Just so you know I'm keeping this open for another week because of everyone being inactive.
I do get what you are saying, games need to be more open with whether they are free to play or you can trial for free. Though you can't compare Skyrim and apps/MMOs. Totally different things. As you said Skyrim you have to pay for before you get the content and it is usually a stupid amount of money to buy the game. MMOs and apps make their money with in game purchases so the premium members need to be treated better so that they'll keep putting money in and keep the app/MMO in business. If Skyrim doesn't make its money back we'll get no Elder Scrolls whatever number they are on, if Tapped Out or WoW don't make money people who are playing Premium and free will lose the game.
That is total and utter rubbish I'm afraid! Of course you can compare the two quite easily.
They all rely on the income of their games to carry on, yes in the bigger picture as Anna is pointing out with Pet Society if people stop paying you lose your game when it comes to Tapped Out, WoW is more like Skyrim because you do have to pay to play completely and the difference between Tapped out, Pet Society and WoW is that if they don't get the money they'll turn the servers off but if Skyrim didn't we just wouldn't get a new game but could play Skyrim forever.
That is kind of the point!
We all probably have games like Skyrim, we all probably paid £20+ for the game, we'll keep that game forever. As Anna said if you want the extra's you cough up and pay for them, you don't get weekly "new" items that they try and get you excited for, you get what you pay for.
That is the difference we like!
If I had to pay £2 for an app I probably would, The Walking Dead app says that it is free for one chapter, it got me hooked and I brought the rest. They made their money and everyone is happy.
If I download a FREE app and see there is 5 premium items compared to the 10 freemium items I'm more likely to pay silly amounts to buy one or two of the premium items if I like the game. They make their money and everyone is happy.
If I download a FREE app and every week I get about 20 premium items and a freemium dustbin I won't pay money because I'd just be throwing money into a black hole. They DON'T get anything from me and I stop playing.
If I download ANY app and suddenly three months into the game the data gets wiped, premium items and all, and their customer service is terrible then I lose out on a HELL of a lot of money that I could have spent on something else. They get my money, they lose a customer.
Skyrim it doesn't matter if the game crashes, resets or whatever I did put any money into that particular quest, I put time and effort and it'll piss me off but I'm not out of pocket because of it.
WoW is different because of its nature as a MMO, you put money in and they save your character and their history into their database so if something goes wrong they sort it out. A small app like Tapped Out or a Facebook app like Pet Society was wouldn't do that.
So I guess what I'm saying is I'd rather put money into proper MMO's/RPG console games then in apps because I know I'm always secure with what I do with my money. Apps are unreliable so I won't put the same amount of money into Tapped Out as I would WoW but I WOULD give them money if they had a good exchange rate FOR my money and they didn't flood the market with items for premium. People are more willing to buy things if they don't have to spend over £100 just to get one item out of 10.