Binary Family's Thorsten Rauser, as reported by GamesIndustry, did not mince words when it came to his thoughts in a Casual Connect presentation about the free-to-play model in casual gaming.
"We are fucked," he stated in a panel. "Our industry has become a joke," he claimed in another.
Using the recent episode of South Park—specifically, the sixth episode of the eighth season entitled "Freemium Isn't Free"—he has ominous words for his fellow designers:
If we look at our industry today, there's reason to believe that we are fucked. The thing is, our industry has become bad; society's view of our industry has become bad. We try to get as much money out of the player as possible. That's what the job of the [casual] game designer has become. That's how people see us.…What we're doing is selling games to children. I think it's so disgusting. We sell them $100 packages of fake currency and make their parents pay because we can easily manipulate them. This is the thinking of the gambling industry.
A part of the problem, he believes, is the prioritization of the App Store of Free content over Paid content, but really, parents who paying for their children's compulsions (like Randy Marsh) are losing patience.
We have lost a lot of them, and over the next few years we'll lose an even bigger part of them. People are not stupid.…Refusing to make games that manipulate people? I would love to know the solution.
