Free 2 play vs. Pay 2 Play

Which do you prefer?  F2P or P2P?  this is an ongoing topic that has many people up in arms about.  There have been many discussions about which model is best.  On the one hand the F2P model is good because you get to play the game for free, and if you want any extra features then you have to pay for them with micro transactions.

What are micro-transactions?   Micro-transactions are small transactions, that companies use to enable players to buy specific content in game.  for example, Champions Online just recently released its F2P model and if a new player wants to experience some of the extra content, say run through the Serpent Lantern, then they will have to pay a cost in game currency, called Atari Tokens, which they can purchase online through Atari.

Now subscription based gaming, (or P2P) is based on the old standard of charging a monthly fee to access all of the games features.  With this model you do not have to worry about paying for the content, you would get it as an immediate download when the game company sends out an update.  the one bad point I see in this model is that you are locked in for 30 days to having to play the game just to break even.  There are several articles talking about it.  One of them is from Beau Hindman from Massively, who  compares the eastern and western F2P games, and the other is from DICE 2011, where they had a  HOT TOPIC discussion on free games vs. pay games. Read/Listen to both of them and weigh in with your opinion.

Beau Hindman's article can be found here , and the HOT TOPIC discussion can be viewed here .