Originally Posted by
FoxyBunny
Out of curiosity, how can free ever truly mean free? To run a game like this, you have to code the game, test the game, revise the game, update the game, patch the game, monitor the game, provide some form of customer service, host multiple servers, etc. All of that costs money and time. If you are a professional putting hours upon hours into developing a game, I bet you'd like to get paid for it. And if you put your own cash on the line for it, I'd bet you'd like to make a profit. A business that does all these things is absolutely guaranteed to want to make a profit. There's no point for them to do it otherwise.
My question is this: Who really wants to wade through 17 million ads, pop-ups, spam and other annoyances to play a game? I don't. Not only that, but the ads don't pay as well as people might think. To support a game like this, you have to smash ads into every nook and cranny and then it still might not be enough.
OK, so they decide to make paying for the game optional. You can still (and always) play for free, but you could pay too if you wanted. Now, why would anyone pay for a free game unless there's a really good reason to do so? You are going to have to give the paying customers some kind of advantage, extra gameplay, etc. You must tempt them into giving up those credit card numbers, and the way to do it is to make what they get be something they really want.
Now, we have the situation where the free players complain. They say, "We should get all the same advantages the paid players do! Why don't we get the extra items/perks that they do? It's unfair! I can't compete with that! All you care about is money!"
This is every free game on the internet. It happens over and over and at some point I keep thinking that people will realize that free does mean free, but paid means better-than-free. It's common sense. Why do we all still get so worked up over it?