{"id":447135,"date":"2022-05-14T21:00:39","date_gmt":"2022-05-14T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works\/"},"modified":"2022-05-14T21:00:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T18:00:39","slug":"what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works\/","title":{"rendered":"#What Does F2P Mean? Explaining How Free-to-Play Works"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a285fc5a058d\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a285fc5a058d\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works\/#%E2%80%9CWhat_Does_F2P_Mean_Explaining_How_Free-to-Play_Works%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;What Does F2P Mean? Explaining How Free-to-Play Works&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works\/#What_is_F2P\" >What is F2P?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works\/#The_Freemium_Model\" >The Freemium Model<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works\/#The_Problem_With_F2P_Games\" >The Problem With F2P Games<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works\/#The_Skinner_Box\" >The Skinner Box<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works\/#The_Skinner_Box_and_F2P_Games\" >The Skinner Box and F2P Games<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWhat_Does_F2P_Mean_Explaining_How_Free-to-Play_Works%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;What Does F2P Mean? Explaining How Free-to-Play Works&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage wp-image-798723 size-full\" data-pagespeed-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/shutterstock_1161055624.png?width=398&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 400w, https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/shutterstock_1161055624.png?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, 400w, 1200w\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/shutterstock_1161055624.png?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"A gamer playing Hearthstone on a phone in front of a desktop PC.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" data-crediturl=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/hands-young-gamer-boy-playing-video-1161055624\" data-credittext=\"Shift Drive\/Shutterstock.com\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/hands-young-gamer-boy-playing-video-1161055624\">Shift Drive\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If you\u2019re even remotely interested in gaming, you\u2019ve come across the acronym F2P or the term \u201cfree-to-play.\u201d What does this mean, though? Is it really free, or are there strings attached? Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_F2P\"><\/span>What is F2P?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Free-to-play has meant different things to different people at different times. The shareware of the \u201990s could be described as F2P. You got a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a> for free, or at least the first part of it\u2014but, to get the rest of it, you needed to pony up. It was a good system for developers who needed to get their name out there. Penniless gamers, including your author, got something to play for free.<\/p>\n<p>In its current incarnation, though, F2P describes something very different. While there are free games out there\u2014some of them quite good\u2014when we say \u201cfree-to-play\u201d (note the hyphens,) we usually mean games that operate under the freemium model.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Freemium_Model\"><\/span>The Freemium Model<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>At first, the freemium model meant that you got access to a game for free\u2014but, to progress in it, you needed to pay. For example, you could run around in a game with certain basic weapons, but to get better ones or to upgrade them you needed to spend some money through so-called microtransactions, where you spend a dollar or even less to buy one specific in-game item.<\/p>\n<p>This particular model was never very popular among gamers, and there are very few examples of it existing. What most current freemium games do is offer the game for free and allow you to earn weapons and upgrades through playing. The microtransactions are still there, but instead of unlocking the game, they just speed up your progress\u2014often significantly so. That said, please note that this is a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> observation.\u00a0Specific examples can vary a little.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pokemongolive.com\/en\/\"><i>Pokemon<\/i> <em>Go<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0for example, lets you play the game, catching Pokemon and making coins, but you can also give yourself a head start and buy a bunch of coins for real-world money. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/redirect.viglink.com\/?key=204a528a336ede4177fff0d84a044482&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.steampowered.com%2Fapp%2F440%2FTeam_Fortress_2%2F\"><i>Team Fortress 2<\/i><\/a>, a game developed by Valve and available on its Steam platform, lets you play for free, but you can buy loot boxes that contain any number of items, most of them valuable for gameplay.<\/p>\n<p>Freemium is an interesting system for both gamers and developers. Gamers get a free game, while the game\u2019s publishers get players. While they miss out on the initial purchase money, which for AAA games could be as much as $60 or $70, they instead get a revenue stream that could, potentially, pay out more over time.