I'm quite fond of what Blizzard is doing with Hearthstone (it is a take on the freemium model) but companies like that are the exception nowadays, not the rule.

I think this is because Blizzard/Activision is already a successful gaming company with many years of experience of player retention (via WoW) and deep pockets. Thus, they don't need to squeeze every penny out of a user now if they know those users will come back every time a new expansion is released to buy more cards.

That said, there are still players who complain about it being too hard to get into the game for new players, but I think Blizz is addressing those issues decently well.

Agreed on accessibility. I like the direction they're taking with the Standard and Expanded (or whatever they're naming it), I'm looking forward to it.

I made a conscious decision to monetize in the game early on so I dodged the monetization ramp challenges. Now it's just a problem of not having enough time to devote to ladder climbing.