Reality Check - Why Spend Money on a Free Game?

Love your videos... really do. Please don't stop... but I think this conversation is probably 10 years above your average audience. 

Love this show, keep it up Cam

Great show Cam

Great stuff as always Cam. Love the extend to which you research this stuff. PS - Recipcrocity makes the world go round, but I question whether it's the driving force behind free-to-play purchases. Whether it's right or wrong, gamers simply never feel like they owe developers anything. Even if they're playing for free, the urge to repay the developers simply doesn't enter into their thinking...at least not for the vast majority. I believe it's more simple. You get a million people playing ANY game, there will always be a small dedicated percentage that make regular purchases. You mentioned "vanity purchases". Well, vanity will always come before empathy.

can someone tell me the piano music they use in every video, IT´S SO GOOD

I have been playing since release and I havent bought anything and have earned enough points to unlock all but the season 3 champs. I must be a bastard who doesnt feel like returning the favor. I just take the free item and run...

Some great insights and very well explained. Makes me question why I've spend so much time watching videos with one company slamming the other over their "inferior" product, game, or concept. Need more videos like this.

I have spent around £300 on lol over a year and 6 months. So I have spend £17 a month on this game. 

I have played 3223 games, average game-time of 24.44mins. This comes to 77 days, or 2.5 hours of playing LoL every day for the past 1.5 years.

I don't totally understand why I was hooked, but before lol I played Fifa to probably the same extent. Mabye something to do with insecurity, trying to show yourself that you are better than others. A winning mentality. Winning is always satisfying. It's a way for an easy win, when at this moment in my life I am pretty bumbed. Unemployed and nothing to do.

With regards the the video I experienced these feelings. Although the main reason I bought skins were because I got a really good feeling when buying them just like good clothes, and I when deciding on whether to buy it or not I would try to use the "well I guess they deserve my money" because I was "worn down".

When I think of all the games I could have played instead of LoL it make me feel sick. I could have bought a decent gfx card and quite a collection of games.

Now I got myself back into university and it starts in a week. I was playing LoL for fun the other day trying to get into the "platinum league" and get a cool border that I could show off to all the other players. I was only 2 games away and after 3223 games, I never thought I'd reach this rating. However I found myself getting p###d off as usual. With my life back together I found it easy to decide that the stress isn't worth the bother, that LoL no longer controlled me. (The quote from Tyler in Fight Club "your possessions end up owning you", I put so much effort and money I wanted to keep playing even at the loss of my own health, stress) I uninstalled the game. I've done it before and reinstalled it the next week. But now that I have uni to look forward too, or even if it was a new job, it replaces my need for a "easy win" feeling from games.

This week after uninstalling LoL I borrowed my sisters console and played TLOU and Bioshock Infinite. I didn't even consider for the past 1.5 years playing any other game than LoL because of the "easy win" feeling. I was low, depressed and felt weak and turned to LoL to get me through this bad time in my life. Now that I sorted my real life out I can enjoy it agian, and play real games again. When I played these two AAA games before I got bored and wanted to play LoL because I didn't get the same rush. But now I could really take my time and enjoy these games. Two of the best games I have played in my life. And now with GTA5 coming out I am going to really appreciate it.

The feels.

You can buy power in lol btw. It is a pay to win game.

Only works on borderline retarded people. The fact that they spend money on a particular crappy game such as lol is even more amusing.

Thanks Cam.

Talking about this stuff with free to play games is rather interesting. I would imagine that the psychological tendencies mentioned in this seires, should they be valid, would also apply to micro-transactions in pay to play games as well. When you start getting into larger purchasing blocks, like DLC or the oh so rare expansion pack, I would think that these sorts of things begin to apply less. With less continuous purchasing opportunities, and less opportunity for reciprocity (the game isn't free and gifts are less likely), the influence these have is likely reduced. It would be interesting to see more on whether there is a gradient of influence of these potential factors as you go from whole game purchases to the free-to-play model, as well as if other variables may be involved.

