Buy to Play on the App Store

It looks like we've come full circle.  Apple is now advertising games that are "Pay Once and Play."

It's so weird that we have to come up with a term to talk about games you buy once and then play forever.  Every game used to be that way, but in this world of crazy amounts of DLC and in-app purchases it is no longer the norm.

I'm actually happy to see this.  It's finally a backlash against the predatory in-app purchase model that so many games seem to take.  Not all in-app purchase models are bad, I don't hate them categorically.  But some of the games out there might as well be slot machines.  They're the ones giving gaming a bad name right now.

When DLC or in-app purchases are done correctly, they can be great.  But when they're done poorly they can just be there to take peoples' money.

I hope Apple keeps promoting games like this.  Maybe it will help draw some attention away from the "games" that are only there to take your money.