Let me get right to the point: If you're hosting an online game for profit and you're not the proud owner of a monstrosity like World of Warcraft, then going for a subscription-based system is no longer worth it. Think about it - everyone out there is currently playing and paying for their favourite MMO right now. And they're not very likely to leave their game of choice to have a look at yours, if doing so means having to sign up for a monthly payment plan.
A free 14 day trial or "play free forever up to level 20" won't do much to change that, because it's just not very attractive to know you're gonna have to pay or stop playing in the very near future. It will attract people, who are currently looking for something new, but anyone perfectly happy with "their" game, won't leave it for some free trial. That's where "F2P" comes in.
Bend over, open wide and say 'YEAAAAARGH!' - you're about to get fucked.
F2P attracts people, because basically, it *really* doesn't cost anything, you get to level up all the way you want and there is no trial to stop you, either. Which, of course, is a load of crap, but "play free for all eternity" simply sounds better than "play free for 2 weeks".
There are a select few F2P-games out there, which are actually fair and pretty enjoyable, even when you pay very little to no amounts of money. Take La Tale, for instance. The game itself might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you buy a fancy costume or an armor enhancement, the thing stays for good. No time limit, no artificial monthly fees. And when you really enjoy a game, shelling out a fiver every once in a while isn't such a bad thing.
Then there's Hellgate Global. The one mandatory item everybody needs from the cash shop is a special ticket, which unlocks the 2nd half of the game. The clever thing about said item is that you can trade it with other players or sell it on the auction house. So if you don't want to shell out the 4 Dollars they charge for it in the cash shop, save up some ingame money, but it off another player and you're all set. It's also a great way to counter annoying gold-sellers. Why buy ingame money from some creepy Asian dude on Ebay when you can just legally buy stuff in the cash shop and sell it to other players within seconds - and for TONS of ingame money?
Alas, most "free" games never really work that way. Neither does Hellgate. The other day, they added skill points to the cash shop. I shit you not. Spend 5 Dollars, get an extra skill point to upgrade your character with - you can have up to 10 of those. And since the PvP arena is the only thing left to do after beating the storyline, this is no longer "Free 2 Play" - it's Pay 2 Win.
Then there are games, which failed with a subscription-based system and switched over to F2P. "Play the original game and pay absolutely nothing!" Yup. If you want to play a bare-bones version, which is so incredibly limited it might as well be a demo, knock yourself out. Some of the playable races and classes, which were available to everyone in the former pay2play version are suddenly labelled premium. Wanna play those? Pay up - or be a human warrior like everybody else! Want access to all the dungeons in the game? Pay up! Wanna be able to do every quest in the game without being forced to grind? Pay up! Want more than one lousy inventory bag, which is chock-full of quest items and other useless shit you're not allowed to throw away? Or a neat costume to stop looking like a total noob? Or a cool mount? Pay, pay and pay some more - every 30 days! Because that's all the rage now - they don't just ask people for money if they want to have access to the most basic stuff. They slap a time limit on it, so you have to pay over and over again.
The selling argument here is, that, in theory, "you can obtain everything we sell in the cash shop simply by playing the game." And yes, I can very well get cluster-fucked by several fleets of fully geared-up, max level veterans in Battlestar Galactica, whilst dying my way up towards the level cap at snail's pace. Or I just pay a ton of money for the experience points in their fucking item shop.
And who would want to fight their way through the frustrating and tedious dungeons in the heavily pvp-orientated Soul of the Ultimate Nation, when you can buy entire epic sets of gear for real cash?
Face it, folks: F2P is the future. And not fun, fair F2P, where your costumes, inventory slots, mounts or pets stay forever after you pay for them. They're gonna milk you for every last penny - because it works. Think about it - you're used to having a convenient 120 spaces in your inventory, a nice, steady rate of experience and some fancy pet, which gets you lots of attention and collects all of your loot, so you don't have to. And then, the 7/14/30 day limit on all of that shit runs out, suddenly you find yourself with 30 inventory slots, you level up at snail's pace and nobody asks about your pet, because it just disappeared. And you have to bend over for your loot again! You've paid for all of this crap before and you can be sure as fuck you'll pay for it again! Even if it seems to be cheaper than the monthly fee other people pay on WoW. But soon enough, they'll add some really awesome new costumes, even better experience potions or a special key to unlock rare mithril chest, which have a .005% chance to contain epic loot.
The really hilarious thing about all of this is how most of this shit happens in games, which are officially in "open beta" and remain that way for all eternity. Because they have no customer support, no real content, a shit-ton of bugs and the most awful English quest notes and dialoges, one could possibly imagine. "Sorry guys, it's still beta, we're gonna fix all of that in the release version." But release never comes. However, you can bet your ass they're adding arsetons of new crap to the god damn item shop with every update.
You know, games like World of Warcraft or Rift might not be the prettiest or the most inventive games around these days. But at least I don't get screwed over on there. Of course, with Blizzard's ever-increasing amount of store-based mounts and pets and their so-called "premium" services, this might be subject too change in the not so distant future.
YOU ARE NOT PRE...MIUM!
-Cat
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