In an interview with VG247 during this week’s Develop Conference, Realtime Worlds’ honcho David Jones explained that their upcoming MMO, APB, will not be paid for like most MMOs.  While the company doesn’t seem to be sure exactly how they’ll pay for their $30 million investment in the development of the title, It won’t be by a traditional monthly fee structure.

"Basically, you have to buy the client. It's a traditional game that you buy...We're not going the normal ‘you have to subscribe to play the game every month' route. What we haven't said is which route we are going, and in some respects we're still looking."

Sounds like microtransactions to me.  Gamers will more than likely have to shell out hard earned dollars for privileges like extra character slots, enhanced equipment, crazy hairstyles, custom vehicles, and the like.  Usually, this sort of thing doesn’t bother me, but then again, usually, games based on this business model don’t cost $60 at retail, so this does raise an eyebrow.  The last game I can think of that did this was Hellgate: London, and we all know how that turned out.

So what do you think of the microtransaction movement?  Do you think the business model should remain relegated to the shallow end that is the free MMO world, or is it time for them to replace monthly fees in the deep end?  Or do you think that microtransactions will destroy the gaming world as we know it, forcing us all to become enthusiasts of pogs and APBA Baseball?