The $60-up-front retail games that we uphold as shining examples of "doing it right" are still awesome six months later. Every game in this category I thought

The $60-up-front retail games that we uphold as shining examples of "doing it right" are still awesome six months later. Every game in this category I thought was awesome right out of the box, I was still playing and still enjoying years later. But I can name several free-to-play games I thought were awesome a few months ago that I've completely given up on. It's not because they lacked replayability, or because they were less awesome than I initially thought. It's because the games changed, not in ways that improved gameplay, but in ways that increased the pressure to acquire various consumables. In the free-to-play games I initially enjoyed, I'd have happily spent money on expansion packs -- permanent add-ons that let me experience more of the same sort of fun as the original game. But instead, the games keep changing to be more of a joyless slog, and then they offer to let me skip the slog and get back to the fun for a few bucks. When the game mechanic becomes so dull that it makes sense to charge players to avoid playing, it's no longer a good game.