I've never bought anything in  a free to play game. Well, I've never bought extra items, turns, skins, power-ups or whatever in a free to play game. I actually can't think of a free to play game I didn't stop playing at the point where it started asking me for money.

This being said, I have in other circumstances paid money for games which are available for free. I have bought Cannabalt more than once to get it on various platforms, for example, and have done so for other games as well. I am not sure that counts in terms of this discussion but that's about as close as I get.

In the movie House of Cards, con man Joe Mantegna shows how the reciprocity effect is exploited in some short cons.  He takes a university professor into a Western Union office where he checks to see in a nonexistent money transfer has come in.  He acts nervous and explains to another waiting customer why it's important he get his money, and the other customer shares his story.  Mantegna is moved by this, and offers to lend him part of his transfer it it comes in first.  When the other customer gets his transfer, he not only offers, but insists Mantegna take some.

The pigeon drop works on the same principle.  The con "finds" some money or an object worth a lot of money and offers to share it with the mark.  The con puts up some "good faith" money, adding it to what was found, enticing the mark to do the same.  The con then switches the cash container for a fake, and takes off with all the money.  This works because the mark sees the con as offering both a share of the find and some of the con's own money before asking for anything.

A lot of short cons work this way, offering something material before asking for something in return.  Long cons can use the same basic principle, with the con refusing the mark's contribution until the mark raises the stakes and insists.

Am I saying free to play is a con?  Of course not.  I'm saying it utilizes the same principles.

I sometimes buy skins in single player games, especially if the skin offers in-game bonuses as in Mass Effect 3 or Sleeping Dogs.  And sometimes just to play dress up with the character, as with Batman or Lara Croft.

The difference between the first study and application to F2P games is the variable of awareness. Where as the experiment with cola and raffle tickets held the target group "in the dark" as to their motives, F2P users have the ability to be much more aware of reciprocal marketing techniques (i.e. assuming that they realize it). The other two points are fair and deserve some pondering by the gaming community on the whole.

Previously on LoL you could change the skins yourself for your character with modding tools, but the effect would only be seen by yourself, basically like some people play MMO with nude mods, but then LoL fixed that -.-, as I see it was bad for their business now. 

I tend look at free stuff as if there was a catch. Like for that test subject who received a free cola, I would just make more out of it by not buying the tickets, why should I, what's the point. Only persons I do like to give gifts are fellows I know or friends whom I could play with together in games, and that's it.

It's very rare that I will find an F2P game I enjoy enough to drop any real money on it, but if I find I'm actually enjoying a game then I think it only fair to drop at least 30 on it.  Not really for any need to have vanity items, but I want the devs to keep improving the game, or too have money to work on other titles. 

Incredible topic and great show!

Mmmmh... I never thought about it, but it kinda makes sense. Back when I played WoW I thought it was extremelly stupid when people bought this mount or that pet for money when the game had a lot of mounts and pets to get by playing. Spending money in a game that I had to pay $15/month to play was out of the question, why should I buy something from you when you are doing nothing for me? I was paying Blizzard to let me play their game. Just like if they sold me the Coke instead of giving it.

Now, playing LoL, I have bought several skins (only when I found the ones I wanted on sale) and I think its fine to do so, since I'm playing it for free, Riot is letting me play their game for free, so I do not feel I'm getting ripped off when I buy something that is really not needed to play. I mean, I do not buy the skins because I feel I have to give them something in return, I buy the skins cause I like the characters and how they look with different skins. I buy them for myself, to see them myself, not for other people to buy them. I also do no buy a skin cause another person has it, I just buy those that I like for champions I like to play.

