Zynga, the creator of the wildly popular Farmville application onFacebook, denied rumors that it would be switching from a free to a subscription-based model at the end of March. The rumor seems to have originated on the site FarmvilleFreak.com, a fansite for Farmville players who just can’t seem to get enough of the game after playing it for 15 hours a day and feel the need to read it about for another 5 hours, before catching a quick 4 hour power nap so they can get up and harvest their crops before they wilt (am I lying?).
The rumor was probably fabricated as a way to drum up controversy and anger by fan sites, because like they say theres no such thing as “bad publicity”. But most social gaming experts point to a time when the uncharted growth in many of these games will level off or begin to fall, and as game developers scramble to boost the bottom line they may inevitably turn to charging monthly fees to play Facebook Poker, Farmville, orMafia Wars, much like the creators of World of Warcraft and many other MMORPGs. It might not be as bad as most people think however, as many of us already spend money on so many in game items. Would hardcore facebook poker players shell out say.. $50 per month, for example, if they were given half a million free facebook poker chips every day that they logged into the game, as an incentive to keep coming back? Who knows, but for the time being it appears like it’s not something you need to worry too much about.

Would you pay a monthly fee to play Facebook Games?
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