Also, I'd be annoyed that I just preordered it for $80 AU :(
Maybe in 2 or 3 years they'll be selling it cheap, but in the meantime they're going to try for every penny they can get.
Not before Starcraft 2 or World of Warcraft anyway. (And WoW is a six year old game that requires subscription, and Blizz still require you to purchased all previous expansions in order to enjoy the latest xpac, albeit at a lower price)
Why give it for free when people are willing to pay for it?
This is not a new idea, either. Free to play but in-game real-money purchases have been going strong with casual games since it became easy to send money over the net.
I'm not saying it will happen, but it's not an impossibility.
I think this is more like a demo or a way to get the game installed on millions of computers so that buying it is as easy as possible (a click away). I don't know about their publishing relationship but perhaps they get a better cut on electronic sales and this definitely helps increase those.
That said I'm downloading it now :)
Diablo 3 beta will be easily completed in a day, all 5 classes, so TERA is a good second game to play around if you find yourself gobbling up the D3 beta too fast.
Even solo there is noticeable lag on every achievement and when moving/selling items, presumably as it updates the server. (Being in Australia we get screwed on both a higher price for the game and playing on a much higher latency that USA based players)
It's impressive how much effort is put into a game like that compared to the web/mobile apps I usually build. Tempting, really
