Massively has
an interview with Rift's Creative Director, Bill Fisher, as well.
I can't say I'm surprised. Rift is an awesome game that I enjoyed playing to max-level. It was the first game my lovely bride and I played together fresh, neither of us having prior experience. But the trend is toward free-to-play with a cash shop even for quality MMOs. In truth, Rift will be a hybrid—like TSW and SWTOR—with Subscribers getting perks that F2Pers will have to pay for, if they are even available.
Subcription MMOs are quite frankly on the decline. Even the elephant in the room, WoW, is losing subscribers, though Blizzard is still the runaway leader of the MMO pack. Some folks prefer to play a subscription-based game "to keep things simple." I used to be one of them. But I have found, beginning with GW2, then TSW, and now Neverwinter, that I like free-to-play. I have spent money/points in all three games. Maybe not as much as I would have if I were subscribed, but more than if they were fully sub-based and I weren't playing at all (which
was the case for a few months with TSW). So at this stage of my gaming life, it's not a matter of sub money or no money, it's a matter of some money, when I feel the urge or need. I see it as a good move on Trion's part, if they keep to their promises of "No Tricks. No Traps." I won't play SWTOR because I feel the F2P is punitive, so they get none of my gaming budget. But a well-managed F2P (or B2P) doesn't have to make the F2Per feel left out, and thus will encourage spending, when there is value for the player.
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