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EU to ban labeling games as free-to-play unless they are actually free
- Thread starter Zabant
- Start date
chrominance
Member
As someone who leans politically towards the EU side of things on many issues, I have to ask: what United States do you live in that is somehow a bigger nanny state than EUROPE?
This prevents false advertising which is already frowned upon in EU. How you can turn this into something bad is beyond me. Free-to-play is not really free-to-play if you can't play the game for more than 20 seconds before needing to buy crystals/coins/shit to continue playing. Just like no one can advertise tobacco as some kind of health product. To me, it just seems that the kids-spending-hundreds-of-pounds example is kind of just an event that brought this to law-makers attention, not the sole reason they want to prevent the term free-to-play in games that aren't in any way free.
SuperEpicGuy
Banned
About damn time. Getting annoyed with all of this free to play bs. Way to go EU. This should come to north america ASAP so the milking stops to a degree.
I think you might be surprised.
"Free" to play games essentially work by getting downloads based on the "free" terminology which then gives them a window to get the user addicted to the game before they start aggressively begging for money. A "free" to play game instantly gets far more downloads than a free demo, let alone a game that charges a huge $1 for access to the entire game, and that is because of the misleading terminology.
It definitely won't kill the trend, but it will help consumers make more informed decisions. That alone is going to result in a more fair and educated market which can only help manage the trend. And if these sort of games continue to successfully target kids it's safe to say this is not the end, but only the beginning of regulation.
No, the quote precised not even optional micro-transactions. So that includes cosmetic.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
How does Dota 2 not pass?
Games advertised as ‘free’ should not mislead consumers about the true costs involved.
The true cost involved in playing Dota 2 is $0.00. All the charges are for optional customization with no bearing and spectating certain tournaments in-game. You don't run into content walls, timers, energy systems, or anything of the sort.
Games should not contain direct exhortations to children to buy items in a game or to persuade an adult to buy items for them.
Nothing like that in Dota.
Consumers should be adequately informed about the payment arrangements and purchases should not be debited through default settings without consumers’ explicit consent.
Dota 2 explains that it charges your Steam wallet and makes you confirm each purpose. AFAIK it can't even charge your debit card directly.
Traders should provide an email address so that consumers can contact them in case of queries or complaints.
Yup.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
TBF Optional micro-transactions are a loop hole you can argue most are optional which is why they decided to close it tight.
Minsc
Gold Member
I just don't have a high opinion of where laws generally head towards here... perhaps the grass is not any greener on the other side either.
It also prevents legitimate games from being labeled as Free too, like Path of Exile, DOTA2, etc. Not to mention plenty of games that fall in the middle, like say Hearthstone, where plenty of people have indeed played and continue to play for free, also can't be called free (even though they are).
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
The part about no optional transactions would apply wouldn't it?
Joseph Merrick
Member
hasn't it always been?
don't call it 'free to play' then, free to play is a marketing term getting drilled into people all over the place. just call it free.
If I'm reading correctly, Dota 2 couldn't advertise itself as "free" using no other qualifiers, but "free to play" should work since there's no playable part of the game that you need to pay for.
Willy Wanka
my god this avatar owns
These are the important steps. The term 'free to play' is fine imo but the practices of some of the scummier developers out there (of which there are 1000s in the mobile space) have to be curtailed.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Good riddance.
Anyways the goal of this is not to kill that business model or that it shouldn't be or to try to do something so there's less games of that type. The point is entirely to prevent misleading and false advertising. And that was needed imo.
That's an interesting one now isn't it. A quote from the article:
Consumers spending a ton on this "free" to play experience is making us buckets of money! On the other hand I'm not sure that would be considered as a part of a ruling like this since GTA Online is clearly not free to play given that it requires a $60 up front charge. There they're obviously just using "free" to play as a euphemism for addictive gameplay induced microtransactions rather than as a misleading marketing tool which is what I think this is targeting - for now.
I'd think most F2P games would just make the required changes to their advertising. The only games that would actually get hit hard by, e.g. exhorting kids to buy items, are truly scummy.
