Gotham City Imposters is a great game. Honestly, it’s something I can play with the same religiosity as I play Team Fortress 2. It’s also just gone free to play this week, so you have absolutely no excuse not to play it yourselves. However, this sudden move towards the free to play model has got me thinking. What inspired the move, and are free to play games always inherently successful?My first thought of the free to play model has to be the way it has shaped the MMORPG world. Since World of Warcraft essentially has a monopoly on the genre (you can disagree with me, but that don’t change the facts) other MMO’s with a subscription based payment model just haven’t been able to survive. Heck, the first question anyone asks when they hear an upcoming title will come with a subscription is: “How long do you think until they’re forced to make it free to play?” I should know, often those words are coming out of my mouth. A subscription based MMO going free to play, is often a sign that not enough people are playing the game to make it profitable, which as far as I’m concerned is never a good sign. It reeks of a last ditch effort to get people through the door and playing their game before they must inevitably resort to shelving it.