Pay for game, pay for expansion, Free montly, Add a reasonable mall.
I have been playing games since I was 2 years old. I have played online games for.. I dunno honestly, but way back in the days of 16bit colouring.
And honestly. None of the listed ways above will work in the end.
Pay per month - destroys a large number of potential players. Lots simply don't like the idea of being "billed" for "entertainment" monthly - when one month they may play 30 hours a week, each week and another month they may not play at all.
Free Games typically have a "Item mall' to compensate - which is a fantastic idea - however what is SOLD in the mall, becoming "NEEDED" items - ruins the game. Last Chaos comes to mind. Free to play/grind, but past level 100 you will require either Mall items to advance or 8 hours a day/7 days a week grinding to level up - I already have that, I call it a JOB.
So what we REALLY need is a Pay for the game/expansion - free to play - with mall items for customization and maybe minor leveling bonus/etc (think restrictions based on level/how many used recently, etc) and not "I bought the best gun from the mall, now I win in the game"
Since no game has this, currently, I am back to creating my zombie survival game.
The REAL problem lately is that game companies are getting LAZY - releasing games before fully tested, or rushing the release of a game for some quick profit. The game play itself is being compromised out in order to do this.
BRINK is an utter failure (not MMO but first one that came to mind) they bragged about how long they spent on game models - but what was the first thing I noticed? No Females. At all. Not even in the background. SO they spent 6+ months making a bunch of almost-identicle male models for the game. The gameplay was lacking and honestly it was a giant waste of my time playing. I didn't have FUN at all.
RAGE will be the last "non Fallout, non Elder Scrolls" game I buy from Bethesda's name. If it fails my expectations - they won't get a penny of my money for anything else.
I'd suggest you set similar guide lines for yourself. Gamers need to STOP buying bad games - these rushed half-assed games that don't live up to expectations.
Of all the games out recently, wanna know what I've played the most?
Dead Island, for 4 days, beat it, wasn't what I hoped for, not enough gun-fun, gets boring hack-n-slash for hours a time.
and
Minecraft.
no joke, beta game, has held the most of my attention. Pretty sad considering what 'dated' graphics it has - free to play - and under $30, really makes you think how much those "extra graphics" mean to you as a gamer.
Honestly every game makes profit -even the bad ones - so online games should do something gigantic which is only recently being started:
Dedicated Servers. Cut the exploits, cut the lag, make it where player actions are monitored (console and PC alike) and Ban cheating players from being able to play.
You wanna play - play, you wanna cheat/exploit - go offline and ruin your own game. Very simple honestly.
Last thing.. Cross Platforming. PC and Xbox should have NO problem cross playing - honestly - and it would be EPIC to have PC,Xbox and PS all playing the same games vs one another or co-op one another.
We have the technology - but there's no real "profit' in it for the companies, so they don't want to do it.
Even if they did - the PC is no doubt the easiest system to be hacking into and cheating with - texture models/new packs/console commands, etc. So they would have to Up the security from cheaters.
So really.... PS3 and Xbox360 should cross platform together and unite against this problem