MMORPG's: F2P Market Schemes

First and foremost I would like to say I love the idea of free to play because it allows us to test the waters but when we fall in love THAT is when it hits us hard. The word free to play scares me in many ways but also puts me at ease when it comes to upcoming games. I have noticed many games as of late lacking "magic" or "spark" as some would say. With games either being catagorized as "Pay to Wins" or carbon copies of the successful World of Warcraft its no wonder why old school gamers like myself have turned their heads. Enough of my ramble this is about schemes and tricks to fool the average player.

Scheme #1: DLC

Ahh this sounds all too familiar already am I right? with games such as DC Universe and The Secret World out its no wonder they went free to play...they have another way of doing business. As of today DC Universe has 11 DLC expanions at a whopping 10$ a piece. This might not seem like much right? but if any new player wanted to enjoy new powers or higher tier raiding or pvp they would need to drop a nice chunk of change on the spot. Not to mention that you find DLC only items ingame and it tells you that you cannot equip unless you go and spend 10$ until you find another item that points to another DLC. I figure there will be many who counter me by saying you pay more with a monthly plan blah blah blah BUT! ladies and gentlemen we are talking F2P here...please remember that. MMO players and console gamers now suffer from this horrid gameplan and it should be banished to all hell! raise your hand if you agree?...*cheering crowd*

Scheme #2: Micro Transactions

Ok ok most of us know about this evil and wish it would go somewhere and never return. Relax a little I feel it can work and also be misused to an extreme. Some game companies out there have a reputation for screwing over customers and I wont name the companies but I will name some games. Where do I begin? how about my old favorite? Maplestory. This game claims to offer a fully free to play enviornment and ect...but they are WRONG and very very far from this. Before you jump at my throat about my comment please stop and think back at the time you played and ask yourself "have I ever seen end game?" the answer will be ABSOLUTELY NOT!. That is because you need items and money to make the world go round and this world will not go round without cash. Let's take a closer look at what I mean about micro transactions done wrong. This game has a very complex crafting system in which the player purchases cubes to reforge and hammers to increase scroll amounts and scrolls cost a nice amount of money AND money is impossible to come by without merching AND merching is impossible to do well without a store which has to be purchased with real money *gasps for air*. That was a lot to take in so lets count $$$ Hammers, Cubes, Gold Sacks, Stores, and rinse and repeat. This game is like real life and only the top 1% will ever get to fully enjoy it but I will get into more detail later on that subject.