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As you posted this in the Legal Issues section, I'll restrict myself to a legal answer: Because they're free by all legal definitions I'm aware of. In the US (where Iron Realms is located), the FTC regulates advertising claims. Roughly (I am not a lawyer), as long as you don't have to pay for something, and as long as not paying for something isn't predicated on giving something else to the seller without noting that, it's free.
For instance, "Buy one, get one free" is legal promotion because the advertisement itself is noting that the free thing is contingent upon buying something to begin with. Advertising "Free bananas" when, in fact, you had to first buy an apple to get a free banana would not, I believe, be legal.
In our games, absolutely everything is achievable without giving us anything, so there's no legal problem at all. Our games are free in the commonly-used sense of the word and the legally used sense.
I think what you're objecting to is that people who don't pay have to (usually at least) work harder to achieve things that credits affect (else nobody would buy credits from us). That is indeed true, but it's not really applicable to whether you can play for free or not (you can).
--matt
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