It varies, like. Most mobile games are pretty crap, but you have people like Supercell who make good mobile games - I don't like their games, but lots and lots of people do.

And to be fair, most "actual" games are pretty crap too.

There's crap, and there's crap where the design is affected by the need to nudge (or force) people towards buying IAPs.

And trailers and reviews were famously broken for console/PC games historically.

Pretty much every product sold in our society has its' design shaped by the need to make money (i.e capitalism).

I'm not sure why you're singling out F2P games here specifically, relative to all the other half-baked crap designed to make a profit.

At least hundreds of millions of people daily get value out of playing free games without spending a cent. Consider the fact that all console/PC gamers have spent money on the game up-front, whereas a very small proportion of people on mobile pay for all of the rest.

Like, I don't enjoy games with micro-transactions, but clearly lots of other people do. Who am I to judge their fun?

> get value out of playing free games without spending a cent.

Mindlessly grind medallions or whatever. The problem with IAP games (free or not, afaik a Dead Space game was selling ingame crafting materials as IAPs) is they waste your most precious resource: time.

> And trailers and reviews were famously broken for console/PC games historically.

Oh but that's easy. Don't preorder and don't buy games based on just one review. Especially don't buy games based on the developer's trailers :)

I note that my core point, that you can't legislate other people's fun, is not tackled in your response.

Like, I mostly agree with you on the quality of many (maybe most) F2P games, but FIFA wastes your time far more than Candy Crush (and indeed, the people who buy sports games every year seem very strange to me).

Most people aren't aware there are other types of computer fun than the free crap in their phone's app store.

Us HNers are a dying breed, a lot of people don't have computers any more, or when they have them they use them only when absolutely necessary.

Still don't see your point other than "my preference is good, their preference is bad" or am I misunderstanding?

Wasting time is sort of the point.

They're not aware of the alternatives.

And there's wasting time going through varied content, and there's wasting time doing the same thing for days.

90% of everything is famously trash!