The way I see it, it’s all about choice. As you stated, it’s not that F2P is going to ‘save’ the industry (I’m of the opinion that the industry isn’t quite in need of a bailout yet), but rather, it’s a question of choice.

For years now the F2P model has been plagued with low quality titles, and appropriately panned by the gaming community. Today, as more and more tier 1 game development companies start looking at, and incorporating F2P/microtransaction elements, the quality is appropriately rising.

Thanks for the awesome article, and well thought out and expressed comparison.

And funny you mention FFXI, I am getting ready to write about my recent return to it…and how it uhm..went. lol

Beau

The fact of the matter is that the future of MMOs does not rest in games that you pay $50 for a box and then $15 if you want to play for more than the first month.

In six years tell me if I’m wrong, I’ll certainly own up to it. However, I would put the odds of that happening right up there with aliens coming down and paying off my credit cards.