Talk:Strategy/@comment-27649740-20160219113317/@comment-26249703-20160219190946

Well on one hand, the ability to play a game without initial cost is appealing. Companies rely on demos, favourable reviews and advertising to even get someone to buy their game, as the initial cost is a barrier. Though, from there on, excepting DLC, people own the game and can expect within reason to be able to do whatever they please within it.

Replacing the initial cost with a variable cost model with no requirement of purchase means the user can get a deeper understanding of the game and a more personal experience with the game before spending any money, however, if they decide to invest in some IAPs, they will have to spend more (money or time) to get the experience offered by non-freemium games.

Whales in the current model are probably akin to heavy spenders in the previous iteration of the model, Pay-to-Win, where spending a lot of money gave an advantage over other players in multiplayer. I'm not exactly sure how this translates in this particular IP, as competition is uneven, even with good cars. I reckon it might mostly come from people with money burning holes in their pockets, younger audiences which don't have many outlets for their pocket money, or people that don't quite understand the scale of the resources needed. The list is not exhaustive, as I understand people wanting to give back to the devs, or people that want a boost to get to their next target.

I'm not sure you wanted an explanation, but I've written it anyway :P I'm sure you knew most of it beforehand