[Squirrelloid]

Why not take a lesson from Blizzard? And I don't mean WOW.

Run servers for free. Run ads on the server. Make money off selling advertising.

Of course, for that to work you need people to play your game. I'll note SC and D2 are still sold in gaming stores, but now its something like $20 for both SC and its expansion. Of course, you want as big a player base as possible, so you get more people visiting the server, and thus viewing the ads, and thus the ad space is more valuable.

Create additional games and offer them through the same server for MP content so each additional game adds to the value of the server.

The trick is not to get the players to pay-to-play, but to get companies to pay to advertise to those who are playing. Of course, that requires that it not be niche.

I agree entirely with Ballbarian that pay-to-play schemes make me unhappy, and I refuse to touch most MMORPGs for exactly that reason. (Ok, and I hate the tedious gameplay that adds nothing to the experience I can get playing a rogue-like).