How Free to Play Video Games are Forced to Make Addicts

F2P companies are doing the rough equivalent of Bud Light setting up a bar at an AA meeting. While alcohol has done a lot more harm than video games (and I in no way want to trivialize the trials surrounding alcoholism) the comparison is apt. F2P business models rely on getting people well and truly hooked.

Free to Play video game companies, by the structure of their market, are faced with the choice to either A) create addictive products that rob a select group of users large amounts of funds, or B) exit the business entirely. This is because their model doesn’t work at all without “whales”—high spenders that are manipulated through product design.

This isn’t just limited to free-to-play video games. All companies land somewhere on the spectrum of harm. As each of us grow our companies, we must ask ourselves how we are causing hurt and if that tradeoff is justifiable.

The vast majority of your users will be free. You can kinda monetize them with ads, but you are really only going to see a buck or two of revenue per month per user. The real money is found in the in-game digital purchases. These are the skins on Fortnite characters, an extra life in Candy crush, etc.