14 DAY TRIAL // I can remember writing the news story about The Lord of the Rings Online going free-to-play and wondering how long it will take before the Turbine made MMO is closed down and the business model again retreats to the peculiar games of the Far East.
I also remember writing news about how well The Lord of the Rings Online did financially after a few months and then reading about all the games that are adopting some of the free-to-play concepts and then also talking about how well they are being served by them.
Free-to-play, as the name implies, allows gamers to sample a (bigger or smaller) part of the game universe without paying anything, with microtransactions and regular subscriptions offered for those who crave more.
The model eliminates money as barrier to entry to a number of games, some of them pretty polished and interesting, and has become one of the big buzzwords for the video games industry this year, alongside social gaming.
The problem is that with so many free buffets around, it's only a matter of time before a gamer finds himself stuffed to the gills with free gaming nourishment with the only limitations being those of time.
And now gaming becomes less a function of managing money and more one of managing time, with an ever-growing number of titles competing for the ever-shrinking resources of time that modern life endows all of us with.
Time becomes the currency and the chance will surely be welcomed by those who have it and lack money.
But there's a category of gamers who has the money to spend and lacks the time and free-to-play titles only supply them with limited options at this point.
The forward looking developer will probably see an opportunity here: create titles that not only require payment for access but also enable those who pay to advance quickly and experience the game faster than those who have the time but lack the money.
I almost look forward to the day when I can say with pride: “Deus Ex: Human Uprising 2018? I paid 100 dollars and completed it in 3 hours.”