The following are a few examples of games that follow this business model.
FarmVille:
One free to play game I got very addicted to in the past, FarmVille has you build your own farm using limited resources and the help of your friends. Thus the addiction comes from making your farm bigger and better thanks to regular free gifts, in-game currency and rewards for doing the smallest things such as planting crops and building fences. Since you can invite your friends to play for rewards and help with the farm, the game already receives new players for every new player who joins. So, imagine if one person joined and then got two more to join, those other two then invite two of their own and slowly the number of players increases exceptionally.
The game however, limits the number of actions the player can make and only earns new turns every couple of minutes, thus players constantly refresh the page and come back to make the most of their turns per day. This is also how the developers earn more money with micro transactions. If the player finds themselves short on turns, or if they fancy purchasing special items, that can not be bought with in-game currency, then the player can spend real money to receive these bonuses.
In fact, the game became so popular on Facebook that Time magazine placed it in 'The Top 50 Worst Inventions' for being one of the most addictive games on Facebook.
Marvel: Avengers Alliance:
Another game similar to 'FarmVille', that I got hooked on for a good while was 'Marvel: Avengers Alliance', a game in which you play as an agent of Shield and join up with two of your favorite Marvel superheroes. I remember it being a fun game to play as, not only was it based on my favorite comic book company's superheroes, but it also had a story that involved you fighting Marvels greatest superheroes which kept me coming back in order to complete each chapter. In fact, the gameplay was quite entertaining as it was turn based combat similar to classic RPG's such as 'Final Fantasy'.
Like 'FarmVille', the game has micro transactions in which you can not only buy extra turns, but you can also purchase popular characters. Thus hardcore fans of the characters would end up purchasing them in order to add them to their roster. These characters can then be used in the main game or even the multiplayer matches which players can take part in for the fun of it. Thus players from around the world can find out who would win in a fight between their favorite characters.
The game proved so popular that it won Best Social Game at the Video Game Awards 2012.
Team Fortress 2:
A mix of great gameplay, humour, character design and balance. 'Team Fortress 2' was originally a game you bought, but is now a free to play first person shooter. What makes this game earn money for its developer however, is the items players can purchase for themselves such as hats. In fact, from playing other select games on Steam players can earn themed hats for their characters to wear, thus convincing old or new fans to play the game again so as to dress their characters in the way they want to. This is a great incentive but, I personally find it sometimes gets in the way of the decent character designs. However, I am a fan of customisation and there are a few decent hats available as seen below, so I don't suppose it's too bad.
Harvard referencing:
- Reynolds, T (Unknown) Video Game Network [Online image]. Available at: http://people.ucsc.edu/~tlreynol/exhibit/ (Accessed: 10/10/2013).
- Green Shoe (2012) GSA Designs Select Characters for Marvel: Avengers Alliance [Online image]. Available at: http://greenshoeanimation.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/gsa-designs-select-characters-for.html (Accessed: 10/10/2013).
- Zynga (Unknown) FarmVille [Online Image]. Available at: http://company.zynga.com/games/farmville (Accessed: 10/10/2013).
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