Only Entertainment

When they emerged several years ago, free-to-play video games were dismissed as too good (or, perhaps more accurately, too bad) to be true – worried traditional publishers contended that they weren't up to the standards of paid-for games and, anyway, they weren't really free. But free-to-play games now dominate on mobile and tablets, and every week, new evidence emerges that they are also usurping paid-for games on the consoles and the PC.

Recently, for example, EA's COO Peter Moore announced that all its traditional franchises will embrace free-to-play in the future, and there was widespread surprise that Bethesda Softworks' state-of-the-art massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, The Elder Scrolls Online, will take the subscription, rather than free-to-play, route.

But is free-to-play really as irresistible as the name suggests? Can it really offer a credible alternative to traditional games? And are British developers at the forefront of the free-to-play revolution?

One unmistakably British game certainly sits at the very top of the free-to-play MMO tree. RuneScape, developed by Cambridge-based Jagex, has been operating since the dimly remembered (and pre-pervasive broadband) days of 2001. In that period, over 220 million player accounts have been set up. Jagex won't say how many of those are currently active, but according to the company, "millions" of people play it every month.

In the past, hardcore gamers dismissed RuneScape as primitive – it plays much like a role-playing game (RPG), but had vastly inferior graphics to paid-for games like The Elder Scrolls. But it has just undergone the most ambitious revamp in its history (moving from Java to HTML 5) and the result, RuneScape 3, is much more akin to a paid-for game graphically, even though it still runs in a browser.

Executive producer Phil Mansell says Jagex's technological leap of faith has been a success: "There's been an amazing response both from our established community and lots of new players starting their adventure in RuneScape 3. An interesting side-effect was that we've seen a surprising amount of old accounts being reactivated."

The joy of RuneScape 3 lies in its sheer diversity – you can build up your character by taking increasingly complex missions, just potter around in the virtual world crafting and trading items or even auto-generate dungeons and quest your way through them. Perhaps the update's most impressive feature, though, allows the most committed players to take part in mass events, then vote on where they would like to see the storyline go.

Mansell elaborates: "The Battle of Lumbridge event has been the most popular content we've ever released, despite it being the first time we've attempted mass-participation gameplay on this scale. It's very empowering for players to choose the outcome of a world-defining story event; the gameplay is straightforward yet social; and it has good rewards that players can collect each day. It's now three weeks since launch and we've had well over 150 million votes cast over the future direction of the storyline; currently, I can see the righteous armies of the god Saradomin are winning by 20 million votes. During launch week, we had over 100,000 more new players than we'd normally see, and around 40,000 lapsed accounts reactivating."

While RuneScape 3 is enormously loved and insanely popular, it does highlight the fact that free-to-play, when it works, is a misnomer. When RuneScape launched in 2001, just after the internet bubble burst, Jagex abandoned its plans to make it advertising-supported in favour of making it subscription-based. Mansell is proud that: "Unlike most free-to-play games, the majority of the people playing right now are paying members."

Although you could spend hundreds of hours playing RuneScape 3 without paying a penny, its most esoteric features, such as the mass events, require a subscription. So the free-to-play aspect is more a means to let you try before you buy.

RuneScape also differs from many free-to-play games – particularly German and eastern European-developed ones – in that it won't let you pay your way to a levelled-up character. Mansell says that attitude is central to Jagex's philosophy: "RuneScape has always been about progression and achievement, and allowing players to buy their way through that would undermine the essence of the game. A game's free-to-play mechanics need to be sympathetic to its core gameplay, and the motivations which drive its players. If a game's business model hurts gameplay integrity and creates friction, it'll struggle to get committed players and establish a healthy community."

That, he says, is the key to the game's success: giving the players what they want: "The days of 'ship it and move on' are now over; engaging with your players and being responsive to their needs is a necessity now. Listen to your player community, embrace their ideas and understand their concerns. But also accept that you cannot please everyone. There is a natural tension between the needs of veterans and those of new players."

