Do Chinese gamers prefer free-to-play? This poll might surprise you.

For years, the conventional wisdom in China—supported by plenty of financial data, I might add—has been that if you’re selling a game, free-to-play is the only way to make it work. Other monetization models might work outside the country, but in the Middle Kingdom, free-to-play was the clear model of choice.

This spring, several major foreign games are looking to buck the trend, with both Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy XIV launching in China but not going free-to-play.

A recent article on Netease Games about the topic concludes with a reader poll that asks “Is free to play the best model?” As of this writing, more than 75% of the 300-plus respondents answered “No.”

Obviously, 300 votes in an online poll is hardly scientific, but the article’s comments section (which has already attracted more than 800 comments) provides additional insight into just how China’s hardcore gamers are feeling about free-to-play right now. Here is the most popular comment as of this writing:

FFS, free-to-play is OK, but we don’t want an in-game store with items that break [so you have to buy new ones…]

Indeed, the general sentiment is not so much that there’s an inherent problem with free-to-play games, but that in China they too often become pay-to-win games where free players are abused and only those willing to spend absurd sums of money can truly excel.

While I don’t think free-to-play games, especially mobile games, are going to disappear in China anytime soon, I think games targeted at China’s more hardcore gaming demographic are likely to follow in the footsteps of Guild Wars 2 and FFXIV in abandoning the free-to-play model. It may dominate the casual scene for years to come, but it certainly seems as though China’s hardcore gamers are getting a bit sick of it.