What’s up internet, Brandon here.

This is probably my fifth or sixth attempt at spinning up a gaming adjacent hobby. A few years back I set a New Year’s resolution to stream on Twitch 150 times in a year. I once set out to create a game review series for a bundle I had purchased. I’ve even attempted to create a game or two over the years. This blog is something I have thought about doing a number of times in a variety of ways. Originally, I had planned to have this be more of a Twitch channel where myself and a few friends would play the same free-to-play game for a week and then hop on a stream Sunday and discuss how each of us felt about the game. As I got older (37 fwiw), it became more and more difficult to carve a specific time out of my schedule and if there’s one thing you need in the streaming world, it is a consistent schedule. This blog/vlog is something I can do during my lunch or in the evenings and as long as I plan accordingly, I can still release posts/videos at a consistent cadence while having more flexibility with my personal schedule.

But why have a blog in the first place?!

The video game industry has evolved greatly over the last forty plus years. There was the shift from physical media to digital media that started on PCs and has now worked it’s way into consoles. It’s been sixteen years since I went to a GameStop at midnight for a new release (shoutout Rockband 2!) From cartridge to disc to digital, video games have evolved; in some cases out of necessity. Could you imagine walking out of Best Buy with the 206 CD release of Baldur’s Gate III? 140+ GB just isn’t conducive to a physical media release.

Similarly, the economy of video games has evolved. For years the model was pretty consistent; Buy the game, Play the game. Whether that be a cartridge for Sonic Spinball or the Diablo II Complete Set. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s gaming companies found alternative ways to generate revenue. In addition to flat purchase there was an emergence of subscription based and free-to-play models. Probably the most well known instance of subscription based gaming is World of Warcraft, a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) that still sees new content released to this day. Free-to-play models rely on the player making purchases in the game for revenue while relying on the free aspect to playing to draw in potential players. Runescape and Maplestory are early examples of this revenue model in games (according to some light Googling.)

The free-to-play industry has since boomed to the point where, as of writing this, there are 7,066 free-to-play titles on Steam. This list is growing every day and it can be hard to keep up with everything that is happening. What is one to do??

Have no fear! Enter free2play Weekly, a blog/vlog keeping tabs on the industry and trying out games each week to see what is worth the time investment. My posts will contain information about the game as well as ratings for the following categories:

Enjoyment – How fun the game is to play.

Grind – How much time investment is required to feel meaningful progress.

Price – How far can you go in the game without having to pay for things.

Draw – How likely am I to play it again, after completing the review.

I will also include a video discussing portions of the game and showing gameplay from the time I spend playing that week. The intention is to focus on games that are newer releases (within a month) and weaving in some legacy reviews for free-to-play games that have been out for a while.

I am excited to start this journey and hopefully along the way I can find you a free-to-play game that you enjoy.