Massively

Being free to play doesn't automatically make it worse that pay to play games, but that's almost always been the case. Runes of Magic is probably the best f2p game I've played, but their devs do some extremely stupid and amateurish things that fit the characteristic of all other f2p games.

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Unfortunately free to play games do tend to make such stupid design decisions which are usually driven by the need to generate more revenue through the cash shops

This is what makes the HUGE divide between subscription and free to play game quality.

Subscription based MMO's spend all their time concentrating on how to improve the game and how to keep the players subscribed. The Free to Play mmo spend all their time in an attempt to keep people playing but overshadowed by the need to drive more people to the cash shop

Inevitably free to play games just piss people off by forcing them to spend WELL OVER the normal subscription fees to get ahead in the game, or they simply make bizarre design decisions which are driven for financial gain and not because the game requires that change

Thats what I have encountered anyway

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It's all about changing the mindset of the current MMO audience and opening the market up to the huge amount of gamers who won't pay a monthly fee.

The current free games show that there is a large market for games without subscriptions, most of the top free games have numbers that make subscription MMO's look like failures, with WoW being the only exception that has good numbers, but still below some in the Eastern market.

It will only take a few top AAA titles that go with the microtransaction model, which SOE will be doing most likely with some of it's upcoming releases, and that we may see more of in the future from other games like APB and TOR. Once that happens, the current subscription games will need to either change or die off.

Subscription doesn't mean it's a good game, it just means you are forced to pay if you want to play, even if you only play a couple days a month, you are still forced to pay.

DDO is doing something smart though, they are giving the option, letting players pick both ways, and while not perfect, it's a start.

The markets going to change, whether people like it or not. There's just too much money to be made by luring in all those who won't do subscription gaming, but would pay $5 or $10 here and there, if they like a game.

Subscript worked when there were only a handful of MMO's, but the market is too saturated to work any longer with that business model. You simply end up with games that have thousands of players, not millions.

Just remember, WoW has been the exception to the rule, not the rule.

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The quality of F2P games is not the question. It's the mindset of the developers. As posted above, game patches and design decisions by the developers of F2P games are driven by a financial bottom line, with no concern for the playability of the game in terms of whether its fun to play or not.

Studios driven by the need to retain subscribers are driven to maintain a playable game with agreeable, accessible content. No matter how you look at it, a subscription model will always be the best possible model.

The bottom line is that F2P and item-shops are an exercise in FRIVOLITY. Such greed-driven development is temporary at best, and can never generate the revenue LONG-TERM that a subscription-based model can provide.

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I have been playing some of the new DDO F2P the last few weeks. When DDO came out I gave it a try but could not really see paying the monthly fee. Now that it is F2P I am enjoying it and have yet to put any money in. Partly that is because it is still beta and I do not want to buy points and then lose them when launch comes if they do a wipe. When official launch rolls around I may put a few bucks in to open now character slots and such, but thus far I am enjoying having another MMO to play without having to pay the usual 15 a month.

I think DDO will really show that there is room in the market for this model, as I think alot of gamers would like to be able to play around with new games outside the usual 14 day trial.

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For the past few years whenever wow gets stale after a content patch a bunch of my guildies will find an emerging f2p or beta MMO we can get into as a group and have some fun until another content patch is imminent for wow.

Before BC launched we all played Rappelz for a couple months; a bunch of us beta tested tabula rasa one summer; things like that where we don't get too invested into it, but the mechanics are new and it's just refreshing and a lot of fun to play a new game with people you are used to playing with.

I tend to find that free2play MMOs have a lot of fun packed into about a month or two's worth of gameplay and everything after that is where you run into everyone's problems with the model; I like to dabble in both.

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I like a particular F2P game, I've tried several but this one I currently play is the most fun for me.

It does however, like any game, have it's flaws, now even big-budget games have flaws, I fell in love with WAR & then 6 months later was feeling like a cuckolded husband, I'd been lied to, decieved & made promises to which never materialised, I quit & felt cheated, the thing is all MMO's have flaws it's just where those flaws lie & how they affect the experience that differs.

Big budget, you expect quality, when what you get served starts to taste more like a steaming warm turd than the deluxe 5-star chef creation you saw in the restaurant window you start asking why the hell you are even still there, lower budget you have a slightly less ambitious outlook, you know you're going to a corner chip-shop for a meal, but you still expect the oily food to taste good.