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Problem_With_F2P_Games\"><\/span>The Problem With F2P Games<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>This alternative revenue stream, though, is a massive incentive for shady business practices. While at first glance the freemium model is pretty awesome, there is a lot of room for abuse and even more examples of it h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ening.\u00a0Free-to-play games employ a number of psychological tricks, putting you into a virtual Skinner box.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Skinner_Box\"><\/span>The Skinner Box<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The Skinner box\u2014properly called an operant conditioning chamber, which is why we call it a Skinner box\u2014was developed by B.F Skinner, a mid-20th century psychologist and behaviorist. He conducted a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> of experiments where he placed rats into boxes with a lever. If the rat pushed the lever, they would get a reward, usually a food pellet.<\/p>\n<p>As you can imagine, the rats would quickly figure this out and just hit that lever like crazy\u2014even when, after a while, the reward wouldn\u2019t always come. In a way, hitting the lever was as satisfying as getting the reward. If you\u2019re interested, you can <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/practicalpie.com\/skinners-box-experiment\/\">read more about Skinner\u2019s experiments<\/a> and what they tell us about both rats and humans. There is also <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/gdcvault.com\/play\/1023374\/gaming-gambling-or-addiction-f2p\">this excellent presentation<\/a> by psychiatrist Dr. Ryan Black that goes deeper into the psychology of it all.<\/p>\n<p>What we should take away from all this is that in the case of F2P games you are the rat, and the game developers have put a huge number of shiny levers throughout their box. Instead of a food pellet, you get a nice shiny upgrade for your in-game gun or a glimmering trophy. In the end, you\u2019re just another rat chasing down new levers to push to get that rush of satisfaction.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Skinner_Box_and_F2P_Games\"><\/span>The Skinner Box and F2P Games<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s that sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that drives players through F2P games. To be clear, though, some games are a lot more manipulative than others. The worst offenders are the cheap mobile games that are a dime a dozen on markets like Android\u2019s Google Play Store or Apple\u2019s App Store for iPhone and iPad.<\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of them, and there\u2019s a huge churn in their numbers\u2014so it\u2019s pointless to name any particular examples\u2014but you probably know the type. They often feature rudimentary graphics and gameplay. Instead, they rely almost entirely on psychological trickery to keep the player busy and hopefully entice them into buying upgrades to speed things along.<\/p>\n<p>Setting up this kind of reward scheme well means that the revenue flow you get from a hooked player can be a lot higher than that of any initial purchase price. In fact, the business model of these games <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/every.to\/napkin-math\/how-free-to-play-video-games-are-forced-to-make-addicts\">relies on you getting addicted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As anybody who has played one can testify, games like this are ridiculously easy to get hooked on. If you\u2019re not careful you\u2019ll be buying in-game currency to get some doodad finished a little quicker or get something unlock a little sooner. You probably want to keep well away from games like this.<\/p>\n<p>However, it\u2019s not just low-rent mobile games that try this on. For example, the loot boxes from <i>Team Fortress 2<\/i> are pretty much a lottery as their contents are randomized. Before you know it, you\u2019re spending a good amount of money in the hopes of getting a specific reward; it\u2019s gambling by another name.<\/p>\n<p>Though not every developer out there is setting out to get players addicted, the way that humans are always interested in getting more of anything means that it\u2019s very easy to spend money to get unlocks, even if you don\u2019t need or want them. By all means, play F2P games if you like, but always be on guard that you\u2019re not slipping away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/798213\/what-does-f2p-mean-explaining-how-free-to-play-works\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;What Does F2P Mean? Explaining How Free-to-Play Works&#8221; Shift Drive\/Shutterstock.com If you\u2019re even remotely interested in gaming, you\u2019ve come across the acronym F2P or the term \u201cfree-to-play.\u201d What does this mean, though? Is it really free, or are there strings attached? Let\u2019s take a look. What is F2P? Free-to-play has meant different things to different&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":447136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/shutterstock_1161055624.png?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-447135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}