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Personally I feel that any game which offers the OPTION of paying money in exchange for in-game benefits should not advertise itself as free. Reason being, there will always be players who use that option - and for those people, it is not free.
A free game is free, no pay for perks, no monthly fee, no hourly fee, no quest fees, no fees for anything involving game play. Offering mousepads for $10 to alleviate the costs of the server isn't involving game-play. Offering in-game credits that a player can use to buy somethingfor their character involves game-play. That some games offer credits for sale, or quests for sale, or weddings for sale, or whatever - means the game isn't *exclusively* free.
Either it's free, or it isn't. Pay-for-perks means not free. And time only equals money when you're working. Gaming isn't working (unless you're one of the admins). The entire notion of time=money doesn't even apply to this discussion. My free time is - you guessed it - free. It isn't costing me a thing to use my free time however I choose to use it. My free time has no value to anyone but myself, and I don't pay myself money for it, therefore it has no monetary value at all.
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