So let's face it.  Most of us that play free MMORPGs play them for one of two reasons:

1) We don't have the money to play a subscription MMORPG

2) We don't have a credit card or other means to pay subscriptions

So what happens when we graduate from college or high school, get a real job, and are suddenly swimming in our new, glorious salaries?  The average college grad will make over $35,000 a year at an entry level job.  For a single, reasonably frugal individual living alone in an apartment, that's a lot of money still floating around each pay period.

Suddenly $13-15 a month isn't a big deal any more.  Suddenly that Playstation 3 is within reach.  Suddenly you're checking Amazon.com's prices on video games more often than you're checking mmosite.com for the latest free MMO to come out of Korea.

But there's a flipside.  Now you're *really* on your own.  Now you're working 40+ hours a week, taking care of your own finances and all the day-to-day living responsibilities.  Local friends, church, and other things are still vying for your time and you don't have as much of it as you used to.  Now, if you get on your favorite MMO, it's going to be at a very specific time (probably the evenings) whereas before your online friends might see you pop on at lunch time or be semi-active for an entire weekday because your schedule allowed it.

Things change when we hit the real world.  And the sudden abundance of money for those lucky enough to get employed combined with the surprising hit to free time makes for some serious confusion.

In my experience, the recently-employed college grad gamer usually spends his or her money on a new TV, maybe a new console, and starts buying games.  Those that had often pirated PC games in high school and college might suddenly realize they don't want to screw over game developers any more and start purchasing their shiny new copy of Fallout 3 legitimately.

But for those of us that, in a sense, "grew up" with MMORPGs for the last half decade, something's still missing.  Single player RPGs and online FPSs like Team Fortress are great, but we miss that persistence.  The super-built up character that we spent hours making the tiniest decisions for.  The guild which greets you happily when you log on.  What can replace that sort of community and achievement that we've grown accustomed to?

Not only that, but when we do go back and play an MMO, we find out a few rather frustrating things.  First, we notice all the little flaws.  The lack of polish.  The poor translation.  The copy-and-paste environments.  We start to see how much time was wasted just travelling from place to place.  And when it comes to our characters, we just can't compete any more--not like we used to.  Suddenly all the other players have twice as long to spend on the game and we're left in the dust, trying to find new people to party with.

It all results in big--and mostly false--gripes:  "No one is making any good MMORPGs any more."  "When is a WoW-killer going to come along?" and so forth.  But really, is it MMOs that have changed?  Or is it us?  And our circumstances?

For those of us who don't feel like World of Warcraft is for us, there remains few choices with any chance of lasting.  The sad truth is that Blizzard's vastly superior marketing and unprecedented (if undeserved) reputation for PC games have pushed out what otherwise might've been a more diverse market of subscription-based MMOs, and WoW remains effectively the only reasonable choice for high-budget MMOs if there's to be any expectation that the chosen game will endure.

Games like Aion look promising, and indeed the number of WoW "refugees" can and will only increase, so maybe the future isn't so grim, but I think the real problem isn't the market at all.

The problem is that this demographic that I've been discussing--my demographic--is feeling a little lost.  Even with truly impressive free MMOs like Atlantica coming out, we can't jump on board for the reasons detailed above.  What's to be done?

I don't have a solution.  I leave it to any readers to comment about this and their own situation.