IMO, free to play games really doesn't deserve much more space than it actually has. Why? Because almost all of them are exactly the same: players "training" their avatars into manga-like worlds to get more XPs, money, weapons... every new game changes the overall content: new graphic, new sceneries, new sound... but they're, in essence, exactly the same game. It's even more repetitive than the insane FPS-headshot-like games than changes a minimum in their gameplay. And, if there is this kind of non-creative games, there is no reason to expect people to simply like them.

Some will say I'm being simplist, maybe preconceived, but I really don't know any MMO free-to-play game different than this. A few months ago, I gave myself another chance and took a robot-like free-to-play game (I don't remember tha name right now). I saw the game description, the screenshots, and when I played the first time... BANG! Just another avatar-training game! I even wonder what else people use to develop in those games than graphics and audio.

If you say about game balance in these games, it's so simplistic to say that people with time don't get money, and vice versa. It seems more like an excuse to mantain a game standard than a accurate game balance schema, just like the "only geeks and otakus care about Wii storage" stuff. It is the kind of information about players that unfortunately we can't predict. Right here in brazil, most of those game players come from middle-class families, with some money to spend in gaming - and yes, having so many time to play. And it's Brazil, a country in which people doesn't use to have so much money as is in USA or Europe. How many layers right there does have better conditions (time AND money)?

More than reeducate peope about those games, we must reeducate those developers about creativity and innovation in game design. That's my harsh oppinion about that.