I've spent around 150 Euro on league of legends. But only in the first year and a half. Now i have everything. all champions and all runes. And for the last year and a half i stopped spending applied some will power.. Its alot of money but the time I have spent on LoL is far more embarresing imo. I've got something like 2500 games played..... If u multiplay that by 30 mins for each game = 75000 mins. Divide 75000/60 = 1250 hours divide that by 24 hours. And ive spent around 52 days playing Lol.. Insane i wish i could get the time back and spend it on learning to play guitar! haha :-D

Sorry, Cam.  Won`t subscribe on Utube. You have to scratch my back first! LOL. And no,  I don`t reciprocate unless it is justified and fair. And no, I don`t give a damn what others think of my `champion`, they can kiss my arse as long as I play, enjoy myself, and win. Nothing else matters. Selfish, I guess. :p

There were and even still are, mostly in remote places, human societies that base their survival on reciprocity, so for a fact it is a factor influencing us - this is detailed in Marcel Mauss' book "The Gift". That being said, I'm skeptical towards how much the average LoL player cares about reciprocity rather than conspicous consumption. 

For the short period I played this game, I really didn't care about none of them, because I judged that it was their decision to make the game free, thus not making me feel inclined towards giving anything back, and I didn't enjoy it enough to care for conspicous consumption, even though I had lots of friends playing. Sure, if I actually had got into the game, that could've changed.

I have spend 360?  (477$) in League of Legends. It's a lot of money but i play this game every day the last 30 months.
Actually i spend 12?  (16$) per month, they are not a lot of money.

Why pay? Well if nobody paid

The game would go under and no more League of Legends. I have also played games where there are commercials and ads in game.

Nicely done.

LoL rotates a selection of 6(?) champions a week.  If you want to keep playing one you're good with, or one your team wants you to play, you need to buy it.  I bought a starter package for $15 I think that included a dozen or so champions, including the ones I wanted.  I would never pay money for skins, I'm not materialistic enough to care about conspicuous consumption.

I guess it is kind of an offshoot of the idea of reciprocity, but the reason I've spent money in LoL is because I have gotten so much use out of the game. 

An average XBox360 or PS3 game will cost me $60, and I will play it roughly 10-15 hours before never touching it again, unless the game has great multiplayer. Now, for LoL, I easily play for 10-15 hours every week depending on what my schedule is like. I have no problem spending money on LoL because I've gotten way more playtime and enjoyment out of it than most other non-free to play games. The overall use and utility of the game makes it worth spending money to me.

i dont buy rp points i play for influence points to buy more champs

That study just shows how many people are chumps.  Bringing me a free soda that wasn't really any sweat off your nose to do just because you're a "nice" guy isn't going to influence me to give you money for something.

Don't know, the test subjects of the reciprocity needs to be broaden a bit, since it's only explaining the psychology of Americans, not Europeans, Asians, etc.

The problem with Cam's explanation about a good free-to-play business model does not explain majors free-to-play games from companies such as Nexon and others, which usually sells items that gives advantage at a high price.

dude nice explenation. I study Psychology and the explenation used is quite plausible 

Great  videos. Huge Fan. Your ideas regarding reciprocity conspicuous consumption were great to know. keep posting videos like these. Its huge fun to get to know something as well

I spent 100 on LoL, planned on buying skins because they had a black friday sale type deal. And stopped playing before I had a chance to spend them 8)

I don't play League of Legends... BUT... I have spent money on games I got for free. Examples:

You know about the Instant Game Collection on PS Plus right? You see, if I get a game for free that I happen to love (such as Gravity Rush) I buy some dlc for it. You know, to support the devs.

I have spent about 10 dollars on f2p games, like Dead Trigger. I usually buy an item or two if I really liked the game. So yeah, reciprocity working at it's finest.

Spent a total of about 20 minutes in free 2 play games (first angry birds to be exact, to see what all the fuss was about) with 0 bucks total spent. That's probably not ever going to change. Conspicuous consumption has the exact opposite effect on me. Nobody is going to impress me with their stupidity of spending money in free 2 play games and thus promoting the further existence of this horrible business model

Never have, never will my ego won't allow it.

There is no such thing as F2P. Of course the in game item shops are there that would undoubtedly tempt you to buy from them. How else would they keep the servers up and running?

