In "researching" for my previous post about free MMO's, I came across the following comment on Kotaku:
Third and most important, its FREE TO PLAY, FOREVER. You aren't losing any money playing this game (unless your buying cash shop items, but who can blame them for trying to cover some of the costs) Try it out yourself and stop saying how much its this or that. I personally think they did a really good job at the game. There are bugs here and there (It's beta) but its a F2P game that I'd actually play. Most of the F2P games I have tried have either been soo god awful I couldn't play more then 20mins. Others were kind of fun but soo cartoony and kiddish I'd be embarrassed to be seen playing them. On top of game play issues in every other F2P game I've played (mind you I've tried a lot) they lack updates and fixes support. If Runes of Magic is going to do any of what they said they were going to there's going to be content patches with class balancing and new content.
They wanted to give a new F2P experience, and so far they have delivered. I'd urge anyone on the edge to try and play it and remember, It's FREE.
This mindset really bugs me!
You know what else is free? Mowing my lawn. That doesn't mean it's better than Halo. Pricing should not even enter the equation, because everyone has different value scales. Some people are cool dropping four grand on a massive gaming rig. Others are content playing online fash games. Reviews that take price into account are meaningless to everyone but the reviewer, because value for money varies from person to person. Slamming a game for costing too much is just as futile as giving a crappy cheap game a break because, well, it's "such a good deal".
I don't think gamers should be expected to pour hours into a game like Runes of Magic if it's a crappy WoW ripoff*, just because it's free. For a lot of people, time is more valuable than money. Prices are determined by consumer demand (i.e. whatever publishers think they can get away with charging). How can we allow this arbitrary number effect the bottom line of a review, which is ostensibly about the quality of the game?
*Not saying it is.
Related Links:
A Treasure Trove of Free Japanese Goodies
Free to Play MMO's: Where do You Draw the Line?
In Defense of In-game Advertising