For me, it all started in 2007 when I bought the first iPod Touch. I discovered the incredible video game possibilities of such a device that I quickly abandoned in favor of the iPhone 3G. At the time, some free iPhone games were of very high quality. But over time, the economic model of smartphone games, whether iPhone or Android, has evolved a lot. And this evolution has been at the expense of users: intrusive and repeated ads, in-app purchases, paid currencies in games allowing you to progress faster... in short, the model is broken and it is becoming very difficult to find quality games that are truly free or at a reasonable price.
And that's where the No-Bullshit Games site comes in, which aims to help you find games that are truly free or that don't abuse ads and purchases!
No-Bullshit Games: Free iPhone games, Free Android games… and/or without ads and crazy payments
No-Bullshit Games, literally "Games Without Bullshit", is therefore for me a public utility site for smartphone gamers.
For the creator of the site, a game in bullshit is defined as follows:
Defining the term “bullshit” is rather difficult […]. However, there are some general guidelines on what you can expect. In general, “bullshit” games are those that ask you to pay with your time or seek to extract a large amount of money by exploiting psychological weaknesses.
In summary, this is how the author of the site classifies the games:
- Frequent ads with no option to turn them off : to avoid.
- One-time purchase to remove ads : acceptable.
- Purchasable virtual currency : sign of questionable play.
- Paid DLC for additional levels : correct if the base game is complete.
- pay to win : to be avoided, only cosmetic purchases are acceptable.
- Games that become too difficult to encourage paying : to avoid.
So, this site which relies on the community is powered by the latter, and it is the creator of the site who decides in the last resort whether or not to add a proposed game to his list.
Once you arrive at No-Bullshit Games, you will have to choose the gaming platform that interests you: Android or iOS.
You will then access a list of games… without bullshit! They are not all free, but in any case, they are guaranteed without ads or crazy payments.
The site also offers you a search in which you have several sorting elements:
- a game name, if you know it
- a list of genres to choose the one you prefer
- the possibility of setting a minimum rating
- a paid games / free games filter
You will then see the list of games that meet your criteria and you will probably notice, on some of them, various blue labels that provide some information about the games:
- One time purchase: a single purchase and the game is without ads or additional purchases
- DLC: possibility to purchase additional content but which is not necessary to be able to play
- Cosmetic items: the game has in-app purchases but they are only cosmetic (skins for example) and do not influence progression
- Donation: The game has in-app purchases that allow you to donate to the developer
And that's it! So you will normally not have no bad surprises when choosing a game from the list. Either it is completely free, or you know what you are paying for and above all, any payments do not impact the game and progress in the game! By clicking on the name of the game, you will also be immediately taken to its page in the App Store or the Google Play Store!
In short, if you are looking for free iPhone games, free Android games... or more generally games without bullshit, No-Bullshit Games is a great initiative to which you can contribute by proposing games that meet the site's quality criteria!