The only thing that people should realize is that it is an unavoidable fact. The problem is that if there is no market, they will either close the servers or put more items in the market aside from the Costumes maybe even overpowering ones which could backfire. The Players role is to buy enough or be wise enough not to spend too much in buying stuff in the market. Since that is the whole plan of in game online shops.

the only f2p game i would spend money on is planetside 2 why, because planetside 2 give everything i want real nonstop war with hundreds of player in one engangement,and planetside 2 is not toxic as lol everyone on ps2 is so damn nice and funny even when you loss the fight,its not like lol when one guy leave and everyone just ban him, and on topic of banning i never got banned on ps2 on the otherhand lol overbanning with no reason make me sick of it,and i even dont know what im doing wrong when people start cursing at me and not telling whats wrong,and thats just suck. and oh yea you ALSO GOT BANNED FOR JUST LEAVING BY THE GAME ITS SELF

Right now my mind feels like an Intel I7 3970 extreme processor overclocked to 6.1Ghz running unstable. I can't seem to find the bios setting in my mind that will factory reset me to how I was before this all started happening. I just want to be a normal child playing with female cosplay figurines and not bothering my friends nor family. My gamer friends are all like if you don't calm down your gunna be AFR (Away From Reality) and I agree with them. What I really need right now is a Reality Check.

0 spent on LoL and other F2P games that I actually do play.

I also try not to buy vanity items or ornaments irl. I'm not against stuff like that I just think there are more important things to put money on.

I prefer practical and high quality items. Often quality does look stylish anyway. It's not that I have anything against jewelry or things that make you or your home look good. It's just that I want them to be practical first and foremost.

I like clean lines and not too much clutter. I have enough items in my home to not want more items just for show.

While I do like vanity stuff in games I'm not willing to pay extra for them unless it's through playing the game and grinding for in game money.

I loved this episode, but I think I enjoyed your little memoir even more. Short but inspiring.

@sir_inverno You can buy champs which can be over powered at times. You can also buy runes and such, but if you play long enough all of this is free. So you are only right when talking about players with low amounts of games played...

@ggregd I'm sure if you looked hard enough you'd find something.  Conspicuous consumption is something that has happened as a result of our excess.  It wasn't invented.   Maybe you justified purchasing something because it was "good" and "worth it" ,  When it stemmed from you noticing someone else with it.

I believe a lot of people shoot down things in these videos because they only associate them to happening in videogames.  

@endorbr Ya but the point is...there are enough of such people then it will make free-to-play games successful.

@dkeppens It will probably change when you'll find a game you like to play:)

@dkeppens Well, you didn't really play a free to play game, Angry Birds is just a boring insult to videogames (I could only play it for like 5 minutes before stopping, it just had nothing special, it was like a pointless Worms clone). League of Legends actually is worth being called a video game.

@Errorcutive The game bans you temporarily for one day, I think, if you voluntarily leave and don't come back (not if you get disconnected).  If you quit in the middle of a match you almost always cause your shorthanded team to lose, which is unfair to them.

I've put many hours into LoL and I can honestly say the community there is no worse than any other online game I've played, and much better than in FPS multiplayer.  I was wary of trying the game because of all the horror stories i heard, and as far as I can tell that's all they are - stories.  Their reputation system works well to keep people civil and weed out the tools.

Well lol I can't say I know the feeling lol but you sure are a lol good sport lol about lol it lol

@Busta @ggregd This is just my personal outlook.  I understand Conspicuous Consumption is real, it just doesn't influence my purchasing decisions.  Maybe I should say it doesn't any more, because I did care about it when I was younger.  I just eventually realized buying something you don't need to impress your peers is a waste of money.  Life isn't a contest to see who gets the "best" stuff.  

I've paid more than I absolutely HAD to, perhaps, but getting value for your money is important and distinct from conspicuous consumption.  Having worked retail I found the cheapest item in a category is junk and the highest priced is excess.  I always go for the middle.  I see CC as buying something excessive like pinky rings or a Rolls Royce that no one literally needs.

@ggregd @Busta  

In my (and a lot of other people's) opinion spending money on champs is a bigger waste due to the fact you can unlock those just by playing the game. Skins have to be puchased with real money.

To be fair there's also people that would laugh at us all for spending money on a game (other than to straight-up buy it.)

It's funny really.