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.