I'm willing to give new biz models a chance. I'm generally favorable with what EA has done with BF3 premium, and also enjoyed ME2/3 and Dead Space1/2 with the DLC. Free to play allows for the potential player pool to be maximized. Some will do in game purchase, many will not. In the end, they hope to make more overall. There was that recent iphone game made by two programmers that decided to give the base version of the game free, and charge a bit for either an ad-free version of the game or to unlock. They calculated the downloads are maximized when its free and they relied on other in-game aspects to draw the purchases. It seems to have worked very well. I also saw a recent article that Warcraft is moving this direction, and some Playstation Home games are dabbling with this model.

Sony also has their Playstation Plus, another biz model. I have to say it has been easily worth it for me. Many of the games I wouldn't have bought, but a few I would have, and it cost me less overall. Its more games than I can play. Sony could literally give their games away to subscribers with enough people signed up.

When Sony gave away the several games for free after compromising our credit cards, I got Little Big Planet. I ended up loving it (and it filled my empty friends list with tons of gamers), bought DLC and part 2. I wouldn't have otherwise. In a sense, that was a free to play type experience, and I would haven't predicted the positive experience I had with it had I been asked beforehand.

Back to EA, I do like the model they are moving towards with the periodic releases of new content on BF3. If you don't play the game much, it's not worth it, but if you've played, like it, and know you will play a lot more, premium or the DLC is worth it.

Not that's its overly important, but I tend to measure value of entertainment in terms of $spent / hour. Everytime you step outside your house, it costs. And now even entertainment in the house costs. Having bought BF3 premium and nearly 100 hours into the game, maybe likely at the 1$/hour point now. ME2/3 probably left me somewhere near 1$ -1.20/hour. Skyrim was a good value at ~$0.25/hour. A movie averages 5$/hour, a book (not from library) maybe 1$/hour. Overall, video games aren't a bad deal compared to other types of entertainment, food and dating. In fact, I'd argue its comparatively economical and often more fun.

I will reserve judgment for free to play and give it a try. I like to see new ideas in action.

I read somewhere once that what makes something designed "art" is that its meaning is open to interpretation. On this premise SoTC could arguably be considered as art (I believe it is). The meaning of the story raises difficult moral questions that can lead to various interpretations. I imagine the same could be said of other games like Killer 7. I find the case for Rez to be more difficult to make on this premise, though I would argue Rez is also a work of art. In the case of Rez, you could perhaps argue it is art in that it is hard to reproduce it, just like the Mona Lisa. The skill and creativity required to craft and originate such a work are truly exceptional, despite the tools required to make a copy available to many. But the Ueda interview where he comments about "personal experience" (in shaping what we consider art) offers some interesting thoughts for a different perspective.