> With freemium games, that trust is obliterated. When I can't progress, I am forced to ask a fun-sucking question -- is the developer trying to extort money fr

> With freemium games, that trust is obliterated. When I can't progress, I am forced to ask a fun-sucking question -- is the developer trying to extort money from me in order to continue? Am I unable to continue because I just haven't mastered some in-game skill or is this simply the point at which I'm supposed to hand over my tithe? Absolutely. I hate the feeling of not knowing whether I'm not good enough yet or if this level is just designed to have no feasible way of completing without buying a power up. There is also no way to benchmark and compare with your friends since someone might have completed a level using a power up. Games for me is like sports, everyone should play on equal terms, even for single player games. Imagine playing/watching football where one team can buy an extra player to have on the field. I'd much rather have the paywall be honest like buying levels like the oldschool shareware method or subscriptions like mmorpgs. I'm actually surprised there are so few subscription based games, this should be ideal for both parties. The user don't have to pay the up front $60 for an unknown game and the vendor gets a constant revenue stream.