Free-to-play online FPS is the new black.

There seems to be a rash of online FPSes coming out. And not just regular games that you have to buy, but free online FPSes. These free FPSes are not the cheesy lame ones from no-name amateur softhouses. These are being developed by big-name industry heavyweights and promise to deliver a full package and well designed gameplay. It seems like the idea of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory's free-to-play experience is catching on.

It's been a while since we've heard anything about Quake Zero, id Software's free-to-play variation of Quake 3. For starters, it's not going by that old name anymore. From now on, you can call it Quake Live. Secondly, gone are any doubts about the financial efficacy of their business model: in-game advertising acronym addicts IGA Worldwide has announced a partnership with id Software to convert your roaming gaze into cold, hard cash.

Quake Live will be available, cleverly enough, at www.quakelive.com, along with an assortment of features like stats, matchmaking, and of course, the game itself.
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Quake Zero was announced by id Software at QuakeCon '07 and at some point in time was renamed Quake Live. As mentioned in the quoted text, Quake Live is simply a free version of Quake 3: Arena. You download the client and when you want to play you connect to the Quake Live website, which acts as the front end. The service will include all the typical bells and whistles players are used to plus a few extras, such as buddy lists. Pretty cool for being free, eh? While it is supported through in-game advertising, how the advertising will be worked is unknown. Most likely it will consist of splash screens in between matches, which is fine by me. (expect lots of Mountain Dew commercials) You can currently sign up and hope to be selected for the Quake Live beta test at their Quakelive.com website.

Battlefield: Heroes is a big-name free online FPS that's being made by DICE. Battlefield: Heroes takes the elements of the Battlefield franchise and puts a spin on them. Bf:H is a WWII cartoon shooter. "Cartoon shooter" is just another way of saying that it looks like Team Fortress 2's cell-shaded characters. If you've never played any of the Battlefield games, they are class-based online FPS games that tend to lean towards the tactical side. Whether Bf:H will lean towards tactical is unknown, but somehow I doubt it. Bf:H will also be supported through in-game advertising and micro-payments. These micro-payments are for aesthetics only (meaning a new hat or a new uniform) and will not be used for weaponry. So you won't have to worry about players paying $10 for a kick-ass gun and unbalancing the gameplay.
(see trailer at the end of the article for more)

I don't know about anyone else, but this new development is pretty damn cool. It's a good way to get server support money, which I assume is the main idea behind these games. Asides from that, it is a good way to launch people into some of the for-pay products that these companies offer. Some astute observers might be thinking, "but Quake 3 came out years ago!" Yeah, it did. id, however, is working on a new Quake: Arena product that will be using id Tech 5, the engine behind their upcoming FPS driving/shooter, Rage.

I've actually tried some of the free-to-play games out there and many truly are lackluster. Gunz was fun, but is loaded with hackers which can easily ruin the fun. America's Army is actually pretty decent, but is extremely tactical (think Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear) and can be a bit hard to jump into. WarRock, to be blunt, sucked really, really, really hard. All of these were developed by very small softhouses, therefore the games typically lack a lot of what players have come to expect from games like Battlefield 2, Quake Wars, Quake Arena, Team Fortress and so on. With major developers releasing these free online shooters, those problems should be fixed. I'm hopeful for now. Maybe I'll see ya on the battlefield?


Battlefield: Heroes Trailer