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How is this different than paying Spotify for the ads to go away? People don't seem to mind that.
"A one month upgrade will run users $1.49, while a year-long upgrade costs $9.99."
I'm personally used to pay only one time for a game (except perhaps for MMOGs, where a subscription really makes sense).
This is what drove me to GNU/Linux. Was OS X user, saw how Apple censors GPL software from App Store, and saw 8-year-old kid with iPod touch getting his allowance stolen by a solitaire iOS game that charged him real money to cheat when he got stuck (which you can do with real cards, obviously) while advertising at him to eat at McDonald's. I decided I couldn't trust Apple anymore, and no way would I trust Microsoft.…
> saw how Apple censors GPL software from App Store
How is this different than paying Spotify for the ads to go away? People don't seem to mind that.
Spotify took something that previously cost money and made it free with ads.
There's also the fact that people can view Spotify as a ongoing service easily while people view MS solitaire as a component of a product. Normal people dislike when you turn their products into services needing ongoing payments
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work in the games industry. A lot of the freemium models are absolutely extortion. Some of the worst ones explicitly target children and gambling addicts to maximize profits on vulnerable people or abuse the family's card details. When done right, Freemium is a fantastic model which can not only generate more revenue to the company (both short and long term), but is also more enjoyable and a more fun experience for…
>but is also more enjoyable and a more fun experience for the user. It's hard not to be sarcastic about this topic, but I honestly want to know which game is more fun freemium than pay once?
Blizzard has a very solid F2P model, even though theirs is one of the most expensive of the lot.
There is a lot of enjoyment in earning bonuses over time rather than getting everything at once. Since the developer wants you to keep playing the game, they need a hook. For subscription-based games, that hook tends to be anti-fun (spend time grinding, time-gating content, etc). Store-based content allows for a non-time-based hook and pushes the developer to keep releasing content. So yeah, if done right, it's beneficial for everybody.
Are they going to start making you pay for MS Paint?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work in the games industry. A lot of the freemium models are absolutely extortion. Some of the worst ones explicitly target children and gambling addicts to maximize profits on vulnerable people or abuse the family's card details. When done right, Freemium is a fantastic model which can not only generate more revenue to the company (both short and long term), but is also more enjoyable and a more fun experience for…
> When done right, Freemium [...] is also more enjoyable and a more fun experience for the user. I find it the contrary. It's a rare sight to find a modern non-indie mobile game that you can pay for and get a version that's completely free of advertisement, phoning-home analytics and other stuff I don't want, except for an actual game. (Returning to article in question, Microsoft is actually the worst case imaginable…
This is what drove me to GNU/Linux. Was OS X user, saw how Apple censors GPL software from App Store, and saw 8-year-old kid with iPod touch getting his allowance stolen by a solitaire iOS game that charged him real money to cheat when he got stuck (which you can do with real cards, obviously) while advertising at him to eat at McDonald's. I decided I couldn't trust Apple anymore, and no way would I trust Microsoft.…
> saw how Apple censors GPL software from App Store GPL censors GPL software from App Store.
I wish I could go back and check but didn't this happen with Windows 8.1? Seems weird to be outraged now as opposed to back then (unless I'm wrong of course).
To be fair to Microsoft, you used to have to pay for Solitaire to get your free copy of Windows, now they've unbundled it you can get Windows 10 for free without having to buy Solitaire.
Windows 10 isn't free, only the upgrade (from 7/8/8.1) is, and it's a limited time offer.
This is what drove me to GNU/Linux. Was OS X user, saw how Apple censors GPL software from App Store, and saw 8-year-old kid with iPod touch getting his allowance stolen by a solitaire iOS game that charged him real money to cheat when he got stuck (which you can do with real cards, obviously) while advertising at him to eat at McDonald's. I decided I couldn't trust Apple anymore, and no way would I trust Microsoft.…
> saw how Apple censors GPL software from App Store GPL censors GPL software from App Store.
GPL grants you freedoms. App Store terms take them away. I think it's clear who's doing the censoring.