My name's Andy. I'm a dad of three. And I love free to play games.
Why, you ask? Why not, is my reply.
Seriously, what's not to love about free to play? The first clue's in the name. They are free to play. And when you have three kids, the word 'free' is always a pleasure to hear.
Don't get me wrong. I am not averse to spending money on games. Good games that offer hours and hours of unputdownable gameplay are absolutely worth the £40 price tag. If I thought otherwise, I'd have been in the wrong business for the last 20 years.
But, as a dad, when there are so many other things competing for that £40, you need to know that you're spending it wisely. That it's being spent on a game that will keep the kids - all of them, of different ages - truly immersed, engaged and entertained before you put your hand in your pocket.
It offers you the chance to try before you buy - you can decide if you like it before you're asked to consider parting with any cash. Or not.
What's more, I also love that they have the power to appeal to different age groups and both genders in a way that console games generally don't, which means all three of my kids can play the same game, and I can also compete against them. So in spite of us playing games on individual devices, the games are oddly successful in bringing us together to play as a family.
And finally, there's a lot to be said for the quality and variety of free to play games. Being free means the market is uber competitive. Players have made no investment in the game, so there's nothing to stop them turning off after 30 seconds and moving on to the next one. This means the quality of most free to play games is incredibly high. The cost of development and ease of self-publishing has also made free to play an incredibly accessible marketplace which means the variety and quantity of titles on offer is mind blowing.
Sadly, though, not everyone is so happy to wax lyrical about free to play in the same way. Back in April, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) launched an investigation into whether children were being unfairly pressured into paying for additional content. It followed a number of high profile cases where children had racked up bills in the thousands playing iOS games because their parents had failed to lock their Apple IDs and, therefore, their accounts.
It's important to note, I think, that the OFT never implied micropayments were wrong. At the time, the OFT was quoted as saying: '[We are] not seeking to ban in-game purchases, but the games industry must ensure it is complying with the relevant regulations so that children are protected.'
As a parent, and as someone who works in the games industry, I do think it's important that developers are transparent about payments and parents & children are not misled. In fact, I think it's such an important topic that, at the F2P Summit in October, we're hosting a panel debate about the extent to which it's OK to market in-app purchases to kids. Where do you draw the line? How pushy can you be? What's morally acceptable and what's not?
Of course, I also think if we're going to avoid any repetition of earlier scandal that parents also need to take a little responsibility in understanding the technology they're putting into their children's hands and learn how to manage their child's access to their billing and payment information better. With marketers and parents working together then there's no reason why our kids can't continue to enjoy the fantastic entertainment that free to play offers.
Andy Lane is managing director of Tandem Events, which organises the F2P Summit at RichMix in London on 10 October 2013. www.f2p-summit.com. The debate about free to play and marketing to kids is the focus of one of our panel sessions. Come along - have a voice.
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