I have 1000 hours in Warframe and have spent a grand total of 5 dollars on it. I never felt like I needed to spend any more. Sure, it’s annoying getting a platinum discount as a daily reward instead of something useful like tellurium, but that’s the fullest extent of the advertising. The market has a button to hide all items that require platinum to buy. And Darvo’s Deals isn’t even relevant anymore.

I’m sure Warframe does have whales, but that’s in the same way weed has addicts. Some people are going to form an addiction no matter what. I’d rather those people be playing warframe than something else, because my gut says there’s a better chance of recovery in a less predatory game. My thinking is those kinds of people develop an addiction because something is wrong in their life circumstances. They’re already looking for something to get sucked into, doesn’t matter what it is. I never felt any kind of pull from Warframe, and while I do have a non addictive personality, I also felt much less annoyed at the game than at other freemium games.