Another British free-to-play game has made waves recently: Celtic Heroes, created by One Thumb Mobile, has been available for iOS since 2011, garnering over a million downloads. Free-to-play, of course, is the norm on mobiles and tablets, but what makes Celtic Heroes stand out is that it runs in 3D, and feels very much like a full-blown RPG. Lead Designer Paul Simon – tellingly, he previously worked for Jagex – explains its appeal: "What sets Celtic Heroes apart from other MMOs is the fact that we are on a handheld platform – we have a fully 3D, open-world MMORPG custom-designed for handheld devices. Unlike traditional MMOs, it is designed to run with poor network connections, on limited devices, and the gameplay can be experienced both in short five-minute play sessions and multi-hour sessions."

Talking to British free-to-play MMO developers, a theme emerges, which seems in keeping with the reserved national character: employing Machiavellian devices to get players to pay for in-game items is frowned upon. Simon explains One Thumb Mobile's approach to monetising Celtic Heroes: "We decided right from the start that our focus would be on player satisfaction, rather than monetisation – we have always pursued a light monetisation strategy, allowing almost all of our premium purchases to be traded within the game, giving our players the choice to invest their time or their money."

He contends that the ability to trade in-game purchases is key to "levelling the playing field between payers and non-payers. Although some of our highest-level, most dedicated players have spent hundreds of hours in the game without spending a single penny."

Free-to-play MMOs aren't just about Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy role-playing, as a new British effort, just establishing a reputation for itself, proves. Auto Club Revolution is the latest racing game from long-established developer Eutechnyx, but unlike its previous games (primarily for consoles), it's free-to-play and runs in a browser. Dan Robinson, Eutechnyx's marketing manager, says: "About five years ago, Darren Jobling, our CEO, sat down and thought about where racing games are going, and also looked at the popularity of Facebook games. He wanted to make something that brings the two together, and adopted the Korean free-to-play model."

Robinson admits that another motivation was that Eutechnyx, a developer, would be able to self-publish if it took the free-to-play MMO route, and the company began work on Auto Club Revolution.

In quality terms, it's highly impressive, and rewards players for essentially forming clans – collective Auto Club achievements reward all members. Auto Club Revolution majors on cutting-edge design, with desirable machinery and impressive renditions of the world's finest race-tracks, but it does adopt a slightly harder-sell approach to monetisation. At least it does that through clever structure – as you rank up, you open up more races, but you have to race an awful lot to earn the necessary rewards to buy the cars which would speed up your progress. However, an in-game currency called E-bucks lets you use real money to buy cars, upgrades and so on. Robinson says that on average, Auto Club Revolution players spend about £21, which is still less than the average paid-for game.

So, is free-to-pay poised to usurp paid-for as the model of choice across the games industry? Certainly, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 contain more free-to-play-friendly features than previous consoles – Sony's purchase of the Gaikai streaming games technology, for example, will enable PlayStation 4 owners to try games before they buy them, and Microsoft is building similar cloud-based services into the Xbox One.

Jagex's Mansell acknowledges that, but has reservations: "This coming generation of consoles is finally taking a step forward in being open to free-to-play. But will it be enough? For all of their high-technology and talk of innovation, I worry that the console manufacturers' desire for tight control and a continued reliance on retail could hold back real innovation in business models. It would be a great shame if they continued to be behind the curve in free-to-play gaming."

One Thumb Mobile's Simon, meanwhile, cautions against the industry embracing free-to-play too enthusiastically: "The free-to-play MMO market is already quite crowded, with many studios continuing to push out games at a breakneck pace and of varying quality. As the market matures, free-to-play titles will need to increase in quality, as players get more picky about the games that they play, and this is why we are constantly expanding the team and investing our revenues back into the game."

You could argue that free-to-play is a lazy example of naming – a more accurate description of games like RuneScape 3, Celtic Heroes and Auto Club Revolution would be "pay-while-you-play", as the model essentially cuts out the initial £30 to £40 outlay, and lets you decide whether you like a game before you start getting stuck into it. But whatever you see fit to call it, that model is here to stay.