For those who are tired of emptying their real wallets to fill their virtual ones, we have compiled a selection of the best online games of various genres, in which donations, if present, are completely optional.
The gaming industry, like any other, needs to make a living, especially considering how popular the free-to-play model has become. However, developers earn money in different ways: some sell their products, some ask for a subscription fee, and some offer players the opportunity to enjoy fictional worlds for free, but give them the option to spend money in the game store. And that’s where the trouble begins.
This is especially familiar to fans of browser games. You start playing, for example, some kind of strategy game, build a city, hire an army, and everything seems fine, but after a while you see that your neighbors of the same level are much stronger and roll over your army in no time. Then you realize that it’s no coincidence that every five minutes, offers to buy game currency, all kinds of boosters, gear, and so on pop up on the screen. Fans of role-playing games suffer especially, because it’s not so easy to find an MMORPG without donations, which decide if not everything, then a great deal.
This is an example of an extremely ill-advised strategy for making money off players, because sooner or later even the most devoted fan will get tired of spending their hard-earned cash just to survive. It’s another matter when everything can be achieved without money, but the game is so good that the desire to vote for it with your wallet arises naturally.
For paid online games, intrusive donations are less common, because you initially pay the developers for their product. But even that is no guarantee that you won’t suddenly encounter an avid donor in gear that gives +100500 to stats, who will wipe you out before you can blink.
This selection includes what we consider to be the best online games, both paid and free, where donations, if present, are limited to various purely cosmetic items or things that are unable to give one player a serious advantage over others thanks to a well-balanced gameplay.