ree-to-play has brought gaming to billions

of new players across the globe: from the

middle-aged Middle Americans discovering

hidden object puzzles to the hundreds of

millions of mobile gamers playing MOBAs in China.

People who wouldn’t (or couldn’t) buy games now have

an unfathomable choice, spanning military shooters to

interior decorating sims.

F2P is solely responsible for this dramatic expansion

of our art across the borders of age, race, culture, and

continents. The joy of gaming is now shared by nearly

the entire globe. Yet many inside and outside the

games industry see F2P as a blight, where the model’s

success is down to its ability to trick unsuspecting

players into spending.

Having spent nearly a decade making F2P games,

I know that this isn’t an accurate picture of the average

spending player. The titles most prolific under the

model are successful because they become meaningful

to players’ lives, with spending healthily repeated

over months and often years. I’ve personally spent an

average of £1500 per year on Magic: The Gathering over

many years, well within the limits of my income, and

have no regrets. The game has brought me a lot of joy

and introduced me to some of my closest friends.

But it would be foolish to suggest that there aren’t

players who make purchases in F2P titles that they

live to regret, especially if they do so with impaired

reasoning, as is often the case with children and

vulnerable adults. I appeared on the BBC News back

in 2013 talking about children accidentally spending

money in games, and now, six years later, the BBC’s

still running stories on the problem.

Some may say that the responsibility to protect lies

with platform holders, parents, and carers. But this is

a shirk. Game makers have a responsibility to protect

their players, even if it’s from their own actions, and I

believe there is a simple way to do so: refunds.

It’s possible to see the F2P industry adopt a simple

policy, one which I know many studios already secretly

F

F2P game makers

have a responsibility

to their players

offer: any player can close their account and receive

a full refund for any spending within the last 60 days.

This time limit gives parents, guardians, carers, and

remorseful spenders a full billing cycle to spot errant

spending and another cycle to request their funds

back. It’s also a clear signal to our players and the

gaming community that F2P is not predicated on

one-time tricks but on building healthy, sustainable

relationships with players.

How such a refund policy would be publicised and

adopted is a little more tricky. But faced with mounting

calls for censorship in the 1950s, the comic industry

formed Comics Magazine Association of America to

self-regulate. Today, the UK’s UKIE and the United

States’ Entertainment Software Rating Board, along

with Google, Apple, Valve, and other platform holders,

could build a similar association.

The 1940s saw Fiorello LaGuardia, then mayor, take

to the streets of New York with a sledgehammer to

destroy pinball tables. Much of early gaming history is

now lost, and the evolution of pinball was stunted until

New York lifted the ban in the 1970s. Without self-

regulation, F2P faces a metaphorical sledgehammer.

We’ve already seen regulation in F2P, with Japan

outlawing a form of monetisation called ‘kompu gacha’

in 2012. Kompu gacha, meaning ‘complete gacha’, is a

mechanic where players are rewarded for completing

character sets dropped from gacha (also known as

loot boxes). Since then, political pressure has been

mounting across Europe and the world.

The F2P industry stands on the brink of regulation,

which may cause endless headaches for developers.

Governments have been proven not to understand

video games, and their presence could tie developers

in bureaucracy rather than focusing on what really

matters: making great games. As game makers,

we need to avoid censorship and regulation, push

boundaries, but also accept responsibility for our

players. And if we fail our players, then we need to

make things right for them.

WILL LUTON

Will Luton is a veteran

game designer and

product manager

who runs Department

of Play, the games

industry’s first

management

consultancy. He is

the author of Free-

to-Play: Make Money

From Games You

Give Away, and has

worked with Sega,

Rovio, and Jagex.

He is also an avid

retro games and

pinball player.

wfmag.cc \ 03

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