Seems like free-to-play MMOs are on the rise these
days. Of course, there's no such thing as 'free'—the developers have to maintain the game somehow, and not out of the
goodness of their hearts. Advertising is one route,
disliked by many players, so the announcement that the Chinese MMO company Shanda are making two of their games free to
play without resorting to ingame ads is a good one.
The games in question — Legend of Mir II and Magical Land — will instead follow the micropayment
model, charging for in-game items and extra content. Good news for casual players, although this sort of model makes it
hard for the hardcore to keep up without spending like crazy. Imagine if you had to pay real-world money for your epics
in WoW — currently, real-world economics have little impact in MMOs, although players can choose to buy ingame currency
using real money. Introducing a revenue model where poor players are automatically at a disadvantage may not work well,
so it'll be interesting to see how the transition works out for these MMOs.
