April 13th 2024.
Are free games actually doing more harm than good? As a gaming enthusiast for nearly 40 years, I can attest to the fact that time is the biggest barrier to my gaming experience. But it's not just the overwhelming amount of content available across various mediums that's causing this issue. The games industry itself is a major contributor, and it's only getting worse.
Let me provide some context. Gaming has been my main hobby for decades, but I also enjoy other forms of entertainment such as TV, film, books, and board games. On top of that, I have a young child to take care of, which means I don't have a lot of consistent free time to myself. But at this point in my life, I don't feel the pressure to keep up with the latest games and play them at a specific time with my friends.
I'm not a fan of live service games because I prefer variety. They often end up being time-consuming and leave me feeling empty after playing them. It's like I haven't made any real progress towards an end goal. The same goes for open-world games that are overly padded and can take years to complete. To avoid getting bored with the repetition, I usually have multiple games in rotation. I used to think that games were padded to discourage the second-hand market, but even with the rise of digital gaming, the structure of games has not changed.
Let's take a look at the games I'm currently playing and see if you can spot the issue: Advance Wars: Dark Conflict, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Dark Souls, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, FIFA 22, Football Manager 2022, Galactic Civilizations 3, Gloomhaven, Halcyon 6, Here They Lie, Mafia 3, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Odyssey, Metro 2033, Rome: Total War, Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor, The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past, and The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Did you notice that more than half of these games were free? And the only ones I bought at full price were from Nintendo, as they rarely go on sale. I also have around 400 more games in my backlog, most of which were also free.
On average, I receive about seven to 10 free games every month, but I only manage to finish around 10 games a year. Out of the games I listed above, I've been playing Advance Wars, Dark Souls, and Total War since 2021! With so many free games at my disposal, why would I even consider paying full price for a new release? In the past, I would sometimes panic buy a game on sale because I was afraid I would miss out on a good deal. But now, with digital sales happening all the time, there's no sense of urgency or fear of missing out. I have more than enough games to play, and the industry encourages me not to buy anything now because it might end up being free later. That's also why I have no interest in subscribing to services like Game Pass. I'm already overwhelmed with options.
I understand that my situation is not the norm and is partly due to my desire to experience as many games as possible. But I also recognize that I am part of the problem for the industry, and this issue is largely created by the industry itself. Every month, my backlog grows, making it even less likely for me to buy a new release at full price. And by the time I get around to playing it, it's probably already available for free. I don't want to see the gaming industry crash, as I love games, but if it did happen, it would take at least a decade for it to affect me. By then, something else will have taken its place. Maybe that's the only way I'll be able to catch up.
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