cos the devs chose not exploit you ‘as a product’

There is no such thing as a free game made by a studio. Full of micro transactions.

People will pay multiple times over what a one time purchase game costs.

There was a game made to actually show you how the manipulation tactics work. By someone who used to work for a studio that employed these tactics.

This video is a humorous review of the game that I recommend for those looking to be informed more on how it all works.

https://youtu.be/QtxY9J3AM_s?is=x03q105QVi3m-6PD

Otherwise the reviews on steam are also very informative.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/416760/Pay2Win_The_Tricks_Exposed/

If you price your game free to play, it’s assumed you loaded your game with abusive micro transactions and skinner box mechanics.

Also depicted: the majority of the fediverse when content creators want to live off of their content.

You gotta either build monetization right into the game or offer an easy way to buy it. There’s a reason why payment processors and stores in general try to reduce friction to a minimum.

If you wanna pay for something you either do it right away and without much hassle or very likely never. Personally I would even rather buy a game right away and be dissapointed (and potentially revisit it later) than download a demo first. I realize that this is a privileged position to be in, but either way it is an advantage for you if I don’t think about spending money too much