Even the venerated Wall Street Journal is sitting up to take notice of of the fact that some of the West's biggest gaming companies are taking games into the realm of 'free to play'. In an article in the newspaper's 'Tech' section, writer Nick Wingfield talks about both Sony Online Entertainment and Time-Warner shifting popular titles Everquest and Lord of the Rings Online to a new monetary paradigm.

The shift, which game companies in Asia figured out years ago, underscores how broadly a once foreign-seeming approach to business is coming to permeate the games industry. U.S. games companies are far more dependent on retail sales of software in stores than their counterparts in Korea and China, where rampant software piracy forced local companies to be more inventive about making money through methods like virtual goods sales.

While the article doesn't share any earth shattering news, it's an interesting read. Check it out at The Wall Street Journal: Tech page.

In my opinion all this article does is back up most of the anti ftp arguements on this site and others and proves that ftp is nothing more then a money grab by the  devs and that players who do use the item shops will be spending more per month then if they went with a standard sub game.

I like to use the old saying to sum it up "a fool and his money are soon parted"

Straight F2P will always look to me like a shoddy way to run an MMO to me. I have yet to experience one that didn't have poor support/crappy item shops or absolutely no real interaction with players.  I think Tiered  subscriptions is the only logical way to go from pure P2P.   

You have consistant income, you don't need game changing item shops like in F2P and you have people less likely to outright abandon your game like in P2P for the reasons they usually do.   I guess now it's a wait and see with Everquest 2 if it will have the same effect it did on LOTR,  if anything it might fair better considering how much content is in EQ2.

DDO is now one of the most popular MMO games ever. Wake up, it's that way for strong and good reasons. Just check it out with some parties.

Originally posted by Sarr

DDO is now one of the most popular MMO games ever.

Care to back that statement up?  Yes it did have an amazing comeback, but from what? It was in the sh*tter before it went FTP.

A 400% gain from nothing is nothing.

free to play industry is spewing out some things that most gamers wouldn't touch even if they were free...problem is they're not. Maybe 1-2 games hold true to their title. but the vast majority does not. The only F2P game i played (used to be here, now it's gone because it wasnt really a mmorpg at all) was Travian. Everything is in game. Every item, every opportunity. Some players can buy things that make them produce things faster. That's basically it. It's a game that's been around for 6-7 years and is having many servers relevant for countries, languages, timezones as well as a couple "world" servers.

greedy F2P games can not and should not be allowed to plague the industry. Also by definition a F2P game should never cost the player more than a P2P game. Ever.

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The shift, which game companies in Asia figured out years ago, underscores how broadly a once foreign-seeming approach to business is coming to permeate the games industry. U.S. games companies are far more dependent on retail sales of software in stores than their counterparts in Korea and China, where rampant software piracy forced local companies to be more inventive about making money through methods like virtual goods sales.

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Sotfware piracy is irrelevant, you buy a key to unlock the account, it's not a reason that would wash.

Originally posted by Sarr

DDO is now one of the most popular MMO games ever. Wake up, it's that way for strong and good reasons. Just check it out with some parties.

I do agree with this. After playing just about all MMOs out there is has to be the, at least, 3rd most populated in the Western market. Maybe even more than EVE, maybe not. Groups are very easy to get together, unlike every MMO out there except WoW.

DDO playstyle and its hybrid payment model work well. F2P eastern games are pure garbage. It has more to do with gamplay that DDO has seen a resurrgence. I know the hybrid model has brought in a lot of people, but ultimately its the gameplay that makes people stick around. A lot of F2P games don't have that. 

DDO has two communities; f2p and p2p. P2P is much larger than it used to be, and f2p are generally ignored and shunned.

I'm interested to see how this plays out in LOTRO. I doubt it increases its p2p crowd much, and the f2p players are just worthless to other players(mostly kids) and the company. Then, again, LOTRO is an extremely easy game to grasp, so there may not be such a gap like in DDO(where it takes skill and dedication).

OH well if this is the way gaming is going, I got a feeling that a lot of folks are not going to be gaming. I think were in fro an mmo crash.

