The article is from MMOsite Writer Club member Oliase.

Ever since World of Warcraft hit the industry, we've seen a lot of new types of subscriptions in the online gaming industry. Some companies have decided to try and compete with World of Warcraft in the 'Pay to Play' model for online games, while others have avoided this model and gone to the more popular 'Free to Play' model. Some have even created a mixture, where users can either play for free or pay for more options, maps, skills, and other advantages. But out of all the models in the gaming industry, which one is the best for gamers?

A lot of people have been discussing the cost of a game that is supposedly 'Free to Play', since the entire theory behind it is getting money off of a cash shop. Some games avoid having to provide completely unfair items in the cash shop to earn money by placing advertisements in-game and on their website, which brings in another source of income for the company. People say that the 'Free to Play' model, referred to as F2P from here-on, is actually more expensive than games that require you to pay a monthly fee.

But is this actually true? Are F2P games really more expensive than P2P games? I will take a look into the subscription models and try and settle the debate once and for all, while comparing all the models in other aspects to determine which subscription model is the best, aside from being the cheapest. First, let's take a look at the three base models. Some games may use a combination of these subscription models, but all of them contain at least one of them.