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Free to Play MMO's: Where do You Draw the Line?

Posted by Cole Stryker



According to a press release, over 220,000 people have joined the Runes of Magic beta since Monday. This number astounds me. 

I have never got into any MMO's, but it got me thinking, at what point will users be willing to pay money for an online game? How much better of a play experience is World of Warcraft as compared to something like Runes of Magic? Are people willing to put up with a noticeable drop in quality as long as they can avoid monthly subscription fees?

Where do you draw the line?

I'm willing to bet that the subscribers to Runes of Magic skew younger, since kids have less disposable income than adult and even teen players. Also, younger players have more free time, so they may be more willing to put up with bugs that crash the game or server downtime.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the game experiences a similarly explosive downturn in player activity at some point. The new subscribers are most likely folks who are a little bored with WoW right now. I've talked to several people about this phenomenon, and I'm universally told that WoW has a way of sucking people back in after a momentary diversion with Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa or whatever. Sooner or later, they return from whence they came.

(via Kotaku)

Related Links:

Gold Farming: Why I'll Never Play an MMORPG
Watching Age of Conan Die
Night Elves Anonymous: MMORPG addicts seek psychotherapy


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

Joe Keiser said:

I really don't think that free to play games necessitate a quality drop-off compared to subscription-based MMORPGs (besides WoW, which finds just about everything else wanting). I've dabbled in quite a few of these online gaming pariahs, and several of them are about as far as you can get from the Korean grind factories that used to permeate the business model. A few, like Requiem: Bloodymare and the late Mythos, were really quite good.

I'm going to give this Runes of Magic a go.

December 17, 2008 9:31 PM

Demaar said:

If the people I'm playing with are interesting and the game is remotely fun that's all it takes for me to play an MMO. Usually it only works when I know the people personally though.

December 18, 2008 1:35 AM

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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