' at Gamasutra and also at WorldsInMotion.