Free to Play is Here to Stay!

<p>The video game landscape is changing&period; Sure&comma; the big three are soon to deliver their next generation systems in the constant battle for deciding which controller you use in your living room&comma; but even more interesting than that is the slew of PC games capitalizing on the free to play model&period; I recently got back into the grand daddy of MMORPGs&comma; Everquest&comma; because it went to free to play&period; Some friends of mine have been running around Metropolis and Gotham City on DC Universe Online for the same reason&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Other titles that have benefited from the free to play model are&semi; <em>The Lord of the Rings Online<&sol;em>&comma;<em> Dungeons and Dragons Online<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Everquest 2&comma;<&sol;em> <em>Age of Conan<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Heroes of<&sol;em> <em>Newerth&comma;<&sol;em> and now <em>Star Wars&colon; The Old Republic&period;<&sol;em> They&&num;8217&semi;ve been raking in the cash and enjoying major boosts in player accounts after the switch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;24" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-24" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;oyster&period;ignimgs&period;com&sol;wordpress&sol;write&period;ign&period;com&sol;139583&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;swtor-beta1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-24" alt&equals;"" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;oyster&period;ignimgs&period;com&sol;wordpress&sol;write&period;ign&period;com&sol;139583&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;swtor-beta1-300x190&period;jpg" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"190" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-24" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">SWTOR F2P&quest; Are these the acronyms fans have been waiting for&quest;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; games like<em> League of Legends<&sol;em>&comma;<em> Diablo 3<&sol;em>&comma; and the upcoming <em>Guild Wars 2<&sol;em> are and will be dominating the industry after being released 100&percnt; free to play at launch &lpar;save the initial purchase of the game for the latter two&rpar;&period; All of these games give you access to some&comma; if not all aspects of the game for free&comma; but allowing you to make micro-transactions to augment your gameplay in some way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Most of these games have become tremendously more successful after embracing the free to play model and rightly so&period; Speaking from a marketing standpoint&comma; it makes sense&period; I will not be paying fifteen dollars this month for a <em>League of Legends<&sol;em> subscription&period; I will&comma; however&comma; be spending twenty dollars this month to pick up two characters and maybe a character costume—if I am lucky enough for it to go on sale&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Riot Games makes more money than they would have if they were subscription based&comma; and I chose to make the purchase&period; I feel happy and feel in control&period; Everyone wins&period; Not to mention the increase in sales from word of mouth&period; Now you can coax your friends to play these MMO&&num;8217&semi;s with you and they can have no regrets&excl; It may seem like smoke and mirrors&comma; but who cares&quest; It is on our terms&semi; the players&period; So thank you gaming companies for what you all are doing and please continue&period; It is only a matter of time before Blizzard&&num;8217&semi;s record breaking MMORPG gets on the bus&comma; and the world will be that much better for it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"zemanta-pixie" style&equals;"margin-top&colon; 10px&semi; height&colon; 15px&semi;"><img class&equals;"zemanta-pixie-img" style&equals;"border&colon; none&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" alt&equals;"" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;img&period;zemanta&period;com&sol;pixy&period;gif&quest;x-id&equals;bc883592-8e78-4be9-9dea-f49420fa841d" &sol;><&sol;div>&NewLine;