Free MMOGs... Cost Money
Which kind of MMORPG are you playing, Free-to-play or Pay-to-play? Maybe you would prefer F2P to P2P. You like it just because you think they charge nothing. But, 'an MMOG is free doesn't mean you're not paying for it'. An article posted on Escapist magazine has discussed such issues with us: Free online games usually offer optional "upgrades" to players willing to pay for them, typically in the form of items that aren't necessary to play the game but greatly enhance the experience. The amounts are most often minuscule but earlier this month Perfect World International, a free Chinese online game that's attracted over a million users since setting up shop in North America in September 2008, decided to offer a rare "Ancient Boa" mount to gamers for USD50, and according to MTV Multiplayer, "People paid." It's simple enough to write off people willing to lay out fifty bucks for a pretend snake-horsey as a statistically insignificant handful of particularly dedicated fans - ie., weirdos - but Pacific West Securities analyst Evan Wilson said there's more to it than just that. He noted that while World of Warcraft charges USD15 per month in subscription fees, players spend an average of USD10 a month in the Perfect World marketplace buying items that, like the Ancient Boa mount, are entirely optional. "The size of the market is pretty incredible and WoW is also successful [in China]," he said. "I would say that there are certainly lots of people who would be willing to pay for this type of content both here and around the world." |