Why pay when you can play for FREE

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Much of the entertainment in online games is the aspect that many are free.  Many higher quality games such as World of Warcraft (WoW), Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR), City of Heroes, RIFT, etc. are online games that require paid subscription to unlock all the game features and attain the best game experience; however, several of these MMOs are feeling the blow of the Free-to-Play community.  This demand for free content has lead a few like WoW and City of Heroes to introduce a free-to-play option for the game, this strategy is used to initiate trial use by a previously untargeted audience demographic.

In an article from Gamasutra.com the staff believes the choice to move to free content from subscriptions for some of the top MMORPGs is a mistake.  After following the trend with many games they found that:

World of Warcraft lost nearly 20 percent of its subscribers despite implementing an endless free trial up to level 20.  Warhammer Online saw players cancelling their subscriptions to play in the free trial because that was where all the PVP action was.  And Lego Universe had to shut down when it found it was unable to convert free trial users into subscribers.

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While there is negative feedback on the issue, that is just an opinion of a much more vast audience.  People are also finding the positivity within the change for some games.  A recent article on 1up.com describes how free-to-play is different depending on which MMO you look at.  WoW and RIFT are examples of games that opt players to become subscribers to access more and get more out of their playing experience, while games like DC Universe Online gives free players the same game as subscribers, the only difference is unlock-able characters and beneficial in game items. 

One last game that came to mind when bring up free-to-play is Lego Universe Online.  This was originally created as a pay-to-play game but transitioned to free-to-play months after its release to hopefully gain more popularity.  This Youtube video explains the history of LUO and toward the end they explain why it ended up shutting down.

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Although the game couldn’t survive the changing atmosphere of online gaming, its popularity and feedback on forums has potentially sparked new life; there are rumors that the developers are considering re-opening the game in the near future.  However they are looking at past challenges and adapting it to the current changes in online gaming communities.

The transition from subscription to free-to-play is mostly seen as a positive for many online gamers but is it enough for developers to hope trial use will create further investment with the consumers? Or will gamers see this as an opportunity to get most of the current content for free?  Regardless of the opinions out there this will and currently is paving the way for how online virtual communities will be created and maintained in the future.

Let the Kid Speak

As we see an increase of online presence in our daily lives there comes a higher awareness of its apparent negative affects pictured in the media and unfortunately not always equal amounts of positive/beneficial publicity.  One area that seems to be hit the hardest is online gaming.  Parents are separating their children from such technology because of issues with cyber bullying and improper communication skills.  However, this is nothing new to game developers and hosts; creating positive communication environments in kids MMOs is a fundamental aspect of their success. 

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A blogger for Massively.com posted an article with some research they had recently conducted on younger children and their interaction with word filters and blockers within online games.  The current struggle for kid based MMOs is whether or not to implement a chat filter, to clean up profanities and protect private information, or to restrict the chat to preprogrammed messages.  The author, Karen Bryan, discusses both negative and positive sides, falling back more on the fact that kids will always find a way around filters.  Bryan makes a good point that by restricting them completely from interacting with others it defeats the purpose of the game and won’t teach them anything:

Similarly, while it's important for parents to stay on top of what children are doing online, we can't be sitting next to them forever. MMOs are, by nature, social environments, and kids need to have the opportunity to collaborate and coordinate with other players in game. But at some point, they will be on their own, and if they understand how to put things in context and how to react to potential harassment, they'll be able to do an even better job of filtering than the game can.

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One site mentioned in the article was FilamentGames.com This site educates individuals through the use of these kind of online games in subjects including basic elementary forms of plant and microbiological sciences, political fundamentals and debating, and space and ocean exploration.  The site includes a few MMO style games and due to their basic programming rooted in education, parents can know that their children are interacting safely.

Parents will always be concerned for the children’s’ safety, so through working together and taking initiative to learn more about the uses of online communities they can find some reassurance and even help with protection.   In a recent article from the Huffington Post, the authors, also concerned parents, give insightful information about maintenance of children’s activities online as well as rules to follow and/or remember while monitoring them.

Online people are not alone; the Internet is just a constantly updating and changing social community we are creating.  So if you have children or when/if you do in the future, allowing them to use the Internet and join these online communities may be hard to handle at first; just remember they aren’t alone and everyone online isn’t out to hurt them, as a community there are people that will help build there communication skills and help them when they are in need.