Thorium88

@josephwillmon
That's good to hear, thank you :)
It looks like I'll take a shot at FE after all...

@(Unverified)
A good summation, thank you, but when you say, "variety of different games to suit different playstyles", it occurs to me that the different playstyles (in this case being preferences for different payment options) can be served by the same game.

Does the FE shop sell things that allow you to gain full XP or perhaps extra crafting, and thus join the "first-class" game experience of the subscribers? Does the AoC shop sell access to the other classes?

If they did, this wouldn't affect the experience of the free players or the subscribers, but would earn them some money from players like myself.
If they don't... I really have to wonder why ever the heck not...

@tororosso
You see, the difference here is that unlike you, I am not looking to play a game completely for free -- I'm perfectly willing to support the game with money, I just want to be able to do that without getting locked into a recurring subscription.

The 'free' games in your examples all (at least all that are live as of now) allow free players to engage in a nerfed version of the game. And yes, playing LOTRO for free also results in nerfed play... but LOTRO allows you to un-nerf your account through a few occasional payments in the cash shop, many of them non-recurring because they are account-wide, not character-specific. For the games on your list, the only un-nerfing possible is getting a subscription.

Therefore, I have to say that LOTRO is LESS restricting, at least for those of us willing to pay some dough.

So.... this F2P turns out to be another Champions-style freemium ploy?
They let you play a crappy version of the game in the hopes you'll cough up subscription money for the not-so-crappy version?

It's misdirection like this that gives f2p a bad name -- these things are not what I would call user-friendly business models.

I am currently liking the way that Turbine allows me to pay-as-I-go through LOTRO . . . the lack of a recurring subscription suits my irregular playing hours. I had been looking forward to a F2P Fallen Earth, but it certainly looks as if they designed the 'free' part to be a PITA.

I wish these companies would be honest about this and either let me support the game through the cash shop or just come out and say it's still a subscription game but with added unlimited trial version.

Just because other subscription games have cash shops doesn't make it fair play. I think Eve players, particularly vets, have a right to say, "No, not here, not in my Eve."

But saying that will do us no good. Other companies get away with this because there are plenty of gamers with more money than brains. And CCP is clearly intent on exploiting these players. There is no way that the cash shop will remain limited to vanity items only.

The cash shop is not there for the players' benefit, it is there to produce additional revenue. As the walking-in-stations expands so too will the cash shop. Players once imagined that in Incarna they might become the manufacturers of clothing, gear, weapons, etc. for that environment. But now it seems far more likely that the Noble Exchange will become the sole source of goods for the station environment.

Eve itself may not have died, but I'm beginning to believe that the dream has.

I like best both the "tales from" and "guides to" Eve articles. It's a hard choice but I'd probably have to go with Death of an Industrialist, not just because of the dastardly elements, but because this and other stories like it reveal a part of Eve that I and many other players have neither the time nor inclination to engage in. We only ever see echoes of these things, and to see them from the inside is very illuminating (and sometimes tempting).

So in the future, I would love to see more "tales of" -- not just from the 'criminal' side, but what about less dramatic lifestyles... what is it that billionaire industrialists do with their days? What is it like to be JUST a miner in Eve? (That last one is likely too dull to merit an article, but then I wouldn't know :P )
And as for guides, it amazes me but what is constantly needed is some repeated guidance on basic ship fittings. I would think this is something that any thoughtful player would have quickly figured out, but I am continually surprised by 'veterans' posting fits in chat that, while not lol-fits, are either grossly inefficient or fail to capitalize on the strengths of the particular ship. I'm sure you must have covered some of it before, but it's a big enough field to cover a year's worth of articles.

One thing that has raised my curiosity lately is the issue of security and exploit-fighting in MMOs -- interviews with both the defenders and the offenders could be fascinating, And while there are lots of interesting folk at CCP to interview, I'd still love to see a new interview with Chribba -- just who is THAT guy, really?

The thing you're really asking is: do you want a simulation of reality or do you want a good competitive game?
If you want a true simulation, then you can make your sniper who one-shots opponents long before they realize they're in danger. But that sort of thing doesn't make a good competition, or if we were to imagine a real-life bloodsport, it wouldn't make for good television.
What makes a good game (or good television) is balanced combatants engaging in a contest that takes a certain amount of time and at some point in the middle "it could go wither way!"
Either approach is justified by the purpose of the game -- do you want a brutally realistic (and often boring or unfair) simulation, or do want good competition?

It's odd seeing as how they're built by the same folk on the same engine, but while I found CO pleasantly enjoyable, in STO I found some of the most wretched decisions in gameplay mechanics that I've had to suffer through since Runescape.

LOTRO is my favorite right now -- I just like the ambiance in the game and I appreciate the depth of activities to waste my time with :) . . . that, and the warden class is a lot of fun.

Congrats to you!
...and commiserations to me - - your intelligent writing will be sorely missed.