As some of you may have noticed, pay-to-play mmos have been making a bit of a change lately. It isn't with the style of gameplay, or waves of new ones coming out, but with their pay model. A lot of them recently have been changing from their pay-to-play model to a free-to-play one. One after the other games has been switching over, and it has proven to be successful for many of them. Many people have been having mixed feeling about this change, but I will explain my thoughts on it the best I can.
Before going too in depth of my thoughts on these recent changes, let me explain something to those of you who may not read too many of my articles. I'm primarily a free-to-play gamer. I have played pay-to-play games in the past, but I could never really stick to them. The mix of the time I feel the need to invest due to paying monthly, and the overall lack of time to dedicate to them have left me gravitating towards the free-to-play realm. So, while I give you my thoughts, some may seem biased based on my play style, but I will try to be as unbiased as possible but if I seem too biased on some parts, feel free to call me out, I thrive on constructive criticism.
Pretty much all of these companies have been making the transition for the same two reasons, which is to increase the population of their waning servers, and to bring more money into the game. Which moving it to a free game, is the more logical move, in my opinion.
I feel a lot of people are more willing to try something free than if it was paid. Now, don't jump on the flame wagon just yet, let me explain it a bit. I think this because of how a lot of games are set up. When a game is free downloading that 4-10 gb download seems a bit more worth it, even if you dislike the game. I say this because, unlike paid games which have often crippling trials, which tend to give you the wrong impressions, in a free game you're exposed to everything or at least most of what the game has to offer from the get-go. Giving you a more informed and detailed impression of how the game will pan out and if you would like it or not. I know I for one feel this way when I try a free game.
As for increase in money, most of the pay-to-play games are rather static in how much they make per player. I say most, since there is somewhat of a trend happening with some pay to play games which offer an in-game item mall in a paid game…..really now, that is just crappy in my opinion. Moving on, as I said in most of these games the amount made is rather static, they make the said amount a month per player due to the monthly fees. But turn that into a free-to-play model, they're profit margins can be a lot higher since the in-game item malls fluctuate how much they make per month. Yes, some of you are screaming that some of these item malls are a bit on the corrupt side, true. But not all of them are, some games like Dungeon Fighter, Imagine Online, and Eden Eternal offer malls which a lot of, if not most of the items are tradable with normal players and doesn't fill the item mall with overpowered items which make you feel the need to pay. These are actual good examples of how some of the free companies do well while not giving paying people an undeniable edge.
