Theory

[icycalm]

If you've seen any good articles on this business model, link them here. I've seen a few, but none which I'd call good or which stand out in my mind in any other way right now.

One thing I'd like to hammer down is how we are going to be calling them. Obviously "free-to-play" is misleading, since that would include free games like Doukutsu Monogatari, etc. -- all free games are "free-to-play", asshats.

So I am taking suggestions. "Expensive-to-finish" (E2F) is a candidate, or "Annoying-to-progress" (A2P). Let me know if you have more, especially if you've played any of these games (which I haven't so far, but that will change soon, probably with that Herzog Zwei-type thingy), and have a better understanding of them than I do.

[icycalm]

Expensive-to-progress-without-endlesss-mindless-grinding (E2PWEMG) is another, quite accurate one from what I understand.

[icycalm]

A more succinct label would be free-to-grind (F2G).

[Texas]

Pay-to-win (P2W) is popular as well.

[Amor fati]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium

Freemium is a pricing strategy by which a product or service (typically a digital offering such as software, media, games or web services) is provided free of charge, but money (premium) is charged for proprietary features, functionality, or virtual goods. The word "freemium" is a portmanteau neologism combining the two aspects of the business model: "free" and "premium".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-play

There are several kinds of free-to-play games:

• Shareware refers to a trial of variable functionality intended to convince users to buy a full license of the pay-to-play game. Also known as game demos, shareware often gives free users severely limited functionality compared to the full game.

• Freemium games offer the "full version" of a product free of charge, while users are charged micropayments to access premium features and virtual goods, often in a piecemeal fashion.

• Freeware games do not support charging the user at all, but are usually proprietary.

"Freemium games" would be the appropriate designation.

[icycalm]

We'll go with freemium then. Seems like the least deceptive option. You can use other terms too for fun, if you want, but in general just use freemium. (When quoting others, of course, keep the quoted text as you found it, as usual.)