"When will the free-to-play craze hit real-time strategy?"

In PC games recently high-quality free-to-play game is becoming a hot trend all around the world. Right now, you can download and play free MMORPGs like Sword of the New World and Requiem: Bloodymare, and EA is gearing up for a bold experiment in free-to-play shooters with Battlefield Heroes. But how about Strategy? A dissection from GamesRadar by Dan Stapleton, perhaps the answer to it.

"The joy of online strategy gaming, and online gaming in general, is defeating an opponent who was just as likely to defeat you, so how much fun is a game if, no matter how good you are, you may get owned by some kid who blew his allowance on WMDs? If you don't stand a chance in a "free" game without shelling out, then the game ain't really free."

Spring is a free fan-made RTS. It's a little tricky
 to get into a multiplayer game, though

"RTS games in particular are poorly suited for an uneven playing field. Just look at the lopsided matches in the global conquest modes of games like Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War: Soulstorm or C&C3: Kane's Wrath, which allow persistent armies to carry over between battles in order to see how those matches would play out. The player with the more powerful starting force immediately rushes, destroying or crippling the underdog within the first two minutes of play. Game over. Those modes are single-player-only for exactly this reason, it's no fun to be on the receiving end of that."

Persistent armies are a cool concept, but hopelessly unbalanced

"Someone is definitely going to give free a chance, though, so the only question is who will do it first."

For more details about this article, please check Strategy you can't buy.