I don't understand why people feel like cash shops should only have non-essential items. I think that for a steady game like WoW, GW, DDO, LOTRO, WAR, EVE, it would work to do a F2P with a shop if they do it where you need to buy things in the shop to make it work. I think the key is to make it feel like what you are buying is worth it. I feel like so many games have frivolous shops...just a bunch of junk...why would I spend real money on that. But stores that have stuff that I need to buy if I want to continue to play and be competitive such as purchasing dungeons/bag space/mounts/etc.

You figure that someone playing WoW for a year has put in $50 for the original purchase (assuming adopting early), paying $15/mo = $180, so $230 for an average first year. If you figure if you are playing in an average manner (not hardcore to the end), you spend $8-10 for a dungeon or a zone each each, you spend $20 that whole time for bigger bags, etc. If you're hardcore, you might end up spending about the same (possibly more if you like things like potions/etc), but if you're not so hardcore, you could end up getting out easier.

I think where shops get lame when they have stuff that only 1% of the people will buy. That means that your stuff is meaningless. And I will never pay for that. And I generally hate anyone who does.

Bag space and mounts are two of the perfect things for cash shops; they don't give any direct advantage in pvp or pve (unless we want to get picky and cite specific examples such as alterac valley battlegrounds in wow), but they do provide convenience items. You don't have to purchase extra bag space or a mount, but it sure makes life a lot easier.

What I'm trying to say is there is a difference between non-essential items and worthless junk. Extra bag space is non-essential, but as a raider you are probably going to find it very difficult without the extra space. You can do it, but its a real pain.

Let's look at the MMO market. Name one major MMO (in terms of current popularity) that essentially forces the player to use a cash shop, by providing direct advantages. It's not possible; cash shops have a stigma attached to them that turns players off, for this specific reason. This is an MMO, and someone's real life wealth (or simply their access to a parent's credit card) should not come into the game. When cash shops bring direct advantages, the idea of skill is thrown out. Games that do this turn off players.

I recently started playing Runes of Magic; but as soon as I saw the words cash shop, I did a fair bit of research to make sure the end game content relied on skill and not the cash shop. When I told my friends about RoM, they all seemed interested until the words 'cash shop' were mentioned, and immediately their attitudes changed.

The RoM store mainly provides advantages that can be obtained in game; yes it will take a longer period of time, but its still doable. And many of the best players on the RoM servers haven't spent a cent. RoM also provide mounts and extra bag space in their store; I definitely could use this and probably will be making a purchase soon. Not because I'm going to get a great advantage over other players, but simply because it makes things easier for me.

As I said, i really think this is more of an issue of what we define as 'essential','non-essential' and 'useless junk'.