As a fan of Cryptic Studios and its games, here is something that I have pondered for a while now: Is the studio generous or greedy when it comes to the business models that we see in Champions Online, Star Trek Online, and Neverwinter?

Here’s the thing. I hear wildly diverse opinions on this subject whenever people talk about these games. Some folks praise Cryptic for a great free-to-play model that gives away a lot of goodies and allows players to earn even more in-game through events and currency exchange. Yet others slam Cryptic, saying that the studio pushes the lockboxes far too much and keeps the best stuff behind paywalls.

Generous, greedy, neither, or (weirdly) both? What do you think about how Cryptic monetizes its MMORPGs?