We are only at the beginning of F2P for western MMO's, the actual proof of their success in the MMORPG genre will be if they can last over time, or if as i suspect, they become P2W and drive players away. For so many companies to leap on the bandwagon so early may be something they come to regret, as their reputations depend on what they do in the future with this.

Originally posted by brostyn

 I'm interested to see how this plays out in LOTRO. I doubt it increases its p2p crowd much, and the f2p players are just worthless to other players(mostly kids) and the company. Then, again, LOTRO is an extremely easy game to grasp, so there may not be such a gap like in DDO(where it takes skill and dedication).

I too am interested to see how LOTRO turns out. For the reasons you mentioned, and the fact that unlike DDO was before the switch, LOTRO is currently healthy (pre-F2P). 

Sitting up and taking notice of something doesn't mean it's good.

The problem is really a difference in eastern and western cultures.

Marketting F2P in America is akin to starting a Save the Whales campaign in Japan, it's just not gonna work until society changes their perception of the subject.  And I don't see westerners giving up their $15/month. 

Originally posted by erictlewis

OH well if this is the way gaming is going, I got a feeling that a lot of folks are not going to be gaming. I think were in fro an mmo crash.

I don't believe that will be the case at all.

How significant are traditional, old school mmo players in comparison to a newer generation of online players?

More and more people are playing these games and more and more people are playing them without expectations as to what business model is "the best".

If they deem the price right they will pay it.

In some ways I think the upcoming LOTRO f2p release will be very telling as it is a game that falls into the more traditional, wider world mmo convention. If their numbers sky rocket, other game companies will be assured that it is a new future for a different pricing model.

Lightning can strike once but can it strike twice?

Another thing to consider is that people have been paying additional money outside of the normal subscriptions to secondary parties selling gold and items and power leveling.

It's already proven that people are willing to pay additional money on top of their subscription. This is just a game company's way of making sure they get some of that money. Not to say that the secondary market will go away but if a person can buy xp potions to speed up leveling or Items to make them more effective like buff potions, then the need to buy power leveling and gold might go down a bit.

The original old school mmo players are not calling the shots on this thing. Online gaming has been found by non-gamers and I don't believe they are going away any time soon.

Originally posted by GustavoM
DDO and Everquest are not switching to "-FREE- to play". Since when you can say It's -FREE- to play when you -HAVE- to -PAY- to get additional content? That's pretty much like a limited trial to me. And In a serious note: If MMO's goes down like that and It resumes into the one who pays for more items at the cash shop Is the one who'll win, I'll simply switch to another gaming genre and consider MMORPG's as the "capitalism" genre. 'Cause I'm not gonna waste more than 1000 $ to upgrade a toon, lulz.

Well, I've played DDO very casually and I play lotro (though I haven't been in game for a bit as I have no time at the moment) and it is possible to play without paying anything. I think I did pay about 10 dollars total in DDO.

One will go slower but it can be done. And it seems one earns turbine points at certain points in the game so one could feasibly save those up and use them to unlock content.

So, if a person was happy with that type of progression they could play to their heart's content without spending a dime.

Of course, Turbine is betting that people will want to spend money on some things and that some people won't mind spending a lot of money.

I haven't looked closely at the EQ 2 system to make an constructive comments.

Originally posted by Sovrath

In some ways I think the upcoming LOTRO f2p release will be very telling as it is a game that falls into the more traditional, wider world mmo convention. If their numbers sky rocket, other game companies will be assured that it is a new future for a different pricing model.
Another thing to consider is that people have been paying additional money outside of the normal subscriptions to secondary parties selling gold and items and power leveling.

We will never see the real results, we will get the propaganda. We will be told that it is the greatest thing since ice cream!! Turbine recently posted the Beta Feedback for the new store and they posted only the fanboi responses. The forum response has been incredibly negatiive, but rest assured - The store is selling everything, pay2win, not pay2play. Faction reputation will be worthless, considering all the reputation, enhancement, class skills, etc. will be available in the store.

The store reeks of money grab. Turbine is setting themselves up as the goldseller, no need to buy gold when everything can be purchased from the store.

Convienience over Advantage - such BS.

