Also, free players are not a "drag" on the servers or "lost" profit.
Free players still buy stuff from the item shops same as paid players.
Many free players eventually become paid players.
Free players provide a service, if you will, by providing a population to play with in the game. While not dead, if only paid players were playing, AO would be VERY desolate in most areas. Most notably, Rubi-ka itself would be mostly abandoned, as most paid players level and congregate in SL.
Also, Funcom deserves credit as the first mmo company to provide a true "hybrid" payment model. The free players do not have to buy "quest packs" or other "content" in order to enjoy the full original game, as well as its first "booster" pack "Notum Wars", unlike those playing something such as DDO or LotRO. And they manage to make money from an item shop full of pure fluff items, rather than game enhancements ( such as +stat tomes and whatnot ).
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Comments
Also, free players are not a "drag" on the servers or "lost" profit.
Free players still buy stuff from the item shops same as paid players.
Many free players eventually become paid players.
Free players provide a service, if you will, by providing a population to play with in the game. While not dead, if only paid players were playing, AO would be VERY desolate in most areas. Most notably, Rubi-ka itself would be mostly abandoned, as most paid players level and congregate in SL.
Also, Funcom deserves credit as the first mmo company to provide a true "hybrid" payment model. The free players do not have to buy "quest packs" or other "content" in order to enjoy the full original game, as well as its first "booster" pack "Notum Wars", unlike those playing something such as DDO or LotRO. And they manage to make money from an item shop full of pure fluff items, rather than game enhancements ( such as +stat tomes and whatnot ).
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-