Talk:Versions/@comment-5083637-20120522190731/@comment-4935290-20120525023834

The basic idea behind charging real money in games like this is pay-to-win. In games like this the final win should be extremely hard or impossible, so people continue to play, so "win" here is getting ahead of your "friends", that's why these games force you to have "friends". When they created a new feature like new land some people will do a lot to be the first among their "friends" to get it, including paying real money. These people are a very small percentage of the players but generate a very large percentage of the developers' profits. Later the new feature is not so valuable because some people have them, so they charge less money or allow you to get it for no money at all, just game time. Also, there is always a cycle, sometimes they let the game easy to attract players and sometimes they "squeeze" to make the profit and squeeze out much of the players who won't pay but cost them resources. The current phase in this game seems to be time to profit, I don't know if part of a normal cycle or just because they really need money. So that's why I agree there is 99% chance the new area will cost real money, and it won't be cheap.