"Pay-2-Play" ; A thing of the past?

     Over the past year(s), it seems as if  "pay-to-play" games, are becoming more and more a thing of the past.  I started taking note to this realization, when Bioware, announced that it is going to "Free-2-Play". So why is everything suddenly going "Free-2-Play?" ...

     Research indicates that your average gamer, can't support more than two game-based subcriptions at a time. As for myself, I like to keep the subscription down to one. So that in-turn, makes everything a "what gives me more bang for my buck" competition. But, when something is free, (in this case, a "Free-2-Play" game) ; that makes me instantly more interested in trying it, knowing that the boundary of the dollar, doesn't exist.

     As for a MMO, or any game for that matter, the better quality of the game, the more it's going to pull people towards it. But despite at how great quality of the game MAY be, a subcription model to play it, presents a huge barrier to entry to nearly all. Therefore, because it does present such a huge barrier, more and more games are turning to the "Free-2-Play" model. For instance : TF2, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, LOTR: Online, SW:TOR, DC Universe, D&D: Online, City Of Heroes, MapleStory, Blacklight Retribution, APB Reloaded, etc, etc. Whereas one of the only firmly-standing "Pay-2-Play" games left on the market is, of course, World of Warcraft. But even it's losing foothold in the world of subcription-based gameplay.

     "Pay-2-Play" gaming, is dying, very quickly at that. With the game market becoming bigger and bigger every single month, maintaining a gamers interest in one game, and expecting them to pay a subscription to play it, is nearly impossible now. The era of "Free-2-Play" is here, and has taken it's hold on the MMO world, because ask yourself ; after you drop your hard-earned cash on a game, shouldn't you be entitled to play it?