Getting Started with Free-to-Play Games

Decide how much time you actually have

Match the game to your week rather than the other way around. Games with real-time construction and troop travel expect you to log in more than once a day. Quest-driven and hero-collection games are far kinder to a single short session.

• Fifteen minutes a day: farming and city builders
• A few longer evenings: hero collection and turn-based battles
• Regular daily check-ins: alliance strategy and open-world MMOs

Check the platform before you commit

Browser games need nothing but a modern browser and a stable connection. Desktop clients want disk space and a capable graphics card. Mobile versions of strategy games are usually the same account, but the interface is tighter.

Give it three sessions, not three minutes

Most online games front-load tutorials and hold back their real systems for an hour or two. Three short sessions is usually enough to tell whether the loop suits you. If you are still bored after that, the game is not for you and nothing later will change it.

Set your spending rule up front

Decide before you start whether your limit is nothing at all or a fixed monthly amount. Every game in our catalogue can be played without paying, but each one sells time savers, and it is much easier to hold a limit you set while you were still calm.

Keep your account details tidy

Use a unique password and, where offered, enable two-factor authentication. Link the account to an email you check, because recovering a progressed strategy account without a linked email is often impossible.