Big triple a sub games get into problems on not delivering upon their expectations, the hype machine teased & tantalised but it was fakery & sham, F2P games are starting to become more polished, but the underwriting is done by the bean counters in a more pervasive fashion, whilst sub games openly advertise their costs up front & are saying "it costs this much" F2P titles have to use a form of subterfuge, the good thing is that F2P offer you a way to check it out & not feel like you wasted money, the bad side is you really need to assess what you are getting.

For a hardcore player, a sub game works out cheaper, to reach the same level of attainment in a F2P title you are going to need to shell out even more cash than you would for a sub game, or, play it in an even harder hardcore way than you really should be doing.

For a casual player a sub MMO is a bad investment, you're going to be getting very little for your sub, in a F2P game even if you spend a little on knick knacks it's unlikey you'll feel compelled to be king of the ubers, but, if you have deep pockets you can be, F2P is a lot more flexible that way, however the F2P games make a lot of different design decisions, itemisation systems, pvp systems in fact the whole game, ends up being designed from a "how do we make money from this & still keep it fun" perspective, only quite often the fun bit on the end of that gets lost or forgotten.

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When F2p games get away from stupid XP debt, Pay real money to repair and stab your eyes out grinding they might be ready for mainstream..until then..PASS.

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I should mention alot of free MMO's look better then that crap WoW all you people play. Not to mention having more originality and far more detail, along with much more refined art styles.

I play free and pay mmo's, and I've enjoyed several in each category a great deal.

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Are there any good "free" non-fantasy MMOGs?

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Wow is certainly not a bastion of graphically prowess but at max settings it beats any and all F2P games out there. I challenge anyone to produce a F2P game at max settings and I know I can bring a Wow screenshot that beats it.

But its as other's have said. F2P games are far more desperate for subscriptions than P2P. Its just a number's game. 200,000 subs at $15 a pop is more money than a f2p of 1,000,000 players.

Remember that that average model for a F2P is the 89/10/1 rule. 89% will spend nothing, 10% spend $5 and 1% $30+ a month. Because of that there cash flow is unpredictable and low for most F2P.

Do you really think DDO would have gone F2P if they had a good number of subs? Hell no.

P2P is the porterhouse steak and F2P is the fast food taco. Both are needed in the world and have their own place but don't confuse the two. I have played just about every MMO I can get my hands on over the past 10+ years and the games that I end up playing over a month are always P2P. They tend to have the content and production values that I enjoy.

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What I want to know is what the author thinks of the Guild Wars model of business. They obviously make enough money to run the game. If they can manage a more thorough and predictable model for releasing new content(i.e. get their production model in order) I think they can be fairly profitable and it is extremely perplexing to me that other folks have not tried this model. It actually involves taking the time to make an awesome game with a very very solid foundation and then making sure content they deliver is something their user base wants. I just hope they continue that with GW2.

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I've tried out Runes of Magic and it is definitely not on par with Wow in graphics.The difference in detail in gear/weapons and landscapes is obvious at first glance.

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Personally I really don't like the free-to-play games because there's always some form of an item shop involved. I'd rather pay some monthly fees and from there on have everything "free" instead of constantly having to run to an item shop for potions and whatnot. When games are designed in a way that makes you need to pay for every little thing, I'll just pass.

What is actually a very good fee model for subscription games is the way they handle it with Aion in the eastern countries. There they have a subscription model based on hours, rather then having a monthly fee. So when you play for lets say 5 hours a week, it will be cheaper for you to just pay hourly instead of monthly. You buy 100 hours for a set amount of money, and from thereon it doesn't matter in which time period you spend them all. And hardcore gamers can just stay with their monthly fees for their hardcore gaming needs. Because they will need to pay up more when paying hourly. See, everybody will be happy with such a model.

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Nice for a few kids though who can't get there parents to stump up the cash, and good luck to them too :) But for luckier kids and us grown ups we should be able to aim for something a little better. I mean there's a place for yahoo pool in the great scheme of things but..... yahoo games... ..

If you want really free go play (I've been that poor as well, it happens) and help support, an open source game, there's plenty to look at, just google for a world of variety of styles and ... quality. Some are pretty cool though. You can even help out with being an amateur Dev! even if it's only bug tracking.

A months sub for most games is less than a DVD, and even a crap game gives a hell of a lot more entertainment value included in that months free trial than a film that will go in the bottom of a pile never to be watched again.

I've been through stages in my life when I was way too poor to buy a months subs - and enough to eat, so I can see the temptation but you'd be better off looking for a job, because sooner or later you're hardware will be too dated too play much anyway. Then all the sales of sold mounts, former crafter items, and things you used to play the game to win, won't keep you playing. The initial quality might be ok on one or two of these games, but there really is nothing in this for players who currently pay for games, zero in the long term.

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