The future of online gaming... more payment?

[Leo]

Well at least online FPS will still be free... unless this is just a marketing strategy, like the one SOE did with Trials of Obi-Wan.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/110/1107019p1.html

[Nyarly]

Now that's a surprise, if there ever was one.

[Hunter]

Given the sheer volume of capital that can be made from MMOs, I'm not surprised.  Besides, it's a good marketing strategy (i.e. not everything costs).

[Leo]

Given the sheer volume of capital that can be made from MMOs, I'm not surprised.

Agreed, that's why MMOs are spamming the market lately. At first it was mostly rather big titles that tried to do what WoW did, but having failed to compete with WoW, producers decided to do what they should have done in the first place : Taking the source ideas that make WoW a cash cow and applying them to a game that is not a direct copy&paste of it.

So now we've got big and small MMOs all over the place being played by large numbers of players. Mostly these are free to download and free to play, but the good stuff can only be attained with real money, that way it is easier to trick the player into thinking they are not spending as much money... but the truth is you spend more money to those games than you would have spent on a game like WoW  ;D

I've spent enough time with MMOs that I'm completely bored of them, but regardless, I'm still waiting for Star Wars : The Old Republic because I'm too much a Star Wars fanboy  :P

[Wolfy]

FFXIV will be my next MMO...This september. :D

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'll be playing WoW: CataClysm ontop of that..so I'll be busy. o-o..Along with Some Halo: Reach In between play sessions, of course. :D

[Heaven Sent Blossom]

The micro-payment MMO system is really nothing new, it's been all the rage in Korean MMO's for a really long time. In fact out there it's the monthly subscription model that is the break from the norm if I recall correctly.

As a random aside the Burger King games were great. Sneak King = better than Metal Gear Solid.

[Will]

Sneak King rocks. >.>