Like its predecessors, Real Racing 3 looks as if it'll be another high-quality racing experience on iOS, one that looks and plays better than most other racing games found on the App Store. What it doesn't have in common with the numbered Real Racing games that came before it is its business model: Real Racing 3 will be a free-to-play game.
That's not in and of itself a surprising thing to see on the App Store, which is routinely dominated by free apps -- it's not until number 30 on the iPhone's Top Grossing charts that you find a second app that can't be downloaded for free, and the only one prior to that is Minecraft, which is a veritable sensation. And although it'll be nice for anyone to be able to stumble onto the game and give it a try without having to pay a dime, the particular way Real Racing has been turned into a microtransaction-based game isn't what I would have hoped for.
As reported last week, Real Racing 3 takes the approach that many Facebook games do, where players are asked to either be patient or pay up. As your vehicles take damage or endure the unavoidable wear and tear of racing, the effects suffered go beyond cosmetics. Each vehicle's statistics, things like top speed, will decline as the vehicle is worn down. What that means is that, at some point, it'll need to be repaired and get an oil change. When that happens, you have the option of either waiting -- a process that can take anywhere from a couple minutes to several hours in real time, depending upon the severity of the damage -- or paying to expedite the process with a currency that is doled out rarely through play and is primarily earned by shelling out some real-world money.
What stops this from being as egregious as it could be, and it's no doubt the defense Electronic Arts and Firemonkeys will present, is the fact that this is all vehicle-specific. In other words, if I want to play without paying, I can drive around my BMW Z4 while my busted-up Audi R8 (hypothetically, the car I actually want to be driving) is repaired for free. And indeed, I suspect many players will go that route without complaining. But I take issue with it.
Make no mistake, I don't mean to suggest this is the single worst free-to-play offense we've seen; in recent memory, Final Fantasy: All the Bravest remains a shockingly appalling excuse for a game, with dreadful microtransactions to boot. Compared to that, Real Racing 3 is a breath of fresh air, but viewed in the proper context, I think it's a poor example of how to adapt a game to the free-to-play model, and just the sort of thing that makes me worry about the future of gaming.
That's not in and of itself a surprising thing to see on the App Store, which is routinely dominated by free apps -- it's not until number 30 on the iPhone's Top Grossing charts that you find a second app that can't be downloaded for free, and the only one prior to that is Minecraft, which is a veritable sensation. And although it'll be nice for anyone to be able to stumble onto the game and give it a try without having to pay a dime, the particular way Real Racing has been turned into a microtransaction-based game isn't what I would have hoped for.
As reported last week, Real Racing 3 takes the approach that many Facebook games do, where players are asked to either be patient or pay up. As your vehicles take damage or endure the unavoidable wear and tear of racing, the effects suffered go beyond cosmetics. Each vehicle's statistics, things like top speed, will decline as the vehicle is worn down. What that means is that, at some point, it'll need to be repaired and get an oil change. When that happens, you have the option of either waiting -- a process that can take anywhere from a couple minutes to several hours in real time, depending upon the severity of the damage -- or paying to expedite the process with a currency that is doled out rarely through play and is primarily earned by shelling out some real-world money.
What stops this from being as egregious as it could be, and it's no doubt the defense Electronic Arts and Firemonkeys will present, is the fact that this is all vehicle-specific. In other words, if I want to play without paying, I can drive around my BMW Z4 while my busted-up Audi R8 (hypothetically, the car I actually want to be driving) is repaired for free. And indeed, I suspect many players will go that route without complaining. But I take issue with it.
Make no mistake, I don't mean to suggest this is the single worst free-to-play offense we've seen; in recent memory, Final Fantasy: All the Bravest remains a shockingly appalling excuse for a game, with dreadful microtransactions to boot. Compared to that, Real Racing 3 is a breath of fresh air, but viewed in the proper context, I think it's a poor example of how to adapt a game to the free-to-play model, and just the sort of thing that makes me worry about the future of gaming.
