Free-to-play is, without a doubt, one of the most significant trends in the way games are both packaged and delivered to consumers. However, the similarities to gambling in some psychological aspects leave some game designers nervous and the temptation to go down a bad route was discussed at an ethics of free-to-play game design panel at GDC Online.

“This whole concept of freemium play, in my opinion, is the most radical form of entertainment socialism since Obama got elected,” said Scott Dodson, chief product officer of Bobber Interactive sarcastically. “You’ve got a whole bunch of one-percenters paying for a bunch of freeloaders.”

Not unlike with the lottery, where generally those with low income throw money at an investment that isn’t likely to turn out, Amazon.com designer Nik Davidson notes that those that invest in free-to-play games can often not afford it. “We like to think that the ones spending vast sums on these games are sons of Dubai oligarchs, but we have the data to prove that they’re not, and that they probably can’t afford to spend what they’re spending,” said Davidson. “We’re saying our market is suckers – we’re going to cast a net that catches as many mentally ill people as we can!”

“The long-term danger is that we are poisoning the well; we’re watching a large-scale tragedy of the commons play out on our player bases. Our audience is becoming inured to viral trickery we employ to get people what we want to do,” Davidson continued. “For example, good UX design says ‘Find the button the user is most likely to press, and make it as large and central and green as possible.’ So what social games designers do is put the button you want to press and make it small and gray and uninviting, and make the button that shares to your whole friend feed that you just passed level two of the tutorial. We’ve boiled the frog.”

Davidson still has hope for free-to-play because not all developers are carpetbaggers. “Our industry bears the characteristics of a gold rush,” he commented. “In any gold rush, you have honest prospectors and you have claim jumpers.”

Finally, Immersyve’s Scott Rigby questioned the way that free-to-play changes the way designers look at the people who play their games. “What do we call our best customers these days,” Rigby asked. “I’m not sure I’d want to be called a whale by anybody. ‘Sticky’ is not, generally, a good quality. I think we have this subtle language of control for our customers, and when paired with our ability to collect data, it raises some interesting ethical questions.”

Source: Gamasutra