Top Ten Free-to-Play Games - Clicks for Kicks

[Ralsu]

Is Twitchy Combat the Future of F2P?

Sometimes F2P guru Danny "Ralsu" Gourley worries that future gamers will find his corpse buried in a tar pit, a fossil of an old-school gamer who seeks to use his wit rather than his reflexes in gaming. As Ralsu reflects on twitchy titles he's played among the subscription stable, he starts to realize that tests of agility are already pouring over into the F2P arena:

Cabal Online allows players to spam clicks or key presses instead of auto-attacking. Deco Online has gamers using key press combinations to deliver extra damage.

Will Ralsu's stunted reflexes allow him to keep up, or will he become extinct? Read "Clicks for Kicks" for more!

[Vroshnak]

It's fine if some games want to cater to a action MMO gamer niche.

However, I prefer strategy over action also... and it seems in the game industry that trends and fads tend to overshadow existing games rather than coexist with them. So yes, I'm concerned.

[unholyblackdeath]

I agree with you 100%. I don't consider myself an "old school" gamer as I am fairly new to MMOs. My gaming background is tabletop RPGs, so the strategy element is something I sorely miss when its not present. I have the silly idea that I am role playing a character who has skills that I don't. Why, as you so rightly point out, would I want my character limited by my own physical skill? Video games are a mental contest, not physical.

This issue is linked (in my mind at least) to the recent idea of MMO's on consoles. Console systems are for twitchy ADHD kids to begin with. So now we are going to dumb down PC games so these console gamers can keep up? This disappoints and concerns me.

The bottom line is that I cannot play twitchy games long term. I may enjoy it for awhile, but it will get old to me and I will eventually cancel my sub, just like I did with AoC. Twitchy F2P games don't even stand a chance of ever getting any money from me.