Yesterday, TF2 launched maybe there most ambitious update yet in "Mann vs. Machine." √http://www.teamfortress.com/mvm/ They definitely seem to be doing just fine with the Free to Play model. Such a massive update 5 years into a videogame's shelf life just goes to show the power a wonderful game created by forward thinking game developers can be. They have created such a strong community to support it's game and have even kept the casual gamer interested by allowing them to play for free whenever an update like this launches.

This free-to-play model is very similar to, and I wouldn't be surprised to find it was inspired by, the online multiplayer role playing game Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com). This humorous game is also free to play, and you can either donate real money to get a special "item of the month" each month, or spend more time accumulating in-game currency to get one.

Its a bit of a special case, but its been looked at before, valve did it right by not locking players who did not pay out of the game, they did not make it a pay to be stronger game, paying only saves you time. You can earn or barter your way into items if you are willing to invest the time instead of the money, and most items are simply cosmetic, and all additional weapons are balanced in that they have upsides balanced by downsides, so the game remains fair for all regardless of investment. The game had good will and was a very high quality title to begin with, this model might not work for most other games. This game has a unique style and a sense of humor, a very polished title that is still fun even years after its initial release, and the graphics have not really dated because of its unique visual style.

Furthermore its more about the fact that with steam they undermined the used game market. With steam they can ensure sales to play, and have been prone to aggressively lowering prices on older games because they've realized that some money from an old game is better than no money from an old game at full price. Since they've insulated their games from the used game market which used to be the bane of game publishers, they have the freedom to do things like make an older game free to play.

Alex, I enjoyed your post a great deal (I'm a big TF2 fan as well). However, I think it's a stretch to say that World of Warcraft has gone Free to Play. As the article you linked to points out, non-paying subscribers can only attain level 20 (yes, I do know how geeky this sounds), and can see a tiny portion of the game. WoW still has something on the order of 10 million paying subscribers.

This, of course, in opposition to games such as Guild Wars, D&D Online, Star Wars Galaxy, Lord of the Rings Online, etc. which run on models more similar to TF2.

All that being said, I think that OTM does a very good job of covering the gaming medium, especially in opposition to most of the other outlets. Thanks!

"The company continues to create new weapons and items, which can either be found in-game, traded with other players, or purchased from Valve's "item store" for prices anywhere from $0.99 to about $8.00."

A bit of an incomplete picture. In addition to items developed by Valve and some tie-ins from other studios (disclosure: I work for one), there are a number of items created by the community at large. Once approved, a cut of the sales goes between Valve and the author of the item. This was also done for maps and other items.

Part of the picture isn't just developer driven content, but community generated content propagating

Source: http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?appid=440&p=1

Sorry for being picky! I think it's an important note to the free-to-play model Valve incorporated includes the community itself profiting from paid items.