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If you insist on twisting language away from common-sense usage, don't be upset that not everyone can keep track of what you're talking about.
Go up to someone unfamiliar with the industry, and tell them you have two games. One is "free", and the other is "free to play". I just did this for myself, and I suspect the reaction you will get will be similar to Ms. Valg's reaction: "What's the difference?"
Could you cite an unaffiliated source which draws this line? I Googled a couple attempts, but kept getting stuff like this highest-ranked link:
Therefore, this site is fully devoted to listing only absolutely free games. You will not find any shareware games or demo games here. Nor do we accept games that involve real money. All games at GameHippo.com are free to download and free to play without restrictions.
I honestly tried to dig a bit, but I can't find any official-looking source which makes this distinction. I did find a blog mention using the phrase Matt uses among other game developers ("Free To Play, Pay For Stuff"), but that strikes me as very different. I can also find a couple games which are pay-for-perks and describe themselves as "Free To Play", but of course they have an incentive to (mis)represent their product that way. Then again I find a lot of games like Urban Dead which describe themselves as "Free to play" but aren't pay-for-perks at all.
That said, this is probably worth its own thread. Feel free to start one where this distinction is made.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone. "It means just what I choose it to mean - neither more or less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."
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