The Ongoing Product Lifecycle of a Games as Service Model: a League of Legends Case Study

Who Creates Microtransactions: The Production Context of Video Game Monetization

The imbalanced state of free-to-play game research: A literature review

As free-to-play games have increased their economic value, the research interest on them has increased as well. This article looks at free-to-play game research conducted so far through a systematic literature review and an explorative analysis of the documents included in the review. The results highlight an excessive focus especially on behavioral economic studies trying to maximize the player bases and profits, while other aspects, such as meaningful game experiences, cultural and societal implications, or critical review of the phenomena have been left in the marginal. Based on the review results, this article suggests four future agendas to reinforce the lacking areas of free-to-play game research.

Design Paradigms and Principles for Free-to-Play Games: A Developer Interview Study

Critical Acclaim and Commercial Success in Mobile Free-to-Play Games

Critical acclaim is considered to be one of the main predictors of profitability of game products. Major game publishers face tremendous hurdles in order to fare well in different forums that review and rate their products. However, little evidence exists on the relationship between ratings and profitability beyond anecdotal assumptions. In this study we investigate the relationship between critical acclaim and commercial success in mobile free-to-play games via a mixed-method study. First we look at the correlation of reviews and profitability, and then present an exploratory qualitative inquiry, analyzing games with high Metascores and games with high grossing. The results reveal that the relationship between review ratings and profitability is even more problematic in mobile free-to-play games than in many other game categories. Games with high Metascores differ substantially from the top-grossing games, being closer to traditional single-player games than typical free-to-play games, with little emphasis on monetization mechanics.

Selling out the magic circle: free-to-play games and developer ethics

We describe a narrative case study of a free-to-play, massive multiplayer online role playing game through virtual ethnography inside the game as player and passive, participatory observation of the official game forum to understand the actions of both, the developer and the player community in relation to subliminal development changes of the game rules. We then show that players are able to claim agency and change the course of the game design while trying to allocate themselves as both, consumers within a heavily commercialized game model and invaluable members of the gaming community itself. We draw from studies on player agency, game co-creation as well as research on free-toplay game design to demonstrate how a developer constantly undermines player agency through an ongoing re-definition of the game rules disrupting the magic circle which is the main contribution of this study. Our discussion outlines the constant struggle of players to level the playing field within this damaged magic circle which is punctured by casino-like game reward mechanisms, in-transparent development notes, deceptive developer implementations and game modifications in the context of the freemium business model of game design.

Free-to-Play Games: Professionals’ Perspectives

This paper investigates the free-to-play revenue model from the perspective of game professionals. To court larger player audiences and to address their wide willingness-to-pay spectrum, game developers have increasingly adopted the free-to-play revenue model. However, at the same, worrying concerns over the revenue model have been voiced. For example, free-to-play games have been deemed as exploitative and unethical. We investigated this contrast by conducting a thematic interview study. We employed grounded theory in the analysis of the data containing 14 game professionals’ interviews about their views on the free-to-play model. The results show, that the free-to-play model is something that the developers view favorably while the public writing about the games can even be hostile. The games have evolved, while the voiced opinions still talk about games of the beginning of the model. Relatively few ethical problems were seen that would address the whole model, and the future of the free-to-play games was seen bright.

Buy and Share! Social Network Games and Ludic Shopping

By developing the concept of ludic shopping, this paper explores how the centring of gameplay around the (symbolic) purchase of virtual goods has transformed social network games into a blending of consumerism and playfulness. Although ludic shopping points out the capitalistic logic of consumption embedded on social network games, this concept brings also a positive view about consumption as part of players’ identity construction. I drawn on the player types defined by game theorists Richard Bartle and Espen Aarseth to examine the main forms of enjoyment offered by social network games, and to present a new conceptual dimension linked to consumerism. Through a critical analysis of both game mechanics and players’ motivations, I argue that symbolic consumerism is a central experience for players of social network games.