I sometimes think of comparing it to a kind of voluntary Stockholm syndrome [1]. The important point to note from the wiki is the mistaking of "lack of abuse"

I sometimes think of comparing it to a kind of voluntary Stockholm syndrome [1]. The important point to note from the wiki is the mistaking of "lack of abuse" as an act of kindness. To elaborate: The customer is attracted by the "free" game and how fun it looks. They are then kidnapped by the addictiveness of the initial gameplay - before any significant payment is required. Then they are tortured with the unenjoyable misery of the free grind; Usually whilst they are reminded of how much better their friends are getting on in the game (yay social networking!). But they are told they can pay to skip the bad parts. This is where I compare it to Stockholm syndrome: They are confusing relief from abuse with an act of kindness. They feel the same relative bump in happiness, but mistake it for feeling good, when it's actually closer to relief from harm. And of course, much like Stockholm syndrome, they don't even realise quite how much they've been suckered in. They just think "that was fun" - or in the case of the real syndrome, "they were justified" - rather than realise they've just had thousands of dollars extracted from them while they were held captive... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome EDIT: I realise this may be a bit offensive to those of you who work in the free-to-play industry. But as a gamer, I really do wish the industry wasn't trending this way. What's wrong with paying up front? I'll happily pay large sums of money for a game + expansions. But try and nickle-and-dime me and it ruins the whole experience.