In free-to-play games a very small fraction of players produces most revenue, so design optimises for that fraction.
Reported paying rates in free-to-play titles are commonly low single-digit percentages of players, with spend concentrated far more sharply still within that group. The design consequence is direct: the game is tuned for the people who spend, and the experience of everyone else is partly an input to that.
In practice
- A game whose median player pays nothing is not designed for the median player.
- A service whose revenue comes from a small minority will be shaped by that minority's preferences, whatever its user numbers say.
- Subject
- Play & Game Design
- Essay
- Small worlds with visible rules