This is an interesting discussion, but no one has mentioned the physical aspect of trading card games. When you purchase a pack of cards, you now own them; you

This is an interesting discussion, but no one has mentioned the physical aspect of trading card games. When you purchase a pack of cards, you now own them; you can hold them in your hands, arrange them in binders, sell them on to someone else, etc. With free to play games, you buy some gems or coins and then spend them in the game and they are gone! You can't sell them on, you cannot take them out again later and look at them. It feels more like burning money than buying something.