Does it Measure Up to the MMORPG Status Quo?
Game,” and has been captivating the hearts and minds of young and old alike since the first days of SOE’s Everquest. However, as developers and executives alike are becoming more and more crunched for ideas to fuel hungry fans of this genre, shortcuts have become common and as of late, it can be argued, quality has been in decline. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Sony’s Everquest 2, and Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy XI are all competing for a share of the profits as most high quality MMORPGs have also become pay-to-play (P2P, for short), which requires users to pay a monthly fee. This fee (ranging from $10-$20 monthly) covers increasingly high costs for massive servers, administrators, and other aspects which help keep these games running smoothly. For the casual gamer, this has created all sorts of problems. Lo and behold, the fine people at NCsoft have come up with a solution for those who want to get away from the grind of traditional online RPGs and do so without paying a monthly fee.
