Ok...
So I went of in the chatbox this morning because one of the best games ever (Dungeon Keeper) has been turned into a Free-to-Play joke by EA

I did a bit of research on this
This is the Nerd take on it.
WARNING SWEARING



If you can't watch it, here is the short version:
The game involves you using imps to digg out tunnels and rooms to build up your army and attack/defend your dungeon heart.
In this mobile version, digging out A SINGLE BLOCK can take 24 HOURS. Unless you pay 256 gems. to make it faster.
The game gives you 400 gems at this stage.
THEIR BEST VALUE BUNDLE FOR MORE GEMS IS.... 70 POUNDS for 14000 gems.
70 POUNDS. That is around R1260 at the moment.
Cheapest is 3 pounds for 500 gems. ALMOST R60 so you can dig out 2 blocks.

WTF?
W.T.F.?

How can you possibly post this kind of numbers and not vomit in your mouth?

HOW CAN THE GAME HAVE THOUSANDS OF 5 STAR REVIEWS?

Is this honestly what gaming has become?

What is the most you have ever spent on a "FREE" to play game?

THIS. I DONT EVEN KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY EXPRESS MY RAGE AT THIS! DK WAS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE GAMES! IN FACT I LOVED ALL THE BULLFROG GAMES. EA MUST BURN!!

Don't play it then

I'm not going to. I have DK 2 on a flash drive somewhere. I'll play that.

If you really must play it rather buy it through GOG.com.
It'll work out to be a lot cheaper.
You can get it for roughly the price of just 2 blocks.

And now there's a good chance I'll be playing DK this weekend.

It's not about play or don't play. This is a massive middle finger to gamers.
To get a fourth imp to help dig costs $60. That's as much as a AAA title. There is no justification for it accept "We can charge whatever we want, screw you"
The fact that it gets so many 5 star reviews is another massive alarm bell.

It's one thing to charge R50 for a costume. You can take it or leave it, and it only has cosmetic value. Charging an arm and a leg to simply m ake the game playable is sick.

whats the bet that there was some incentive to the people who voted 5 stars?

Guys get this:

https://wftogame.com/

War for the overworld, it is basically just a direct dungeon keeper clone in a lot of ways.

It depresses me to see dungeon keeper reduced to this, but end of the day this game does a great job bring back that old feeling.

@Woofles
Yeah, I've been backing that one for ages.
I guess if the big companies try to nail you, the smaller ones might be the solution.
Though at this stage I think we are looking at a serious gaming crash within the next few years

@Teb

I mentioned in another forum, gaming in the next 20 years is going to change in a big way.

But as long as there are indies out there, there will always be good games.

One of the reasons I got back into pc gaming is because these days I am enjoying Indie titles more than most big studo titles

I would like to make it clear that I do not have an issue with micro-transaction, provided that it is implemented on a free-to-play game. There are many mobile games that I genuinely enjoyed that had/have micro-transactions. After all you don't have to use the micro-transactions in the game, you could simply ignore them and come back to the game when the required task has been completed.

For me the best example of this is Battle Cats, which is still one of the dopest mobile games out there. I would use all the resources that the game gave me for the day, battle through a few levels and allow the game to "recharge" these resources during the course of the day. I still got massive enjoyment out of a free game.

Mobile games are not supposed to be there for long playthroughs where you sit and play for hours on end. They are there for a short bursts.

You are getting a game for free, do not expect a triple A title. Have fun with what you get.

Now that being said, I do have a bit of an issue with games that you pay for that still have micro-transaction. This grinds my gears quite a bit! I refuse to pay more money for something I have already paid for on mobile. But give it to me for free and I am all good with using micro-transaction if I really need them.

Just my opinion though.

I can see these transactions as adding to a game, but the current models used are just insane. I would love DK on my iPad, but no way am I paying thousand of rands to play it. Rather give me an option to buy it for $20 or to go the F2P route, don't force it on me. I hate to see great game being hamstrung by this s***. Forza on XB1 is getting [censored] up by this stuff as you have to spend stupid amount of money to get the cars you want.

The problem is, is that people are used to paying this kind of money due to Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans ( a friend spent close to R2k in a week on the latter) so EA are trying to jump on the bandwagon. As DP said, I will vote with my wallet and just not play this when I can get XCom and BG 1 and 2 for $20 each.

I agree if the free to play game is free then it's one thing. but when the micro transactions are so broken the game is horrible to play with out them it is another story.

Plants VS Zombies 2 does the microtransaction thing very well, I can play that game with out feeling the need to the pay and guess what I ended up buying one or two things.

With DK it's so rediculous I cant even bring myself to play the game for long.

Star Trek: Trexels (iOS)
"Micro" transactions, yea right!!

I don't understand how this is a viable model - there must be people stupid enough to support it. This is a remake of an old game and they are just reaping in more cash on it with minimal effort on their side.

Micro-transactions are probably one of the dumbest things in gaming now a days.

As long as people pay, companies will continue to do this.