Hello again and welcome to Episode 3 of ZAM's bi-weekly column, the Free Agent. If you missed the previous Episode, be sure to check out the Free Agent's thoughts on just how free-to-play the 3rd person MOBA and battleground of the gods, Smite, really is.

While it may also be played in a 3rd person perspective this episode’s featured game is about as far from hurling lightning bolts and releasing the Kraken as you a can get. We've traded in all those crazy gods for an array of high-tech combat suits worn by a race of ninja-like warriors called the Tenno, in the cooperative free-to-play shooter, Warframe.

Now, after two weeks of intense undercover action as a space ninja, I'm here to let you know if you too can be a space ninja for the cost of nothing but a Steam account.

Welcome back to the Free Agent, ZAM's bi-weekly column that investigates the question, "can gaming really be free?" If you missed Episode 1 it's not too late to catch up on the Free Agent's first impressions of TERA Rising, a free-to-play action/RPG MMO. But as we move on to Episode 2 we're shifting gears over to the free-to-play MOBA market, making our way onto the battleground of the gods with SMITE.

Hi-Rez Studios may have made its way in the world as an FPS developer with the Tribes franchise, but that didn't exclude it from throwing its hat into the every expanding roster of MOBA games we're seeing on the market. For those that aren't entirely clear what a MOBA is, it stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, a fast paced PvP experience best known for games like League of Legends and DOTA2.

But unlike the hordes of MOBA clones slated for release or currently in beta testing, SMITE offers a different perspective on the MOBA genre, quite literally in fact.

Welcome to Episode 1 of The Free Agent. If you’re just joining me and wondering what this new bi-weekly ZAM column is all about, I'd encourage you to have a read through Episode Zero. My mission, as always, is to answer the question, "Can gaming really be free?"

With that, let’s jump right into the first free-to-play title to be featured on The Free Agent, TERA Rising. Developed by Blue Hole Studios and published by En Masse Entertainment, this action/RPG hybrid MMO did away with subscription fees and went free-to-play after only 9 months on the North American market.

Like many other people I was curious about what TERA had to offer and watched it from the side lines throughout its development cycle. But, as the release date came and went, amid so many others, I found that I simply didn't have room in my life for another subscription based MMO. Sadly TERA slipped through the cracks of my gaming repertoire.

However, with the free-to-play rebranding as TERA Rising, my interest was re-ignited and I set out to explore an MMO that I had previously passed over. Was their switch to free-to-play a shallow marketing ploy to get gamers like me interested in the title again? Or does this MMO possess a depth that proves all the free-to-play critics wrong?

To find out read on, as The Free Agent takes on TERA Rising.

It seems that these days everyone wants to jump on the Free-to-Play band wagon, which for all of us gamers should be a good thing. After all, who doesn't like free stuff, right?

So as we head toward this paradise like future where all games are Free-to-Play one can't help but wonder, how is anyone making any money? Could game developers be taking the first steps toward the utopian future predicted by Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek franchise, where people and corporations (greedy Ferengi aside) have shed the need for personal or monetary gain and, instead, simply work for the betterment of society as a whole?