Well, Dart - cheats are available for pretty much any game. It just depends on whether you use them or not. When I play an F2P game, the only thing that I pay for is my subscription. Now I can see how other people, who dont necessarily have my nonchalant attitude about the whole thing, and have sunk literally years into a game to attain things would be pissed that a bunch of noobs are running around w/ the same gear. I can see that. Me personally, if it takes me 20 levels to get a mount - it takes me 20 levels. I play the game for the same reason you do. If someone else next to me gets a mount at level 5 because they pay for it, it doesnt really bother me tho. I dont know if that bothers you or not, i couldnt care less. I'm in the game for my own personal fulfillment.
It doesn't really matter whether cheats can stand unused - when others are "cheating" to get ahead. It's not like a singleplayer game where you're only cheating yourself.
If you don't think your experience is cheapened when people aren't playing for their progress, then that's fine. Personally, I have a hard time seeing how anyone can motivate themselves to play for hours and hours, when they know they can just buy something cheap. It's the mixture of real money and in-game resources that's so dangerous to the genre.
Maybe it's because I like to immerse myself in the game world - and I like to pretend there's some kind of meaning to my actions. I can understand that if you play MMOs on your own - or you don't invest in your achievements - then it won't matter if others go around buying their progress.
It's not about elitism or wanting others to "suffer" because I've suffered. It's about maintaining the integrity of a gaming universe and fantasy. As soon as you invite outside "reality" to heavily influence the fantasy, you're asking to ruin the whole illusion of a game.
As usual however you approach this subject from your usual dramatic art student standpoint - the makers of the game "dont care anymore" about the game. They dont care about the art of game design, about the players, about anything much any more. Has the thought ever occurred to you that they may have no choice in the matter? Maybe it's not about being greedy and rubbing their bellies in glee over all the nice tasty new subscribers they got - maybe these games are hanging on by a thread and it's about having a game worth even keeping up and running.
Let me rephrase it for you then: They can't "afford" to care - because they want more money.
Better?
The end result is the same, and I couldn't care less if they're personally invested or not.
A company doesnt give away their product because they want to, it's generally because they have no choice. The life support system that is F2P sometimes being the only thing that keeps an online title up and running.
That's your fantasy, not mine. A company does what it perceives will maximise profit. Developers are rarely directly involved with the financial aspect - and they're just following orders.
Would the players that have been grinding the game for years rather have the game cease to exist entirely, rather than make the concessions it takes to keep it afloat? I know my fiancee grumbles about F2P on LOTRO, but her biggest fear is her beloved game going away entirely. I just got done w/ a few weeks in Warhammer Online, and it's dead. Kept alive by F2P. Same w/ Lotro. DDO wasnt a smash hit, and theyre lucky to still be up and running on F2P life support. I dont think Conan is going FTP because "the developers dont care anymore", quite the opposite - they do care. It's an attempt to keep the game afloat.
WAR is, at heart, a crap design that never really worked. If you want to keep it alive on F2P support instead of playing a thriving game, that's your business. That it's "free" is what keeps people playing - but how sad that is, if you ask me.
LOTRO was doing fine without F2P - and they had 150-200K subscribers at that point.
AoC was a game with absolutely fantastic potential, but the people behind it have been destroying it for a long time. Sure, they managed to halt the disaster and turn it into a "working game" - but they'll never come close to achieving what it could have been. This F2P move is just an obvious cash grab based on the movie and them finally having a reasonably stable client.
Now, I'm not blaming them for going the greed route - but I'm also not pretending there's another reason for it.
If you think F2P is all about survival then you better think again. It CAN be a lifesaver for broken games, but for working solid games like LOTRO - it's just a cash grab.
Ultimately, I'm not saying F2P is a bad thing if you just want the game to run for a longer period of time.
However, if you want the best gaming experience - I claim you should stay FAR away from the F2P model - because it will ruin any game. If you're a huge fan of a single game and there's no other way to play it, then I can understand sticking to F2P - but you're kidding yourself if you think it's because the developers are starving.