Originally posted by Xerxes0

Originally posted by Sovrath

In some ways I think the upcoming LOTRO f2p release will be very telling as it is a game that falls into the more traditional, wider world mmo convention. If their numbers sky rocket, other game companies will be assured that it is a new future for a different pricing model.
Another thing to consider is that people have been paying additional money outside of the normal subscriptions to secondary parties selling gold and items and power leveling.

We will never see the real results, we will get the propaganda. We will be told that it is the greatest thing since ice cream!! Turbine recently posted the Beta Feedback for the new store and they posted only the fanboi responses. The forum response has been incredibly negatiive, but rest assured - The store is selling everything, pay2win, not pay2play. Faction reputation will be worthless, considering all the reputation, enhancement, class skills, etc. will be available in the store.

The store reeks of money grab. Turbine is setting themselves up as the goldseller, no need to buy gold when everything can be purchased from the store.

Convienience over Advantage - such BS.

It's not quite that bad but it does seem like there are a few things in the store that will raise eye brows. But I wouldn't say that the entire store is "pay to win". Especially when quite a few things in the store can be gotten in game by spending destiny points.

Of course, the other thing is what will the store look like a year from launch?

as far as seeing the propaganda, that's par for the course. What company doesn't tout its products and downplay its failures?

Or they bring their failures to the forefront but use it as a marketing tool to build good will. There's always an angle (as my grandfather would say).

   Here is my take on the F2P market.  From a gamer's standpoint, it is a mixed bag of decent games and games I wouldn't come near with a two meter cattle prod.  From a business man's standpoint, the F2P market is absolutely a wonderful place to be for some companies, depending on the exposure you can get for your game.  If you can interface a game, even one that is quite boring (aka Farmville) with an extremely popular social networking site such as Facebook, you are going to get a massive amount of exposure, which leads to sales.

   I used to be a huge fan of subscriptions, keeping out the cheaters, spammers and bots.  Now, I tend to be able to ignore them.  I will still play subscription based games, FFXIV being one of the games I will be playing, but I tend to prefer games that are Buy 2 Play such as Guild Wars.

   I really think that Buy2Play + Cash Shop (Cosmetic items only, nothing that can actually provide stat buffs) would be ideal.  The up-front box costs will help keep alot of the spammers, cheaters, and bots from flooding the game.  People would really have no reason to "quit" the game considering there is no monthly sub to worry about, and the sale of cosmetic items from the cash shop would provide a steady cash flow to help with content development and game management.  The removal of monthly fees would most likely help with population retention also, which in itself will act as population retention.  After all, who wants to play an empty game?

But the first thing that needs to be done is this:  Make sure the game is FUN!

I think anyone who says that "F2P just plain sucks" is just an elitist snob who can't deal with the fact that their P2P MMOs are being phased out by the more useful F2P model.

I beg of you, all you P2P elitists. Just go try DDO. It's a great game and guess what? Everyone who's not blind can see that their payment model is the greatest idea the industry has had.

And stop making the "official goldseller" argument. All good F2P games DO NOT ALLOW YOU TO BUY THE BEST GEAR. The closest thing is getting 40% bonus exp potions.

If you think that leveling with a 40% boost is a gamebreaker... go play WoW and have fun with your time and money sink. You're an idiot if you think that microtransactions mean you pay more for less. $15/month for WoW is the real scam. If you have a bad month at home, and maybe you don't have as much money to spend on games... do you really think that being demanded $15/month is what you're after? No. Guess what? You can't cut back on your subscription fee w/o cancelling it.

At which point you're no longer playing, and your whole "P2P is better" argument goes out the window. At least with F2P games, you can actually play if you can no longer afford your microtransaction purchases. You just stop buying them for the time being, but you can still enjoy all your past purchases with no guilt fee, with no expectation, with no obligation. I'm not saying i should be proud of being poor, but i'm a college student. I don't have $15 to spare every month just for one game. Luckily, since i'm not a slave to the P2P image, I understand that you don't have to be subscribe to get a good game.

I'm not trying to change your mind. If WoW makes you happy, go for it. But don't shit on our parade because you can't deal with the changing times.

Well, I'm only interested in a single upcoming F2P game, or, as someone else stated, B2P - buy to play, and that is GW2. This game will shine in the F2P market