It's free to download and login but it is without a doubt a "pay to (actually) play" computer game. If you think of it as anything else you will end up diappointed.
Someone has to pay to keep the lights on at MA and allow them to post a profit - like it or not its all of us. If you broke even then someone somewhere has had to loose double to pay your share of those costs. You did well.
This sounds good in theory. But a small profit from many players is better than a large profit from a few. Blizzard isn't loosing money only making $15 a month per subscription. But then again they have, what, 11 million subscriptions. Mindark has what, maybe a few thousand, and from what I have seen in the last few months. I would say that number is going down.
So, if they made EU so that you "normally" came close to breaking even, but needed to donate to get the really good stuff, they would probably greatly increase their "subscriber" base (subscriber isn't really accurate since it is a "free" game).
Actually "free" isn't really accurate, unless you really enjoy sweating for many months to get enough to buy some equipment to hunt/mine. But, oh, yea, how long would that stuff last when you loose on the order of 10-100ped for every 1 ped of loot, on average.
I used to play EU all the time. I could donate to have 200-300 ped and that would last me the entire weekend. And I would put money in, every weekend, to play and have some fun. I would auction off what I got that was worth auctioning and TT the rest. Play with crafting every so often, just for a change.
Now I don't craft any more, still have all my blueprints that were frequently bought from money donated. And I still have all my gear, but it doesn't get used as much since 200-300 ped now lasts less than a day, actually more like a few hours.
So, in my case, Mindark went from making $80-$120 US on me every month, to making maybe $30 every month. The only real change is now the loot is so bad that I look at my 300 ped repair bill from a few hours hunting, and that is only my swords, not including armor or guns or ammo. Then I look at the 20-40 ped in loot, average, that I made, and can't convince myself to keep playing. And I am using the same gear I was then and hunting the same mobs I was then.
So you see. When I was playing all the time and being able to play with much less depositing, I actually deposited more because I was in game more. I would find things in the auction and want to get them. Like my apartment, which I sold at a loss, and my fire chip, which doesn't work anymore, and my swords, that I really can't afford anymore.
Now I have to deposit just to be able to play, for a few hours.
Or, I can go play WoW or EVE or any other game. And true I can't sell everything and chip out and take the money. But I can play both of them, 12hrs a day, 7days a week, for what it costs to play EU with the current loot system, for 3-4hrs a month.
I keep holding out hope that EU will go back to the old loot system, where you normally got some loot from almost every mob and you could play for hours on a fairly small donation. But I don't think it will happen. I think they are seeing the world with dollar signs in their eyes and it will destroy this game, eventually. It is already wearing away at the edges.
Remember when Twin Peaks had so many people around the teleport you couldn't read all the names. They are pretty easy to read, now. And that took less that a year.
Wow, this ended up a lot longer that I originally planned. Rant over.