Hamster Plugin
Member
This is incorrect. Dota 2 and TF2 have a crate system where the game is dropping crates to you, encouraging you to spend real money on a key to open them. If you do not buy a key, the crate is useless to you. Your drop is wasted if you don't spend money.
I'm taking "direct exhortations" to mean things like a popup that says "Hey kids! Get your parents to punch in their credit card number so you can play as Pudge with your friends!"
The crates seem pretty indirect to me. Their descriptions explain that they're unlocked with a paid item, yeah, but neither game does anything remotely like the F2P tutorials you see in mobile games where they give you some cash currency, have you spend it, then ask you to do it again later when you don't have any left.
Minsc
Gold Member
GOOD. Truth in advertising is always A Good Thing. "Free to Play" was always a misleading term for freemium games with IAP. Now the EU just has to ban IAPs themselves, and video games are saved forever.
So I take it you'd be happier if DLC were banned as well? As IAP encompasses DLC as well.
M
Macapala
Unconfirmed Member
This is a good thing, "free to play" is quite misleading after all. Now they need to get onto those bullshit full priced retail games including micro transactions. There should at least be a disclaimer on the box to inform unaware consumers.
BruiserBear
Banned
Very hopeful this goes forward. There is definitely some deception going on in this space.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
GOOD. Truth in advertising is always A Good Thing. "Free to Play" was always a misleading term for freemium games with IAP. Now the EU just has to ban IAPs themselves, and video games are saved forever.
For European gamers at least. Lets hope the rest of the world follow suit (which I kind of doubt).
It affects a few legitimate droplets negatively in a sea of exploitative shit. They'll cope.
Besides, customization is kind of a big part of the gameplay/experience for a lot of people, so I wouldn't really call those free either when they force the kind of people who like to personalize their character having to cough up most of the money from the userbase of the game. Come up with some other term for your game if it's not really 100% free.
Zabant
Member
Just took the article headline straight from the METRO article, though I agree.
Edit: Looks like the mods do to, it's changed.
SolidsnackooFoxhound
Banned
Bye LoL! You garbage ass game.
As much as I'm a hater of free to play games in general, I have to disagree with this.
A game is still free to play when all purchases are optional. As in, you can definitely play it for free.
I don't see how this can be considered false advertising. The literal wording of the term itself is not based on a lie.
A game is still free to play when all purchases are optional. As in, you can definitely play it for free.
I don't see how this can be considered false advertising. The literal wording of the term itself is not based on a lie.
Yup.
LoL isn't going anywhere.
Well, it depends on what you mean by "optional." Where do you put games with energy systems that only let you play a certain amount before you need to wait for several hours? You only have to pay it if you want to play more than the allotted amount, so it's technically not required.
Basileus777
Member
They should ban all gambling or random chance IAP in games, or at least require such games be labeled as casino games for adults only. And do something about the way multiple fake currencies are used to confuse customers.
Zabant
Member
Nobody is going to fall for that though.
CambriaRising
Member
Good. I wish the US would do this.
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
It sucks for the good guys like path of exile or warframe, but this shit got too far already.
I don't think they would have the legal ground to try and kill the trend. The terminology though is straight up misleading and needs to go. I'm tooooooootally okay with this.
Edit: Oh, there was a title change.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
That's because f2p is a dodgy ass term a demo is free to play. sure it may lock majority of the game but that section of the game is f2p.
That's why they're being so strict so companies don't simply use the loop holes.
VanquishUK
Member
Free-To-Download
thesuperfunk
Member
This is a good start I suppose ...
Yeah, it's potentially a de facto ban, depending on how they can weasel around it and/or how people respond. If they just know the base product is free they may not care, but maybe it'll turn the mentality away from F2P games to be viewed among the mass audience as it tends to be viewed in places like here, and that may help a lot.
ihearthawthats
Banned
I don't see how this changes much. It's still gonna be free to download and free to play. I don't think people will stop playing candy crush and jetpack joyride just because it's not called f2p. I prefered a previous thread suggesting that you can't sell items outside of the game's store (I.e. no popups).