CREDIT: FIREMONKEYS STUDIOS
Mobile games like Need for Speed: No Limits that require players to pay to play are becoming more common on Android and iOS.

When you buy a magazine, do you pay more to continue reading an article inside? What about that side of fries-did the Oasis make you pay per each starchy golden potato cut? That’s the way free-to-play games work, with micro transactions throughout the entire game.

And now, it’s turned into a – mostly mobile – gaming scourge.

Enter Electronic Art’s (EA) Need for Speed: No Limits, coming to Android and iOS markets this spring. The soon-to-be-released driving simulator also fights for the worst way to rip off fans.

The most interesting point about No Limits is that it will start with a debilitating limit – a gas gauge. To be somewhat fair to the developers, gas is a real part of driving, and this game is initially free to download. But this isn’t real life, and if EA wants to make money, they’re better just charging an initial fee.

So, in order to fill the gauge you can wait – a pretty normal thing in free-to-play games. Go read, finish that assignment due, if you really have nothing else to do, play another micro-transaction game.

Or you could whip out that credit card or instant in-app purchases and hand EA real-world money to continue driving down that digital highway with – presumably – no more limits.

The more frustrating thing is that this game will focus on the 250 million ways to customize your ride, but it will take ages just to drive to a point where you can unlock these features. And what about running out of gas in the middle of a race?

“If I can’t play a game to the full extent without the micro-transactions, I will usually stop play the game,” said Amanda Jane Roberts, a Film Studies and General Arts student.

“[I’ll get] a bit impatient, because with those types of games, they’re meant to be fast-paced and so with micro-transactions, it would slow down the tone of the game.”

Other students asked about their mobile gaming habits generally agree with Roberts, with most students saying micro-transactions weren’t the way to make money, at least not off them.

So, who’s buying fake gas and gold for real dollars? Your parents? Your tween siblings? Someone’s got to bite, and EA thinks so, too. It’s sleazy, underhanded tactics, but micro-transactions aren’t going anywhere.