And I’d all but forgotten it until you mentioned it just now. For a reason.

To this day, I’m really impressed with the direction Turbine has taken their Turbine Points store, and I think a lot of developers would be wise to duplicate the model. There are a few “Pay to Win” items (If you can actually “win” at an MMORPG?), but they’re mostly of a nature that says “Hey, gamer! We’ve known each other a long time now, (Can you believe we’ve known each other *5 years* next month? My, time flies!) and we’ve watched you grow from that 21 year old college kid into the person you are today, with a career, and perhaps a budding family…and 36 hour marathons are right out! Three hours of 20% bonus XP? How’s a buck sound to you?”

I’m totally guilty – and guilty of worse!
While I was playing, I had a subscription ($3/mo, once you factored in the retail cost of the 500TP I *didn’t* have to buy per month), and was frequently spending another $20/mo on top of that for various awesome cosmetic items, cool mounts, extra wardrobe space and shared storage, etc.
I don’t regret it even one little bit, however.

I think it would be far more effective to create a fun game to play and sell extra for people who are really into the game than to make a game that is only fun to play if you pay for the extra features. You would foster loyalty with the former and make players resentful with the latter.