'South Park' mocks the true cost of free-to-play games

There is nothing wrong with free-to-play as a concept, but the model is often built on concepts that are designed to get you hooked on a reward loop that's a bit more artificial than we're used to from the standard, one-price premium model.

It can be tricky to explain the process, even to people who are playing the games themselves. Luckily we can now show them South Park's great take down of the free-to-play model.

We then see the bleak human cost of that model, including a sly dig at paid user acquisition.

You can watch the whole episode on Hulu and, while the criticism is probably a few years too late to feel fresh, the game they create in the episode to skewer the worst of free-to-play mechanics looks depressingly familiar.

Also, you read to the end of this article!