Is Free To Play The Future Of MMOs?

08 Mar 2010 at 00:00:00 by Bill Vaughan

If you enjoy your massively multiplayer online games, you may have noticed lately that more and more developers are opting for the free to play business model over traditional subscription fees.

Over the last few years there has been a steady increase in the number of games that are available to play freely. Users  generally still have to pay a monthly fee to play the big titles such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest II and EVE Online, but a growing number of games are being offered for free. One of the first major titles that tried the free business model was Guild Wars. With other similar games already established, the free to play model worked well for the game. Guild Wars attracted players who didn't want to pay a monthly fee to play, probably bringing in masses of players who had never tried an MMO before, but it also allowed players who were already paying a subscription elsewhere to try out the game at no extra cost. The proof of its success is plain to see; Guild Wars 2 is well into production and is very highly anticipated.

But despite the free to play option being used more frequently, the big MMO developers still tend to go with the monthly subscription model. The guaranteed monthly income allows companies to maintain overheads like server costs and support staff. Of course, it also means that, even when people aren't playing the game, they're still paying for it (there have been plenty of occasions when I haven't had time to play a game that I've been subscribed to, but I didn't cancel the payment because I couldn't be bothered). Also, if you are paying to play one game, you're less likely to start up another pay monthly one.

For the gamer, subscription fees are handy; you pay a one-off charge and you get full access to everything the game has to offer. There are usually no discrepancies between what players can access, for example, everyone's on an equal footing regardless of what they can afford to spend, unlike free to play games where players can buy potions and tokens that perhaps increase XP gain, and sometimes players can buy better gear and extra content.

Free to play games allow players to have a much more casual attitude towards a game. It can be picked up or put down as and when the player decides and, unlike subscription games, you won't waste money by not logging in for a while. Often, you can opt to pay nothing at all for hours and hours of entertainment, or dip into your pocket for the odd item every now and then. However, with this model, developers have to rely on the appeal of the purchasable items, and if no one buys them, there's no income.

So you'd think most developers would go with the monthly fee option, but a growing number of companies are opting for free to play. In the past, with the exception of Guild Wars, free games tended to be on the rubbish side, but in the last year or so there's been a growth in the number of high quality ones.

Runes of Magic started the ball rolling; Ear-marked as a WoW clone, which was a compliment considering it doesn't charge its players a penny to download or play, the game features lovely graphics, masses of quests and a continuous stream of fresh content, not to mention some features that WoW doesn't offer such as player housing. The game is available is several different languages, and recently celebrated its one millionth registered US player. Since then, a stream of other MMOs have followed suit including Hi-Rez Studios' Global Agenda. In a slight twist to the standard business model, the Spy-Fi game offers players the option of free to play or subscription. The subscription deal includes more content and a persistent world which can be fought over by Agencies, the free option allows players to log on and enjoy one-off combat encounters while building their characters.

A couple of games have switched from subscription to free to play in the past year; The floundering Dungeons and Dragons Online made the change, and has since seen a huge boost in popularity. Last week, the developers announced that since the move, the game has attracted over one million new players and seems to be doing better than ever. Also announced last week was the news that Alganon, another struggling MMO, has gone free to play, but retained its initial purchase price. Within days of this, Reakktor Media told fans that its upcoming space-based MMO, Black Prophecy, will be free as well. Judging by early images and footage, it's clear to see there's been no corner cutting in the quality department there either.

Having said all this, most of the big games lined up for the next year or so will probably remain subscription based, like many of the games released recently including Star Trek Online, Champions Online and Aion, so we're quite some way off seeing subscription fees removed completely. But I think we've seen a turn in the tide, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a major MMO offer free to play as an option sometime soon. The model is much more common in the east, but gaming styles across the world are slowly merging. It will also be interesting to see how well Global Agenda does; Will anyone go for the subscription fee to get access to some extra content, or will the majority stick to casual one-off matches? I think, and hope, the results will influence the decisions of future developers because, while subscription fees are convenient, free to play with an initial purchase cost and optional purchasable items, is probably more fair to gamers overall.

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