I know it's not nice to enjoy the failure of others, but I'm really pleased to see any free-to-play failure. My most recent misery in this segment is Tiny Troop

I know it's not nice to enjoy the failure of others, but I'm really pleased to see any free-to-play failure. My most recent misery in this segment is Tiny Troopers. It's a great little game that you can play to pass 2 minutes, or dig in and spend an hour or so working through the campaign missions. The problem is, the game is tainted by free-to-play. It actually makes it a worse game than it could have been. Gaming is, first and foremost, about balance. If a game is too hard, players get discouraged and give up. Too easy and there is no satisfaction in winning. This is not a secret. Every game developer knows it, and many game enthusiasts are acquainted with the subject once they start to investigate the question of "why" they enjoy a specific game so much. The trouble with free-to-play is that our wallets end up on the balance scale. How hard, or easy, the game is depends upon how much I'm willing to pump in to this little game. They make the game too hard to play without paying anything, but once you open your wallet, things can easily get way to effortless. In order to develop truly great games, the developer needs to control the difficulty. I'd rather not have to guess just how much I should pay them in order to get the best experience.