As we've informed you yesterday, Flagship Studios' long awaited action-RPG, Hellgate: London, will include a multiplayer segment with instanced dungeons and a moderate amount of PVP. The feature will, apparently, be subscription-based. Anyhow, now Roper sheds more light on the matter, commenting that the monthly fee subscription model is only one option currently under evaluation by the studio and its publishers EA and Namco Bandai Games.

Roper noted that Hellgate: London is guaranteed to include some kind of free online mode that gamers will be able to access without any monetary commitment. This mode will likely not include the full MMO features of the game available to full-scale online users.

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Drawing from games such as Guild Wars and of course Diablo II, Roper admits Hellgate: London's online component doesn't necessarily neatly slide into the MMO genre. So is it an MMO?

"I think that just as Diablo and Diablo II started this religious argument over whether they're RPGs or not," he mused, "Hellgate will spark that same debate over whether it's an MMO or not." But what does Bill Roper think? "It's really an MMO," he said confidently.

I'm sick of every other game turning into an MMO. When will they stop doing that?