Will Haven and Hearth remain free?

[Kheyre]

They could have a system, people donate five bucks and it gives them a code for their account that gives like a tiny bit of metal and possibly a hat.

[Delamore]

They could have a system, people donate five bucks and it gives them a code for their account that gives like a tiny bit of metal and possibly a hat.

Or they could go with the simple time proven method of charging for either the full game or a large part of it.

[NaoWhut]

Or my favorite, pay once; play
forever

[Chakravanti]

Donate 4 Items is the worst game mechanics ever. It has royally fucked a lot of private server MMOs & MUDs.

The exception is when such items are purely cosmetic and have no in game effect and are little more than markers identifying a player as a donor. Theft and PK sort of nullify such status markers in this game though.