Actually it is more likely that it is because of the Battle.net overhaul.
The guys who started Guild Wars left just after Blizzard changed hands from Sierra to Vivendi. Effectively they were never involved in World of Warcraft, and I never had any doubt that VU were not going to be charging a monthly fee for WoW. Sorry but how much things cost and such ends up publisher end, developers simply provide the titles and patches.
Starcraft Ghost hasn't been delayed yet, as you can't delay a game which has had *no official* release date. This said, look at VU over the past year... every single big game they've been involved with has been the subject of numerous delays, and more interestingly leaked versions.
Most of the Guild Wars team however, are from Blizzard North and Bizzard South; as I said from when VU took over. (this was good new for some as alot of very good jobs opened up
)
On the note of the Fees though:
Well really there is alot to consider here.
Game Servers don't grow on trees, they must be provided somehow.
• allowing gamers to setup thier own servers. this is a mistake, for the simple reason; people are dishonest. Look at how many people steal or hack MMORPGs just to play them for nothing, or be better than everyone else.
now i would normally say imagine what that would be like if some fool controlled a server for it, but really just look at the free ultima : online servers.
• next alternative is really... what sort of payment for servers do you want?
Monthly Fee, $10/mo * 12 = $120/yr
Upgrade Fee, $30/6mo * 2 = $60/yr (less but still quite alot)
it's more a case of which is going to hit your bank book less in the short term.
there is no such thing as a 'free' mmorpg, simply becauser servers generally are percistant; which means not only is it the cost of purchasing the servers, the line rentals, but also the electricity to run them.
even with the prices, mmorpgs tend to make only a slim profit margin. and you have to balance between gaining more customers, and making enough to not have to close the game down.
MMO like UT2004 or Battlefield:1942 doesn't suffer this problem because you don't need a server with an awesomely fast connection capable of handling thousands of people at once, and you can also turn it on/off as needed.
If electricity was free, and decent connections cost hundreds/yr rather than thousands; perhaps it would be possible to provide cheap online solutions.
