Three Rings presentation on freemium game metrics

Very informative article, definitely provides insight into the business of "freemium". Numbers dont' "look" so good for ThreeRings, but I hope they do well.

I tried puzzle pirates for a bit, years ago, on a free account. Their games were good and the people pretty friendly (rare for an MMO). I wonder what the secret "missing" ingredient for stickiness is then. Why did something crudely made and garishly full of ads and product placement like NeoPets succeed and Puzzle Pirates did not?

Perhaps I should try again, pay and find out.