There are other games that use this pay-or-wait scheme, many of them on Facebook. But it's one thing to see a game like FarmVille operate like this, and quite another to see an otherwise standard racing game deviate from what we've been used to seeing for the better part of two decades to take advantage of an increasingly popular business model. That there are reportedly cars that can only be obtained with the currency you're only likely to see much of by paying for it -- and that one of these cars costs $70, and another a mind-blowing $100 -- makes this all the more maddening. Sure, it's up to players to decide what they're willing to spend money on, but why is this even an option? In what world is it reasonable to ask $100 for a virtual car in a mobile racing game?
The ridiculously expensive, but optional, vehicles aside, the free-to-play application here wouldn't bother me if EA did what Hi-Rez Studios is trying out with Tribes: Ascend, and offered the game for a flat fee -- you know, like the old days. If some way of making the game free-to-play can't be developed that avoids being contingent upon testing players' patience, all I want is for EA to do this: Strip out all of the waiting, make repairs something you pay for with money earned by competing in races, and slap a price tag on the game so I can buy it and play it as I would a traditional game. Such a version wouldn't have to take the place of the free-to-play version; I just wish my only option for playing the game didn't mean having to take a break from driving the car I want to spend time with every so often. My real-life car has dings in it that I haven't paid to fix; I don't want to pay to fix the bumper on my virtual dream car.
It's a shame, too, because Real Racing 3 looks good. Its visuals are among the best you'll find on iOS, and its clever asynchronous mode -- AI racers' performances are dictated by race times set by other players -- is an interesting take on multiplayer I'm looking forward to trying out for myself. I do still plan on giving the game a try once it's released at the end of the month; tweaks have already been made (and then un-made) to the version of the game released as part of a soft launch in certain countries, though none of them involve pulling out the waits altogether.
At least at this point, it's easy to imagine this being a game I don't play for as long or as much as I would if it weren't for all this. By all indications, it is possible to play the game without ever spending a dime, although doing so will invariably inhibit your play experience, and I'm not OK with that. It's not as if I'm asking for a free game I can play as I wish; I'm willing to spend money to play, just not on microtransactions that temporarily repair my vehicle that might get beaten right back up during the next race I play. There was nothing wrong with racing games where you paid a price to play and that was the end of it, barring any tracks or cars that are released post-launch. A future where what we're seeing happen to Real Racing extends to other franchises and genre is a future I'm not sure I want any part of.
The ridiculously expensive, but optional, vehicles aside, the free-to-play application here wouldn't bother me if EA did what Hi-Rez Studios is trying out with Tribes: Ascend, and offered the game for a flat fee -- you know, like the old days. If some way of making the game free-to-play can't be developed that avoids being contingent upon testing players' patience, all I want is for EA to do this: Strip out all of the waiting, make repairs something you pay for with money earned by competing in races, and slap a price tag on the game so I can buy it and play it as I would a traditional game. Such a version wouldn't have to take the place of the free-to-play version; I just wish my only option for playing the game didn't mean having to take a break from driving the car I want to spend time with every so often. My real-life car has dings in it that I haven't paid to fix; I don't want to pay to fix the bumper on my virtual dream car.
It's a shame, too, because Real Racing 3 looks good. Its visuals are among the best you'll find on iOS, and its clever asynchronous mode -- AI racers' performances are dictated by race times set by other players -- is an interesting take on multiplayer I'm looking forward to trying out for myself. I do still plan on giving the game a try once it's released at the end of the month; tweaks have already been made (and then un-made) to the version of the game released as part of a soft launch in certain countries, though none of them involve pulling out the waits altogether.
At least at this point, it's easy to imagine this being a game I don't play for as long or as much as I would if it weren't for all this. By all indications, it is possible to play the game without ever spending a dime, although doing so will invariably inhibit your play experience, and I'm not OK with that. It's not as if I'm asking for a free game I can play as I wish; I'm willing to spend money to play, just not on microtransactions that temporarily repair my vehicle that might get beaten right back up during the next race I play. There was nothing wrong with racing games where you paid a price to play and that was the end of it, barring any tracks or cars that are released post-launch. A future where what we're seeing happen to Real Racing extends to other franchises and genre is a future I'm not sure I want any part of.
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