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Does the guy who wrote this article know NOTHING about the MMO market? From all that I know about this update it is not that much bigger than any other MMOs 3 months worth of updates, actually more like 4 months. Especially if Cryptic keeps with its habbit of heavily recycling, which it looks like they are.
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Although the author of the article obviously had multiple errors in the type, I would have to ask you the same question you just posed; do you know ANYTHING about MMORPGs?
Because I don't know what MMORPGs you've played, but just as a simple example, I played EQ for a year, paying $12.95 a month without a single free update of any merit. Period.
Unless you consider actually fixing code errors, balancing powers that were imbalanced from the outset, fixing zones that existed at release or the odd, ridiculously simplistic and extremely limited single-zone "event" an expansion.
An Anarchy Online subscription costs $14.95 per month. Notum Wars, an expansion, introduced... well, vehicles mostly. Another feature that was touted in beta but was absent from release.
AO hasn't had a notable update since release. They had a hard enough time with the client and their network starting out. Every update I saw were simply tweaks to existing systems that were broken from the get-go. The patch history can tell that tale.
A DAoC subscription costs $12.95 a month. Other than the addition of Darkness Falls, I saw nothing I would consider a notable update any kind before the Shrouded Isles expansion. Even Darkness Falls couldn't seriously be considered an expansion, because only a limited amount of the subscribers could enter it based on their control of keeps for access.
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There is one small(compared to EQ or UO) but relativly succesful MMO which did regular Monthly Content updates. Sometimes they were Significant and other times they were quite small. They released a sequel to that game but it didn't do near so well, and the updates were not quite as good either.
(For those who are interested Turbine's Asheron's Call 1 (Up until Turbine bought complete rights to the game from Microsoft it was $9.95 a month, they raised it to $12.95) and 2. Turbine is the company working on the D&D online game and the Middle Earth: Online game.)
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I've only actually played MMO's that give free updates/expansions. AC1 was my home for 4 years, it's amazing what releasing new quests/updates once a month can do for a games longevity (you should see just how *much* content AC1 has, adding an average 7-8 new quests/dungeons a month sure does add up...). I played SWG for a year or so with there every 2-3 month updates, CoH is the same (with updates at least - way more fun to play though).
I actually can't imagine paying monthly for a MMO that stays static.
