When the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, came out, I received an email for a 10 day free trial of Burning Crusade, the previous expansion. Having just suspended my Final Fantasy Online account, mainly because I wasn’t playing it much, I was feeling adventurous and decided to give WoW another try.
Ten days later, I am sorely tempted but I think I’m going to pass. Why? Because with a monthly fee, World of Warcraft seems like too much of an obligation. If I skip out a few nights to do other things, as I had to during the trial, I feel like I’m wasting money. That’s why I quit Final Fantasy, I wasn’t playing enough, for lack of time, to justify the cost. If I could pay for only the time I actually play, that would be different.
I know that World of Warcraft is making buttloads of money with their current model and thus feel little need to change. But I don’t really see the monthly subscription model being the future, especially for games that hope to compete with WoW. I’m going to be looking into some of the free to play MMO’s now. I just can’t stand feeling obligated to play, especially since I actually have a life and responsibilities outside of gaming.