Free to Play - Understanding the Alternative Business Models of Modern MMORPGS

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(Free-Press-Release.com) September 29, 2009 --

As most people are familiar with the rising popularity of MMORPGS, or a Massively Multiplayer runescape accounts Online Role-Playing Game, some might not be familiar with the more modern business model many companies employ nowadays to entice new gamers to play their product. There is a rising trend for companies to release Free-To-Play MMORPGS. Essentially this means that the product is usually not found on store shelves for sale and there is the removal of a monthly subscription fee common with many titles in this genre. Often you might wonder how a business company can survive with a business model of giving away their games entirely but I will attempt to explain how many companies thrive on this type of business model.

First I will explain what the RPG game genre is. It is a game centered around the player taking control of a fictional character often in a mythical setting and controlling almost all aspects of that character or what is known as an avatar. The overall focus in these types of games is to increase or maximize your characters level, abilities, skills and equipment. An MMORPG is unique in that it is a setting in which players could interact with others online in a virtual world via the Internet. The term MMORPG was first coined by Richard Garriott famous for creating one of the older and first widely successful online RPG known as Ultima Online Ultima Online is widely acknowledged with popularizing the genre in the early 90's. Some examples of popular Pay-To-Play MMORPGs after Ultima were Everquest in the late 90's and today by far the most popular one is runescape account

This traditional method has proved incredibly lucrative for many companies with world wide revenues exceeding over a half billion dollars in the year 2005. This figure has doubled in the last couple of years making this one of the leading categories of runescape game revenue for major game publishers. The Free-To-Play model turns this perceived well established model and reworked it into something almost as lucrative.

This model was made widely popular in first in South Asia but now is a global trend. The Free-To-Play model is usually a downloaded game client instead of a traditional box cd. This helps cut down physical production costs and also encourages players to sell runescape accounts to try the product for no charge. This model also addresses one of the limits of the traditional method and lets the game be available to players who may not have access to credit cards.

The Free-To-Play model focuses solely on micro transactions, often ranging in cost from a few cents to a few dollars, focused on virtual avatar appearance and sometimes performance upgrades. No longer was changing your character dependent on earning certain in-game items, but by rather making them available for purchase.

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