Stop Making Should-Be Achievement Gear.."Optional Gear"

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Explain older MMO, or even free to play donation only MuD?

cash shops didn't always exist yet mmo came out with plenty of extra content.

It's not complicated to explain. Older MMO's and MUDs didn't cost anywhere near what a AAA+ MMO costs today and the expected return on investment wasn't as high. Graphics were cruder and simpler. Modeling and texturing took less time and thus less money to create. Voice acting and cinematics were used sparringly if at all. Investors expected less return (but still a profit) from their investment. That's part of the reason why you don't see many MMO's pop up anymore. It's incredibly expensive now compared to back in the day. Especially now that voice acting is often expected, which can astronomically increase the costs of making a game.

In 2004, WoW cost 63 million to launch and over 200 MILLION over its first 4 years to maintain and develop. In 2011, SWTOR cost over 200 MILLION DOLLARS just to launch. Compare that to the 6 million it cost to develop Ultima Online or the 3 million it cost to make Everquest. That's an incredibly high financial risk to make with no guarantee of success and a return on investment. Making expansions is obviously cheaper but still very expensive. Even moreso today than in MMO's of the past because of the voice acting alone. Add in professional orchestras and vocalists to perform your epic soundtrack and you're talking about a great deal more money needed today than 10-20 years ago.

Here's an example from 1998's Baldur's Gate. One of the earlier pc games I saw with any sort of cinematic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYoRmGHIxA4

Compare THAT primitive thing to the cinematics we see today and tell me how much of a difference in cost it was to make them.