It's simple, the games that appeal the most to kids require some form of subscription. If those games didn't, then they wouldn't want ones with subscriptions.

I was talking just today with some coworkers about how having subscriptions instead of owning is what is normal to kids now - not just games, but things like Netflix and Spotify. So this doesn’t surprise me, but does depress me. Technofeudalism is the new normal.

Here are some good Free Software games that cost nothing at all:

• Hedgewars
• Mindustry
• Shattered Pixel Dungeon
• Minetest (with MineClone2 mod)
• 0 A.D.
• SuperTuxKart
• Freeciv
• FlightGear
• Battle for Wesnoth

But I want FortNite V-Buck's! I only have the default skins and people are making fun of me at school!

• Death's Door
• Celeste
• Party Animals (you can buy a bunch of skins, but you don't need to)
• The Outer Wilds

Why not skywalker saga, out of interest? Recently 100%ed it and thought it was a fun game.

I would like to add Outer Wilds to this. No combat, virtually no violence, and adult themes are aimed at mild existentialism. Great exploration game with fun physics and puzzles.

For older kids I'd suggest: Satisfactory. Essentially first person Factorio with mild combat vs fauna.
Astroneer: exploration and advancement.

I wouldn't say its that bad. Various forms of collectibles/cards have been around for a long time. Asking for gametime for a game like WoW isn't exactly a new phenomenon.

I think it's just that there are a few specific examples that stand out. Some aspects of Roblox can be pretty concerning.

But if a kid just wants some money for a skin for Fornite, or to buy a specific world setup for Minecraft, I don't necessarily see that as some scary new thing.

Yeah, but that is kinda like saying US healthcare is better than it was 50 years ago. You're correct, but why make the comparison?

It would be best if game developers didn't encourage kids to subscribe to their games. Just buy them like we did when I was growing up.

This presumes that disposable plastic crap is the only gift alternative. I still have most of the books I got for christmas as a kid

Most games are free to play and heavily encourage subscriptions. So capitalism?

Unchecked "free market" capitalism, if I had to guess.

Companies should never have been able to run outside of a very tight yoke. Yeah sure, capitalism. But not unchecked and especially not unchecked-across-borders so they can start escaping shit by moving legal entities around. Oh and speaking of that, maybe "corporations as entities" is another really really big one we fucked up, allowing the people who make the truly shitty decisions to shirk responsibility for them.

In case you are wondering this because it seems children actually prefer subscriptions to owning games, they don't. Out of what is offered to them, the most desired choices happen to be subscription models of some form. If those games were something you just bought then the desire would be for games that were purchased in full.

We've been hooking kids on gambling since (at least) baseball cards, which -surprise!- were heavily lobbied to convince law makers to let it fly.

Consumers were doomed the instant we failed to torch and pitchfork that shit.

This type of games are free to play. So a bunch of kids who are friends can start playing at any time even without money. If some of them like the game, they'll stay as a group for the social aspect.

I don't see any wrong in it. Its just different of what I did 30 years ago.

My parents refused to enable me to get into the glorified gambling of trading card games and frankly I was better off for this. I've seen people waking up realizing they had spent hundreds to thousands on cardboard designed to be replaced and deeply regretting it. That is while having cardboard to regret buying. Imagine what happens to these kids if the game they spent all their gift cards on closes down and takes it all down the drain.

Meanwhile there were gifts like games and D&D books that let me have fun for a long time as complete packages without needing additional expenditures to enjoy.

There are things kids can like and dislike, and we should keep that in mind. But as adults we should also take some responsibility for cutting through the bulshit of manipulative marketing. They aim these things at children because children only see their immediate excitement and wonder, but not the sleazy business behind it.

I share my steam linrary with my two kids. Gave them 200+ games. They still play Fortnite and Roblox because that is what their friends play. When I was young the biggest games were single player and you shared stories with your friends. Now you play with them online.

Strictly speaking, I'm not opposed to monetization in f2p games but the pricing is egregious.

When the le seraffim bundle for overwatch 2 dropped they also put their in game currency on sale so you could get enough currency to get the bundle for $50 instead of $70 and people were calling it a great value.

Even at $50, that's enough for 4 months of humble choice which would net you 32 games and 6-8 of them would be AAA games.