If You Think Apex Is Predatory, Think Again!

@DoYaSeeMe Personally, the definition of predatory in terms of F2P games for me is simply, "If you can't consistently earn it for free, then it's predatory." Of course that's still taken with some liberties, as I haven't played every single F2P game under the sun, so it's speaking just from personal experience only. All F2P games however have to incentivize paying real money to keep the game running, and for the most part saved time is the greatest incentive that F2P games use. 

As mentioned, Warframe is an excellent example of F2P done well, without a predatory pricing system. Platinum discounts are given quite frequently, everything that's purchased directly with real money are all cosmetic (like the prime access deals), and everything that can be bought with platinum can be farmed for in game. (Save for the items that have been vaulted) It's quite simply a value issue. If you have the plat, is the item worth buying at the current asking price, or would you rather farm for it? It's a great system.

GFL, FGO, Azur Lane, all mobile games that do allow you to earn characters and skins for free, it's just much faster and more consistent if you pay real money for it. Since it also relies on RNG to dole out rewards, not getting the character / skin you want after x number of rolls is a pretty big factor of why people whale money into those games. Monster Super League also does this, with 10x rolls being rewarded every month with hard work and constant play, but the loot pool was so vast you'd be hard pressed to actually earn a character that was good. Even then, you'd need a grand total of 52 copies of the same unit in order to rank it up to max. With 5 star units having extremely low drop chances, and also no map node to farm for them, it makes it really tempting to simply just buy rolls. It's a more gray area for me simply due to the fact that each monster is copied across the element table (5 elements) and holds a total of 148 unique monsters, with a 10x roll simply pulling from all the elements all at once, granting you a (obviously not accurate due to the differing drop rates between 3 to 5 star monsters) 1/740 chance to get what you want. 

Apex differs from all 5 games listed by not having any consistent way to earn a skin aside from buying it. With the new level cap changes, you can earn a total of 199 packs assuming you stick around long enough to hit level 500, but aside from those, there's nothing in terms of a consistent way to earn a skin. Now, you are 100% correct in saying that spending on this game is truly optional, cause it is. I've spent 10 dollars on the pass, and that's it. Season 1 with no pass gives you 5 packs, season 2 gives you 4, season 3 gives you 5, the 5 events that have passed gives you 60 crafting metals, so in total if you've spent 0 dollars on the game, you're rewarded with 213 packs and 60 crafting metals. 

From this outdated reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/b5z266/how_many_cosmetics_are_currently_in_apex/

I've stolen this google document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ozYwks6r0pTLUc_pt98nyB7-ulxXP1aEvB4PED6fac8/edit#gid=0

Which lists a grand total of 1979 items to unlock. Now if you don't get the skin you want after 213 packs, you should have enough crafting metals (from the mediocre drops of 15, 30, 200 and 600) to get at LEAST one legendary cosmetic if you get 15 crafting metals per pack. After that you're outta luck. There's quite literally nothing else for you to do in order to earn a skin, except to buy a battle pass or buy packs, and on top of that if you didn't have enough crafting metals to direct purchase a skin from the loot pools that were event only, you're still out of luck. Which is why to me at least, 7 dollar loot boxes and 18 dollars skins feels like predatory pricing if and only if you actually want to earn skins for free. Like you said, it is 100% optional and I do agree with you on that.