Board Thread:Online Discussion/@comment-7153552-20130403223900/@comment-7153552-20130529210809

Well, think of Neverwinter for the second business model, it's free and you can buy things, but they aren't inheriently any better than what you can get on your own with work. A true pay to win game has gear and mounts and items that you can ONLY get through real world currency and you will NEVER be able to attain them otherwise. Defiance is Buy to Play, they have nice vehicles and outfits you can buy, but they aren't any better than a different model or skin that you can get in game easily. Buy to Pay is my favorite business model, F2P coming in a very close second. But the Pay to Play (sub-based like WoW) is on the way out. It's not a viable method when you factor in all the great non-sub gaming out there. Neverwinter is 100% free and is an exceptional game in all respects (especially given it's open-beta). Plus, if you want, you can trade Astral Diamonds (in-game attainable resource) on the Zen Exchange for their purchasable currency (Zen), and buy the same things other people are spending money for. So you don't even have to pay to buy the things you're supposed to pay for. This makes everything completely different than early F2P models. In fact, in my opinion, it encourages people to buy that much more Zen. They can exchange it down for the Diamonds, too.